In mid-summer 1917, the British Commander Sir Douglas Haig launches an offensive from the city of Ypres. Three months later, a quarter of a million of his soldiers have fallen, killed, wounded or drowned in mud. To turn his failed offensive into a – victory – Haig orders the Canadians to take the ridge and village of Passchendaele. In three weeks of vicious fighting in mud, sleet, and snow, the Canadians take Passchendaele, making it a "great victory." For each two metres gained, one man goes down.

 

Running time: 47 minutes

 

With historian Norm Christie as our guide, we explore the battlefields, cemeteries and monuments of the First World War. In their own words, the men who fought tell their stories, and we discover how the naïve, amateur soldiers of 1914 became, by 1918, perhaps the most feared, efficient and deadly Allied Corps on the Western Front – the Canadian Corps.