**content warning: this podcast episode deals with difficult subjects: War trauma, shell shock and veteran suicide. Listener discretion is advised.
Shell Shock in the Canadian Expeditionary Force (WWI)
In this episode of Memory and Valour, we explore shell shock within the Canadian Expeditionary Force during the First World War — long before the condition was understood as PTSD.
As trench warfare intensified across France and Belgium, thousands of Canadian soldiers experienced tremors, paralysis, nightmares, memory loss, and emotional collapse. Military authorities debated whether shell shock was caused by exploding artillery, moral weakness, or psychological trauma. Canadian medical officers struggled to treat it effectively, while stigma and misunderstanding often followed men long after they left the front lines.
Drawing on firsthand accounts, Canadian hospital records, and contemporary medical thinking, this episode examines how shell shock was experienced and treated within the CEF — and how those early responses shaped our modern understanding of operational stress injuries.
The wounds were not always visible.
But they were real.
Listen on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music, and iHeartRadio.
Full show notes and sources are available at http://www.memoryandvalour.ca�.
