Category: Battle of the Somme

Battle of the Somme, Canadian history, Edmonton History, Vimy Ridge, western front, ww1, ww1 history

A Corner of Some Foreign Field: The Poets of the First World War

Who reads the burial service when the chaplain isn’t there? On 2 May 1915, near Essex Farm on the Yser Canal, the answer was a doctor named John McCrae. The poem he wrote the next day, “In Flanders Fields,” became the most famous poem of the First World War and the reason we wear a poppy every November.

A sepia-toned portrait of a young soldier, accompanied by the poem 'In Flanders Fields' by John McCrae. The poem reflects on the themes of war, loss, and remembrance.

But McCrae was not a poet by trade, and neither were most of the people in this episode. This is a story about ordinary people who found that the only language equal to what they had seen was one they never expected to use.

A black and white photograph of a young man with wavy hair, dressed in a formal suit, sitting at a table with a stack of books. The image is captioned 'Rupert Brooke 1887 - 1915'.

We start with the three competing accounts of how McCrae’s fifteen lines were written, and why the tidy version is probably wrong. Then we meet Rudyard Kipling, who got his teenage son a commission, lost him at Loos, and spent the rest of his life searching, and we look at what his money and connections could and could not buy.

Cover of 'Good-bye to All That', an autobiography by Robert Graves, published in 1929, featuring a portrait of the author.
Black and white portrait of a man with glasses and a mustache, resting his chin on his hand, wearing a suit and tie.
Rudyard Kipling
A sepia-toned portrait of a young soldier in military uniform wearing a hat, looking directly at the camera.
Sigfried Sassoon

We follow Siegfried Sassoon, the decorated officer who publicly declared himself finished with the war, and Robert Graves, the friend who helped keep him out of a court martial, and you can hear both men speak in rare recordings.

We spend time with Wilfred Owen and Isaac Rosenberg, and with the writers who came at the war sideways: J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, and Canadians Will Bird and Charles Yale Harrison.

Black and white photograph of a soldier in uniform, seated and holding a helmet, with the title 'GHOSTS HAVE WARM HANDS' and the author's name 'by Will R. Bird' on the left side.
A historical newspaper article featuring a portrait of Charles Yate Harrison, discussing the experiences of soldiers in a front-line trench during war.
A man in a suit and tie holds a pipe, puffing out steam, with a bookshelf and framed pictures in the background.
C.S. Lewis
Portrait of a man with a mustache in a suit, above a historically referenced poem written in a handwritten style.
Wilfred Owen
Cover of 'The Chronicles of Narnia' by C. S. Lewis, featuring a winged horse soaring through a mountainous landscape.
Book cover of 'Isaac Rosenberg: The Making of a Great War Poet' by Jean Moorcroft Wilson, featuring a sepia-toned photograph of a soldier.
Three black and white portraits of J.R.R. Tolkien; one shows him smiling in later years, the second is a younger profile, and the third depicts him in military uniform.
J.R.R. Tolkien through the years

And we come home to Canada, to Canon Frederick George Scott and to Robert T. Anderson, the Edmonton fireman and cavalry trooper who published Troopers in France in 1932. According to University of Alberta researcher Sam Hamilton, only 21 of 98 Canadian poets who published war verse had actually served.

Portrait of a man with a mustache wearing a suit, set in an oval frame.
Robert T. Anderson
A historical portrait of a soldier in military uniform, seated with a sword, titled 'The Great War as I Saw It' at the top.

Featuring audio of Leonard Cohen, Michael Caine, Siegfried Sassoon, Robert Graves and Rudyard Kipling.

A black and white portrait of an elderly man in a stylish double-breasted suit and fedora, standing against a window with a contemplative expression.
Leonard Cohen

Where Memory Endures, Valour Lives On.

Show notes:

Books and official histories. G.W.L. Nicholson, Official History of the Canadian Army in the First World War: Canadian Expeditionary Force, 1914-1919 (Second Ypres, Vimy Ridge, and Canon F.G. Scott’s chaplaincy). John McCrae, In Flanders Fields and Other Poems, with an essay by Sir Andrew Macphail (Putnam, 1919). Siegfried Sassoon, Memoirs of an Infantry Officer (1930). Robert Graves, Good-Bye to All That (1929). C.S. Lewis, Surprised by Joy (1955). J.R.R. Tolkien, Foreword to The Lord of the Rings, and his published letters. Rudyard Kipling, The Graves of the Fallen, and Kipling, The Irish Guards in the Great War. Will Bird, And We Go On (1930) and Ghosts Have Warm Hands (1968). Charles Yale Harrison, Generals Die in Bed (1930). Robert T. Anderson, Troopers in France (1932).

Archival records. Library and Archives Canada: Circumstances of Death card for Lieutenant Alexis Hannum Helmer, 1st Brigade, Canadian Field Artillery. The London Gazette, Supplement of 27 July 1916 (Sassoon’s Military Cross). Commonwealth War Graves Commission: records and archive pages on John Kipling, Rosenberg, and Kipling’s inscriptions.

Canadian sources. Veterans Affairs Canada. The Canadian Encyclopedia, entries on John McCrae and Charles Yale Harrison. Historica Canada. The Clan MacRae Society of Canada page on “In Flanders Fields.” The CEF Research Group. The Canadian Great War Project, service records for F.G. Scott and Will Bird. CBC Nova Scotia feature on Will Bird. ABC BookWorld and Representative Poetry Online, for Robert T. Anderson’s books. Sam Hamilton, “Canadian First World War Poetry Monographs, 1914-1918: A Bibliography,” University of Alberta Education and Research Archive.

British and international sources. The Kipling Society, notes on “My Boy Jack.” The Western Front Association: “Newly discovered letters reveal Rudyard Kipling’s search for his son” (October 2025), and the 2026 article on Tolkien’s brother officers. Fantastic Writers and the Great War (Kipling and C.S. Lewis). HistoryNet, on the policy against repatriating British war dead. Imperial War Museums and the Royal British Legion, on the origins of the poppy appeal. The British Library, on Sassoon’s drafts and Owen’s poems. The Wilfred Owen Association. The Oxford First World War Poetry Digital Archive. The Poetry Foundation and Poetry magazine’s archive. The Tolkien Estate biography and the Tolkien Society timeline. EBSCO Research Starters, on the Inklings. The War Poets Association. Christian History Institute. Napier University Library, on The Hydra. The Evening Standard, 12 April 2012, on Sassoon’s Military Cross. Lord Ashcroft’s article on Binyon’s “For the Fallen” (Daily Express, 2018). History.com.

Audio. Leonard Cohen, “In Flanders Fields,” Royal Canadian Legion recording. Michael Caine reading Kipling’s “If.” Siegfried Sassoon reading “The Dug-Out” and “Everyone Sang,” from the early 1950s recordings made by Dennis Silk. Robert Graves, 1965 interview with Malcolm Muggeridge. Rudyard Kipling, speech to the Royal Society of Literature on Canadian writers and poets, 1930s.

A note on sourcing: no quotations are invented or attributed to named individuals in this episode. Where sources disagree, the episode says so.

Battle of the Somme, Canadian history, Vimy Ridge, western front, ww1, ww1 history

The Goodest Boys: Dogs of the First World War

Dogs never carried a rifle in the First World War, but by the end of it they were among the most effective pieces of military equipment either side had. This episode follows two very different jobs dogs were trained to do: mercy dogs, sent out alone into no man’s land to find the wounded and the dying, and messenger dogs, run through an obstacle course of barbed wire, rifle fire, and live artillery until nothing on a real battlefield could rattle them.

Messenger Dogs in training in the First World War
A historical black and white photograph of soldiers in military uniforms standing in a line with various dogs beside them, with a crowd of onlookers in the background.
THE FRENCH ARMY ON THE WESTERN FRONT, 1914-1918 (Q 53509) A section of French Red Cross dog handlers and their dogs line up for inspection before leaving for a forward area, somewhere on the Western Front, 1914. Copyright: © IWM. Original Source: http://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/205023951

Along the way: a French dog named Captain who found thirty wounded men in a single day, and another named Prusco who dragged three separate soldiers to safety by letting each one hold his collar. A German dog named Steif who took a bullet and still finished the job.

A French messenger dog named Satan who went down wounded at Verdun and got back up at the sound of his own handler’s voice. And brought right home to Alberta, Paddy, a beagle cross who mobilized at the Calgary Exhibition Grounds and marched with the 4th Canadian Field Ambulance through four years of the worst ground this war had to offer.

A historical black and white photograph of dog handlers standing with their dogs in front of British Army kennels near Etaples, taken on April 20, 1918. Rows of kennels are visible in the background.
A German war dog equipped with a device for laying telephone wires, walking across muddy ground in 1917.

This episode follows the story from its unlikely beginning: a German painter who observed avalanche dogs working in the Alps, and a stubborn Scottish farmer whose own army ignored him for a decade. It takes us through the obstacle course at the British War Dog School, where dogs learned to navigate barbed wire and stand beside a firing eighteen-pounder without flinching. The narrative also highlights individual dogs from France, Germany, and Canada, whose courageous actions are still documented a century later.It closes with an honest look at what these programs cost, on every side, and why the dogs who ran them still deserve to be named.

A soldier in a World War I uniform kneels beside a dog on a dirt path in a grassy field.
THE BRITISH ARMY ON THE WESTERN FRONT, 1914-1918 (Q 10960) A dog handler of the Royal Engineers (Signals) reading the message that has just been brought to him by his messenger dog. The dog swam across the canal to deliver the message and still looks quite wet. The photograph was taken at a Army Veterinary Corps HQ Kennel near Nieppe Wood, 19 May 1918. Copyright: © IWM. Original Source: http://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/205213157
A historic black and white photograph of a man in military uniform tending to a wounded dog, which is wearing a red cross harness, in a forested area.
A soldier in a helmet kneeling beside a dog wearing a red cross harness, set against a rocky backdrop with a doorway and window.
A dog leaping through the air over rocky terrain, with soldiers visible in the background.
A soldier in a World War I uniform kneeling beside two dogs on a grassy field, with a wooden structure in the background.
A German Shepherd dog wearing a gas mask and goggles, sitting on a wooden surface in a garden setting.

Where memory endures, valour lives on.

Show Notes Sources

Primary & Archival Sources

  • Quebec Telegraph, “Remarkable Work of French War Dogs,” 21 June 1915, as preserved by the Royal Montreal Regiment Museum
  • Royal Montreal Regiment Museum, “French War Dogs in WW1” and “Communications in WW1” (rmrmuseum.com)
  • Imperial War Museums, “War Messenger Dogs” [Film, object 1060022726]
  • Imperial War Museums, photograph Q29549 (British Army kennels, Etaples, 20 April 1918)
  • Daily Mail, 23 June 1917
  • The British Medical Journal, “Ambulance Dogs,” vol. 2, no. 2293 (10 December 1910)
  • T.F. Jager, Scout, Red Cross and Army Dogs (Arrow Printing Co., 1917)
  • Captain Max von Stephanitz, The German Shepherd Dog in Word and Picture (1923)
  • Lt-Col. Edwin Hautenville Richardson, British War Dogs: Their Training and Psychology (1920)
  • Oliver Hyde, The Work of the Red Cross Dog on the Battlefield (1915)
  • Glenbow Museum School, “Pat, mascot of the 4th Canadian Field Ambulance” (museumschool.glenbow.org)
  • The Military Museums (Calgary), “214 Dogs of War,” Mural of Honour

Academic & Institutional Sources

  • Chris Pearson, “Dogs, History, and Agency,” History and Theory, vol. 52, no. 4 (December 2013)
  • Jill Lenk Schilp, “The Mercy Dogs of World War I,” in Dogs in Health Care: Pioneering Animal-Human Partnerships (McFarland & Company, 2019)
  • Bryan D. Cummins, Our Debt to the Dog: How the Domestic Dog Helped Shape Human Societies (Carolina Academic Press, 2013)
  • John Ensminger, “Red Cross, Iron Cross: Ambulance Dogs in World War I,” Dog Law Reporter (16 July 2011)
  • Emma White, “Training war dogs: The British experience during the First World War,” Sniffing the Past (8 July 2014)
  • The Long, Long Trail, “War Dogs in 1914–1918”
Battle of the Somme, Canadian history, Vimy Ridge, western front, ww1, ww1 history

Drumfire: Artillery on the Western Front

A group of eleven soldiers in military uniforms, smiling and posing around a cannon, with a wooden building in the background.
Soldiers operating a field gun in a wartime setting, surrounded by stacks of ammunition shells and a barren landscape.
18 pounders at 3rd Ypres, 1917
Two soldiers operating a cannon in a war-torn landscape. One soldier is loading a shell into the cannon while the other assists.
1917 Canadian Field Artillery using captured German 47 inch Howitzer

Artillery caused roughly six in ten battlefield casualties in the First World War, more than the machine gun, the flamethrower, and the tank combined. That figure comes from the British Army’s own medical and statistical history, published in 1931. It is the weapon that did the most killing in this war, and the one modern audiences can least often name.

Historical black and white photo of soldiers operating large artillery cannons on a battlefield, with smoke and debris in the air.
Illustration comparing World War I era heavy siege artillery, featuring the British BL 60-pounder gun and the German 15 cm Schweres Feldhaubitze 13. The diagram includes details on shell capacity, loading mechanisms, maximum range, and design features of each artillery piece.
A soldier in a military trench preparing to load a mortar with a shell, surrounded by woven branches forming protective walls.
A historical black and white photograph of soldiers in military uniforms pulling a cannon on a cart while carrying rifles and equipment.
Minenwerfer

This episode is built around five Canadian veterans, recorded decades after the war for oral history archives, describing artillery from underneath: Private Harry Routhier and Lieutenant John Percy Copp of the 46th Battalion, Private Donald Stevenson of the 217th and later the 46th, Gunner Thomas Wood of the 1st and 57th Batteries, and Private George Hatch of the 20th Battalion. Copp describes carrying an unexploded eighty pound German shell out of a dugout kitchen by hand. Hatch describes surviving a premature explosion in his own Stokes mortar crew by pure chance of timing. Wood describes the barrage at Vimy Ridge as “out of this world,” twice, from the position of an eighteen pounder crew firing behind it.

A cross-section view of a vintage artillery shell showing internal components and projectiles.
18 Pounder shrapnel shell
A soldier in uniform holding a shell next to a cannon positioned in a trench, surrounded by wooden barricades and ammunition boxes.

The episode also traces the technical history of the war’s deadliest weapon, from the ground up. The 1914 shrapnel doctrine, and why it failed against trenches and barbed wire. The distinction between guns and howitzers that explains why Germany, alone among the major armies, went to war already equipped for trench fighting. The 1915 Shell Crisis, when a single British battery at Neuve Chapelle was allotted thirty two shells to suppress thirty five German batteries, and how it handed Canada the largest industrial project in its history under the Imperial Munitions Board, producing more than half of all British eighteen pounder shrapnel by 1918. And the counter battery science built from 1917 onward under Andrew McNaughton, a McGill trained engineer, using sound ranging, flash spotting, and aerial photography to locate German guns that could not be seen.

A metal badge representing the Imperial Munitions Board in Canada, featuring a central bullet design, the inscription 'WOMAN WORKER', and a banner stating 'SIX MONTHS SERVICE'.
A vintage black and white photograph of a young girl wearing a bonnet and a light-colored dress, smiling softly at the camera.
Mary Mays Campbell
A historical black and white image depicting workers in a munitions factory, assembling artillery shells along a production line.
A comparison of two pieces of shrapnel and a shell fragment, with the shrapnel pieces measured at .62 inches and .5 inches, and the shell fragment displayed to the right.
Diagram of a 155mm shrapnel shell, labeled with components including fuse, head, balls, borelet, matrix, central tube, diaphragm, fiber cup, cloth disk, base charge, and rotating band.

Two Canadian war diaries anchor the comparison at the heart of the episode. In April 1916 at Saint Eloi, a gun brigade recruited across Alberta could not locate a single German battery across six days of fighting, while Canadian infantry died a few thousand yards away. By August 1918 at Amiens, and again in September 1918 at Canal du Nord, the same corps was opening fire at zero hour with no ranging shots at all, laid entirely by survey and mathematical calibration. The cost of that progress is also part of the story: Major Thomas Ringwood, who raised the 60th Battery at Regina in 1916, was killed by German shellfire on the third day of the greatest artillery success the Canadian Corps had ever managed.

Episode 20 of my podcast “Barnbow Lasses” featured author Antony J. Bell, whose great grandmother was a “Canary Girl”; a munitions worker in the ill-fated Barnbow Munitions Factory, outside Yorkshire, England. In December 1916, an explosion took her life, along with 34 other women working in the factory. You can visit his website and order his books at: Antony J Bell Author A Penny a Shell : Heartbreaking Story about Barnbow Secret #1 Shell filling factory

Antony J. Bell

Newspaper article titled 'Major Ringwood Killed in Action' detailing the life and military service of Major T. D. J. Ringwood, including his background, education, and death on August 16.
Portrait of Major T.D.J. Hengwood from the 60th Battery, Canadian PFA, who was killed in action on August 10, 1918. The photograph includes a formal military attire and a brief description surrounding the image.
Major Ringwood
Sir Robert Borden reviewing a brigade of field artillery with 18-pounder field guns and limbers in England, April 1917.
Historical military report detailing troop movements and battery positions from August 6th to 10th, summarizing casualties, advancements, and artillery actions.
A historical document page titled 'Intelligence Summary' from a war diary dating August 1918, featuring notes on troop movements, battery arrangements, and logistical details.

Primary sources: archival

War diary, 14th Brigade, Canadian Field Artillery, 1–31 August 1918. Library and Archives Canada, RG 9 III-D-3.

War diary, 5th Brigade, Canadian Field Artillery, April 1916. Library and Archives Canada, RG 9 III-D-3.

War diary, 49th Battalion, Canadian Infantry, August 1918. Library and Archives Canada, RG 9 III-D-3.

Diary of the 61st Battery, Canadian Field Artillery, 1916–1919.

Field Artillery Training, 1914. War Office, General Staff. His Majesty’s Stationery Office, 1914.

SS139/3 Artillery Notes No. 3: Counter Battery Work. General Headquarters, February 1917.

Veteran interviews

Donald Robert Stevenson, 217th Battalion / 46th Battalion: Oppy Front and Canal du Nord accounts. Veterans Affairs Canada, Heroes Remember collection, veterans.gc.ca.

Thomas Wood, 1st Battery / 57th Battery, 15th Field Artillery Brigade: Vimy Ridge account. Veterans Affairs Canada, Heroes Remember collection, veterans.gc.ca.

Harry Routhier, 46th Battalion: whizz-bang account. Veterans Affairs Canada, Heroes Remember collection, veterans.gc.ca.

John Percy Copp, 46th Battalion: Minenwerfer account. Veterans Affairs Canada, Heroes Remember collection, veterans.gc.ca.

George Frederick Hatch, 20th Battalion: Stokes gun account. Veterans Affairs Canada, Heroes Remember collection, veterans.gc.ca.

[Individual video URLs and interview dates to be added once pulled per the RIGHTS note above.]

Published sources

G.W.L. Nicholson, Official History of the Canadian Army in the First World War: Canadian Expeditionary Force, 1914–1919. Ottawa: Queen’s Printer, 1962.

G.W.L. Nicholson, The Gunners of Canada: The History of the Royal Regiment of Canadian Artillery, Volume I, 1534–1919. Toronto and Montreal: McClelland and Stewart, 1967.

Tim Cook, “The Battle of the St. Eloi Craters.” Canadian Military History, Volume 5, Number 2, Autumn 1996.

Tim Cook, “Fighting Words: Canadian Soldiers’ Slang and Swearing in the Great War.” War in History, Volume 20, Number 3, 2013.

Tim Cook, “The Gunners at Vimy,” in Geoffrey Hayes, Andrew Iarocci and Mike Bechthold, eds., Vimy Ridge: A Canadian Reassessment. Waterloo: Wilfrid Laurier University Press, 2007.

Tim Cook, At the Sharp End (2007), Shock Troops (2008), and The Secret History of Soldiers (2018).

T.J. Mitchell and G.M. Smith, History of the Great War: Medical Services, Casualties and Medical Statistics of the Great War. London: His Majesty’s Stationery Office, 1931.

William Van der Kloot, “Lawrence Bragg’s Role in the Development of Sound-Ranging in World War I.” Notes and Records of the Royal Society, Volume 59, Number 3, September 2005.

Brendan Alexander Vincent Patrick Hogan, “Operational Research and the Canadian Corps, 1915–1918.” MA thesis, Royal Military College of Canada, August 2021.

John Swettenham, McNaughton, Volume 1, 1887–1939. Toronto: Ryerson Press, 1968. Cited as the apparent origin of the 83 per cent Vimy claim.

Peter Chasseaud, Artillery’s Astrologers: A History of British Survey and Mapping on the Western Front, 1914–1918. Lewes: Mapbooks, 1999.

Reginald H. Roy, ed., The Journal of Private Fraser, 1914–1918, Canadian Expeditionary Force.

Online resources

Canadian War Museum, “Generals: A.G.L. McNaughton” and “The Battle of Vimy Ridge, April 9 to 12, 1917,” warmuseum.ca.

Parks Canada, national historic person designation for A.G.L. McNaughton, parks.canada.ca.

Library and Archives Canada, “Canal-du-Nord and Cambrai,” bac-lac.gc.ca.

Australian War Memorial, “8 August 1918: The Black Day of the German Army,” awm.gov.au.

Commonwealth War Graves Commission, “The Iron Harvest: a warning from history,” cwgc.org.

warhistory.org, biographical entry for Georg Bruchmüller.

Veterans Affairs Canada, Heroes Remember / Video Gallery, veterans.gc.ca.

The Royal Canadian Artillery Museum, rcamuseum.com; Royal Regiment of Canadian Artillery roll of honour, rca-arc.org.

Loyal Edmonton Regiment Military Museum chronology, lermuseum.org.

Commonwealth War Graves Commission, cwgc.org.

A note on Dr. Tim Cook

Dr. Tim Cook died in October 2025. This episode rests on his work more heavily than most this show has produced: his book chapters, his journal articles, and above all a piece he wrote in 1996, at twenty-five, arguing that the Canadians at Saint Eloi deserved better than the sterile account the official history had given them.

Battle of the Somme, Canadian history, Edmonton History, Vimy Ridge, western front, ww1, ww1 history

Seven Rounds Per Second: The Machine Gun & the Canadian Corps

A vintage machine gun mounted on a tripod, featuring a belt feed mechanism and a large barrel.
Maxim Machine Gun
A military weapon, specifically a mortar, displayed on a neutral background.
Lewis Gun
Two side views of the original water-cooled MG 08 infantry machine gun, showcasing its design and construction.
A military machine gun mounted on a tripod, featuring a sleek barrel and a metallic olive green finish.
Vickers Machine Gun

In 1882, in Vienna, an American inventor named Hiram Maxim was told by a friend that if he wanted to make real money, he should invent something to help Europeans “cut each other’s throats with greater facility.” Two years later, he had built the world’s first fully automatic machine gun.

Black and white photo of Hiram Maxim, inventor of the automatic machine gun, sitting and aiming a machine gun. He has a white beard and is wearing formal attire. The background features a grassy field.
Detailed illustration of a Maxim gun, showcasing its components such as the ammo case, tripod with operator seat, telescope, and various labels for parts like handles, crank handle, and water jacket.

By August 1914, every major army in Europe had some version of Maxim’s design. Nobody had fully reckoned with what happens when both sides of a war have the same weapon in large numbers.

A soldier wearing a helmet aims a firearm from a trench, with another soldier visible in the background, set in a wartime environment.
A soldier in a helmet aiming a rifle from a trench during wartime.
A historical black and white image of a man in a suit and top hat working on a machine gun, seated beside the weapon which is mounted on wooden wheels.
An old machine gun resting on a sandy terrain, with a coiled cable in the foreground and a blurred landscape in the background.

This episode traces that reckoning from Maxim’s London workshop, through the beaten zones and interlocking machine gun fire that built the Western Front, to the Canadian Corps’ long, costly education in how to use the weapon that had nearly destroyed it.

Group portrait of military officers, including Lieutenant General Sir Arthur Currie, H.R.H. Prince Arthur of Connaught, and Brigadier General Raymond Brutinel, who is seated in the front row, first on the right.
A historical black and white photograph of soldiers operating armored vehicles in a military camp, with some soldiers positioned on top and others on the ground.
Canadian Automobile Machine Gun Brigade
A vintage badge of the 1st Motor Machine Gun Brigade, Canada, featuring a machine gun and a wheel design, with a red background.
Black and white portrait of a man in military uniform, seated and wearing glasses, looking directly at the camera.
Brigadier General Raymond Brutinel
A typed letter discussing aircraft efficiency, operations in World War II, and detailing recommendations and observations of various aircraft models.

It’s a story that runs through an Edmonton newspaperman who talked the Canadian government into funding the country’s first mechanized fighting force three weeks into the war, through the mathematics of indirect fire at Vimy Ridge, and into the voices of five Canadian veterans who lived through what all of that meant on the ground.

Technical illustration of the Hiram Maxim Flying Boats model, showcasing its design and parts list from Primus Engineering. The image features the flying boat with various flags and labels indicating different sections and components.
Vintage advertisement for Sir Hiram Maxim's inventions, promoting the 'Pipe of Peace' and the Maxim Inhaler for treating respiratory issues.
Black and white portrait of Sir Hiram Maxim, inventor of the Maxim Gun, wearing medals and a formal suit, with text reading 'Ogden's Guinea Gold Cigarettes' at the bottom.
Vintage box containing Sir Hiram Maxim's Pipe of Peace and Maxim Inhaler, featuring bottles, inhalation tools, and an informational guide.
Gravestone of Sir Hiram S. Maxim, Lady Sarah Maxim, and Lt Col. M. Joubert, located in a cemetery, with inscriptions detailing their names and dates.

In this episode

  • How Hiram Maxim’s 1884 invention became the standard weapon of every major European army by 1914
  • Why the “beaten zone” and enfilading fire made the machine gun the single biggest reason the Western Front became a war of trenches
  • Raymond Brutinel, the French-born, Edmonton-based newspaperman and Grand Trunk Railway surveyor who convinced the Canadian government to fund the Canadian Automobile Machine Gun Brigade in August 1914
  • How the Lewis gun changed infantry tactics at the platoon level, and how the Canadian Machine Gun Corps (established April 16, 1917) turned machine gun fire into a precisely calculated, artillery-like weapon of indirect fire
  • The numbers behind Vimy Ridge: 362 Vickers guns, 258 of them firing in the indirect barrage role, nearly five million rounds allocated to the fire plan
  • The Canadian Independent Force of 1918: 80 machine guns and bicycle infantry, described by historian John A. English as the first mechanized formation in Commonwealth military history and the forerunner of the armoured division
  • Five Canadian veterans, in their own recorded voices: Charles Darwood Skeates (46th Battalion), Leonard Wood (Oakville, Ontario), Colin Bond (128th/46th Battalion), Allan “Spike” Smith (46th Battalion, Military Medal), and James Neil MacLeod (24th Battalion)

Sources & Further Reading

Primary and archival sources

  • Hiram Maxim, My Life (London: Methuen, 1915): Maxim’s own account of the 1882 conversation in Vienna that led to the Maxim Gun
  • Veterans Affairs Canada, Heroes Remember collection: recorded interviews with Charles Skeates, Colin Bond, Allan “Spike” Smith, and James Neil MacLeod
  • Leonard Wood interview (1978), filmed by Gordon Reid, courtesy of the Town of Oakville YouTube channel

Secondary sources — primary anchor

  • G.W.L. Nicholson, Canadian Expeditionary Force, 1914–1919: Official History of the Canadian Army in the First World War (Ottawa: Queen’s Printer, 1962): the standing primary research anchor for this podcast; used throughout for CEF organizational history, the Canadian Automobile Machine Gun Brigade, the Canadian Machine Gun Corps, and the Canadian Independent Force

Secondary sources — human/experiential anchor

  • Tim Cook, At the Sharp End: Canadians Fighting the Great War, 1914–1916 (Toronto: Viking Canada, 2007)
  • Tim Cook, Shock Troops: Canadians Fighting the Great War, 1917–1918 (Toronto: Viking Canada, 2008)

Additional research

  • John A. English, on the Canadian Independent Force as the first mechanized formation in Commonwealth military history
  • Loyal Edmonton Regiment Military Museum (LERMM): regimental history reference and collection consultation (the Museum holds examples of the Maxim, Vickers, Lewis, and German MG 08)
  • Imperial War Museums: casualty figures and background on the Somme offensive
  • Canadian War Museum and Library and Archives Canada: supplementary verification of unit establishment dates and equipment specifications

Related listening

If you haven’t heard it yet, our episode on the Newfoundland Regiment at Beaumont-Hamel covers July 1st, 1916; the day this episode’s closing act leads directly into. https://open.spotify.com/episode/0rK64WYRLFupQ65kyCQNOn?si=U4sOi647RCyggFN9tzaSLg

Visit

The Loyal Edmonton Regiment Military Museum holds examples of the Vickers, Lewis, and German MG 08 machine guns discussed in this episode. https://www.lermuseum.org/visitor-information

Memory and Valour is produced and hosted by Samantha McCrea.

Support the show at http://www.buymeacoffee.com/memoryand valour

Battle of the Somme, Canadian history, western front, ww1, ww1 history

July 1st 1916: Newfoundland’s Tragic Day on the Somme: The Hynes Brothers at Beaumont-Hamel

110th Anniversary Edition — July 1, 2026

On the morning of July 1st, 1916, more than 57,000 British and Dominion soldiers became casualties along the Somme front; the bloodiest single day in the history of the British Army.

Emblem of the Royal Regiment of Newfoundland featuring a deer, crown, and laurel wreath, set against a maroon and grey background.

At a village called Beaumont-Hamel, the First Battalion of the Newfoundland Regiment was sent forward into open ground with the wire still standing and the machine guns already aimed. 710 men out of 801 became casualties in approximately thirty minutes.

Group portrait of First Newfoundland Regiment officers and men, dressed in military uniforms, posed in a historic setting.
Two soldiers assist a wounded man on the battlefield during the Battle of the Somme in 1916, with a war-torn landscape in the background.

In this episode, we follow two brothers from that regiment: Harry and Alfred Hynes of Glenwood, Newfoundland, through enlistment, the crossing, and the field itself.

Harry was listed missing on July 1st, 1916. He was twenty-one years old.

Alfred survived Beaumont-Hamel, recovered, and returned to the line three times, wounded each time, carrying a piece of German shrapnel that surgeons never removed.

Black and white portrait of a young soldier wearing a military uniform and cap, with a serious expression.
Alfred Lacey Hynes (Wounded)
A historical portrait of a young soldier in military uniform, featuring a neutral expression and short hair.
Harry Raymond Hynes (Missing)

In Newfoundland and Labrador, July 1st is Memorial Day. This episode is why.

Hawthorn Ridge Mine Explosion – July 1st 1916, 07:20 hrs
Black and white photograph of two soldiers standing side by side in military uniforms, with one hand on the tree trunk. The photo includes text identifying them as Harry Hynes and Alfred Hynes, members of the Royal Newfoundland Regiment.
A display of three military medals, including a large silver medal depicting a lion and a figure of liberty, accompanied by two smaller medals with different designs.
Close-up of the inscription on the Beaumont-Hamel Memorial, showing names of fallen soldiers.
Headline of The St. John's Daily Star newspaper dated July 5, 1916, featuring the words 'EXTRA' and 'LENGTHY CASUALTY LISTS' prominently.
Memorial tribute featuring two soldiers from the Royal Newfoundland Regiment, Alfred Lacey and Harry Hynes. Includes their service details and photographs.
A commemorative scroll honoring Pte Harry Hynes of the 1st Royal Newfoundland Regiment, featuring a crown and coat of arms at the top. The scroll contains text recognizing his bravery and sacrifice for King and Country.
A letter from Buckingham Palace, honoring a brave life lost in the Great War, signed by George R.I.
Document dated September 1921 regarding the forwarding of a Victory Medal and/or British War Medal to Mr. Esau Hynes for his son, Harry Hynes, who served as a Private in the Royal Nfld. Regt. Includes signature and receipt acknowledgment.
Aerial map showing historical sites including cemeteries, monuments, and trenches in a landscape featuring fields and trees.

Sources

Primary Sources

Service file, Private Harry Raymond Hynes, No. 1621, First Battalion, Newfoundland Regiment — including attestation paper, conduct sheet, casualty form, and correspondence from the Colonial Secretary’s office. Library and Archives Canada / The Rooms, Provincial Archives of Newfoundland and Labrador.

Service file, Corporal Alfred Lacey Hynes, No. 1463, First Battalion, Newfoundland Regiment — including attestation paper, medical history, casualty forms (Army Form B.103), Medical Report on a Soldier Boarded (Army Form B.179A), conduct sheet, and discharge documentation. Library and Archives Canada / The Rooms, Provincial Archives of Newfoundland and Labrador.

CWGC commemoration certificate, Private Harry Raymond Hynes — Beaumont-Hamel (Newfoundland) Memorial. Commonwealth War Graves Commission.

Newfoundland Postal Telegraphs forms — missing and wounded notifications to Esau Hynes, July 1916. From both brothers’ service files.

Memorial Plaque receipt — signed by Esau Hynes, Norris Arm, 1921. Harry Hynes service file.

Secondary Sources

Nicholson, G.W.L. The Fighting Newfoundlander: A History of the Royal Newfoundland Regiment. Government of Newfoundland, 1964. — Official regimental history. Primary reference for the Newfoundland Regiment’s order of battle, engagement details at Beaumont-Hamel, Monchy-le-Preux, and Cambrai, and the regiment’s broader wartime record.

Cook, Tim. At the Sharp End: Canadians Fighting the Great War, 1914–1916. Vol. 1. Viking, 2007. — Essential context for the Western Front in 1916, the Somme offensive, and the experience of soldiers in the line.

Cook, Tim. Shock Troops: Canadians Fighting the Great War, 1917–1918. Vol. 2. Viking, 2008. — Context for Cambrai and the later war period.

Royal Newfoundland Regiment Museum. “Beaumont-Hamel — July 1, 1916.” — Unit-level account of the engagement, including battalion war diary figures.

Royal Newfoundland Regiment Museum. “Arras 1917 (Monchy-le-Preux).” — Account of the April 1917 engagement and casualties.

Veterans Affairs Canada. “The Newfoundland Regiment and the Battle of Beaumont-Hamel.” — Casualty figures and regimental overview.

The Rooms, Provincial Archives of Newfoundland and Labrador. “The First Five Hundred.” — Enlistment, early training, and the Blue Puttees.

Heritage Newfoundland and Labrador. “Beaumont Hamel: July 1, 1916.” — Tactical overview, German 119th Reserve Regiment defensive preparations, Hawthorn Ridge mine.

Commonwealth War Graves Commission. Beaumont-Hamel (Newfoundland) Memorial — memorial record and panel inscriptions. cwgc.org.

A Note on Sources

No quotes are attributed to Harry or Alfred Hynes beyond what appears in the documentary record. All narration draws on verified primary documents or established secondary scholarship. Outstanding items — including the verbatim text of the Colonial Secretary’s correspondence — are drawn directly from the brothers’ service files and read into the episode as archival inserts.