The Red Poppy

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The Red Poppy

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The Red Poppy

• What does it mean?
• Remembering the people who died in wars
• World War 1 14 Million dead (incl. civilians)
• World War 2 65 Million dead (incl. civilians)
• Since when?
• World War 1 (The Great War) 1914-1918
• Why a poppy?
• Flower from battlefield Flanders Fields, Belgium
• Universal Remembrance
• All soldiers friend and foe

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The Red Poppy

• Symbol for Peace, Freedom and Democracy
• Canadian documents
• Constitution Acts (1867 and later)
• Charter of Rights and Freedoms (1981)

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Remembrance Day

• Every year
• November 11
• 1100 AM
• Two minutes of silence
• Ceremony
• Confederation Square
• Tomb of the Unknown Soldier

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The Unknown Soldier
Canadas Unknown Soldier - Coming Home - May 28,
2000
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1900-2000

• A Glorious Century
• Freedom and Democracy
• Prosperity, material wealth
• Science and Technology
• E MC2
• A Man on the Moon
• World Wide Web

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1900-2000

• The Ravaged Century
• To ravage to wreak havoc on
• to visit destructively and violently
• to commit destructive actions
• Ravaged devastated, wasted, sacked, pillaged,
  despoiled, destroyed, plundered, destructed

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The 20th Century

• Struggle for Power and Ideology
• 1st half (1900-1950) Major upheaval (war)
• 2nd half (1950-2000) Aftermath (cold war)

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• Tension chart

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Europe in 1900-1910

• The Proud Tower
• A world of empires
• Modern industry
• railroads, electricity, cars, airplanes
• Old style rule
• monarchy, emperors and kings, absolute rule
• Alliances and Treaties

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A World of Empires

• British Empire dominant
• Britannia rules the waves
• German Empire emerging, challenging
• - building The Second Reich
• - created by Otto von Bismarck in 1870 (First
  Reich)
• Austro-Hungarian Empire
• Russian Empire
• French Republic

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1914 Prelude to War

• Austrian prince murdered in Serbia
• Austria declares war to Serbia
• Russia (allied with Serbia) Mobilization
• Germany (allied with Austria) Mobilization
• France (allied with Russia) Mobilization
• German attack on France via Belgium
• Britain (treaty with Belgium) declares war
• More countries join afterwards

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• Central Powers
• Austria-Hungary
• Germany
• Bulgaria
• Turkey

• Allied Powers
• Serbia
• Russia
• Japan
• France
• Belgium
• Great Britain/Canada
• Italy
• Romania
• USA

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World War 1 The Great War

• Western front Belgium and Northern France
• Trench War, Guns
• New technology tanks, airplanes
• Little territorial gain
• Average 5600 dead per day, for 4 years!

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World War 1 The Great War

• Major Battles
• Battle of Verdun
• Battle of the Somme
• Allied offensive
• Allied 20,000 dead, 40,000 wounded on the first
  day
• 5 km territory gain at the end of battle
• Battles of Ypres (3)
• Chemical warfare
• Menin Gate Memorial

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Canadian participation

• Battle of the Somme
• Battles of Ypres
• Passchendaele
• Vimy Ridge

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Ypres, Belgium

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Menin Gate, Ypres

The Last Post Every day Forever
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The End of World War 1

• Treaty of Versailles
• Four empires wiped out
• German, Russian, Austro-Hungarian, Turkish
• Germany is punished and humiliated
• territory taken away (Alsace/Lorraine, East
  Prussia)
• must pay for ALL damages
• no army allowed
• Seeds for World War 2
• The Rise of the Third Reich

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Thiepval,France
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In Flanders Fields

• In Flanders fields the poppies grow
• Between the crosses row on row,
• That mark our place and in the sky
• The larks still bravely singing fly
• Scarce heard amid the guns below.
• We are the dead. Short days ago
• we lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow
• Loved, and were loved, and now we lie
• In Flanders Fields.
• Take up our quarrel with the foe
• To you from failing hands we throw
• The torch be yours to hold it high.
• If ye break faith with us who die
• We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
• In Flanders Fields.
• John McRae, 1915

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CanadianMonumentVimy, France
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Ode to the Fallen
They shall not grow old As we that are left grow
old. Age shall not weary them nor the years
condemn. At the going down of the sun and in the
morning We will remember them
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• War Cemetery, Northern France

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Tribute at Thiepval, spring 1994
Presentation and photos by Lee De Korte Ottawa,
Canada November 11, 2000