Remembering Ypres: Memory and Loss in Canada’s First World War History with Dr. Geoffrey Bird

Beyond the Ridge / Par-delà la Crête

While many Canadians are familiar with major Western Front battles like Vimy Ridge, the Second Battle of Ypres in Flanders in 1915 was a pivotal moment for Canada. This battle marked the first large-scale use of poison chlorine gas by the Germans and was also the first major CAnadian engagement since our entry in the war in the fall of 1914. Second Ypres was hugely important to the Canadian war narrative during the first years of the war, but after 1917 it was eclipsed by subsequent victories and in the century afterward has become mostly forgotten in public memory. Here to speak to us about that eclipse and the question of public memory is Dr. Geoffrey Bird.