Canadians at War

[Jefffar]

Canada has had a reputation in military affairs out of proportion with its population and it's defence budget. That reputation was earned in the bloodiest ways during one of bloodiest wars in human history.

Here's an article about the beginning of that legend.

https://nationalpost.com/news/canada/th ... -great-war

[slade the sniper]

Good read. Thanks. Always nice to remember that there are warriors in every culture.

-STS

[Jefffar]

Yes. Though remember that there was no sizable standing army back then. These demons that terrified the Germans were farmers, factory workers, tailors, bakers, cooks and craftsmen.

[slade the sniper]

They were still trained. Also, the cultural taboos that we have were not really there at the time. Killing for food, loss of children, hard physical labor in difficult situations both urban and rural, firearms and fighting were much more prevalent skills, etc.

When dealing with folks such as those, the only real thing to teach is some of the more esoteric skills (radios, machine guns, gas masks) and group discipline. The group discipline is easily fostered by shared misery, and the military specific skills are learned by rote memorization. If the recruits are self-motivated and want to learn, then it is easy to turn them into soldiers.

-STS