They joked about dying.

Not because it was funny, but because it was the only way to survive it.

In the trenches of the First World War, soldiers turned fear into sarcasm and horror into humour. Shellfire became “just a bit of a strafe.” Terror was softened into “the wind up.” And sometimes, a wound meant a darkly joked-about “ticket home.”

But it went further than that.
They wrote parody songs, shared lewd jokes, printed trench newspapers, and even composed poetic odes to rum; small acts of defiance against a world coming apart.

This episode explores the humour that lived alongside the mud, the fear, and the constant threat of death, and what it reveals about the men who endured it.

Because in the trenches, humour wasn’t about laughter.
It was about survival.

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April 9th, 1917—Canada stepped onto the world stage at Vimy Ridge.

For the first time, all four divisions of the Canadian Expeditionary Force advanced together in a single, coordinated assault—executed with precision, preparation, and discipline that set them apart on the Western Front.

In this episode of Memory and Valour, we go beyond the familiar story to explore how Vimy Ridge became more than a battlefield victory, it became a defining moment in Canada’s national identity.

From the meticulous planning and creeping barrage to the soldiers who carried the attack forward across the ridge, this is the story of how legend was forged on April 9th, 1917.

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Because where memory endures, valour lives on.

1915 is the year the war stopped being an "adventure".

What began as a war of movement and expectation hardened into something far more brutal: static trench lines, failed offensives, and a battlefield dominated by machines rather than men.

From the costly assaults at the Battle of Neuve Chapelle and Battle of Festubert… to the devastating lessons of the Battle of Loos, we trace how Allied strategy struggled and often failed to keep pace with a rapidly evolving war.

These were battles marked by early promise and ultimate frustration. Gains were measured in yards. Losses were counted in thousands. And again and again, soldiers were sent forward into conditions that technology had already rendered deadly.

For the Canadian Expeditionary Force, 1915 was not a year of triumph; it was a brutal education. One that would shape how they fought, endured, and ultimately succeeded in the years that followed.

This episode explores the collapse of illusion, the rise of industrialized killing, and the human cost of a war that no longer followed the rules.

Because before there was victory…

there was 1915.

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Because where memory endures… valour lives on.

When the First World War erupted in 1914, Canada answered the call without hesitation. But among those who stepped forward were men who, under Canadian law, were not even recognized as citizens.

In this episode of Memory and Valour, we uncover the powerful and often overlooked story of Indigenous men who volunteered to serve in the Canadian Expeditionary Force. Drawn from communities across the country from the plains of Alberta to the forests of Ontario, these soldiers fought in some of the war’s most brutal battles, including Ypres, Vimy Ridge, and Passchendaele.

They served as snipers, scouts, and front-line infantry. Many displayed extraordinary skill and courage under fire. Many never returned home.

And yet, their service existed within a profound contradiction.

In 1916, an explosion tore through the Barnbow Munitions Factory in Leeds, killing 35 women in an instant.

They were known as the Barnbow Lasses. Young workers fueling the First World War from the factory floor… until disaster struck.

For decades, the truth of what happened that night was softened, reshaped, and in some cases, silenced entirely.

In this episode of Memory and Valour, I sit down with author Antony J. Bell to explore the Barnbow explosion and the story of his own ancestor, Sarah Ann Jennings; one of the women killed. Drawing from his book A Penny a Shell, we uncover how memory, grief, and family history intersect with one of Britain’s deadliest wartime industrial disasters.

During the First World War, Canadian POWs faced starvation, forced labour, and brutal marches in German camps, while thousands of civilians in Canada — many Ukrainian and German immigrants — were imprisoned as “enemy aliens.” Through diaries, letters, and rare firsthand accounts, this episode uncovers the parallel worlds of captivity that shaped Canada’s WWI story. “We were not soldiers, yet we lived behind barbed wire.”

On June 2, 1916, the ground beneath Canadian soldiers at Mount Sorrel exploded. German mines and artillery shattered the front line near Ypres, killing hundreds in minutes and throwing the Canadian position into chaos.After weeks of preparation, German forces opened a massive artillery bombardment against the Canadian lines. Beneath the trenches, carefully planted mines detonated, tearing apart the front and killing or burying hundreds of soldiers in seconds. The attack shattered the Canadian position on Hill 62 and the slopes of Mount Sorrel.

In the chaos that followed, Canadian forces regrouped under intense pressure. Within days, they launched a determined counterattack to reclaim the shattered ground.

The Battle of Mount Sorrel became a brutal test of leadership, resilience, and the growing reputation of the Canadian Corps on the Western Front.

In 1917, as Canadian soldiers bled at Vimy Ridge and endured the mud of Passchendaele, the war exploded at home.

With First World War casualties mounting and enlistment collapsing, Prime Minister Robert Borden introduced conscription. The result was the Canadian Conscription Crisis of 1917; one of the most divisive moments in our history.

Riots in Quebec City.

English and French Canada set against each other.

Families fractured.

A nation pushed to the brink.

The First World War didn’t just test Canada on the Western Front. It tested whether the country could survive itself.

In this episode of Memory and Valour, we examine how conscription reshaped Canadian politics, unity, and identity and why its echoes still matter today.