By 1918, the Canadian Corps had acquired a reputation across the Western Front: shock troops. Assault specialists. The men sent in when the ground was hardest, the wire thickest, and the objective critical.

British command relied on them for complex, coordinated attacks. German reports warned of their aggressiveness. After Vimy Ridge, Passchendaele, Amiens, and the Hundred Days, a myth began to solidify - that Canadians were uniquely ruthless.

But was that reputation earned? Or constructed?

In this episode of Memory and Valour, we examine the battlefield reality behind the label. Drawing on the scholarship of Dr. Tim Cook and the voices of the soldiers themselves, we unpack how the Canadian Corps became known as “shock troops” , and what that designation truly meant in the brutal logic of industrialized war.

When the guns fell silent in 1918, the war did not end for thousands of Canadian soldiers.

In this episode, we explore shell shock during the First World War and how it reshaped the lives of those who returned home carrying invisible wounds. Through personal accounts, medical responses, and shifting public attitudes, we examine how Canadians struggled to understand trauma in an era before PTSD had a name.

The War That Stayed reveals how the psychological toll of WWI lingered long after the battlefield, and how its legacy still shapes our understanding of mental health today.

In a war defined by trenches, machine guns, and industrial slaughter, Canada sent horsemen into the storm. This episode follows the Canadian Cavalry Brigade from the mud of the Western Front to the desperate charge at Moreuil Wood; an action often remembered as one of the last great cavalry charges in history.

It’s a story of soldiers caught between eras, fighting a modern war with the tools of an older one, and proving that courage and adaptability could still shape the battlefield. Step into the saddle and ride through the final days of cavalry warfare in the Great War.

The 107th Battalion — known as The Timberwolves — was one of the most remarkable and overlooked units in Canada’s First World War history. Made up largely of First Nations soldiers, these men brought extraordinary skill, resilience, and cultural strength to a war that demanded everything from them… and then asked for more.

In this episode, we uncover the story Canada rarely tells: how Indigenous soldiers carved roads through the impossible, built the very infrastructure of the Western Front, and fought with a loyalty that was never fully returned at home. Through history, testimony, and truth, we explore who the Timberwolves were, what they endured, and why their legacy matters now more than ever.

This is the story of courage in the shadows, and the fight to bring it into the light.

When the air turned poisonous, the Canadians didn’t retreat; they stood and fought.This episode dives into the first poison‑gas attack at Ypres and the brutal legacy it left behind. From the shock of the green cloud to the lifelong scars of gas exposure, we follow the Canadians who faced a weapon the world had sworn never to use. A visceral journey into terror, survival, and the moment modern war crossed a line it could never uncross.

Four snapshots from Canada’s Great War: the lost Levi Cottage Cemetery now buried within Tyne Cot; Sir Arthur Currie’s fraught rise to knighthood; the deadly work of CEF runners threading messages through chaos; and the 107th Battalion, the Timberwolves, carving identity in the mud of the Western Front. A brief episode with the weight of a century behind it.

Beaumont‑Hamel marked one of the darkest moments in Newfoundland’s history.

On the morning of July 1, 1916, the Newfoundland Regiment advanced across open ground during the first day of the Battle of the Somme, straight into unbroken German fire. Within minutes, the unit was devastated, suffering catastrophic losses that echoed across every community back home.

Beaumont‑Hamel became a symbol of extraordinary courage, profound sacrifice, and a tragedy that shaped Newfoundland’s identity for generations.

From Frezenberg to Kapyong, the Second World War, and the Medak Pocket to Afghanistan; this episode explores the courage, identity, and legacy of the Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry. Featuring the incredible story of Major Mike Levy.Once a Patricia, Always a Patricia is a tribute to more than a century of service, sacrifice, and identity, and to the enduring spirit that binds Patricias long after the fighting ends.