The 13th Battalion of the Canadian Expeditionary Force was an active service battalion during the First World War.
Victoria Cross recipient Frederick Fisher
Second Battle of Ypres
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The Second Battle of Ypres was fought from 22 April to 25 May 1915, during the First World War, for control of the tactically valuable high ground to the east and the south of the Flemish town of Ypre
13th Battalion (Royal Highlanders of Canada), CEF
…Loomis. The 1st Canadian Division served on the Western Front from April 1915 until the armistice in November 1918. Its baptism of fire occurred at the Second Battle of Ypres in April 1915, when the German Army used chlorine gas for the first time in war. Neighbouring French divisions fled in terror from the new weapon, but…
German diagram showing the new front line after the 2nd Battle of Ypres
The First German Gas Attack at Ypres by William Roberts depicting the German gas attack on French and Canadian soldiers
Langemark-Poelkapelle: Photograph taken from a position just west of Langemark German war cemetery, facing approximately north, towards the former location of the German trench from which the first gas attack was launched on 22 April 1915. In this area, the German trench system ran approximately from the farmhouse on the left to the group of willow trees on the right.
George Nasmith, the head of the field laboratory for the Canadian Expeditionary Force, advised a Canadian field ambulance officer to pass the order to use urine to counteract the gas.