What If? The Journey of a Canadian Soldier

What If?The Journey of a Canadian Soldier By Katie Dangerfield

War has just broken out and as an eager young man of 18, you decide to enlist. Which division of the military do you decide to join? Navy Army Air Force

The Navy After attending the Canadian Naval College, you have been given a choice of which area you would like to fight in. You narrowed your decisions down to a few choices. After giving it some though, you decide to fight on…. HMCS Rainbow (cruiser) Landships (aka Tanks) HMS Good Hope

The Army You have been given a choice of which Corps you would like to join. After giving it some thought you've narrowed your choices down. You finally decide to choose…. 1st Canadian Motor Machine Gun Brigade The 1st Canadian Division

The Air Force After very little training you have been offered your first aerial reconnaissance mission. As you are an eager young man ready for action you happily agree. Click Me! De Havilland DH2

You have been placed in charge of piloting an AircoDH-1. For a week you have been going on reconnaissance missions and reporting your findings. But today you notice a German plane flying behind you. You decide to… Ignore them Find anything within reach and throw it at them

You try to ignore the German plane, but they didn’t ignore you. Unfortunately the German pilot must have taken a rifle up with him and he begins to shoot at you. He manages to hit your fuel tank and your plane catches fire. You realize you have to choices…. Jump out of the plane Stay in the plane and hope that you can land it before you burn to death

You happen to find a wrench sitting on the floor beside you. You pick it up and throw it at the pilot. It distracts them and they loose control of their plane, crashing into a field down below. You have been later called to help fly a new plane that has just been released. Click me!

You have been given the task of observing on a FE-2 plane with a front-mounted Lewis machine gun and another at the surface of the top wing. While up in the air, you fear for your life; in order to shoot the top wing gun, you have to stand on your seat. Often at 5000 feet above the ground in the wind, and travelling at times 100 miles per hour, this is a very dangerous situation. Most of the time, your only hold onto the plane is the machine gun. After working on the FE-2 for quite some time, you become injured in a dog fight and sent home. Click to start again

You try and stay in the plane and land it. However being made out of primarily wood and canvas, your plane burns quickly. Unfortunately you burn to death. Click to try again

You jump out of the plane and fall 12 000 feet to your death. Click to try again.

The 1st Canadian Motor Machine Gun Brigade Maxim Machine Gun You have been placed with two other soldiers to operate a machine gun as cover fire. However after firing for a while, your machine gun becomes overheated and you have run out of water to cool it off. Your platoon desperately needs cover fire. You decide to… Stop Firing and wait until it cools off. Urinate on it to try and cool it off, you have to pee anyways.

1st Canadian Division It’s the Battle of Ypres in 1916 and your corps has been called upon to relieve the French. But when you get there, you see a large cloud of chlorine gas coming towards you. You….. Decide to take shelter in one of the old French Trenches Urinate on a cloth and advance to the German lines

Unfortunately chlorine is a heavy gas and the trenches were filled with it. However when you realized this, it was too late. Your breathing becomes labored and painful, and you start coughing uncontrollably followed by vomiting. Your lips and mouth become severely parched, and your tongue becomes covered in a thick dry fur. You get a severe headache and you start to feel weak. Your eyes start to burn and your vision becomes blurred. Suddenly you see someone with a gas mask coming towards you. You decide to…. Play dead… If it’s a German you don’t want to be taken POW Stagger towards them and hope that they will help you

You played dead and the mysterious man in the gas mask passed by you. Unfortunately your headache becomes worse and you fall unconscious. By the time someone found you, it was too late and you have suffocated from the chlorine gas. Click to go back to the beginning

Luckily for you, the person in the gas mask was a medic and you are admitted to a clearing station. After a few weeks you are released. However your lungs and nervous system have been permanently damaged by the gas and you now suffer from asthma and hyperactivity. Click to return to the start

After realizing that there was no gas on the German’s side and you’d be safer fighting there, you successfully made it across the gas cloud with the help of your makeshift respirator. You managed to surprise the Germans with your advancement and take their positions. After this lengthy battle, you are sent to assist the recapture of a French village the Germans currently occupy. Click Me to see some more action!

It has been about three weeks that you and your division have been fighting against the Germans with no signs of advancement from either side. While trying to catch a wink of sleep, you are awoken to the sounds of mass panic and fear. When you look up over the trench wall you see the Germans approaching with Flammenwerfers (flamethrowers). You decide to… Run away Start Shooting

You manage to shoot down one of the Germans with the flamethrowers, but get shot in the chest while you are at it. You try to take shelter but could not get there in time before the Germans came. Click to try again

You stop firing the machine gun to give it a chance to cool off, leaving your corps without cover fire; many people died. The Germans were able to advance and your corps was forced to pull back because they did not have adequate artillery. You survive the war but are overcome with sadness into your old age. Click to return to the start

Urinating on the machine gun cooled it off long enough to provide enough cover fire for your troops to advance forwardand capture the town. Your battalion has been called to assist in another seizure of a village not to far from here. You need to move your machine guns, but they are way too heavy to be moved by animals and carts. You use an armored vehicle to transport it. Finally you get your machine gun to your destination where you meet up with another infantry battalion Click me!

HMCS Rainbow After being trained at the Canadian Naval College on one of Canada’s first ships, HMCS Rainbow, you felt comfortable to serve your military career on it as well. On the Rainbow, you’re placed on a mission to find and engage ships of the Imperial German Navy in the Pacific Ocean; in particular SMS Leipzig and SMS Nurnberg. Its been months that you have been on the Rainbow, you are just one day off the coast of Sans Francisco, and you have never encountered any of the enemy ships. Your captain has asked you to make the call to... Stay an extra day where you are and proceed to Sans Francisco the next day. Leave immediately to Sans Francisco in hopes of seeing some action.

When you get to Sans Francisco, your crew notice the SMS Leipzig and engage. After a lengthy battle, you manage to sink the Leipzig with little damage done to the Rainbow. Afterwards the Rainbow was placed on another task. Click Me!

Your crew has been assigned to use the Rainbow to transport $140,000,000 in Russian gold bullion (valued in 1917 Canadian dollars), between Esquimalt and Vancouver. This money is to be placed in trust with Canada by the Russian government for protection due to the impending Russian revolution. After being on the Rainbow for three years now, you just want to go home and for the war to be over. The Rainbow is soon decommissioned and you are sent to the Atlantic coast to fend off U-boats. The war is over in a couple of months on your new posting and you finally return home. Click to start again

HMS Good Hope It was believed by the Admiralty that German liners in New York and other ports on the United States Atlantic seaboard could convert themselves to armed merchant cruisers by installing guns which the Admiralty believed they carried in their holds. For your first few weeks on the Good Hope, she was employed protecting British merchant shipping as far south as Pernambuco and later the Falkland Islands. Leaving Stanley on October 22nd1914 for the west coast of South America via Cape Horn, you and your crew embarked on the search for the German East Asiatic Squadron. When you get there, you notice two German cruisers patrolling the waters. You decide to… Engage in battle Take the coordinates down of where you spotted the German ships but do not engage in battle

You attacked the German cruisers Scharnhorst and Gneisenauwhich were under the command of Admiral Graf Maximilian von Spee. The HMS Good Hope could not withstand the attack and she sunk with a crew of 900 hands on 1 November 1914, off the Chilean coast. Click to return to the beginning

The German cruisers Scharnhorst and Gneisenau, which were under the command of Admiral Graf Maximilian von Spee, decided to engage on your ship. The HMS Good Hope could not withstand the attack and she sunk with you and a crew of 900 hands on 1 November 1914, off the Chilean coast. Click to return the beginning

Landships It is 16 September, 1915 and the tank is finally being introduced to battle at Delville Wood. Being new to the battlefield, the tanks still had some downfalls to its design. Inside the tank, the heat is almost unbearable and the fumes generated from the engine choke you. After a few days of these unbearable conditions, you start to wish you had of picked a different area. Until one day when your crew is heading towards the German lines you feel the front end of the tank drop off and come to a sudden stop. You get out to find… Click Me!

Your tank has been ditched! The Germans have noticed your dilemma and have started coming towards your position. You decide to… Grab a rifle and start shooting alongside the infantry Run Away

You grab a rifle and start shooting at the advancing Germans. Just your luck, another tank shows up and the Germans began to retreat.The rest of your tank crew were not as likely and died in the fighting. The crew of the tank offer to let you join them. You… Decline Agree

You attempt to make your way back to a clearing station but end up getting shot in the leg. You are given leave from the military and are sent home. Click to start again

You have been with your new crew for a while now. Because of the poor conditions inside the tank, you develop a bad chest cold. You try to keep fighting despite your ailment but your cold develops into pneumonia. You die in a clearing station. Click to try again

You start to run away but are caught by another platoon. They accuse you of being a spy and deserting your army to help the Germans. You are placed in front of a firing squad for your actions. Click to start again

What If? The Journey of a Canadian Soldier