🎧 Now on Spotify! Listen here: https://open.spotify.com/show/033A4VW0KKqFz6hF9IvDUO?si=54ea0b45f8af4001<br /><br />A Belgian military manual described the terrain in five words: "generally unsuitable for military operations." The Germans agreed — and spent three weeks turning the Leopold Canal into the most heavily fortified water obstacle on the Western Front. Over ten thousand troops. Nearly five hundred machine guns. A commander who had learned defensive warfare on the Eastern Front and intended to hold every metre.<br /><br />The first Canadian attempt to cross ended in disaster. Men stripped off their equipment and swam back under fire. The crossing was declared impossible.<br /><br />Twenty-three days later, the Canadians came back — with a plan that broke every rule in the engineering manual. Flamethrowers repurposed as something no one had ever tried. A phonograph unit playing records in the dark. And a footbridge built in ten minutes that no German engineer could explain afterward.<br /><br />When captured officers were asked how the Canadians got across, they all gave the same answer. They were wrong. And what actually happened was far harder to admit.<br /><br />#canadianwarstories #ww2 #canadianarmy #militaryhistory #
