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submitted 10 months ago by The_Picard_Maneuver@startrek.website to c/memes@lemmy.world

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[-] Kbin_space_program@kbin.social 216 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

Canada's Hundred Days. Aka the last 100 days of WW1.

Functionally, Canada won WW1 for the allies.

Being under 10% of the WW1 force, in that period they tackled defences everyone else thought impregnable and shattered them, like the Hindenburg Line, and in the process paved the way for the allied advance. They also took out a quarter of the German forces in that time.

While they did arguably use proto-blitzkrieg tactics of using lots of machine guns, and then also using vehicles to move troops even quicker while using said machine guns, one of the biggest factors was a prodigious use of chemical weapons.

To the point that in the interwar period, Canada had the largest capacity and stores of chemical weapons. During WW2, said stockpile is one of the reasons Hitler refused to use chemical weapons on the allies.

Edit: And a lot of the rules on fair treatment of POWs and rules on capturing surrendered soldiers also stems of Canadian soldiers behaviours during WW1.

[-] Kecessa@sh.itjust.works 45 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

To be fair, French Canadians were overrepresented and didn't want to be there so they figured if they were super good at it they could go back home ASAP.

[-] Narrrz@kbin.social 18 points 10 months ago

so the French are cowards, Canadians are teddy bears, but somehow when you combine the two they not only cancel our but hyperamplify the opposite?

[-] rovingnothing29@kbin.social 13 points 10 months ago

Hydrogen and Oxygen are extremely flammable. When combined they make water.

[-] merc@sh.itjust.works 1 points 10 months ago

Oxygen isn't flammable, Oxygen is what reacts with the things that are flammable.

[-] Schadrach@lemmy.sdf.org 2 points 10 months ago

If I remember my chemistry right, chlorine trifluoride would like to have a chat with you. It's such a powerful oxidizer that when burned with oxygen, the oxygen is actually the fuel rather than the oxidizer.

But then this is the stuff that the Nazis decided was too dangerous to use as rocket propellant, then decided it was too dangerous to use as a chemical weapon.

[-] merc@sh.itjust.works 1 points 10 months ago

I don't want to chat with Chlorine Trifluoride, it's nasty.

But yeah, there are some obscure situations where oxygen isn't the oxidizing agent, but the name "oxidizer" gives a clue how rare that is. In most normal situations, oxygen is the oxidizer and the thing it reacts with is the fuel. Partially that's due to Oxygen being a good electron acceptor, but mostly it's because there's a lot of oxygen in the planet, and anywhere you can have humans you pretty much need to have oxygen.