Canada’s Fighting Forces: Through the Eyes of Sergeant Fred Wells

Shot by five bullets in the left arm at the Second Battle of Ypres in April 1915, bayoneted by an enemy soldier on the Ypres battlefield, acquired a shrapnel wound to the knee, captured by the Germans and had his left arm amputated by a German doctor, and released from German captivity after four months, Sergeant Fred Wells of British Columbia represented the physical trauma of the Great War. As a disabled veteran, Wells utilized his trauma in 1916 when he went on a national tour in Canada, along with the showing of the Canadian film Canada’s Fighting Forces, to promote the Canadian war effort. As Wells told his story to Canadians about his trauma and survival at Second Ypres and as a captive in Germany, his trauma represented a sacrifice he underwent for the sake of his country and comrades.