The Great War
This major documentary, for CBC, was first shown in Canada for the 90th Anniversary of the capture of Vimy Ridge in April, 2007. It was groundbreaking.
The first part of the project saw Galafilm bring 13 young Canadians who had relatives who served in the Canadian Army during The Great War to Khaki Devil's own Great War training camp in Suffolk.
The descendents were put through a rigorous training programme and then spent a sleepless night in our reconstructed Trench System. The young Canadians had an experience they will never forget and it put them in the right frame of mind for the Battlefield Tour to the Battlefields of Europe which followed immediately afterwards.
The second part of the project was to create a much larger Great War camp in Canada and, this time, train 150 descendents of Great War Canadian soldiers.
Khaki Devil sent a team of seven Historical Advisors (all members of The Khaki Chums) to Canada where they were joined by two local members of The Chums. This training cadre were then responsible for training a group of modern day Canadian Officers and NCOs as Great War section commanders and then assist in the training of the 150 'recruits' (see above).
The training was a great success and all who took part had an amazing if, at times, tough experience (see link below).
Once the 'troops' were trained to a sufficient standard Galafilm commenced filming their drama reconstruction sequences with the 150 soldiers who, by this time, were completely believeable Great War soldiers.
To find out more about the project, log on to:
http://www.greatwar.ca/en/index.html
Historical Advice:
Senior Historical Adviser: Taff Gillingham
Khaki Devil sent the following Khaki Chums to Canada to act as Section Commanders and Historical Advisers:
Tall Bloke
Trunky Durrant
Foz Forsdike
Dickie Ingram
Dickie Knight
Doug Lague.
The following two Canadian Khaki Chums were also part of the team:
Ed Storey
Colin Schlachta
Costume and Props:
For the Training Camp in the UK, Khaki Devil provided the complete uniform, equipment and weaponry for the Canadian Descendents. We also supplied all the trench stores and other props.
