All units of the Canadian Corps were assembled near the French city of Arras, in preparation of a major assault on the German positions at Vimy Ridge. A promising young soldier from Gaspé, Sgt. Ralph Stewart Fitzpatrick was killed in action on March 24th 1917 while conducting a trench raid prior to the main attack. He was two days shy of his 23rd birthday.

Recruiting comes to the Gaspé Coast. Cousins James and William Palmer sign up on the same day. Daniel Miller leaves his fiancee and their new house behind. Even Gaspé's Anglican minister, Rev. John Wayman, joins up. Leo LeBoutillier receives the Distinguished Conduct Medal.

Young Gaspesians travel to recruiting centres eager to serve, within months many of them are either killed or wounded in France and Belgium.

While the First Canadian Division is fighting in Belgium, Gaspé's Leo LeBoutillier, joins the 24th Battalion (Victoria Rifles) in Montreal, and after a wild send-off, heads across the Atlantic to England.

The First Canadian Division leaves England to join the fighting on the Western Front. A Stanley Cup winner born in Douglastown is the first Gaspesian wounded in World War One, Canadians are victims of a gas attack, and John McCrae writes In Flanders Fields.

In the weeks that followed the outbreak of World War One, the Canadian Expeditionary Force trains in Valcartier, and a convoy leaves Gaspé Bay, onto England. Among the soldiers in that convoy, the first son of the Gaspé Coast to have won the Stanley Cup.

Europe goes to war.

The assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand in Sarajevo sets the stage for World War One.