WWI trench - new exhibit

Could you be a stretcher bearer, like Norman Bethune was in the First World War?

This activity area is designed to represent the type of environment experienced by Norman Bethune and many of the more than 400 000 Canadians who served overseas in the First World War.  

This reproduction could never capture how it looked and felt to be in a real battle front trench.  They were known for their horrid smell, boredom, rats, fleas and random death.  Can you imagine what would it be like to help injured soldiers, or to be injured yourself in a place like this? 

Try the equipment to test your battlefield skills, balance and speed.  You can train like you are going to be a stretcher bearer, just as Norman Bethune did in 1915.  Imagine carrying the injured on a stretcher back to a field hospital:  Are you fast enough to save them? Are you also able to move them smoothly enough not to cause them too much pain, as you carry them over rough terrain—while under attack?

Explore and climb, imagine and pretend that you are one of the medical heroes of the First World War!