In 1916, a German soldier watched the first tank loom out of the fog and ran for his life, screaming that a crocodile was crawling into the trenches.

This is the story of the tank on the Western Front, and it's a Canadian story from beginning to end. Canadians were there at the machine's terrifying combat debut at Courcelette in September 1916; the day before Chip Kerr of the 49th Battalion won his VC on the same ground, and Canadians were the spearhead at Amiens in August 1918, the "black day of the German Army," where the tank finally succeeded.

We climb inside the steel oven the crews actually fought in, sort the legend from the record, and hear from the men who were there, from the first British tank crews to a private of the 24th Battalion who rode the tanks forward at Amiens.

Memory and Valour — Where Memory Endures, Valour Lives On.

One wounded man. Sixty-two prisoners. A quarter-mile of enemy trench. Here's how an Edmonton farmer pulled it off, and why it was genius, not luck.

On 16 September 1916, on the Somme, Private John Chipman "Chip" Kerr of Edmonton's 49th Battalion was clearing a German trench with a bombing party that was running out of grenades.

So, with a finger freshly blown off, he climbed out onto the parados, ran along the open ground above the enemy, and opened fire from behind them. Believing themselves surrounded, sixty-two Germans surrendered. It earned him the Victoria Cross.

We rebuild the deed from the ground up: who Kerr really was, how the 49th was raised in Edmonton (and gutted at Mount Sorrel), how trench fighting actually worked and why Kerr's move wasn't just brave, it was brilliant.

Much of the research behind this episode lives in the building that carries the 49th Battalion's lineage: the Loyal Edmonton Regiment Military Museum, inside the historic Prince of Wales Armouries in Edmonton.

Walk through the Griesbach Gallery, stand in front of Cecil Kinross's miniature Victoria Cross, and see everything we talked about today in the cases and on the walls. I'm currently doing my university practicum there, so if you're in Edmonton, come and find me. Let's talk history.

Canada entered the First World War without an air force; not a small one, not a token one; none.

Yet, somehow produced some of the most extraordinary fighter pilots of the entire conflict.

This episode tells the stories of five of them: Billy Bishop, whose Victoria Cross action may have been embellished; Raymond Collishaw, who outscored almost everyone and came home almost unknown; William Barker, Canada's most decorated serviceman, now largely forgotten; Wop May, the rookie from Edmonton who accidentally outran the Red Baron; and Alan McLeod, who climbed onto the wing of a burning aircraft at five thousand feet to save his observer's life.

Featuring archival audio from actual veterans of the air war, recorded while they were still around to tell their stories.