100 years ago today Canada became a nation when the four divisions of the Canadian Corps came together for the first time.
Together, the soldiers were able capture the previously unattainable ridge of Vimy. After the four day battle, the Canadians earned respect from their allies, and four outstanding soldiers earned Victoria Crosses for their endeavours; the divisions also struck fear into the German soldiers who previously doubted the Canadians.
But this was not without loss; 3,598 Canadians lost their lives, another 7,000 were injured.
The memorial of Vimy Ridge includes 20 large sculptures that represent the ideals the Canadians fought for - truth, justice, hope and peace.
The memorial also includes the inscribed names of the 11,250 Canadians who died in France who have no known grave.
The "Canada Bereft” at the centre of the memorial gazes downwards over the graves of her valiant soldiers.
The stature represent those who were left behind to mourn their lost.
3,598 pairs of boots were placed around the monument; one for each of the fallen.
Without these brave soldiers, Canada would not be what it is today.
We do not owe them something.
We owe them everything.
Vimy Flight: Birth of a Nation - Special Visiting Exhibit at the Royal Aviation Museum of Western Canada
On Friday 4 August 2017 we were lucky enough to attend the travelling exhibit Vimy Flight: Birth of a Nation at the Royal Aviation Museum of Western Canada. Vimy Flight commemorates the efforts of all Canadian who fought at Vimy Ridge, especially Canadian pilots who served with the Royal Flying Corps. The exhibit includes a replica WWI-era bi-plane and features presentations by members of the Vimy Flight team.
Vimy Flight is a team of pilots who preformed a commemorative fly-over, in replica bi-planes, of the Vimy Ridge memorial on 9 April 2017. Since May 2017 the team has been travelling across Canada commemorating the event, the Battle for Vimy Ridge in April 1917, and preforming fly-overs at locations across the country.
More details on the exhibit, including future stops on their cross-Canada tour, can be found on the Vimy Flight website.
Alright I’m going to tell the story of the first few days I had in France in which I started off in Lens but I realize now I have no photos of Lens. These are of Arras. I’m very bad at taking photos in the moment I forget. Anyways, if you are interested keep reading!
So day one consists of me flying out. I think my first flight was at eight in the morning. I have to take a small flight from my small city to larger one. From there I fly to Montreal. I had a 5 hour layover in Montreal, it sucked. I saw so many flights going to Paris but mine of course had to be 5 hours later. So I sat around in the airport trying to sleep but airports aren’t pleasant. Flying and airports make me feel sick and nothing can really make it better other than just leaving and getting fresh air. On a side note I was kind of freaking out because I only had 4 month validity on my passport, due to not being able to renew it for several reasons. Fast forward to several hours, I have landed in France, made it through security. To be frank, they didn’t even look at my passport they just stamped it and welcomed me into France. I don’t understand how border control was that loose. Anyways, I go to baggage claim and spend I’m not even kidding almost two hours looking for my bag. Now, I’ve never traveled alone so I was supposed to meet up with @littlegoldhorse in the airport, but she landed 6 hours after me. But her whole plane got sequestered due to security reasons? I have no idea honestly. I landed about 9 am Paris time, left Paris about 5 pm. Theresa and I figure out how to get a Train to Lens, we meet up with some of her friends when we get to the Lens SNCF gate. We go to our Airbnb and pretty much pass out.
Next day Theresa and I wake up early and get some breakfast, we go to a nice bakery and pick up some pastries and the classic french baguette.
(side note: the pastries here have nothing on those, they were so good)
We go around and explore Lens, we go to the Louvre Lens which was interesting. We were warned to hold on to our bags inside a museum because there were many pickpocketers. That was very different for me since I live in a very safe place with almost zero pickpockets. Later on we go to Arras for a day trip. Where I had this very delicious thing.
I was told that we were going to a square in Arras, English being my second language I assumed we were going to an art installation of a square of some sort. Later on I had to ask the stupid question “where is the square?” And got met with judging looks and replies. They had to explain what a square is. Arras was filled with I think a hundred on these billboards with small bios of people who fought in WWI and it was interesting. There were people I knew of and others I didn’t. People like Arthur Currie and the Red Baron. The most interesting part of that day was seeing a WWI monument riddled with bullets from WWII. It’s weird to think that city was a major battle in both wars.
Day three we went to the centennial of Vimy Ridge, I did not anticipate how hot it would be in April. We all came back sunburnt. While we were going to Vimy we could see how bumpy the ground was from the constant shelling and how 100 years later the land did not heal.
(this isn’t the best photo but the only one I was able to get you can note that each tree is on it’s own bump. There were some craters so large that if you had fallen in one I don’t think you’d have an easy time getting out)
There were so many people in Vimy I think the official number was around 35,000. There wasn’t any room to move anywhere and it took hours to leave. I think the event ended at 3 or 4 pm and we were able to get out at 9. But while we were there we were surrounded with Canadian patriotism and kindness. This couple offered us sunscreen since we didn’t bring any. There was this teenager who had to be escorted to the med tent since she wasn’t feeling well and them and as well as us were worried about her and her stuff since she had just left it all. Throughout the event they read out the names of I believe every Canadian who had died or been injured and it was incredible to hear the never ending names. I don’t think anyone was listening when Francois Hollande spoke and it wasn’t translated so I don’t think many people knew what he was saying. When people were speaking they didn’t speak in one language and then translate it to the other, they just continued what they were saying in the other language and just switched back and forth. So it’s safe to say I didn’t have the clearest idea of what was being said the whole time since I don’t speak french. At the end of the day some WWI planes flew over and it was incredible to see those things flying. And some jets afterwards.
After several hours of waiting to get out of the event, an announcer getting more and more frustrated with the people not listening to her instructions, and a nice family who shared their food with us we finally made it back to our Airbnb at like 10 pm. Theresa and I only had a few hours to sleep because we had to catch a train to Caen at 4 am. We must have annoyed everyone by loudly dragging our luggage that early.
To mark the major victory of Canadians in April 1917, the French Government granted to Canada via treaty a parcel of land along the top of Vimy Ridge in 1922, upon which Canada could commemorate this military action. Very soon after, the Canadian Government launched a design competition for monuments and memorials to the First World War. Walter Allward’s monument design was chosen from about 160 entries into the Canadian Government’s design competition, and work on the memorial took 11 years to complete from 1925 to 1936. On July 26th of 1936, the monument was officially dedicated and the foremost sculpture at the front of the monument - the figure of Canada - was unveiled by King Edward the VIII.
Yet time did have its effects on this striking monument, and deterioration led to a need for extensive repairs by the late 1990s. The Canadian Battlefield Memorials Restoration Project was formed to address decay on the Vimy Monument and 12 others. Restoration work was carried out at Vimy over more than two years beginning in December 2004, at a cost of roughly 20-million dollars.The video above shows the front of the monument as it was in August 2010 following restoration, and represents how the memorial likely looked when it was newly unveiled in 1936.
