Monday 31 May 1999. Ah well, all good things have to come to an end, but we are not totally finished with this holiday yet! We are leaving Paris certainly, but now there is a few hours travelling through the French countryside and a stop at Vimy Ridge, scene of terrible fighting during the First World War.
The storming and capture of the Vimy Ridge by the four Canadian Divisions in April 1917 was thought a turning point at the time and brought Canada new status in the eyes of the world. 3,600 Canadian soldiers died on the first day alone - 9 April, 1917. Their sacrifice and hard-won achievement was overturned in the stalemates, advances and retreats of the Somme, later in the war. The area was left devastated by shelling and mining. Not a blade of grass lived. This crater, more than 80 years on, shows something of the ferocity that the men lived and died through. 80 years of wind and erosion have levelled it out somewhat, but also consider that approximately two thirds of the material blown out of the ground goes straight up and therefore falls back into the crater it created.
Whilst elsewhere throughout northern France, the ground has been levelled and returned to farmland, here at Vimy it has been left as a reminder of those days and as a tribute and memorial to the victors of Vimy.
Tons of unexploded material is still under the mounds and shell holes of the area and most of it has been fenced off. The grass and trees were all grown from seed sent from Canada, as France gave the land to the Canadians in gratitude and recognition of their bravery and achievement. A small building houses displays, maps, artifacts and a story. The story of the entire army of a country, 100,000 men, working together in a single action to capture the highest ridge of land in the area.
Between April 1917 and the end of the war, 19,000 Canadians gave their lives for their country and their allies. Their bodies lay buried in the fields and villages near Vimy. This is a place for reflection and remembrance. But also a place to gain understanding and respect. The Memorial signifies also the soaring hopes for future peace. Whatever one's feeling about war are, unless there are those who are willing to risk and sacrifice all for their beliefs, then those who care nothing for the rights of others, their life, or ownership, will have their way unopposed.
The Memorial has a number of sculptures, carved where they now stand from huge blocks of stone. The monument took 11 years to build and was deigned by Canadian sculptor and architect, Walter Seymour Allward. Six thousand tons of limestone brought from a Roman quarry in the Adriatic, stand on a bed of concrete. The massive figure represents Canada, a nation mourning her dead. Carved on the monument are the names of the 11,285 Canadians who died in France and whose final resting place had not been found.
