September 22 – Vimy Ridge

We left Rouen early this morning on our way to Lille.  Lille is northeast of Rouen and is located in the area where most of the deadliest battles in the First World War took place.  To get to Lille from Rouen you cross the Somme valley.  It is here that several million men lost their lives in the stupidest war in the history of mankind.  With its pastoral geography, it is easy to see how the infantry were sitting targets when they advanced from their trenches.  How this many men lost their lives to support the collective egos of the offspring of Queen Victoria is truly one of the tragedies of modern times. Had they known they were pawns in the exercise of keeping the racist and exploitive policies of European empires in place, I’m sure that wide spread mutinies would have taken place.  It is no wonder that communism flourished during this war.

Canadian trenches at the Battle of Vimy Ridge

We stopped at Vimy Ridge to pay our respects to the fallen Canadians who lost their lives in the war but never had a proper burial.  There are over 11,000 soldiers who were never properly identified and are buried in unmarked graves.  As we approached the Vimy Ridge memorial, both Marg and myself thought we were approaching a links styled golf course with many pot bunkers.  Then you quickly realize that this was a battlefield and these craters are the result of tens of thousands artillery shells fired in anger at the Canadian forces.  In many of these craters there still are the remains of our soldiers, even after 100 years.  In the forest surrounding these sacred grounds are many unexploded shells.

View that German's had when Canadian troops advanced

The history of Vimy Ridge is important in the development of the Canadian nation.  The battle was the first occasion when all four divisions of the Canadian Expeditionary Force participated in a battle together and thus became a Canadian nationalistic symbol of achievement and sacrifice. Previously Canadian troops were grouped together with the British army.

The objective of the Canadian Corps was to take control of the German-held high ground along an escarpment at the northernmost end of the Battle of Arras. This would ensure that the southern flank could advance without suffering from German artillery fire. Supported by a creeping barrage, the Canadian Corps captured most of the ridge during the first day of the attack. In a war where advances were measured in meters this was an outstanding achievement. The town of Thélus fell during the second day of the attack, as did the crest of the ridge once the Canadian Corps overcame a pocket of considerable German resistance. The final objective, a fortified knoll located outside the town of Givenchy-en-Gohelle, fell to the Canadian Corps on 12 April. The German forces then retreated to the Oppy–Méricourt line.

Historians attribute the success of the Canadian Corps in capturing the ridge to a mixture of technical and tactical innovation, meticulous planning, powerful artillery support and extensive training.

Vimy Ridge Memorial

Veterans Affairs is always being criticised for their handling of the veterans of our recent
peacekeeping missions, but they deserve credit for the memorial at Vimy Ridge.  The battle grounds with their trenches are well maintained and the graveyards are very neat and respectful.  The memorial tower to the 11,000 unknown solders is magnificent.  It dwarfs the War Memorial in Ottawa. The guides are Canadian university students who take on a four month assignment with the Federal government.

The memorial took eleven years to build.  It is built on the highest point on the ridge.  King Edward VIII unveiled the memorial IN 1936 in the presence of 50,000 veterans, and their families. Following an extensive multi-year restoration, Queen Elizabeth II rededicated the memorial in 2007 during a ceremony commemorating the 90th anniversary of the battle.











There are three outstanding statues on the memorial. The saddened figure of  Mother Canada, is a personification of the young nation mourning her dead. The Breaking of the Sword is located at the southern corner of the front wall while Sympathy of the Canadians for the Helpless is located at the northern corner. Collectively, the two groups are The Defenders and represent the ideals for which Canadians gave their lives during the war.

Breaking of the sword

Mother Canada

Canadians for the Helpless

Graveyard for the unknown soldiers

French school children are educated on our role in their modern history. There so many classes today that we could not get an organized tour of the memorial. In all it is a class operation, something all Canadians should be proud of.











We continued on our way to stay in Lille France for a couple of nights.  Our GPS is going to cause Marg and myself to have a major mental breakdown.  We got to the outskirts of Lille with no problems, but the stupid piece of silicon could not find the address of our hotel.  The hotel might have been built after the maps on the GPS chip were printed.  So we gave it an address close to the hotel.  The GPS then directed us to a location of the opposite side of Lille from where our hotel was.  This would be the equivalent of trying to get to Oshawa and being sent to Hamilton.  Even after we gave it the Longitude and Latitude coordinates it still could not get us directly to the hotel.  We ended up circling the hotel for about twenty minutes before we were able to find the hotel’s parking lot.  To top it off it is almost impossible to put the car in reverse.  In all what should have been a thirty minute trip from Vimy Ridge took close to two hours. We have parked the car and it won’t leave the parking lot until we leave Lille.

On the humorous side they way the GPS pronounces the French streets names is hilarious  For example Rue de Marshall Foch become Rudi Mama Folk and Rue de Charles de Gaulle become Rudi Charles Doggle.

Tonight we were too tired to go into the old town of Lille for dinner, so we stopped at a nondescript Italian restaurant.  The food was OK but nothing to write home about, so I won't.