Vimy Ridge

Remembrance Day 2009
Vimy Ridge

For Remembrance Day a group of Exchange Students from Belgium travelled to Vimy Ridge. It was an amazing experience. Vimy Ridge is Canadian territory in France. During WWI Canadians fought here. Now it is a Canadian National Historic Site.
On April 9th 1917 the Canadian Corps, fighting together for the first time, worked to take Vimy Ridge from the Germans. The battle was a success, and is often considered as one of the birthplaces of Canadian unity.
The monument contains the names of the Canadians who fell in battle in France and remain without a grave. The monument was opened in 1936 and has since been restored. The park contains more than 250 acres of Canadian land. The day was very Canadian.
The site was very impressive. Just walking there, where Canadian soldiers had fought and died was extremely impressionable. The monument stands as a grand memorial. It's hard not to be affected by the enormity of the area. War in Canada always seems distant. We know it happened, we know the details, we've read about it and talked about it, but we don't realize it. In Belgium, almost every city has more than one war memorial, you pass them on the highways, you see the flags of the countries that worked to fight there. It's more present here.
The barbed wire, a reminder to the war, keeps people from walking on much of the ground around the park. The fields are riddled with craters from bombs and the marks of war, and people are not allowed to walk there, in fear of setting off remaining, unfound landmines. The marks of a war almost 100 years past remain present, although made almost beautiful under the cover of grass.
The Remembrance Day Ceremony, although small, was almost the same as one at home, aside from the fact it was conducted both in French and English. There was a bigger ceremony on the Sunday before, but I prefered to be there for the actual day. In Flanders Fields was recited, We Will Remember them, (the picture above is of Patrick, one of the exchange students from Belgium, reading We Will Remember Them, in French) We sang God Save the Queen, The French National Anthem, and listened to The Last Post. The Last Post was one of the most powerful that I have heard. Looking up at the monument during it. Wow. And when we sang Oh Canada, surrounded by Canadians, all of us singing, it was one of the proudest moments I have had being Canadian.
Along with the wreaths, each of us was given a carnation to lie at the bottem of the monument.
Audrey, another exchange student in Belgium.
The wreaths are more or less the same as at home too. The whole day was a taste of home away from home. I feel so proud of my country.
The women on the monument is looking over the tomb of an unnamed soldier, representing all the soldiers during the war.
The monument is extremely impressive. Especially for Remembrance Day.

All of us who went. Canadians from Prince Edward Island to British Columbia, and all of us together.
One last look at the monument.

The picture below is of the German side of the trenches at Vimy. The structures on that side were much more permanent that the structures on our side, but thanks to Canadian planning and strategy, the many of the pill boxes and other strategic points were taken out before the Canadian attack.
The maple trees growing upon the war field. Even though there was a war, life goes on.
A last remembrance to the soldiers who died at Vimy Ridge. We will remember them.
After Vimy Ridge we travelled to Flanders Fields (in Belgium) another important battlefield during WWI. John McCrae, a Canadian soldier, wrote the poem 'In Flanders Fields' based on his experiences there. Yes, I did recite the poem, by heart, in the open, with another Canadian while I walked in Flanders Fields.
Hill 62, a lesser known Canadian battlesite, near Ypres, in Flanders, Belgium.

The town of Ypres on Armistrice (as Remembrance Day is called in Belgium). The city was buzzing. It was filled with people wearing Canadian poppies and British Poppies. The town was filled with English speakers there for the war remembrance ceremonies.
The entire town of Ypres was destroyed during WWI. Now it is beautiful and buzzing. The Battle of Passchendaele (one of the more terrible battles for Canadians)was one of the battles of Ypres. At Ypres we went to the 'In Flanders Fields' Museum, named after, you guessed it, the Canadian poem. The Museum was a rather sobering, but appropriate, end to my Remembrance Day in Europe.

My Canadian poppy, which I will always wear with pride.