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SmugMug > all-time keyword > verseilles > Beyond these are, tangled woods surrounded by yellow ropes strung between red signs "Danger Entre Interdit Munitions Non EclatÚe" (undetonated explosives).
SmugMug > all-time keyword > verseilles > Vimy: Canadians in WW 1 photo
SmugMug > all-time keyword > verseilles > The Grange tunnel. Part of a vast maze of tunnels built to protect the soldiers from the "toxic" open fields. Eighty two years ago on this ridge, on Easter Monday, April 9, 1917 there was no peace, no leaves, no grass, no memorial, only ceaseless noise, unending mud (tilled by countless artillery shells) swallowing the bodies of thousands of nameless men. Four divisions -one hundred thousand Canadians- men and boys, many as young as sixteen, fought together for the first time as a distinct army corps. Here 20,000 soldiers, marching behind a "creeping artillery barrage" from 1079 guns rose out of their tunnels and trenches and launched into the north-west wind that swept the devastated countryside with sleet, snow and machine gun fire. Three days later they emerged, having accomplished what the French, with one hundred and fifty thousand casualties over three years had failed, to achieve. They had taken Vimy Ridge. Of the 10,602 casualties, 3,598 were young Canadians. They would never in the words of John McCrae, "feel dawn or see sunset glow" again. Many claim that this battle marked the end of our country's adolescence. This was the place where we earned the right to play at war with the bigger, older boys. In recognition, the French government gave the land to Canada and has recognised it as Canadian soil. When I read this I thought: so now we own a piece of French real estate, the price, only sixty six thousand Canadian lives, a bargain at the time. I put my hand on some of the names engraved on the monument, the ones whose bodies disappeared in the mud without a trace, and felt chagrin replace my earlier feelings of pride. Pride would have meant I had a right to glory in the suffering, pain, the fear and death of these Canadians who willingly or not, lost their lives defending their King and his British empire.
SmugMug > all-time keyword > verseilles > Behind the memorial the battlefield has been preserved. The mud is gone. The trenches are lined with cement "sand bags." The tunnels and the great craters, some more than thirty metres across, named after Canadian cities (Montreal, Winnipeg) are now covered in grass.
SmugMug > all-time keyword > verseilles > Sheep are used to crop the grass as it is too dangerous for humans to do it.
SmugMug > all-time keyword > verseilles > Vimy: Canadians in WW 1 photo
SmugMug > all-time keyword > verseilles > From the memorial on top of Vimy Ridge, I can see the town in the distance. Twin mountains of coal mine tailings, a church steeple, and indistinct buildings, all nestled on the green clouds of surrounding trees and grassy fields - unassuming, sleepy, now peaceful. This ground is so soaked in Canadian, French, British and German blood that any flower growing here must surely blossom red. The pamphlet's description of the memorial reads " The twin white pylons, one bearing the maple leaves of Canada, the other the fleur-de-lis of France, symbolize the sacrifices of both countries. At the top are figures representing Peace and Justice, with Truth, Knowledge, Gallantry and Sympathy below them. In the centre, at the base of the pylons, a young dying soldier, the Spirit of Sacrifice, throws the torch to his comrades." A noble picture, with no trace of the mud and carnage of trench warfare. Life, so little valued, that the deaths of one of every six soldiers, and a further half of the rest being wounded, was considered an acceptable price. This was the first war of the industrial age. Mass production applied to killing.
Beyond these are, tangled woods surrounded by yellow ropes strung between red signs "Danger Entre Interdit Munitions Non EclatÚe"
(undetonated explosives).
> Beyond these are, tangled woods surrounded by yellow ropes strung between red signs "Danger Entre Interdit Munitions Non EclatÚe" (undetonated explosives).
Beyond these are, tangled woods surrounded by yellow ropes strung between red signs "Danger Entre Interdit Munitions Non EclatÚe"
(undetonated explosives).
Photo by: David Cale (ImagesOfTheJourney) • see photo in gallery
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