Monday, we made it all about the Canadians who lost their lives in this part of the world during the First World War. It meant driving back into France - about 1 1/2 hours. For anyone who doesn't know, Vimy Ridge (in France) was a strategic location that had been held by the Germans during the war. To gain that ridge could turn the tide in the war. The English and French had tried but it was the Canadians with some engineering ingenuity who managed to take it. It was my third time visiting this place which is actually a Canadian National Park as the land here was given in perpetuity to Canada by France after the war. It is a place of pride for all Canadians. Things have changed a bit since I was last here 16 years ago. There is a new Visitor Centre, built two years ago, which no longer shows some of the films I saw on previous visits. Also, the tour of the tunnels has been changed. Where before there were several routes (I know I saw different things the previous two tours), it has now been changed to basically going down some stairs, walking straight along a tunnel with the opportunity to look up one other one, and then going upstairs again and pop up near where the trenches were close to the German line. I asked about it and was told the tour has been shortened to 1/2 hour from 45 minutes because of visitor volume and simplified in terms of the route.
The biggest change for me, however, and perhaps it was just the guide we had, but the presentation has been changed quite a bit. It was more about "not glorifying war" rather than giving the details of what happened here: the loss of lives and the difficulty faced by those brave men, the reason why Canada was honoured here. etc. I may be wrong but it certainly felt to me like the history of what had happened here had been "sanitized" to meet today's political correctness approach. I could be wrong but it sure felt like that. I don't recall the guide even mentioning the date of the actual battle when the men emerged from the tunnels and confronted the enemy.
You can still see where many of the trenches were located including the "communications" trenches which ran perpendicular to the other ones. Also, one of the craters which was the result of a bomb is clearly visible.
Following the tour, we went over to where the monument is. There is a lot of symbolism in this spectacular memorial. The most impressive statue on the monument is the sole woman facing out to the plain representing "mother" Canada and mourning her lost sons. It is very moving.
Once we had visited the monument itself, with all its symbolism and solemnity, we started driving to Beaumont Hamel, the site of some fierce battles by the soldiers from Newfoundland.
However, on the way there, we saw the signpost for Thiepval which one of the Brits on our tour of Vimy had mentioned to me. So, we did a bit of a detour to see this important site. The Thiepval Memorial to the Missing of the Somme is a war memorial to 72,337 missing British and South African servicemen who died in the Battles of the Somme of the First World War between 1915 and 1918, with no known grave. There were also French soldiers here. While the Somme river is actually quite a few miles to the east, this is still referred to as the Somme. The guide I spoke to didn't know why because the river near here is called l'Ancre.
After visiting this memorial (and we saw so many cemeteries as we drove around the countryside, almost too many to keep track of), we drove to Beaumont Hamel. I did not know before about the "Caribou Trail" which commemorates the bravery of the troops from Newfoundland which fought is so many important battles here. Of course, during that war, Newfoundland was not yet a part of Canada as a province.
When we got to Beaumont Hamel we found out it is staffed by the same team of Canadian students as Vimy Ridge. The site there isn’t as much as a cemetery here as place where you can see the trenches and battlefields. We spent some time in the Visitor Centre – learning the significance of the blue cornflower which was started by the Nfld troops, much like the poppy, to represent the losses; walking around the grounds a bit; and taking photos of the statue of the caribou. This symbol marks the four sites in France, the one in Belgium plus one in St. John’s which honour the sacrifice of the troops from there. Specifically, the sites in Europe are: Beaumont-(France), Gueudecourt (France), Masnières (France), Monchy-le-Preux (France) and Courtrai (Belgium).
We drove to Gueudecourt and stopped to take a photo of the caribou statue there. Like the first one, there are no graves here; just a memorial to the sacrifice of lives. We headed next to Masnieres intending to find the one there. We saw a sign for it as we drove out of the town but missed the turnoff. As we were running out of time, we gave up and skipped seeing the last one located in France. We may get to the Belgian one tomorrow.
Needless to say, it had been quite an emotional day and that was to continue because in the evening, we attended the remembrance ceremony at the Menin Gate in Ypres. More about that next.
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