Monday Monuments and Memorials – Vimy Memorial, Centre Block, Parliament Hill, Ottawa

Kaiser Wilhelm and masked spy on Vimy window, Ottawa

Vimy Ridge remembered by Centre Block stone carver, Ottawa

On February 3, 1916, a fire burned the Centre Block of Ottawa’s Parliament Buildings to the ground. The exact cause of the fire was never definitively determined. With the country at war, rumours quickly spread that the fire stemmed from enemy sabotage. Careless smoking and faulty wiring were also suspects.

Rebuilding started immediately, with the cornerstone laid on 1 Sep 1916.

On a snowy Easter Monday, 9 April 1917, the four divisions of the Canadian Corps fought together for the first (and only) time, in the Battle of Vimy Ridge, part of the Battle of Arras. Training and tactics won the ridge by 12 April, but at the cost of about 3,600 Canadian lives.

Monday Monuments and Memorials – Vimy Ridge Grave Markers and Memorials, Vimy and Ottawa

Celtic cross erected by 15th Battalion near Vimy Ridge

Memorial cross for four members of 12th Canadian Infantry Brigade

Original grave marker of Lt Norman Howard Pawley

April 9 -12 marks the 103^nd anniversary of the Battle of Vimy Ridge, part of the Battle of Arras. On a snowy Easter Monday in 1917, the four divisions of the Canadian Corps fought together for the first (and only) time. Training and tactics won the ridge, but at the cost of about 3,600 Canadian lives.

Visitors to Commonwealth War Graves Commission cemeteries along the Western Front today see neat rows of grave stones in well-groomed garden settings, a stark contrast to the original graves. Those killed were usually buried close to where they fell, in graves marked simple wooden crosses. The three crosses pictured here are from Vimy Ridge, placed to mark a grave or to honour the dead from a particular regiment.

Monday Monuments and Memorials – Vimy Monument models, Canadian War Museum, Ottawa

Vimy Memorial model by Walter Allward, at Canadian War Museum

Walter Allward’s plaster cast of Justice for the Vimy Memorial

Marking the anniversary of two Canadian milestones, 65 years apart.

Monday Monuments and Memorials – Canadian National Vimy Memorial, Vimy France

Canadian National Vimy Memorial, Vimy France

Vimy Monument: The Spirit of Sacrifice and the Virtues

Canada Bereft overlooks Douai Plain

April 9 marks the 101^th anniversary of the start of the Battle of Vimy Ridge, part of the Battle of Arras. On a snowy Easter Monday in 1917, the four divisions of the Canadian Corps fought together for the first (and only) time. Training and tactics won the ridge, but at the cost of about 3,600 Canadian lives.

While opinions differ on the importance of the battle itself, most would agree that Vimy Ridge is an important site of Canadian remembrance: a 250-acre memorial park on the former battleground is the site of the Canadian National Vimy Memorial.

The Vimy Trap

The mission of the Vimy Foundation is to preserve and promote Canada’s First World War legacy as symbolized with the victory at Vimy Ridge in April 1917, a milestone where Canada came of age and was then recognized on the world stage. … Inspired by the heroic victory of the Canadian Forces at Vimy Ridge, the Vimy Foundation believes that the key to a successful future lies in knowing one’s past, and that the remarkable story of Vimy should be shared with young people from across the country. (Vimy Foundation website)

Ball cap fronts feature an image of the Vimy Memorial and ‘VIMY’ ‘1917’, while the Royal Canadian Legion Poppy silhouette is embroidered onto the brim. ‘BIRTH OF A NATION’ has been incorporated onto the right side while the Royal Canadian Legion logo and the colours representing the four Canadian Divisions who fought together for the first time complete the design. (Royal Canadian Legion Poppy Store)

Two odd motifs to mark the centenary of Vimy Ridge. Can a country be born or come of age by its men being slaughtered in a faraway land? Can swag keep that country alive?

In The Vimy Trap or, How We Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Great War, Ian McKay and Jamie Swift ask some bold and uncomfortable questions about WW1 and Canada’s role in it.

Monday Monuments and Memorials – Unveiling Vimy Ridge Monument, Canadian War Museum, Ottawa

Unveiling Vimy Ridge Monument, Georges Bertin Scott

Vimy Pilgrimage medal worn by Edward VIII

April 9-12 marks the 100^th anniversary of the Battle of Vimy Ridge, part of the Battle of Arras. On a snowy Easter Monday in 1917, the four divisions of the Canadian Corps fought together for the first (and only) time. Training and tactics won the ridge, but at the cost of about 3,600 Canadian lives.

Vimy Ridge is an important site of Canadian remembrance: a 250-acre park on the former battleground is the site of the Canadian National Vimy Memorial. The monument commemorates Canadian WW1 soldiers killed or presumed dead in France who have no known grave.

Vimy

With the centenary of the Battle of Vimy Ridge fast approaching, it seemed to be a good time to delve into Vimy, Pierre Berton’s popular account of the Canadian exploits to capture a strategic spot on the Western Front.

Berton set out “to tell not just what happened but also what it was like.” (Author’s note, p 313) He interviewed survivors and combed through old diaries, memoirs, letters, newspaper accounts and oral histories. The result is a lively account of Easter Monday, 9 April 1917 – when the four divisions of the Canadian Corps fought together for the first (and only) time – the events leading to it and the mopping up afterwards.

Monday Monuments and Memorials – Canadian Soldier Honouring the Fallen, Soldiers’ Tower, Toronto

Canadian Soldier Honouring the Fallen, Soldiers’ Tower, Toronto

April 9-12 marks the 100^th anniversary of the Battle of Vimy Ridge, part of the Battle of Arras. On a snowy Easter Monday in 1917, the four divisions of the Canadian Corps fought together for the first (and only) time. Training and tactics won the ridge, but at the cost of about 3,600 Canadian lives.

Monday Monuments and Memorials – The Ghosts of Vimy Ridge, Parliament Buildings, Ottawa

Ghosts of Vimy Ridge, by William Longstaff

April 9 is a national day of remembrance in Canada marking the anniversary of the 1917 Battle of Vimy Ridge. The battle was the first time in WW1 when all four Canadian divisions fought as a united group. The victory is seen by many as a defining moment of Canadian national identity. The ridge is the site of Canada’s largest WW1 monument in France.

Monday Monuments and Memorials – Canadian Machine Gun Corps, Chateau Laurier, Ottawa

Canadian Machine Gun Corps and Brig Gen Brutinel

CANADIAN MACHINE GUN CORPS

Commanded by Brig Gen R. Brutinel CB CMG DSO

In memory of the members of the Canadian Machine Gun Corps who died in active service and in honour of those who served 1914 – 1919

In the Chateau Laurier the Canadian Machine Gun Corps had its beginning. Here, in August 1914, Major Raymond Brutinel enrolled the first recruits for the Corps.

These memorial plaques hang in the Chateau Laurier Hotel, in the corridor leading from the elevator lobby to the meeting rooms and parking garage. The bas reliefs are a bust of Brutinel and of the Canadian Machine Guns on Vimy Ridge. 

It was actually the Automobile Machine Gun Brigade No 1, later the 1^st Canadian Motor Machine Gun Brigade, that Brutinel started in 1914. It is believed to be the first motorized armoured unit formed by any country during the war. The various machine gun brigades formed the Canadian Machine Gun Corps in March 1918.

Cameron Pulsifer’s article Canada’s First Armoured Unit: Raymond Brutinel and the Canadian Motor Machine Gun Brigades of the First World War (Canadian Military History: Vol. 10: Iss. 1, Article 5) is worth a look for more history and some great photos.

 

I’m looking forward to The Great War Tour, a four-part documentary with historian Norm Christie. Starts tonight (6 Apr) on TVO. Starts 18 May on the Knowledge Network.