Day 2-99 -- Vimy Ridge Day

Ninety-eight years ago today, the battle of Vimy Ridge began.On Easter Monday morning -- April 9, 1917 -- all four Canadian divisions were side by side and supported by a British division. The rolling barrage technique that failed so miserably at The Somme, seemed to work well to hide the advance up the hill -- infantry following along behind the mortar fire coming from behind the trenches they'd just left. The trick was to advance -- too quickly and one would run into the friendly fire from the barrage, too slowly and they risked being visible to the enemy above since the smoke and dust would have moved ahead of the troops. The battle lasted until April 12 when the ridge was firmly in allied hands and Canada had moved forward as a nation and not just a colony fighting for Britain. Subtle outcome to a very unsubtle 4 days -- over 10,000 casualties for Canada and Britain , over 7000 of whom were injured. Four Victoria Crosses were awarded to Canadians, only one of whom survived the battle.

I first wrote about this battle in grade school, when it was new to me and those in my class. I chose this topic because of its significance to the developing nation of Canada and because my grandfather fought in the battle -- and came home. None of this was ever covered in our text books, which were published in the US. I found much information in a wonderful article by Greg Clark in the Star Weekly and the rest was from the encyclopaedia -- it was pre-internet days after all <smile>.  I've found this battle extremely interesting ever since. I hope to visit Vimy some day, hopefully for the 100th anniversary  in 2017. After all, that piece of land was given to Canada in perpetuity by France to become a managed historical battleground. More recently it was named a Canadian National Historic Site (1997).

As with all wars, there seem to be a number of songs that survive, each reflecting a moment in time. I chose one of these to share here today, one from the early days of the war to end all wars.

Keep the Homefires Burning -- Ivor Novello