"Danger. No entry. Undetonated explosives." Not exactly the sign one would expect at a Canadian National Park.
The sign is everywhere in the Canadian National Park on Vimy Ridge in France. The signs are not for decoration. They are serious about keeping people out. All the fields are fenced off with electric fences. Just imagine so many bombs that, even to this day, it isn't safe to walk the fields of Vimy Ridge.
Vimy Ridge still shows the scars of the vicious fighting. I doubt if there is a square foot of land that is level. It looks like there are craters on top of craters. Many of those craters had soldiers die in them.
The no-man's land between the two fronts on Vimy Ridge was about the width of a four-lane highway. Even if it were safe today, to walk the distance between the two fronts would be extremely difficult because the ground is so rough.
There were 11,169 Canadian casualties at Vimy Ridge. The messenger that ran between the trenches had an average life expectancy of two weeks.
The French couldn't take Vimy Ridge. The British couldn't take Vimy Ridge. It was the Canadians who won Vimy Ridge. Canada was an army of "ordinary young volunteers, including farmers, fishermen, ranchers [that] unseat[ed] a seasoned regular army."
Vimy Ridge is the place that Canada truly became a nation and the place where the maple leaf was first identified with Canadians. The maple leaf was placed on the headstone of every Canadian soldier from both World Wars.
Vimy Ridge is one of two Canadian National Historic Sites outside of Canada. France gave the Vimy Ridge land to Canada. These sites receive more than a million visitors a year.
Vimy Ridge memorial took 11 years to build. The architect was so serious about his job it took him two years to find the right stone for the memorial. It took several years to clear the memorial site of undetonated bombs.
The Vimy Ridge memorial is a silent sentinel overlooking the valley below and can be seen from miles away. It is awe-inspiring and the power of the memorial cannot be comprehended until you stand in its midst.
Hitler so admired the memorial that, during the Second World War, he ordered Waffen-SS troops to guard the memorial and keep it safe.
There are a lot of memorials in Northern France and Belgium. Driving down a highway we spotted a sign "Highlanders" pointing to a memorial in the middle of a cornfield. We stopped. The memorial was commemorating the Nova Scotia Highlanders Regiment that was annihilated on that field. An impeccably groomed grass walkway between two fields leads from the highway to the memorial.
"Lest We Forget" is synonymous with Remembrance Day. Unfortunately, as we approach the 100th anniversary of the First World War, we are forgetting. We are forgetting the human element.
How can we even begin to honour all those men? Start with the Remembrance Day ceremony. It is only an hour of your life to give for those who gave all the rest of their lives.
The price of the First World War was high. At that time, Canada was a nation of eight million people. Canada sent 600,000 soldiers to war. Of those, 66,000 never came home.
"I hope that the courage will be mine at the right moment, if I am called upon to stare death in the face." - Ellis W. Sifton, Wallacetown, farmer and Victoria Cross recipient - posthumously.
The Canadian $20 bill released this month features Vimy Ridge.
