Archive for March, 2007

The first people to realize the victory at Vimy were the ones who saw it in blood-soaked bandages. It was mid-morning on April 9, before medic Will Antliff paused to catch his breath during the first day of the Battle of Vimy Ridge. Serving with the 9th [...]

Dear old Governor, This is Good Friday, and I am spending the day girding myself for action. For our Easter Sunday, with peace on earth and good will towards men, I take part in the greatest battle in Canada’s history and perhaps in the history of [...]

Sheep graze peacefully in the wooded areas and open fields of the Canadian National Vimy Memorial Park, unaware they are treading on some of the most fought over territory of World War I. It is the space where historians have said that Canada [...]

For two years, the magnificent Canadian National Vimy Memorial stood wrapped in a metallic shroud, towering above the Douai Plain in northern France but inaccessible to the 750,000 who visit this iconic World War I battlefield site annually. But no more. With the completion of the $30-million Canadian [...]

PHOTOS: LIBRARY AND ARCHIVES CANADA—PA001135; LIBRARY AND ARCHIVES CANADA—PA004666; LIBRARY AND ARCHIVES CANADA—PA001238

From top left: Mules are used to pull a rail car loaded with ammunition along a railway track near Vimy Ridge in April 1917; following the Battle of Vimy Ridge, Arthur Currie (right) was promoted to lieutenant-general, knighted and appointed to succeed Sir Julian Byng in command of the Canadian Corps; Canadian soldiers push a truck out of the muck near Vimy Ridge. The Battle of Vimy Ridge holds a special place in the Canadian [...]