Pilgrimage to Vimy Ridge
On Easter weekend in April 1917, at Vimy Ridge, France, four Canadian divisions for the first time went into battle together. The German forces who held the ridge had previously repelled attacks from both the French and the British, and few believed that the Canadians would do much better. On April 9, more than thirty thousand troops went over the top in blustery snow and with mucky ground conditions. During four days of fighting, the Canadian troops smashed the German-held positions, aided by a finely executed “creeping barrage” of artillery.
The victory at Vimy Ridge came at the high cost of 3,500 Canadian dead and another 7,000 wounded. And, while Canadians went on to fight many other battles en route to the armistice in November 1918, it was Vimy Ridge that loomed large in Canadian mythmaking for years to come.
Nearly twenty years after the battle, on July 26, 1936, more than three thousand Canadian veterans of the First World War made a pilgrimage to France to attend the unveiling of the Vimy Ridge monument.
Designed by Canadian sculptor Walter Allward, the Canadian National Vimy Memorial sits on land donated in perpetuity by France in honour of Canada’s wartime sacrifices. Created from limestone imported from modern-day Croatia, the monument features several statues, including one of a woman who looks to Canada and mourns its fallen sons. Etched into the limestone are the names of 11,285 Canadians who were killed in France and whose bodies were not found.
The official unveiling was attended by King Edward VIII and featured both an artillery salute and a flypast by the British Royal Air Force. Shown here, RAF pilots fly First World War-era biplanes in formation over the massive crowd in attendance.