Remember Vimy and its truths
There is no need to glorify or exaggerate what happened. It is enough to commemorate what our soldiers gave and what they lost.
On Sunday, thousands of Canadians will join Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in northern France on a 250-hectare piece of ground that officially belongs to Canada. They will gather at the Canadian National Vimy Ridge Memorial exactly 100 years after 15,000 Canadian infantrymen rose from their trenches nearby and began advancing toward a 6.4-kilometre front where their German foes awaited them.
What happened on that April 9, 1917 morning and the three days after has been recorded in history books, chiseled onto cenotaphs, recited on Remembrance Day – and too often spun into myth.
The facts of the matter alone should be enough to encourage every Canadian to pause on Sunday and remember this battle.
Yet it is equally important for us to understand what we are remembering.
While it is a needless overstatement to claim Vimy was “the birth of a nation” – our nation –- it remains a significant milestone in Canadian history.
It was the first time in the First World War that all four divisions of the Canadian Corps – with soldiers from every part of this country –- fought together on the same battlefield.
They prevailed, where others had failed before them, thanks to meticulous planning, a devastating artillery barrage, and also their own courage.
The human cost, however, was horrific. The first day of the battle was the bloodiest in Canadian history with 2,414 of our soldiers perishing. In total, 3,598 Canadian lives were lost at Vimy while 7,004 others were wounded.
Yet despite the ambitious claims later made for it, Vimy was not a turning point in the Great War.
To be sure, it was the first British victory since the conflict began in 1914 and taught valuable tactical lessons that in 1918 helped Canadian soldiers and their allies force the retreat of the German army and end the war.
As for Vimy itself, it was just one part of the much larger battle of Arras, which was a dismal Allied failure.
No one in 1917, or even the early years after, claimed Vimy had won the war or created Canada.
That came later, particularly after a great monument was later erected on the battlefield in memory of the 11,000 Canadians who died in France but had no known grave.
A grateful France ceded that soil to Canada. For by then, Vimy had become shorthand for Canada’s Great War. That is how it can be best remembered today. There is no need to glorify or exaggerate what happened at Vimy. It is enough to commemorate what our soldiers gave and what they lost. Nor is it too late to mourn all the lives lost and blighted so long ago.
Out of Canada’s First World War experiences grew aspirations for greater independence from the United Kingdom. Seen in that light, Vimy and that war also served as one, vital step in our march from colony to nationhood. Perhaps it can also persuade us of the need to pursue peace.
These are good enough reasons to remember Vimy this weekend.