Vimy Ridge was a turning point
Ceremony celebrates the 100th anniversary of the battle and 31 Islanders killed
P.E.I. cadets lit 31 candles at the Charlottetown Cenotaph early Sunday morning to honour the Islanders who gave their lives fighting in the Battle of Vimy Ridge.
More than nine hours later, all of the candles remained lit as cadets, members of the P.E.I. Regiment and the general public gathered Sunday to commemorate the 100 year anniversary of the battle. “Amazingly, the flames are still burning,” said Col. James Spears, president of the P.E.I. Branch of the Army Cadet League of Canada, which hosted the event. Spears said the ceremony was also to honour the victorious assault on Vimy Ridge, which had been captured by Germans in 1914 and was largely considered impenetrable.
Previous attempts to capture the ridge resulted in the deaths of more than 150,000 French and British soldiers
The victory solidified Canada’s reputation, but was not without great cost, as it saw more than 10,000 Canadian casualties, including the deaths of 31 P.E.I. soldiers.
“A battle invariably alters the lives of the combatants and occasionally it transforms an army. Victory can go beyond these things, touching the soul of an entire nation,” said Spears.
“Such was the case at Vimy in April 1917. This victory forged the birth of a national Canadian identity.”
Rev. Tom Hamilton said thousands of Canadian soldiers waited silently in the trenches and tunnels beneath Vimy Ridge just before dawn on Easter Monday of April 9, 1917.
At 5:30 a.m., the silence was shattered as Canadians began their attack.
It marked the first time in history that four Canadian divisions were led into battle together and commanded by Canadians. “Amongst the Canadians attacking… was a small but proud group of soldiers from P.E.I. As the battle began, they felt confidence and fear, resolve and apprehension, excitement and foreboding,” said Hamilton, who is a serving major in Canada’s armed forces and a military chaplain with a PhD in Canadian military history. “All of them would experience danger as they plunged headlong into battle. Some of them would even encounter death.” Pte. Ben Conrad, of Sturgeon P.E.I. was one of those soldiers and served with the 2nd Canadian Siege Battery as a signaller.
Hamilton said just after the attack began, Conrad reached down to pick up his radio equipment.
When Conrad straightened back up, he turned to look at the soldier next to him.
“But the soldier wasn’t there,” said Hamilton, who spoke of several P.E.I. soldiers’ experiences in the battle. “In a split second (the soldier standing next to him) had been killed by an exploding shell.” Another P.E.I. soldier was Al Arsenault of Egmont Bay, who served with the 8th Field Ambulance. Arsenault sorted through the casualties on the ridge, dragging the wounded back to ambulances.
“He worked non-stop for 48 consecutive hours,” said Hamilton, noting that by the end of the battle Canadians had accomplished what many had considered impossible. “Defeating the Germans at Vimy Ridge was also the first major allied victory of the First World War, a proud moment that proved the value of Canadian ingenuity, planning and courage.”
Hamilton also noted that apart from those killed, there were many others who returned home bearing the mental and physical scars of war for the rest of their lives The ceremony saw cadets read the honour roll of the 31 Islanders who were killed in action or died from wounds suffered during the battle.