Tag Archives: Vimy Ridge
It Isn’t Over Yet
This Saturday we will pause to remember Canada’s war dead. As we lead up to this time I am reposting some of my earlier reflections on war and the battlefields. This one is from September 2014. A century later, it haunts them still. The last Canadian veteran of the First World War died in 2010, […]
Some Things Never End
As conflict in Ukraine brought on by the illegal Russian invasion shows no sign of ending, I’ve been thinking of the aftermath of the war when it finally does end. Maybe it is the date – August 6, the anniversary of the dropping of the first atomic bomb on Hiroshima. When the guns stop firing […]
Trench Warfare
Welcome to re-run time. Some of my favorite posts, mostly older and travel related, while I myself am on the road. When I was a pre-teen I was for a while very interested in war stories. Which would explain why in both 2009 and 2014 I visited the Ypres area in Belgium. This post is […]
An Anniversary Somewhat Forgotten
It ended seventy-nine years ago today, though they probably didn’t know it was the last day. They expected the bombers back to continue the Battle of Britain. As they had every day since July 10, 1940, Nazi Germany’s air force, the Luftwaffe, had bombed British targets. Unprepared for war, the few fighter pilots of the […]
Revisiting The Trenches of Passchendaele
With the 100th anniversary of the end of the First World War coming up this Sunday, I thought I would revisit some older posts related to that conflict. This one was published four years ago today – November 8, 2014. The years between 1914 and 1918 were the wettest Europe experienced during the 20th century, […]
Just A Reminder
I came across this sign at Vimy Ridge in France. It is a beautiful place to visit, but not without its perils. You can walk into the craters if you wish; other than the sign there is really nothing to stop you, except a strand of rope. But you do so at your own peril. […]
Passchendaele at 100 – II
When I opened up my newspaper Tuesday morning, the first thing that I saw was coverage of Prince William’s trip to Belgium to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the Battle of Passchendaele. I’d been concentrating on other things in my life and had forgotten that date was fast approaching. Canadians fought at Passchendaele, and while […]
Walking Vimy Ridge
Just a photo essay today, a supplement to yesterday’s post. The indoor pictures were taken in the tunnels around Vimy. There are, if my memory is correct, hundreds of kilometres of tunnels in the area as well as a similar number of trenches You really should visit as the pictures really don’t tell the story.
Vimy Ridge Centenary
It was one hundred years ago today that Canada became a nation, or so the social historians like to put it. Nationhood is an elusive idea. Canada became a country on July 1, 1867. We were not completely independent though. It wasn’t until 1931 that our Supreme Court actually became supreme. Before that you could […]
Vimy Ridge
It was 99 years ago today that Canada became a nation. At least that is one version of the narrative. Canada became a country on July 1, 1867. It severed legal ties, more or less, with the United Kingdom on December 11, 1931 with the passage of the Statute of Westminster. But military independence came […]
random thoughts from lorne 
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