Canadian National Vimy Memorial, National Historic Sites of Canada, Vimy Ridge, France - An Easy Day Trip from Paris

the approach to the Vimy Ridge Memorial

Early in 1917, the Allies launched another massive offensive, ever determined to achieve the elusive breakthrough. This time the plans called for a French offensive in the south between Reims and Soissons, combined with British diversionary attacks about Arras. The Germans, meanwhile, quietly withdrew to strong new defences, the Hindenburg Line. In so doing they exchanged a long, bulging line for a well-situated shorter one, which they fortified with powerful modern devices.

The Canadian share of the British assault was the seizure of Vimy Ridge. The task was formidable. For the Germans it was a vital key in their defence system and they had fortified it well. The slopes, which were in the Germans favour, were interlaced with an elaborate system of trenches, dugouts and tunnels heavily protected by barbed wire and machine guns, and defended from a distance by German artillery. They had even installed electric lights, a telephone exchange, and a light railway to maintain supplies of ammunition. All previous attempts to take the Ridge had failed.

Canadian commanders, however, had learned well the bitter lessons of assault by vulnerable infantry, such as those that had occurred the previous year at the Somme. This time the preparation was elaborate and the planning thorough. Engineers dug great tunnels into the Ridge; roads and light railways were built; signals and supplies were ready. The operation was to be supported by a large concentration of heavy guns and howitzers, and full artillery. The men too were fully prepared. The area was simulated behind the lines and troops practised their roles until every man was familiar with the ground and the tactics expected of him.

Preliminary bombardment, designed to conceal the exact time and extent of the attack, began on March 20. It was intensified from April 2 with such crushing blows that the enemy called the period "the week of suffering". On the night of April 8 all was ready and the infantry moved to the prepared forward positions.

The attack began at dawn on Easter Monday, April 9. All four divisions of the Canadian Corps - moving forward together for the first time - swept up the Ridge in the midst of driving wind, snow and sleet. Preceded by a perfectly timed artillery barrage the Canadians advanced. By mid-afternoon the Canadian Divisions were in command of the whole crest of the Ridge with the exception of two features known as Hill 145 and the Pimple. Three days later these too were taken.

In 1922, the French Government granted "freely, and for all time, to the Government of Canada the free use of the land exempt from all taxes" 100 hectares of land at Vimy Ridge. A Canadian architect and sculptor, the late Walter Seymour Allward, designed the Canadian National Vimy Monument. His design was selected from 160 others submitted by Canadians who participated in a competition held in the early 1920s. Work began on the monument in 1925 and eleven years later, on July 26, 1936 it was unveiled by King Edward VIII.

 

Canadian Line Sniper Positions

Like Beaumont-Hamel much of the site has been left “insitu” with shell holes pock-marking the landscape from the artillery bombardments. On average there were 5 shells per square foot over the 14kms front, as a result much of the park is closed to visitors because of still unexploded munitions, as a result the grass in these areas are not cut by machine but by grazing sheep. Sections of German and Canadian trenches have been preserved with concrete sandbags, the “Grange Subway” has also been preserved, one of the numerous underground tunnels, used for bringing up supplies and as protection for the troops, so visitors can picture the enormity of the tasks facing the forces on both sides of the war.

the landscape of Vimy Ridge

The monument is located on the highest elevation of the ridge, overlooking the Douai Plains. It is a massive17,000 tonnes of concrete and limestone. Upon it is carved the names of 11,285 Canadian soldiers who were killed in France and whose final resting place remains unknown. The memorial also contains numerous carved features and statues, which symbolize peace and sacrifice.



The front wall, normally mistaken for the rear, as the monument is approached from the rear, contains at the base of the steps on each side of the front wall the ‘Defenders’; The ‘Breaking of the Sword’ is located at the left of the front wall while ‘Sympathy for the Helpless’ is located at the right corner. Above each there is a cannon barrel draped in laurel and olive branches carved into the wall, to symbolize peace.

The Front of the Vimy Ridge Memorial

The figure of a cloaked young female stands on top of the front wall and overlooks the Douai Plains where over 7,000 Canadians are buried in 30 war cemeteries within a 16 km radius of the Vimy Memorial. The woman has her head bowed, her eyes cast down, and her chin resting in one hand. The saddened figure represents Canada – young nation mourning her dead. The statue is the largest in the monument and is a single 30 tonne piece of limestone. Below her, at ground level, is a sarcophagus, bearing a helmet, a sword and draped in laurel branches.

The twin white pylons rise to a height 30 metres above the memorial's stone platform. One bears the maple leaf for Canada and the other the fleur-de-lis for France, which symbolize the unity and sacrifice of both countries. At the top are figures representing Justice and Peace. Peace stands with a torch upraised. The figures of Truth, Knowledge, Gallantry and Sympathy are below them. Around these figures are shields of Canada, Britain and France. Large crosses adorn the outside of each pylon. In the center, at the base of the pylons, is the ‘Spirit of Sacrifice’ a young dying soldier throws his torch to a comrade who holds it aloft behind him.

The remaining two figures are: The Mourning Parents, one male and one female figure, they are reclining in sorrow on either side of the stairs on the reverse side of the monument.

Including Beaumont-Hamel Newfoundland Memorial and the Canadian National Vimy Memorial the National Historic Parks of Canada and Veterans Affairs Canada oversees close to 80% of conserved First World War Battlefields

The Park is located 8kms north of Arras, France outside the town of Vimy
The Canadian National Vimy Memorial is open to the public all year from sunrise to sunset and is free of charge
Between April 1st and November 30th there are a number of Canadian students, through Veterans Affairs Canada, on the site who provide guided tours and explanations of the battlefield daily from 10:00 to 18:00 hours
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Getting there and away
There are numerous daily direct train from Paris Gare du Nord to Arras where one can take a taxi to the site

Beaumont-Hamel Newfoundland Memorial, National Historic Sites of Canada, France - An Easy Day Trip from Paris

In Beaumont-Hamel Memorial Park, officially opened by Earl Haig on June 7, 1925, stands the monument of the great bronze caribou, emblem of the Royal Newfoundland Regiment. At the base of the statue, three tablets of bronze carry the names of 814 members of the Royal Newfoundland Regiment, the Newfoundland Royal Naval Reserve, and the Mercantile Marine who gave their lives in the First World War and have no known grave. It was at Beaumont-Hamel on July 1, 1916, the opening day of the great Allied offensive known as the Battle of the Somme, that the Newfoundland Regiment fought its first engagement in France – and its costliest of the whole war. The Regiment was one of four battalions of the 29th Division's 88th Brigade. The assault was an unmitigated disaster.

German riflemen and machine-gunners, protected from allied shelling, emerged from their deep dugouts and shelters and opened fire on the advancing troops. At the same time, a number of German heavy guns, which had escaped the British counter-battery fire, began shelling the 29th Division's positions catching the follow-up companies as they climbed out of their trenches into the open. From their starting position in the British support trench known as St. John's Road, the Newfoundlanders had to cross some 230 metres of fire-swept ground before they reached even their own front line. As they made their way through zigzag lanes previously cut in the British wire, casualties came with increasing frequency. Those of the leading companies who finally emerged into No Man's Land could look down an incline to see for the first time the barrier of the German wire more than 550 metres away. Nevertheless, holding the parade-ground formations prescribed for assaulting infantry by the General Staff as best they could, the thinning ranks plodded steadily forward.

In less than a half-hour, it was all over. The Commanding Officer, who from a support trench had watched the destruction of his Regiment, reported to Brigade Headquarters that the attack had failed. Afterwards the Divisional Commander was to write of the Newfoundland effort: "It was a magnificent display of trained and disciplined valour, and its assault failed of success because dead men can advance no further."

The casualties sustained on the opening day of the Battle of the Somme totaled 57,470, of which 19,240 were fatal. No unit suffered heavier losses than the Newfoundland Regiment, which had gone into action 801 strong. When the roll call of the unwounded was taken next day, only 68 answered their names. The final figures that revealed the virtual annihilation of the Battalion gave a grim count of 255 killed or dead of wounds, 386 wounded, and 91 missing. Every officer who went forward in the Newfoundland attack was either killed or wounded.

It is for this reason that the government of Newfoundland choose the hill south-west of the village, where the front line trenches ran at the time of the battle, close to the headquarters dugout of the 88th Brigade, of which the 1st Battalion of Newfoundland was apart, as the site of their memorial to the soldiers, and sailors of Newfoundland.

It is one of the few WWI battlefields where the visitor can see much of how it was. The actual trenches and shell holes are still there evoking the reality of the terrible problems of advancing over such terrain by the soldier.

On a mound, surrounded by rock and shrubs native to Newfoundland and transplanted to France, there stands a great bronze caribou, the emblem of the Newfoundland Regiment, facing north, raising its head in defiance, towards the German lines and the ground over which the Regiment advanced at such a heavy cost.

In 1921 the Government of the Dominion of Newfoundland, as Newfoundland was not apart of Canada until confederation in 1949, purchased the land from local landowners and began construction. Included in the design was the “Danger Tree” a lone shattered tree in the middle of no man’s land which was used as a visual landmark by both German and Allied artillery observers, as a result it was there that was the largest concentration of casualties.

In 2001 a Visitors Center was added explaining the historical and social circumstances of Newfoundland at the beginning of the 20th century and the history of the Regiments from its formation in 1914 to the end of the Great War.

Including Beaumont-Hamel Newfoundland Memorial and the Canadian National Vimy Memorial the National Historic Parks of Canada and Veterans Affairs Canada oversees close to 80% of conserved First World War Battlefields

The Park is located 9kms north from Albert, France outside the hamlet of Beaumont-Hamel.
The Beaumont-Hamel Newfoundland Memorial is open to the public all year from sunrise to sunset and is free of charge
Between April 1st and November 30th there are a number of Canadian students, through Veterans Affairs Canada, on the site who provide guided tours and explanations of the battlefield daily from 10:00 to 18:00 hours

Getting there and away:
From Paris there are direct trains from Gare du Nord to Amiens and then transfer trains from Amiens to Albert where one can take a taxi to the site.

Day trips from Paris in the ile de France

Traveling to Paris does not mean that you are limited to the sites that are within the city limits. There are some very easy trips that you can do by bus or train that take a little over an hours travel time.

Louis XIV started Chateau de Versailles in 1668 and in 1682 the Royal Court and Government moved there to become a permanent resident. Court life at Versailles was to develop into the basis on which all European royal courts of the time were to be modeled. The rooms are opulently decorated and culminate in the Hall of Mirrors, a 70 m (233 ft) long hall, looking out over the gardens. The gardens are simply breathtaking. They were designed and built in celebration of the divine authority of Louis XIV and feature over 200 statues amongst the numerous fountains, ornate gardens and two out-palaces, the Grand Trainon and the Petit Trianon.

The town of Chartres, located south west of Paris, was one of the first urban conservation cities in France. As a result there are many 12th to 17th century half-timbered houses buildings and cobble stone roads run throughout the town. The greatest site though, is the Chartres Cathedral. The Cathedral at Chartres has been drawing pilgrims for over eight centuries the view the sacred relic Veil of the Virgin. The current Cathedral was built in only 25 years, when the original cathedral was destroyed by fire in 1194, and has a style and beauty that few others possess. The most notable characteristic of the Cathedral is the stain glass windows. Donated by guilds between 1210 and 1240 there are over 150 windows covering a surface area of over 3000 sq m (26,900 sq ft) and depict biblical stories and daily life of the 13th century. The light and colour the glass creates a sight that is truly inspiring. During both World Wars these windows were dismantled piece by piece for safety purposes and in the 1970’s underwent some restoration work. The result is a Gothic Cathedral of unspeakable glory.

Vimy Ridge is a 100 hectare national park dedicated to the First World War, Located north of Paris it saw constant actions for most of the war. The strategic ground was a ridgeline of14kms (8.5 miles) worth of high ground held by the Germans from the opening of the war until April 1917. It was a vital part of the German defense system along the entire front and its capture was a turning point for the Allied Forces in the First World War.
Much of the site has been left “insitu” with shell holes pock-marking the landscape from the artillery bombardments. On average there were 5 shells per square foot over the 14kms front. Sections of trench have been preserved as well as the numerous underground tunnels, used for bringing up supplies and as protection for the troops, so visitors can picture the enormity of the tasks facing the forces on both sides of the war.

The town of Epernay lies in the Champagne region of France north east of Paris. The production of the champagne blend was begun with Dom Perignon, a Benedictine monk (1638-1715) who wrote the rules for making wine in the region. The Core of his treatise is the blending of grapes before the pressing and the care of the bottles after they have been “corked”. The Ave de Champagne in Epernay is lined with 19th century mansions housing the headquarters and cellars of the prestigious Champagne houses. The most famous of the champagne producing wineries is Moet and Chandon. Established in 1743 they have set the benchmark for the production of champagne. You are able to visit the Champagne houses cellars, dug out of the chalk they stretch over 100km (62 miles) underneath Epernay, but the grapes do not come from a specific patch of ground but from 1600 different wine growers in the region so you cannot see the actual vines of the specific wineries.

Giverny is the small town north west of Paris where the impressionist painter Claude Monet made his home. At his home he created a large and colourful water garden, which became the subject of some of his best known works the Water-lily Pond and the Bridge series, Rose Garden series and of course the Water- Lilies, The gardens fell into some disrepair after his death in 1926, but have been restored to their original glory and his house has been turned into a museum which houses the Nympheas Water Lilies series.