During my recent visit to the Canadian Vimy Ridge memorial I came across several small tokens of remembrance. This one stood out to me as being the most moving.
The Canadian War Memorial At Vimy Ridge is probably the most commanding of all of them in Northern France. It is a memorial to the several thousand men lost in The Battle of Vimy Ridge, a military engagement fought primarily as part of the Battle of Arras, in the Nord-Pas-de-Calais region of France, during the First World War. The main combatants were the Canadian Corps, of four divisions, against three divisions of the German Sixth Army. The battle, which took place from 9 to 12 April 1917, was part of the opening phase of the British-led Battle of Arras, a diversionary attack for the French Nivelle Offensive.
Thiepval was one of the fortress villages that was held by the Germans on the Somme front in 1916. After the War ended, Thiepval was chosen as the location for the Memorial to the Missing to commemorate those who died in the Somme sector before the 20th of March 1918 and have no known grave. This is the largest and most imposing of the Memorials to the Missing, and visiting here is a moving and sobering experience.
