Canadian National Vimy Memorial

The Canadian National Vimy Memorial, located approximately 8 km north of Arras, in the French department of Pas-de-Calais, commemorates all Canadian soldiers who served and died in the First World War, particularly those with no known grave. Situated on land granted by France to the Canadian people, the memorial stands on Vimy Ridge, the scene of Canada’s most famous and defining battle of the First World War.

Vimy Ridge is a gradually rising escarpment on the western edge of the Douai Plain. Culminating at an elevation of 145 metres above sea level, it provides a natural, unobstructed view for tens of kilometres in all directions. The ridge fell to the Germans in October 1914. In May 1915, the French Tenth Army attempted to dislodge them during the Second Battle of Artois. Although the French Moroccan Division briefly captured the ridge, it was unable to hold it owing to a lack of reinforcements. Another unsuccessful attempt was made during the Third Battle of Artois in September 1915. French efforts cost them approximately 150,000 casualties.

In early 1917, the British High Command ordered the Canadian Corps to capture the position as part of a larger spring offensive in the Arras area. At 5.30 am on 9^th April 1917, around 15,000 Canadians rose from their trenches and advanced towards the German positions behind a powerful creeping barrage laid down by Allied artillery. Thousands more waited behind them, ready to join the fray. By noon on the first day, most of the ridge had been captured, and by nightfall on 12^th April, the last German resistance had been overcome. The Battle of Vimy Ridge was one of the most successful Allied operations of the First World War, but it came at a high cost. The Canadian Corps suffered 10,602 casualties, including 3,598 men killed.

At Vimy Ridge, all four divisions of the Canadian Corps had fought together for the first time. The battle became a Canadian national symbol of achievement and sacrifice. The First World War had a profound impact on the then-young nation. From a population of less than 8 million, approximately 619,000 enlisted to serve in the Canadian Expeditionary Force, out of whom more than 66,000 never returned home. Many others were wounded. The end of the conflict was accompanied by a strong sentiment that it must never be forgotten, and the public’s attention soon turned to finding ways to remember those who had served and paid the ultimate sacrifice.

In 1920, the Government of Canada announced that the Imperial War Graves Commission had awarded Canada eight sites in France and Belgium on which to erect memorials. Each location had been the site of a significant Canadian engagement, including a 250-acre portion of land on Vimy Ridge over which the Canadian Corps had carried out its famous assault. In 1920, the Canadian Battlefields Memorials Commission was established to oversee the creation of the monuments, and following a competition, sculptor and designer Walter Seymour Allward was chosen as the winner. Although the original idea was to build identical monuments at each of the eight sites, it was now decided to use Allward's design for a main national memorial at Vimy Ridge, whilst placing smaller monuments at the other sites.

The memorial was to be sited on the highest point of the ridge, known during the battle as Hill 145. In 1924, a structural engineer, Dr Oscar Faber, was hired to prepare plans and supervise the foundation work for the memorial. This was no easy task, given the many unexploded shells, rusted weapons, barbed wire, and even bodies still in the ground. The numerous dugouts and tunnels had to be filled with wet chalk or concrete to prepare the ground over which the monument, weighing more than 50,000 tons, was to be placed.

Construction began in 1925. The base of the monument consists of 11,000 tonnes of reinforced concrete. Some 6,000 tonnes of limestone were also used to cover the base and the two pylons, and to carve the figures adorning the memorial. The limestone was brought from an ancient Roman quarry in Seget, Croatia, then part of Yugoslavia, and was chosen for its durability and visual appeal. The twin pylons rise to a height of 27 metres above the memorial's platform. One bears the maple leaf for Canada and the other the fleur-de-lis for France, and both symbolise the unity and sacrifice of the two countries.

The 20 allegorical figures were carved in place. Allward claimed to have been inspired by a dream. His design was also heavily influenced by Christianity. At the top of the pylons is a grouping of figures known collectively as the Chorus. These eight figures represent the universal values for which soldiers fought and died. The most important ones represent Justice and Peace, while the remainder consist of Faith, Hope, and Truth on one side, and Honour, Charity, and Knowledge on the other. Carved around them are the shields of Canada, Britain, and France.

Between the pylons, at the base of the memorial, is the Spirit of Sacrifice. A young dying soldier gazes upward in a crucifixion-like pose, having thrown his torch to a comrade who holds it aloft behind him. This is a lightly veiled reference to the poem In Flanders Fields by Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae. Further down is the largest statue, carved from a single, 30-tonne block of stone. A female figure, known as Canada Bereft, faces eastward, looking out to the dawn of the new day. She personifies the young nation of Canada, mourning her dead, her head bowed, her eyes cast down towards a sarcophagus draped in laurel branches and bearing a helmet, representing all the soldiers whose final resting place is unknown.

On the front corners of the monument’s base are the Defenders. On one side, in Breaking of the Sword, three young men are present, one of whom is crouching and breaking his sword, representing the defeat of militarism and the general desire for peace. The other two, standing together, suggest that France and Canada will work together in a new post-war world. On the other side, in Sympathy of the Canadians for the Helpless, one man stands erect while three other figures, stricken by hunger or disease, are crouched and kneeling around him. The standing man represents Canada's sympathy for the weak and oppressed. Collectively, the two groups represent the ideals for which Canadians gave their lives during the war.

The Mourning Parents, one male and one female figure, are reclining on either side of the steps at the back of the memorial. They represent the mourning fathers and mothers of the nation. At the base of the pylons is a list of the First World War battle honours of the Canadian regiments, as well as a dedicatory message to Canada's war dead in both French and English. Inscribed around the base of the monument, alphabetically and by rank, are the names of the 11,285 Canadians killed in France whose final resting place is unknown.

On 26^th July 1936, after 11 years of construction, the Canadian National Vimy Memorial was unveiled and dedicated by King Edward VIII. Approximately 100,000 people attended the ceremony, including over 6,000 Canadian veterans and their families. In the early 2000s, ahead of the 90^th anniversary of the Battle of Vimy Ridge, the memorial underwent extensive restoration. On 9^th April 2007, it was rededicated by Queen Elizabeth II. Ten years later, during the centenary commemorations of the battle, the Visitor Education Centre was inaugurated. It features a permanent exhibit about the First World War, including the role of the Canadian Corps in the taking of the ridge, as well as a peace garden and temporary exhibits.

Today, the site is maintained by Veterans Affairs Canada. The Vimy Memorial is one of only two National Historic Sites of Canada located outside the country, the other being the Beaumont-Hamel Newfoundland Memorial. Much of the area around the monument is forested and off-limits to visitors to ensure public safety, as wartime tunnels, trenches, craters, and unexploded munitions still honeycomb the grounds of the site. Between April and November, a flock of sheep naturally maintains part of the site, as traditional grass mowing is considered too dangerous.

The site is one of the few places on the former Western Front where a visitor can still see the trench lines of a First World War battlefield and the related terrain in a preserved natural state. The preserved trenches found at Vimy today - only a small portion of the network of trenches that ran the entire length of the Canadian sector at Vimy - were reconstructed when the memorial was being built. Canadian student guides also lead regular tours through a portion of a tunnel system, known as the Grange Subway, which once enabled soldiers to advance to the front quickly, securely, and unseen.

Several other memorials and cemeteries are also contained within the site. The Moroccan Division Memorial is dedicated to the memory of the men of the Moroccan Division who were killed during the Second Battle of Artois in May 1915. There are also two Commonwealth War Graves Commission cemeteries on site: Canadian Cemetery No. 2 and Givenchy Road Canadian Cemetery. Between them, they contain the graves of some 470 Canadian soldiers who were killed in the Battle of Vimy Ridge.