The North Door

In the photo to the right, my father is the soldier in the middle; the photo was taken with his camera at the Vimy Ridge Memorial in 1945.

Today is the anniversary of the Battle of Vimy Ridge, April 9, 1917. By April 12, the Canadians controlled the entire ridge, at a cost of 3598 men killed and 7104 wounded.

I just watched on television the Prime Ministers of Canada and France and the Queen of England commemorate the occasion at the Vimy Ridge Memorial, newly restored, in northern France.

The memorial was completed in 1936 and is Canada's largest war monument.

My grandmother's brother, Walter Mullin, died in battle in August 1916, less than a year before the Battle of Vimy Ridge.

My father visited the monument on March 3rd, 1945. He was traveling to Belgium from Italy with his regiment, the Governor General's Horse Guards. The photos he took can be seen at Flickr.

links-

Flickr: Photos my father took at The Vimy Ridge Memorial in 1945:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/77407628@N00/

My father's war diary: http://members.aol.com/wardiary1/1943/wardiary.htm

The Battle of Vimy Ridge: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Vimy_Ridge

Legion Magazine: The 90th Anniversary of the Battle of Vimy Ridge:
http://www.legionmagazine.com/features/special/07-03.asp

The Governor General's Horse Guards:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Governor_General's_Horse_Guards

# posted by jpatersn @ 9:41 AM 0 Comments