May 7: Vimy Ridge

May 7, we went to Vimy Ridge in France which was quite amazing. Vimy Ridge is maintained by the Canadian government and runs tours through it which are something to experience. Do it if you can.

We walked through the outpost trenches which the Canadians fought from. In the war it was made of sandbags and duckboards, but has been reinforced with cement to show how it worked. We also saw the German outpost trenches which were only about 20 metres across. The trenches of both sides were very similar (except that the German side had a pillbox) and this truly made it clear to me that the two 'sides' were essentially the same people, just on different teams. On a political and social level, the Allies and Axis were incomparable but personally there was little distinction. They were people with families, friends, lives, interests and futures.

We also saw the tunnels which the Canadians built up to 6 months before the attack. It is frightening to think of the realities which happened in these tunnels, damp and dark and sickly.

The no-man's land between the German and Canadian trenches were crater-like, deep huge holes in the ground from defensive strategies and shelling. These holes were through the entire site, there were areas and forests where civilians could not walk because they still have undetonated mines - most of the area is actually like that. Just huge, huge forests where nobody should walk because their life would be at risk.

We also drove over to the Vimy Ridge memorial which was amazing and glorious and huge. From it you could see the France landscape. Something I will never forget.

We went back to Vimy so John could take more pictures but my blessing/curse of talking to as many random people as possible came into play and we met an old man who was more than willing to chat. He came from Poland during the war and was part of the resistance movement. He participated in the war because he was a Chemist, he manufactured Benzyne for the Allied side but had friends and family who did the same for the Axis side. This man and his colleagues fueled the war, literally. They were so much more than chemists. This gave me a real realization of the responsibility that each person has to the world around them.

The words of Flanders Fields, the poem, hit me this day:

In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.