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Today, Easter Monday marks the 95th anniversary of the Battle of Vimy Ridge. This young Private would have been my fathers great Uncle and, as the clipping says, paid the ultimate sacrifice for Canada and it's allies.
Vimy Ridge was a high ground escarpment held by the Germans in WW1 and British as well as French troops failed to take this strategic piece of land.
On April 9th - 12th, 1917 , Canada sent in all four of it's divisions
of the Canadian Expeditionary Force and has become a symbol
of Canadian acheivment and sacrifice.
In the end, 3,600 Canadians lost their lives but did gain control of the Ridge, making
this a pivotal milestone in the Great War.
A 250 acre plot of the battleground is
memorialized in France for the price these lads paid for freedom.
Next March, my middle niece Rachel is making a trip to England
and France with the school band and part of their itinerary will
be a stop at Vimy Ridge.
She has told me that she would like to find Private Quilty's grave
and to say thank you to him.
Tonight I will toast him as well.
From the Renfrew Mercury for 11 May 1917
2 comments:
Lives cut short by war seen more tragic, somehow. The valor of what they are doing and the choice the soldier makes to defend what he believes in is so brave.
I had an uncle, that I didn't know, who died in World War II. I always wanted to talk to my great aunt(his mother)about him... but no one would talk about what happen. It was a sadness in that part of my family.
Here's to Jos Quilty(WWI) from Edmonton and Bart Fracchia(WWII) of California. Hero's both. Two lives, of many, that were cut short. Two lives that ended before they had hardly begun.
How said this is.
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remembering my GrandFather, Lloyd Ennis, lied about His age. was 17 at the time of Vimy Ridge,front line, stretcher carrier.
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