Posted on 03/21/2007 12:10:35 PM PDT by GMMAC
The Vimy Flag:
"Under the orders of your devoted officers in the coming battle
you will advance or fall where you stand facing the enemy.
To those who will fall I say 'You will not die, but step into immortality.
Your mothers will not lament your fate, but will be proud to have borne such sons.
Your name will be revered forever and ever by your grateful country,
and God will take you unto Himself'."
~ Arthur Currie, Commander, Canadian Corps
Special Order before Vimy Ridge, Mar 27, 1917.
PM wants Red Ensign to fly at Vimy, sources say
Alex Dobrota
Toronto Globe and Mail
Wednesday, March 21, 2007
OTTAWA — Prime Minister Stephen Harper has requested the Red Ensign flag fly at Vimy Ridge ceremonies next month, The Globe and Mail has learned.
Mr. Harper told his cabinet ministers yesterday that he wanted both the Red Ensign and the Maple Leaf hoisted in Vimy, France, at the 90th anniversary of the First World War battle, sources close to the Prime Minister said.
"He said, 'The Red Ensign of 1917 will fly over Vimy,' " one source told The Globe.
The decision was hailed as a victory by veterans' groups and advocates, who have been lobbying Ottawa to have the historical ensign displayed over the Canadian National Vimy Memorial.
"That's just marvellous," said Dianne Crompton, president of the Royal Canadian Legion Branch 486 in Oakville, Ont. "The vets they never questioned. They went out, they fought and they did proudly. That was our country's flag and still is a very big part of their life."
While the Maple Leaf became Canada's national flag in 1965, veterans who fought under various versions of the Red Ensign during the two world wars remain emotionally attached to it. Many of them requested the flag drape their coffins, Ms. Crompton said.
In 1917, more than 15,000 Canadians went into battle under the Red Ensign at Vimy, attacking heavily fortified German positions. More than 3,500 of them died before the flag was hoisted on the muddy ridge, in what became one of Canada's greatest military victories.
Mr. Harper will attend a ceremony at Vimy in April marking both the anniversary of the battle and the dedication of the newly restored Canadian National Vimy Memorial, built on land donated to Canada from France. The Veterans Affairs Department has said government protocol forbids any flag other than the Maple Leaf from flying on federal property.
Even yesterday afternoon, hours after Mr. Harper briefed his ministers on the new policy, the department had yet to revise its position.
"I have nothing more to say, I know nothing more," spokeswoman Janice Summerby said.
Jason Kenney, the Secretary of State for Multiculturalism and the Canadian Identity, who supported the veterans' Red Ensign campaign, suggested the bureaucracy might have taken too rigid an approach in interpreting the flag protocol.
The Red Ensign was adopted as Canada's flag a few years after Confederation in 1867. The one taken to Vimy featured a Union Jack in the upper left corner and the coat of arms of the first four provinces to join Confederation against a red background. In 2002, the Imperial War Museum in London gave that flag to the Canadian War Museum.
PING!
A Canadian Alvin York...
"During the fight for Hill 145, Captain Thain MacDowell of the 38th Battalion entered an enemy dug-out, where he tricked 77 Prussian Guards into surrendering and captured two machine-guns by pretending he had a large force behind him. His large force consisted of two soldiers. MacDowell had earned the Distinguished Service Order on the Somme."
Of 4 soldiers who earned the Victoria Cross at Vimy only MacDowell survived the war.
Outstanding!
Interesting...My Grandfather, who never talked much about the war did say that there were only two things that the Germans dreaded. The Canadians and the Scots. Both would rather jump into trenches with axes and hack the ememy apart than waste ammunition on them. Hearing those bagpipes must have been chilling.
I understand the the N.Koreans and the Chinese tried to avoid the US Marines.
Definitly. A pissed-off Marine let alone a platoon of them is not what your average soldier wants to have coming at you.
I love this guy, Harper! You Canadians must be so happy to have taken the country back from lefties.
The Germans used to refer to the kilted Canadians as "ladies from hell".
"The Germans used to refer to the kilted Canadians as "ladies from hell". "
I thought that was the Highlanders ????
This is the type of decision that will only upset the Left-Pansy crowd---and they'll be the only ones 'outraged', and for that I salute the Prime Minister.
BTW, lots of Scots oriented stuff on my FR homepage.
Paging FReeper Piper Sionnsar for his opinion.
Ladies from Hades.
It rhymes.
The hell replaced Hades later as a way to make the expression more macho.
Sounds like a very sensible move. As for Australia, I hope we never change our flag.
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