Vimy Ridge echoes down through time

Orillia Packet & Times online. ^ | 4/9/07

[Valin]

More than 100,000 Canadians fought in the battle for Vimy Ridge. After three days of fierce fighting, there were 10,602 Canadian casualties, including the 3,598 dead.

Vimy was a watershed moment for Canada, arguably the most important military event in our history. Vimy was the first time Canadians had not fought under British army command. We accomplished something military experts thought impossible. As one historian said, ordinary men did something extraordinary. Canada came of age, but at a terrible cost.

It is the men we are honouring, not the battle or the First World War, which was a terrible episode in world history.

Many of those who served were not much older than the 3,600 high school students who will travel to France this weekend to commemorate the 90th anniversary of the battle. Orillia's Dr. Richard Johnston is among the crowds who made the journey to commemorate the anniversary. The refurbished monument at the site of the battle has its own share of Orillia on it. Nineteen-year-old Orillia native John Beaton has his name inscribed in stone (for the full story, see Page A3). The Orillia teen did not die during the battle for Vimy Ridge. He met his fate in the mud of the Somme, and is included on the roll call of the monument as one of Canada's 60,000 war dead.

And, though he is thousands of miles from Orillia, he is symbolically home. So grateful was the French government for Canada's contribution during the war, it declared 100 hectares at Vimy to be Canadian soil.

It was dearly purchased, and it must not be forgotten.