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Vimy a breakthrough battle for Canada Used new fighting techniques that worked, and helped Allies defeat Germany Lorne Gunter, The Edmonton Journal Published: Sunday, April 08, 2007 The weather was with the Canadian corps at Vimy Ridge in northern France on Easter Monday, April 9, 1917. At least it wasn't against them. Much. The winter of 1916-17 had been an especially bitter one in the trenches. Frostbite claimed hundreds of thousands of fingers, toes, earlobes, cheeks and nose-tips. Troops claimed hot stew often froze in tin mess cups before it could be eaten. The great historian of the Canadian...

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...

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...

'My body’s kind of rickety' One of three Great War vets left says he’ll miss Vimy ceremony By Chris Lambie The Chronicle Herald October 3, 2006 Veterans Affairs Canada is sending 300 people to Europe next year for a ceremony marking the 90th anniversary of the pivotal Battle of Vimy Ridge in 1917. But none of Canada’s three surviving First World War veterans plans to attend. "My mind is OK, but my body’s kind of rickety," said John Babcock, 106, who lives at home in Spokane, Wash., with his wife Dorothy. Mr. Babcock lied about his age to join the...

Prime Minister Stephen Harper toured the First World War battlefield at Vimy Ridge on Tuesday where he quipped that the enemy now carries news cameras, not guns. Harper made the comment during a photo-opportunity at a front line Canadian trench, just metres from the opposing German line. "These were sand, not cement," Harper said of the reconstructed sandbags. "And the enemies carried guns, not (a) camera," he added, looking directly over the lip of the old trench at a small clutch of Canadian TV and still cameras. It was his first tour of the First World War battlefield in France...

He was the bugle boy who never blew a bugle, who landed in the thick of the bloodiest battles of the Great War before he turned 17, and considered it only luck that he stayed alive -- to marry, mingle with movie stars, shake the hand of a president and see the turn of a new century.On Tuesday, at the age of 105 and still debating current events until his last day, Clifford Holliday passed away in his home in Gardena, Calif., outside Los Angeles. His death brings the number of Canadian veterans of the First World War still living...

Dear Lord, There's a young man far from home, called to serve his nation in time of war; sent to defend our freedom on some distant foreign shore. We pray You keep him safe, we pray You keep him strong, we pray You send him safely home ... for he's been away so long. There's a young woman far from home, serving her nation with pride. Her step is strong, her step is sure, there is courage in every stride. We pray You keep her safe, we pray You keep her strong, we pray You send her safely home...