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An artillery shell, captured in mid-explosion like a deadly flower, the lead balls seconds from tearing flesh and shattering bone.
Two planks hammered into the simplest cross, a makeshift marker for the grave of Pte. John Firman Ashe, a 26-year-old farm boy who fell in the Battle of Vimy Ridge 100 years ago, that was sent home to his family New Brunswick when he was not.
The uncountable stars in the constellations that shone over Vimy in those savage days picked out against inky cloth in brass fasteners that once held together each First World War soldier’s enlistment papers.
Related
Those are some of the evocative artifacts that were on display as the Canadian War Museum launched two exhibits Wednesday marking the centenary of the iconic Battle of Vimy Ridge, the April 1917 tactical victory by Canadians on the Western Front in France that’s become a potent national symbol of “unity of purpose, tragic loss and national pride.”
The museum has added new artifacts and perspective to the permanent Battle of Vimy Ridge section and mounted a temporary exhibit, Vimy — Beyond the Battle, open until Nov. 12, about how Canadians have personally and collectively commemorated the battle.
Both open to the public Thursday.
Admission to the museum is free on Sunday, April 9, with special events including a broadcast of the ceremonies being held at the Canadian National Vimy Memorial in France and the National War Memorial in Ottawa, free tours and an interactive play-by-play of the battle staged with model soldiers.
A commemoration combining composer Andrew Ager’s The Unknown Soldier performed by a choir and orchestra with readings from the letters of Great War soldiers is set for Sunday night.
At the Wednesday opening, historian Tim Cook set the stage of 100 years ago. He’ll join 25,000 Canadians to mark the centenary on the still-scarred battlefield in France this weekend.
The heavily fortified seven-kilometre-long ridge in northern France had been captured by the Germans in October 1914 and they’d held it against four French counterattacks amid vicious fighting.
“When the Canadians arrived in October of 1916, Vimy Ridge was an open graveyard of unburied corpses,” Cook said, where soldiers could smell the rotting dead from 10 km away.
“It was the ruin of armies. Few thought the Canadians could capture this fortress, which was one of the strongest on the western front. The Germans had all the advantages over the Canadians at the foot of the ridge.”
The Canadian War Museum has opened the updated Battle of Vimy Ridge exhibit and the new temporary exhibition, Vimy — Beyond the Battle.
The Canadian Corps, four divisions and more than 100,000 men led by Sir Julian Byng, trained “feverishly” to learn new infantry and artillery tactics. They laid more than 30 km of rail line to transport hundreds of thousands of shells, which made the final journey to the front on 50,000 horses and mules.
Then thousands of British and Canadian gunners spent weeks firing tens of thousands of shells a day, “methodically smashing the Vimy defences,” Cook said.
At 5:30 a.m. on the morning of April 9, 1917, nearly 1,000 guns and mortars were unleashed and 15,000 Canadians surged forward out of their tunnels and trenches.
“Forward they moved into a storm of steel,” Cook said. “As the creeping barrage consisting of hundreds of thousands of shells methodically moved up the ridge, tearing up the German defences, the Canadians fought their way forward,” Cook said. “There was an almost endless cacophony of artillery explosions, machine-gun fire and the cries of wounded men. Vimy Ridge was the site of incredible carnage and a scene of brutal combat.”
Four days later, the Canadians had seized Vimy Ridge, but at the cost of 10,602 dead and wounded. Thousands more had died preparing for the battle; hundreds succumbed to their injuries in the days that followed.
English and French, First Nations and new immigrants fought side-by-side, “sacrificing for one another as they clawed their way to victory,” Cook said.
“Now, 100 years later, Vimy marks the tremendous service of Canadians during the battle and their heavy sacrifice,” Cook said. “Vimy is a part of our symbolic landscape and it has been woven into our shared history.”
The newly updated Battle of Vimy Ridge section tells the story in visceral detail, surrounding both the wooden relief map troops used to train for the battle and a high-tech interactive survey of the scene.
There’s the Canadian Red Ensign carried by Pte. James Davidson onto the battlefield, a gift from his mother that he years later unfurled on Canada Day for his children.
Nearby displays outline the horrors he escaped, showing how shrapnel maimed, and some of the near-medieval breastplates and shields soldiers used even as the industrial era transformed war.
“It really tries to share the stories of people who were there, the eyewitnesses to history,” Cook said. “There’s a tremendous amount of archival footage and artifacts, but we hear their voices here … That’s one of the powerful aspects of this museum.”
Vimy was considered a victory while being one of Canada’s bloodiest First World War engagements, a legacy taken on in Vimy — Beyond the Battle, which explores how Canadians used war commemoration to grieve and heal, recognize heroism and sacrifice, feel a sense of belonging and promote the causes of the day.
Each theme incorporates one of the human-scaled plaster models made by Canadian sculptor Walter Allward to create his vast monument at Vimy, the focus of this weekend’s commemorations.
Visitors enter by passing across a video of a battle scene, their own shadows walking shoulder to shoulder with bayonet-wielding soldiers. Once inside, a wall of more than 3,500 white lights, each representing a soldier who died at Vimy, looms. Clusters of light brighten as onlookers approach.
“To me, as a historian, I think it’s important for the visitors to really reflect on their own participating in the process of commemoration,” said curator Mélanie Morin-Pelletier. “In this case, 100 years later, with no soldiers left from the First World War, we are the ones keeping their memory alive.
“One of the goals of the wall is to make people realize that’s true. Commemorations are a construct, we’re taking part in them or we’re not … I hope that people will see they’re all around them. We pick, we select, we choose what we commemorate and how we commemorate. For me, as a war historian, it’s important to reflect on how we do that and why we do that.”
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Two planks hammered into the simplest cross, a makeshift marker for the grave of Pte. John Firman Ashe, a 26-year-old farm boy who fell in the Battle of Vimy Ridge 100 years ago, that was sent home to his family New Brunswick when he was not.
The uncountable stars in the constellations that shone over Vimy in those savage days picked out against inky cloth in brass fasteners that once held together each First World War soldier’s enlistment papers.
Related
Those are some of the evocative artifacts that were on display as the Canadian War Museum launched two exhibits Wednesday marking the centenary of the iconic Battle of Vimy Ridge, the April 1917 tactical victory by Canadians on the Western Front in France that’s become a potent national symbol of “unity of purpose, tragic loss and national pride.”
The museum has added new artifacts and perspective to the permanent Battle of Vimy Ridge section and mounted a temporary exhibit, Vimy — Beyond the Battle, open until Nov. 12, about how Canadians have personally and collectively commemorated the battle.
Both open to the public Thursday.
Admission to the museum is free on Sunday, April 9, with special events including a broadcast of the ceremonies being held at the Canadian National Vimy Memorial in France and the National War Memorial in Ottawa, free tours and an interactive play-by-play of the battle staged with model soldiers.
A commemoration combining composer Andrew Ager’s The Unknown Soldier performed by a choir and orchestra with readings from the letters of Great War soldiers is set for Sunday night.
At the Wednesday opening, historian Tim Cook set the stage of 100 years ago. He’ll join 25,000 Canadians to mark the centenary on the still-scarred battlefield in France this weekend.
The heavily fortified seven-kilometre-long ridge in northern France had been captured by the Germans in October 1914 and they’d held it against four French counterattacks amid vicious fighting.
“When the Canadians arrived in October of 1916, Vimy Ridge was an open graveyard of unburied corpses,” Cook said, where soldiers could smell the rotting dead from 10 km away.
“It was the ruin of armies. Few thought the Canadians could capture this fortress, which was one of the strongest on the western front. The Germans had all the advantages over the Canadians at the foot of the ridge.”
The Canadian War Museum has opened the updated Battle of Vimy Ridge exhibit and the new temporary exhibition, Vimy — Beyond the Battle.
The Canadian Corps, four divisions and more than 100,000 men led by Sir Julian Byng, trained “feverishly” to learn new infantry and artillery tactics. They laid more than 30 km of rail line to transport hundreds of thousands of shells, which made the final journey to the front on 50,000 horses and mules.
Then thousands of British and Canadian gunners spent weeks firing tens of thousands of shells a day, “methodically smashing the Vimy defences,” Cook said.
At 5:30 a.m. on the morning of April 9, 1917, nearly 1,000 guns and mortars were unleashed and 15,000 Canadians surged forward out of their tunnels and trenches.
“Forward they moved into a storm of steel,” Cook said. “As the creeping barrage consisting of hundreds of thousands of shells methodically moved up the ridge, tearing up the German defences, the Canadians fought their way forward,” Cook said. “There was an almost endless cacophony of artillery explosions, machine-gun fire and the cries of wounded men. Vimy Ridge was the site of incredible carnage and a scene of brutal combat.”
Four days later, the Canadians had seized Vimy Ridge, but at the cost of 10,602 dead and wounded. Thousands more had died preparing for the battle; hundreds succumbed to their injuries in the days that followed.
English and French, First Nations and new immigrants fought side-by-side, “sacrificing for one another as they clawed their way to victory,” Cook said.
“Now, 100 years later, Vimy marks the tremendous service of Canadians during the battle and their heavy sacrifice,” Cook said. “Vimy is a part of our symbolic landscape and it has been woven into our shared history.”
The newly updated Battle of Vimy Ridge section tells the story in visceral detail, surrounding both the wooden relief map troops used to train for the battle and a high-tech interactive survey of the scene.
There’s the Canadian Red Ensign carried by Pte. James Davidson onto the battlefield, a gift from his mother that he years later unfurled on Canada Day for his children.
Nearby displays outline the horrors he escaped, showing how shrapnel maimed, and some of the near-medieval breastplates and shields soldiers used even as the industrial era transformed war.
“It really tries to share the stories of people who were there, the eyewitnesses to history,” Cook said. “There’s a tremendous amount of archival footage and artifacts, but we hear their voices here … That’s one of the powerful aspects of this museum.”
Vimy was considered a victory while being one of Canada’s bloodiest First World War engagements, a legacy taken on in Vimy — Beyond the Battle, which explores how Canadians used war commemoration to grieve and heal, recognize heroism and sacrifice, feel a sense of belonging and promote the causes of the day.
Each theme incorporates one of the human-scaled plaster models made by Canadian sculptor Walter Allward to create his vast monument at Vimy, the focus of this weekend’s commemorations.
Visitors enter by passing across a video of a battle scene, their own shadows walking shoulder to shoulder with bayonet-wielding soldiers. Once inside, a wall of more than 3,500 white lights, each representing a soldier who died at Vimy, looms. Clusters of light brighten as onlookers approach.
“To me, as a historian, I think it’s important for the visitors to really reflect on their own participating in the process of commemoration,” said curator Mélanie Morin-Pelletier. “In this case, 100 years later, with no soldiers left from the First World War, we are the ones keeping their memory alive.
“One of the goals of the wall is to make people realize that’s true. Commemorations are a construct, we’re taking part in them or we’re not … I hope that people will see they’re all around them. We pick, we select, we choose what we commemorate and how we commemorate. For me, as a war historian, it’s important to reflect on how we do that and why we do that.”
查看原文...
