”Gunners Return to Vimy” April 8, 2017
Dear All,
This is the second summary of our travels so far. My apologies for the length of this report but it has been an eventful few days.
Today (Saturday) was the seventh day of our Normandy to Vimy Tour, which began last Sunday at Juno Beach. The tour, organized and led by Gunners, followed a route that took us to the Canadian battlefields, cemeteries and memorials of Normandy, Dieppe, Flanders and northern France. We are now staying in central Lille, a large and interesting city with challenging opportunities to understand the regional French dialect of “Ch’ti” (but none of us has succeeded in doing so).
Our tour group of 100 serving and retired members of the RCA (The Royal Regiment of Canadian Artillery) includes Regular and Reserve “Gunners” of all ranks ranging from Bombardier (Artillery Corporal) to Warrant Officers to Majors to Lieutenant-Generals, male and female, francophone and anglophone, young and old. We are a cross-Canada family, who all wear the same cap badge and share a common history.
But, let me backtrack a little and describe the days after our memorable Wednesday evening at the Menin Gate in Ypres.
Leaving Ypres on Thursday morning we drove a short distance north to Essex Farm, right beside the west bank of the Ypres-Yser canal. The Essex Farm Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC) cemetery is 50 metres from the 1915 location of a basic medical “station” for British and Canadian casualties. It was cut into the dirt banks of the canal and was only a few kilometres from the front line, where the first German gas attack on the Western Front was directed at French and Canadian troops on April 22nd, 1915. The Canadian Field Artillery Brigade was deployed on the west side of the canal (near Essex Farm) and the second-in-command of the artillery brigade was Major John McCrae.
John McCrae had served in the Boer War as an artillery officer and had returned to Canada to practice medicine as a doctor in Guelph, while also serving in the Guelph artillery Militia.. He joined the Canadian Expeditionary Force in 1914 and served as a Gunner officer, In France he was second-in-command of an artillery brigade but was also”double-hatted” as the brigade surgeon. This meant that he spent most of his time working as an artillery officer and the rest of the time he filled in as a doctor, including service at the Essex Farm medical aid station.
By May of 1915 the Canadian casualties had increased significantly and John McCrae was spending more and more time treating the wounded at Essex Farm. Sadly, on the third of May, he read the service of committal for his Gunner friend, Lieutenant Alexis Helmer, and he subsequently sat down and wrote a poem titled “In Flanders Fields”. The poem was published in Punch magazine in December and we all know the words and sentiments, as do millions of others around the world.
In June of 1915 McCrae was ordered to transfer to the Canadian Medical Service and he reluctantly removed his Gunner cap badge, collar badges and shoulder titles. He died of pneumonia in early 1918 while serving as a Lieutenant-Colonel and while commanding No. 3 Canadian General Hospital at Boulogne, France.
From Essex Farm our 100 Gunners drove to Thiepval Cemetery, which is also the “overflow” wall for the names of missing soldiers for whom there was insufficient space on the Menin Gate. There are 72,000 names on the ‘Thiepval panels‘. The enormity of the losses in WWI was driven home for all of us while viewing the panels the day after reading the similar ones at the Menin Gate in Ypres.
Our tour continued to the tank memorial and the Australian Army memorial and in the afternoon to the Beaumont Hamel memorial (and cemeteries) of the Newfoundland Regiment. Their 80% killed and wounded losses of July 1st (at Beaumont Hamel) are the reason why July 1st is a more important day of remembrance in Newfoundland than November 11th.
Our last moment of remembrance on Thursday was at Adanac Cemetery, where Piper Richardson, VC (Victoria Cross) has lain since 1916. Our RCA piper played The Lament beside the grave and we silently and thoughtfully remembered the sacrifice made by Piper Richardson and by his Canadian comrades so many years ago.
On Friday morning, our visit to the French cemetery and ossuary at Notre Dame de Lorette was another solemn and grim reminder of the human costs of war. There are over 40,000 First War French soldiers buried there as well as the additional unidentified remains of 20,000 French soldiers of WWI.
Adjacent to Lorette is a very new memorial called the Ring of Remembrance. There are 580,00 names engraved on the walls; French, German, British, Canadian, African, Indian, Chinese, etc, - a memorial to all those who died in this part of France in WWI. No nationalities are listed, no regiments are named - just 580,00 names in alphabetical order on an enormous circular wall; a graphic and visceral reminder of the tragic loss of human lives in the First World War.
Visits to the Polish and Czech memorials of WWI followed and then on to Cabaret Rouge cemetery, near Vimy, where the remains of Canada’s unknown soldier were removed in 2000 and re-interred in the Canadian Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Ottawa.
Our last visit on Friday was to the very large German cemetery at Neuville-Saint Vaast. A very different cemetery with stark metal crosses, each bearing four names It is the largest WWI German cemetery in France and contains the remains of almost 45,000 German soldiers. There were many Jewish headstones among them and most of these had stones placed on them by us or by previous visitors.
At all of the cemeteries and monuments we could view the battlefields of 1914-1918 and at each locale our guides provided a resume of the battles that had taken place so many years ago.
Today, the day before the Vimy ceremony, we left the Novotel in Lille at 9:45am, a welcome departure time after an evening in the heart of Lille and a buffet breakfast that included local chicory coffee (or regular coffee) and hot and cold items such as the regional sugar tart.
Our first stop was in the small village of Givenchy-en-Gobelle (not to be confused with the more southerly Givenchy of Monet and his garden). This town is at the base of Vimy Ridge and was rather amazing; the flag of Canada was flying, or attached to, most homes and it looked more Canadian than any Canadian town on July 1. We had a reception in the town square and ate lunch with the locals. A heartwarming experience!
At 3pm our RCA Gunners gathered in the town of Thelus and were hosted by its citizens in a service of commemoration at the Canadian Artillery Memorial. We all marched from the Mayor’s Office to the Memorial, along with re-enactors dressed as French “poilus” (WWI soldiers), and citizens of the town. Gunners from the Royal Artillery were also there in support, as they had been when their predecessors supported the Canadian artillery at Vimy 100 years ago. We were joined by our Colonel Commandant (Brigadier-General Selbie) who laid a wreath on behalf of all Canadian Gunners. We also learned that the current population of Thelus is 1,280 and that the number of war graves in the area of this village total 1,257. Our RCA piper and our RCA trumpeter played and the ceremony ended with the singing of “Oh Canada” and “La Marseillaise”. At the subsequent reception there was a large photographic display chronicling the destruction and re-building of the city between 1915 and 1935; which also included many photographs of the Canadian soldiers in the area during WWI. We mingled with the citizens and our French seemed to improve as the beer and cider flowed.
Then back to our Lille hotel for the evening, where all of our Canadian Gunners attended a dinner hosted by Honourary Colonel Irving of 3 Field Artillery Regiment of New Brunswick (a Reserve Amy Regiment). We were joined by Lieutenant-General (Retired) Romeo Dallaire, one of our notable Canadian Gunners, and a great evening of comradeship and camaraderie marked the end of a memorable day.
Tomorrow - Vimy!
Best wishes,
Stu
Dear All,
This is the second summary of our travels so far. My apologies for the length of this report but it has been an eventful few days.
Today (Saturday) was the seventh day of our Normandy to Vimy Tour, which began last Sunday at Juno Beach. The tour, organized and led by Gunners, followed a route that took us to the Canadian battlefields, cemeteries and memorials of Normandy, Dieppe, Flanders and northern France. We are now staying in central Lille, a large and interesting city with challenging opportunities to understand the regional French dialect of “Ch’ti” (but none of us has succeeded in doing so).
Our tour group of 100 serving and retired members of the RCA (The Royal Regiment of Canadian Artillery) includes Regular and Reserve “Gunners” of all ranks ranging from Bombardier (Artillery Corporal) to Warrant Officers to Majors to Lieutenant-Generals, male and female, francophone and anglophone, young and old. We are a cross-Canada family, who all wear the same cap badge and share a common history.
But, let me backtrack a little and describe the days after our memorable Wednesday evening at the Menin Gate in Ypres.
Leaving Ypres on Thursday morning we drove a short distance north to Essex Farm, right beside the west bank of the Ypres-Yser canal. The Essex Farm Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC) cemetery is 50 metres from the 1915 location of a basic medical “station” for British and Canadian casualties. It was cut into the dirt banks of the canal and was only a few kilometres from the front line, where the first German gas attack on the Western Front was directed at French and Canadian troops on April 22nd, 1915. The Canadian Field Artillery Brigade was deployed on the west side of the canal (near Essex Farm) and the second-in-command of the artillery brigade was Major John McCrae.
John McCrae had served in the Boer War as an artillery officer and had returned to Canada to practice medicine as a doctor in Guelph, while also serving in the Guelph artillery Militia.. He joined the Canadian Expeditionary Force in 1914 and served as a Gunner officer, In France he was second-in-command of an artillery brigade but was also”double-hatted” as the brigade surgeon. This meant that he spent most of his time working as an artillery officer and the rest of the time he filled in as a doctor, including service at the Essex Farm medical aid station.
By May of 1915 the Canadian casualties had increased significantly and John McCrae was spending more and more time treating the wounded at Essex Farm. Sadly, on the third of May, he read the service of committal for his Gunner friend, Lieutenant Alexis Helmer, and he subsequently sat down and wrote a poem titled “In Flanders Fields”. The poem was published in Punch magazine in December and we all know the words and sentiments, as do millions of others around the world.
In June of 1915 McCrae was ordered to transfer to the Canadian Medical Service and he reluctantly removed his Gunner cap badge, collar badges and shoulder titles. He died of pneumonia in early 1918 while serving as a Lieutenant-Colonel and while commanding No. 3 Canadian General Hospital at Boulogne, France.
From Essex Farm our 100 Gunners drove to Thiepval Cemetery, which is also the “overflow” wall for the names of missing soldiers for whom there was insufficient space on the Menin Gate. There are 72,000 names on the ‘Thiepval panels‘. The enormity of the losses in WWI was driven home for all of us while viewing the panels the day after reading the similar ones at the Menin Gate in Ypres.
Our tour continued to the tank memorial and the Australian Army memorial and in the afternoon to the Beaumont Hamel memorial (and cemeteries) of the Newfoundland Regiment. Their 80% killed and wounded losses of July 1st (at Beaumont Hamel) are the reason why July 1st is a more important day of remembrance in Newfoundland than November 11th.
Our last moment of remembrance on Thursday was at Adanac Cemetery, where Piper Richardson, VC (Victoria Cross) has lain since 1916. Our RCA piper played The Lament beside the grave and we silently and thoughtfully remembered the sacrifice made by Piper Richardson and by his Canadian comrades so many years ago.
On Friday morning, our visit to the French cemetery and ossuary at Notre Dame de Lorette was another solemn and grim reminder of the human costs of war. There are over 40,000 First War French soldiers buried there as well as the additional unidentified remains of 20,000 French soldiers of WWI.
Adjacent to Lorette is a very new memorial called the Ring of Remembrance. There are 580,00 names engraved on the walls; French, German, British, Canadian, African, Indian, Chinese, etc, - a memorial to all those who died in this part of France in WWI. No nationalities are listed, no regiments are named - just 580,00 names in alphabetical order on an enormous circular wall; a graphic and visceral reminder of the tragic loss of human lives in the First World War.
Visits to the Polish and Czech memorials of WWI followed and then on to Cabaret Rouge cemetery, near Vimy, where the remains of Canada’s unknown soldier were removed in 2000 and re-interred in the Canadian Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Ottawa.
Our last visit on Friday was to the very large German cemetery at Neuville-Saint Vaast. A very different cemetery with stark metal crosses, each bearing four names It is the largest WWI German cemetery in France and contains the remains of almost 45,000 German soldiers. There were many Jewish headstones among them and most of these had stones placed on them by us or by previous visitors.
At all of the cemeteries and monuments we could view the battlefields of 1914-1918 and at each locale our guides provided a resume of the battles that had taken place so many years ago.
Today, the day before the Vimy ceremony, we left the Novotel in Lille at 9:45am, a welcome departure time after an evening in the heart of Lille and a buffet breakfast that included local chicory coffee (or regular coffee) and hot and cold items such as the regional sugar tart.
Our first stop was in the small village of Givenchy-en-Gobelle (not to be confused with the more southerly Givenchy of Monet and his garden). This town is at the base of Vimy Ridge and was rather amazing; the flag of Canada was flying, or attached to, most homes and it looked more Canadian than any Canadian town on July 1. We had a reception in the town square and ate lunch with the locals. A heartwarming experience!
At 3pm our RCA Gunners gathered in the town of Thelus and were hosted by its citizens in a service of commemoration at the Canadian Artillery Memorial. We all marched from the Mayor’s Office to the Memorial, along with re-enactors dressed as French “poilus” (WWI soldiers), and citizens of the town. Gunners from the Royal Artillery were also there in support, as they had been when their predecessors supported the Canadian artillery at Vimy 100 years ago. We were joined by our Colonel Commandant (Brigadier-General Selbie) who laid a wreath on behalf of all Canadian Gunners. We also learned that the current population of Thelus is 1,280 and that the number of war graves in the area of this village total 1,257. Our RCA piper and our RCA trumpeter played and the ceremony ended with the singing of “Oh Canada” and “La Marseillaise”. At the subsequent reception there was a large photographic display chronicling the destruction and re-building of the city between 1915 and 1935; which also included many photographs of the Canadian soldiers in the area during WWI. We mingled with the citizens and our French seemed to improve as the beer and cider flowed.
Then back to our Lille hotel for the evening, where all of our Canadian Gunners attended a dinner hosted by Honourary Colonel Irving of 3 Field Artillery Regiment of New Brunswick (a Reserve Amy Regiment). We were joined by Lieutenant-General (Retired) Romeo Dallaire, one of our notable Canadian Gunners, and a great evening of comradeship and camaraderie marked the end of a memorable day.
Tomorrow - Vimy!
Best wishes,
Stu
Lists
The following pages contain additional information relating to the 15th Field Artillery Regiment, RCA
Honours and Awards
Trophies
Commanding Officers and Regimental Sergeants Major
Honoraries
Battery Commanders and Battery Sergeants Major
Band Appointments
Nominal Roll
Guns of the Regiment
Memorial Page
The following pages contain additional information relating to the 15th Field Artillery Regiment, RCA
Honours and Awards
Trophies
Commanding Officers and Regimental Sergeants Major
Honoraries
Battery Commanders and Battery Sergeants Major
Band Appointments
Nominal Roll
Guns of the Regiment
Memorial Page