Friday 26th May.

Breakfast just before 0700 then a quick dash down to Dover. We arrived in good time but got pulled for a security check. A quick wipe of the door handles and we were through and on to the ferry. A calm sea meant a quick crossing to Calais. Off the ferry and onto the A26 heading southeast. They are an hour ahead of us so we stopped to adjust the time and fit the headlight diffusers. The payage was quite empty and we quickly arrived in Vimy. We drove round the town, found a supermarket and bought lunch. We drove just out of town to Vimy ridge. It was a blistering 29 degrees so we sat at a picnic table and ate our ham, cheese, pate and baguette. When in France...

Onto the museum and trenches.

Then up to the stunning memorial designed by Canadian architect and sculptor the late Walter Seymour Allward. Construction started in 1925 and it was unveiled by King Edward VIII on July 26 1936 (he abdicated on 11 December).

Al complete with camera.

We headed down to the Wellington museum in Arras where the New Zealanders tunneled, but all the tours were full. We booked a tour for the next day then headed to our hotel in Peronne. On the way there we passed memorials and cemeteries, there was just so much. We already knew we couldn't see it all so it highlighted to us that we needed to keep focused.

Got to the hotel, well more of a hostel. Very nice, clean and modern, and we ended up with a six bed room each! Out for a few beers and a pizza then, after a sedate bottle of vin rouge, bed.

Some info courtesy of www.veterans.gc.canada a really good site...

• The assault on Vimy Ridge, the northern part of the wider battle of Arras, began at 5:30 am on Easter Monday, April 9, 1917.
• It was the first occasion on which all four divisions of the Canadian Corps attacked as a composite formation.
• The Canadian achievement in capturing Vimy Ridge owed its success to a range of technical and tactical innovations, very powerful artillery preparation, sound and meticulous planning and thorough preparation.
• At Vimy, the Canadian Corps and the British XVII Corps on their immediate southern flank had captured more ground, more prisoners and more guns than any previous British Expeditionary Force offensive.
• Vimy Ridge was a particularly important tactical feature. Its capture by the Canadians was essential to the advances by the British Third Army to the south and of exceptional importance to checking the German attacks in the area in 1918.
• The Canadians had demonstrated they were one of the outstanding formations on the Western Front and masters of offensive warfare.
• Four Victoria Crosses (VC) were awarded for bravery. Of these, three were earned on the opening day of the battle:
  • Private William Milne of the 16th Battalion.
  • Lance-Sergeant Ellis Sifton of the 18th Battalion.
  • Private John Pattison of the 50th Battalion (April 10).
  • Captain Thain MacDowell of the 38th Battalion. MacDowell had also earned the Distinguished Service Order on the Somme. Of the four Vimy VCs, only Captain MacDowell survived the War.
• The Canadian success at Vimy demonstrated that no position was invulnerable to a meticulously planned and conducted assault. This success had a profound effect on Allied planning.
• Though the victory at Vimy came swiftly, it did not come without cost. There were 3,598 dead out of 10,602 Canadian casualties.
• After Vimy, the Canadian Corps went from one success to another, to be crowned by their achievements in the 1918 "advance to victory". This record won for Canada a separate signature on the Versailles Peace Treaty ending the War.