Posts in Category: Europe
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Ypres – Five Battles and the Canadians Get Gassed
We just finished up visiting one of the largest war cemeteries in the world at Notre Dame de Lorette as well as Cabaret-Rouge Cemetery where many of the Canadians who died at Vimy Ridge are buried. Liberation Tour 2015 now prepares to roll into the small Belgian city of Ieper, which to Canadians has and […]
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Cabaret Rouge Cemetery – How to Stay Sane While Visiting
Liberation Tour 2015 started the day with a visit to the Vimy Ridge Monument after which we visited the trenches and tunnels of the battlefield. Despite the cool damp weather, I think most people felt pretty good about visiting the monument and learning about Canada’s most famous WWI battle. From here we got on the […]
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Vimy Ridge Trenches & Tunnels – Exploring the Battlefield
In my previous post I described the lead up to and reasons behind the Canadian victory at Vimy Ridge. Alison and I walked the battlefield proper and visited the Canadian National Vimy Monument, but that’s only half the story. In this post we’ll explore the Vimy Ridge trenches and tunnels in an effort to better understand […]
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Vimy Ridge – Why All Canadians Must Visit at Least Once
Liberation Tour 2015 has now completed two of the most important segments of the journey – the WWII sites at Normandy and the WWI sites at The Somme. On our last stop we visited the Thiepval Memorial to the Missing which frankly was shattering as we struggled to comprehend the enormity of the casualties suffered […]
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Thiepval -The Memorial to the Missing Will Leave You Shattered
After visiting Thiepval woods where modern archaeological techniques are being used to uncover stories from the Battle of the Somme, Liberation Tour 2015 continued our journey at Courcelette. It was the site of a major battle in the campaign where Canadians played a pivotal role in one of the very few successes of the summer […]
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Battle of the Somme – Two Stories out of the Million Who Died
After a very emotional morning at Beaumont Hamel, Liberation Tour 2015 moved a short distance away to the Ulster Memorial Tower which commemorates the more than 1,850 Ulstermen who died on July 1, 1916 the first day of the Battle of The Somme. It’s a handsome building which is a replica of Helen’s Tower, a well known […]
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Beaumont Hamel – Newfoundland’s Darkest Hour Must Not be Forgotten
Liberation Tour 2015 continues its tour of Canadian WWI sites at a place that is both deeply important to all Canadians and at the same time a memorial to those who died fighting, not for Canada, but for Britain. In 1916 Newfoundland was still a British colony with no political affiliation with Canada and the events […]
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Lochnagar Crater – Reliving WWI with Liberation Tour 2015
In the last post, our group took a pause from visiting war related sites and were over awed by the splendour of Amiens Cathedral, considered by many to be the exemplar of the Gothic architectural style. Liberation Tour 2015 has now arrived in The Somme district of France and for the next few days we […]
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Amiens Cathedral – Visiting This Great Gothic Masterpiece
It’s been an emotional last few days on Liberation Tour 2015 with the visits to the various Dieppe sites where Canadians died in such great numbers and that was preceded by the very disturbing visit to Abbeye d’Ardenne where Canadian POWs, especially Nova Scotians were murdered. While we were all very upbeat coming from the D-Day sites, […]