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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, […]
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The Dieppe Operation Part II – Visiting the Sites at Puys and Pourville
In the last post I described the planning and failure of the Dieppe Raid from the perspective of the assault on the beach that fronts the small city of Dieppe. If that were the only attack on Dieppe then it might fairly be called a raid, but in fact the there were attempted landings at […]
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The Dieppe Raid- A Canadian Tragedy – Understanding What Went Wrong
In the last post we visited the site of Abbeye d’Ardenne which was the scene of a particularly despicable war crime, the execution of Nova Scotian prisoners of war under the orders of Kurt Meyer. We are now headed to the scene of what some also consider a war crime, but one perpetrated by our […]
From the road
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April 20th, 2023
I’ve had a bad case of writer’s block since getting back from Southeast Asia, but I did finish this post on the fan… https://t.co/HoJjP4jeha
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April 12th, 2023
One of the main reasons to visit the Galapagos is to see the giant tortoises. This latest post explains where you c… https://t.co/mQ8PWha8j3
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April 11th, 2023
Spring is very late this year so it’s nice to see the crocuses finally show up. https://t.co/7HD6wvsEJ6
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April 9th, 2023
Sunday morning is a good time to reflect back on another Sunday in Reading, England which I wrote about here:… https://t.co/EJ4Is2NSqz