World War I - The Great War Tour - Vimy Pilgrimage

Good morning we are concluding the series the Great War Tour with Norm Christie.  So far this series is ending on a strong note, however, that may change with this episode.  The run time for this episode is 49:56 and is called the Vimy Pilgrimage.

Christie begins this episode at Montreal Harbor and a memorial for the Canadian sailors that served in the Great War.  He is spending the first part of this episode in Canada.  It was the site where thousands of Canadians started their pilgrimage to Canada’s Vimy Memorial.  The year is 1936 and more than 50,000 veterans traveled to France for the unveiling of the war memorial to the Canadian soldiers lost in the Great War.

When the war ended thousands of Canadian veterans made their way home.  The Great War had an impact on Canada as thousands of families were left in mourning for the soldiers, sailors, and nurses that did not return.   Canadians felt the need to remember the Great War generation and memorials were created to remember the dead.  Christie points to a woman’s name on a memorial.  She was a nurse who went down with her ship when the hospital ship she was serving on was torpedoed by a U-Boat.  The Canadian Government created a national memorial in Vimy to remember the fallen Canadians.

Christie strolls down a street in Toronto and talks about the experiences of the families that lived on that street as a result of the Great War.  He talks about a pair of brothers who returned to one such street.  Greg and Joe Clark returned from the war to their family home on Howland Street.  Greg Clark wrote about his experiences coming back from war.  There were parties going on, but their father advised them not to walk down the street because other families were not as lucky.  Christie talks about the families that went into mourning when their soldiers did not return.  He mentions that the people had to forget in order to move on with their lives.

In the meantime, the Vimy memorial was constructed on a devastated land.  Construction was slow as there were unexploded ordinances in the area that had to be carefully removed.  It covered a large area and was very tall.  It would take years to complete.  Unfortunately, two men were killed during the construction of the memorial.  Many more were injured before the monument was done.

As time went by, veterans slowly started speaking and writing about their experiences of the Great War.  Many soldiers were still suffering from the aftershock of the war.  Some were wounded in the body and others were wounded in the mind.  The Great War also made its way into Hollywood, and All Quiet on the Western Front showed the horror of trench war.  Will Bird a veteran and a journalist for McClean’s Magazines went back to the western front and sent back a series of articles detailing his experience.  One article on Vimy Ridge particularly touched Canadians.  He brought the war back to life.  Arthur Currie who had led the Canadians to battle passed away before the Vimy Memorial was completed.  Thousands turned out for his funeral. 

Currie’s funeral prompted the Great War vets to get together in reunions.  The soldiers held reunions where they would talk about their war experiences.  They got together in Toronto.  Here the soldiers were able to share their experiences and rekindle the memories of the war.  This initial reunion was a success and prompted other reunions.  After the success of Toronto, the new cry was to go to Vimy and see their monument.  Will the Vimy memorial be completed?  How did Canada coordinate the Vimy Pilgrimage?  How many people would make the pilgrimage to Vimy?  Tune into the rest of this episode to find out.

This episode was very somber, as Christie remembered the Canadian dead.  This episode also featured people who participated in the Vimy Pilgrimage which was a nice touch.  It was lovely to hear the families talk about how important the Vimy Pilgrimage was to these veterans.  It was a good episode, appropriate for a showing in a history class on Canadian history.  In the end, this was a strong episode to finish with especially with the Vimy Pilgrimage participants.