November 2005 - Vol Five, No.12

History Helps, Volume Five, Number 12, November 2005
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LEST WE FORGET!

The content of this newsletter marks a departure from what I normally send out. For this issue I have gathered source information in respect of World War One, beginning with the column I wrote for one of our local newspapers, the South Delta Leader, following a European Battlefields Tour in April 2005.

World War One Revisited

“Back in April I went on about the Vimy Memorial in France and a forthcoming trip to Europe during which we hoped to see it, along with a number of other sites related to World War One and World War Two.

I said I’d let you know whether it lived up to my expectations. In a word -- yes. It was breathtaking. And this despite an hour or more of waiting around in 25 degree sunshine -- and despite the monument not being open to the public because of the restoration work being done. Truly, truly breath-taking. Once I’d seen the Vimy Memorial I could call the trip a success.

Not that there weren’t other memorable moments. One was the experience of standing on the steps at Menen Gate in Ypres, Belgium, and reading the names of the men who died defending the Ypres Salient over the years -- resting place unknown. And, there almost at the end of the Canadian lists was “Rich S N.” All the way from Ladner to Belgium to find the name of Private Sidney Norris Rich, only son of H. N. and May Rich of Ladner. Who would have believed it?

The town of Ypres itself was one of the places I liked best on this trip. And the people, though not as many English-speakers as we found in Holland, were friendly and helpful.

Completely destroyed during the First World War, Ypres (now shown on maps as “Ieper”) was rebuilt because the people wanted to return to normal life. Winston Churchill, on the other hand, would have preferred that the ruins speak forever as a memorial to the War.”

Source: South Delta Leader, Friday, 27 May 2005, page 23, “Vimy pilgrimage was a wonderful trip,” “Forward from Yesteryear” by Gwen Szychter.

World War One Websites

CANADA IN KHAKI. A description of the Canadian Expeditionary Force (CEF) in World War I. with details of campaigns, medals, maps, memorials, and badges, plus naval and air details. http://www.militarybadges.info/canada/

A newsletter subscriber and her colleague have created two web sites dedicated to the 54th Kootenay Battalion, CEF, WWI, and her sister Battalion, the 102nd. The respective website addresses are as follows:
http://www.54thbattalioncef.ca/
http://www.102ndbattalioncef.ca/

Malaspina College on Vancouver Island some years ago began a project called The Canadian Letters and Images Project (which appears to have stalled because of lack of funding, I believe) of collecting and posting letters relating to the war experiences of Canadians. You can find it at http://web.mala.bc.ca/davies/letters.images/collections.index.htm

The History of the Victoria Cross, called “Britain’s Highest Award for Gallantry,” is the name of the website at http://www.victoriacross.org.uk/vcross.htm

Another World War One Website

http://www.firstworldwar.com/diaries/index.htm

The home page has this tidbit of information: “One in five of the Australians and New Zealanders who left their country to fight in the war never returned; 80,000 in total.”

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Gwen Szychter, M.A.

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