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A Century Later - Vimy's Crater Line Revisited

A Century Later - Vimy's Crater Line Revisited

The preserved First World War battlefield at the Vimy Ridge Memorial Park is today one of the most visited and significant locations on the Western Front. Vimy Ridge itself was a prominent location for much of the Great War seeing heavy fighting in 1915 and again in April 1917 when the Canadian Corps successfully captured the ridge. Today, with some exceptions, the battlefield itself has largely been left untouched, leaving with it many practical dangers of a real battlefield, most notably that of unexploded ordnance. In July 2022, Joe McDonald, museum volunteer, had the opportunity go into the dangerous Red Zone to view some of the significant locations pertaining to the part played by the 49th Battalion (Edmonton Regiment) in the Battle of Vimy Ridge. Here is his comparison of the area then and now and the story of what happened there.

Remember 22-4

This is the thirty-fourth in a series of quarterly newsletters originally recognizing 100th anniversary events of the First World War, with emphasis on Edmonton’s 49th Battalion, and 75th anniversary events of the Second World War, with emphasis on The Edmonton Regiment/The Loyal Edmonton Regiment.  These stories came to an end with our 2019-1 and 2020-3 editions respectively. However, there are still many stories to be told about our regiment, past and present, including our newest series of articles on our regimental commanding officers.  We will also be expanding our focus on the museum itself with articles related to more current events and with stories about some of the interesting artefacts and archival materials in our collection.

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