410 -— Wednesday, April 8, 1992 - North Shore News

WY soldier recalls Vimy Ridge horror

75th anniversary of massive First World War battle

NEWS photo Stuart Davis

WV RESIDENT Harry Thomas (showing a picture of himself in uniform) spent his 20th birthday preparing for the battle at Vimy

Ridge.

W. Van offered cartoons

WEST VANCOUVER

District Council has been offered a donation of 218 original Len Norris cartoons in exchange for a $21,800 tax receipt, on the basis of $100 per cartoon.

West Vancouver already owns 100 original cartoons created by Norris, a long-time tocat resident who directed a great deal of his creative wit at the North Shore, although he is widely respected

PROPANE FRIDGES, STOVES & LIGHTS (NEW & USED)

* Tanks - Tubing - Fittings © instant Hot Water Tanks * Propane Tanks Re-dated © Propane Repairs

SERVEL FRIDGE PARTS ;

eo

2671 We. 3 Rd., Bichoesd

PROPAKE APPLIARCES | f A & WOODSTOVES LTD. | 8 BM tno end of No.3 Rd} 270-3616

—

Be

$80) “ee

20 min. tig Call Today! BEL-AIRE HELICOPTERS 988-0770

Helicopter

throughout Canada for his work. Counci! referred the proposed donation to committee.

The word is thrown around so that it doesn’t have much meaning anymore. But

at TRU-VALU OPTICAL,

we do our best to give you prompt, efficient,

expert Service. Give us

a try and you'll see why!

Quality, Service: VANCOUVER

&33 West Broadway 873-3941

NORTH & WEST VANCOUVER (amalgamated) 1456 Lonsdale Avenue 987-1611

MAPLE

LANGLEY Highland Village Shopping Centre

4-20555-56th Avenue 536-6313

22365 Lougheed Hwy. 463-3133

APRIL 9, 1917, the day Canadian armed forces took Vimy Ridge in the First World War after French and British forces had failed, has often been described as the day Canada truly became a nation.

Thursday marks the 75th anni- versary of the day Canada distinguished itself on the world stage by capturing a previously impregnable German front-line position.

West Vancouver resident Harry Thomas, born March 6, 1897, spent his 20th birthday preparing for the decisive battle.

Thomas, now 95, has persevered even though the First World War left him with a iung condition and without his right arm.

“The bronchials have been damaged by the (mustard) gas. I got the gas shortly after Vimy,” he said. ‘*! didn't talk for two weeks.”"

He was five-man team.

Thomas is the only surviving member of the team. The others were killed while trying to take Cambrai in 1918.

Vimy Ridge

lead man of a machine gun

the Lewis

was a strategic escarpment on the front-line in northern France. The Germans had a commanding view of the entire hill, including the Canadian forces below.

Thomas, fighting with the Fourth Baittalion’s First. Division, advanced up the left side of the hill.

“The French tried to take it (the ridge),’’ Thomas said. ‘*We used to dig up their dead when we were digging trenches or digging a hole for ourselves for shelter.’*

The Germans, aware of the ridge’s strategic importance, had fortified the escarpment with three trenches running across it and machine guns in steel and concrete pillboxes. They were supplied with heavy artillery via an underground railway.

Canadian Senior Division Commander Sir Arthur Currie, a former insurance man from Vic-

Glass or Plastic Lenses

By Kevin Gillies Contributing Writer

toria, put emphasis on tactics in- stead of technology in his ap- proach to the ensuing battle.

For two months leading up to the assault on the ridge, the Ca- nadian corps practised the ‘‘Vimy Glide,’’ in which timed movements up the hill were coor- dinated with timed bombardments of the German strongholds.

“We had never done this be- fore,”’ he said. ‘‘We trained behind the Jines with white tapes for each company; where they were going, and how far they were going.”

Just before 5:30 a.m. on Easter morning, after a fresh dumping of snow, the real shelling started, and when it stopped the men ad- vanced for three minutes before hitting the mud.

The mud was so deep most animals would have drowned in it, Thomas said.

“Your greatcoat would get cak- ed in it (mud), but we'd get a knife or something and cut it (bottom half of coat) off.’”

Then the artillery started again.

“They just shelled everything; it pur them under cover, and we were on them before they had a chance to come up.""

According to Thomas, the Ca- nadian artillery fire on the Ger- mans at Vimy Ridge was the ‘‘preatest bombardment number of shells used, number of guns used — of anything up to that point during the war.”’

“When we started this attack, the first trenches we came to were occupied by Lim (the Germans). You were pretty well out in the open,”’ he said.

“There weren‘t too many trees.

Glass or Plastic Lenses Reg. Mono or Kryptok

COMPLETE W.7H YOUR CHOICE OF FRANE To Powers + oF - 6 with 2cy1 oa {Esuas Excusec)} It

All specialty lenses availasle at TRU-VALU — ask our opticians All social service customers are treated equally ; All New & Modern Optical Lab for Even Better Service & Quality + Over one million prescriptions filled

RICHMCND 145-4800 No. 3 Road Parkside 4806 270-3634

COQUITLAM

RIDGE Renaissance Mall

936-4522

SURREY 14787-108th Avenue 585-3132

ABBOTSFORD Unit # 106 32883 S. Fraser Way

D0 NOT APPLY

TIME OF ORDER

329 North Road #520 (Across from Sevenoakes)

852-6640

@ PREVIOUS DISCOUNTS

@ PAYMENT IN FULL AT

@ THERE IS NOGSTON

They had been Knocked down by shells all those years.’’

He recalls seeing a rabbit runn- ing around on the ridge in the middle of the bloody battle.

“God only knows where that tabbit came from,’’ he said. ‘‘He was just dodging; it scared the liver out of him.””

‘The minute we got over the top and went a hundred yards, there were his (the Germans’) trenches,'’ Thomas said.

By 7:30 a.m. the Canadians had fought through the German tren- ches and taken the ridge.

Cn one side of the hill was a peaceful farming community with picturesque pastures and cottages.

On the other side were the scores of dead and wounded hun- ched awkwardly in the mud.

Canada lost over 3,000 soldiers on Vimy Ridge that day, another 7,000 were wounded; the casualty total was considered relatively light compared with other First World War battles.

Canada had broken through the German front lines, capturing 54 guns, 104 mortars and more than 4,000 prisoners.

Afterward, King George V sent back a telegram saying: ‘Canada will be proud that the taking of the coveted Vimy Ridge has fallen to the lot of her troops.’’

Seventy-five years after the storming of the ridge, in a time when most of Canada’s fighting is between provinces, it is refreshing to note the words of another Vimy Ridge veteran: ‘‘We went up Vimy Ridge as Albertans and Nova Scotians. We came down as Canadians.”

A Vimy Ridge memorial cere- mony is scheduled for 12:45 p.m., Sunday, April 12, at South Me- morial Park, 41st and Windsor in Vancouver.

A large ceremony involving Ca- nadian veterans of Vimy Ridge will take place at the ridge in France tomorrow. Vimy Ridge is now a memorial to the soldiers who died on the ridge trying to liberate France.

NANAIMO

(franchised) Umit 33 ~ 1350 Terminal Avenue 753-0123

VICTORIA

(ranchised) 386-6622

KAMLOOPS

(franchised) -