Today we slept in until 8am and did not leave the hotel until 9.45. Susan has a cold so decided to sleep in longer and skip todays trip. First we drove to Vimy Ridge about 10km and were given a guided tour of the forward Canadian and German trenches. They are only 75 meters apart, the tour guides are all Canadian students. Our guide said this was the closest the enemies were anywhere in the Battle of the Somme. We then went down into the tunnels which come right up to the front line and go back to where the main Canadian encampment was about 7km behind. The tunnels were really neat and we probably toured about 500 meters which are open to the public by guided tour only. One interesting fact we were told by our guide was about a Scottish Regiment who also fought here. 1000 soldiers dressed in their kilts waited in this tunnel to be called into battle. They were supposed to wait for 12 hours but ended up being here practically in the dark for 36 hours without even enough room to sit or lay down. The forward trenches normally had only 7 or 8 soldiers per sector whose job was to watch the enemy and report any signs of an attack. The communication runners would run back and forth between the lines to report any movement. Our guide told us their lifespan as a runner was 7 days. These were the only people who were allowed to sleep in the tunnels near the front lines.
Next we went to The Vimy Memorial where we had a group photo without Susie. The monument is amazing with the names of 11,000 Canadians whose bodies were not found inscribed on the base. I will post pictures of Vimy later tonight.
We then went to the 2 Canadian cemetarys nearby. Then to Cabaret Rouge Cemetery which is the largest commonwealth cemetery in France. It is also where the unknown Canadian soldier was buried before he was exhumed and taken back home in 2000 to Ottawa as a symbol of all missing and unknown soldiers who fell in WW1.
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