On Vimy Ridge looking over Givenchy to the
Lens-Arras Road and Avion, 22 May 1919
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Today (April 9th) commemorates the 89th anniversary of the first day of the assault that the Canadian soldiers launched to break through German lines at Vimy Ridge, France.
This assault had a symbolical start, April 9th, 1917 being Easter Monday. I don’t think the troops meant to start on such a day, but all the prior preparations converged to mark this as the most favorable moment for attack.
A winning plan and strategy organized and spear-headed by Canadian Major General Arthur Currie, as well as a united Canadian force (which normally fought in regional troupes) gave Canada a new-found respect and position amongst the world’s important nations.
The battle at Vimy Ridge successfully made headways through the German forces along the Western Front.
Artist David Milne, whose collection of watercolors can be seen currently at the Art Gallery of Ontario, served in World War I in 1918, although he never saw action. After the armistice, The Canadian War Records assigned him to paint the Canadian participation in the War.
David Milne’s crosses at the Courcelette Canadian cemetery near the ridge, of soldiers from the earlier Battle of Somme, look almost inconspicuous. What I find especially beguiling is how the flowers and grass seem to dominate over the crosses. As though the graves of the soldiers had already merged with the landscape, and with the land. The only macabre scene is the background of burnt, leafless trees near the small town of Courcelette. Ashes to ashes, dust to dust. And life goes on.
Courcelette from the cemetery, 26 July 1919
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Neuville-St-Vaast from the poppy fields, 5 July 1919
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The battleground at Neuvill-St-Vaast once again is being overrun with vegetation and life. The ominous background of scorched trees remind us of what recently took place.
Milne’s paintings dwell on delicate lines and colors. He usually makes ample, and unabashed, use of black. Yet he submerges many of his war paintings with white. As though leaving us with pieces of hope and optimism in the patches of blank canvass.
Well, Milne may have been partially wrong, since another great War was to overcome Europe only two decades later.
But, we can hope that he was more farsighted than that.