Canadians in a temporary support trench at Vimy, April 1917. The Canadian attack succeeded, where British and French attempts had failed. The French alone are thought to have lost 150,000 men at Vimy, before being replaced by the British who were driven back and replaced by the Canadians.
Photo Credit: Canadian War Records Office- CWM

Industrial development adds haste to search for WWI dead

A Canadian researcher is hoping to locate the bodies of some 44 Canadian soldiers killed during the battle at Vimy in the First World War, and he says after 97 years, there’s an urgency to the task.

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The Canadian memorial at Vimy Ridge in April, 2014. The Canadians succeeded in taking the strategic high ground, but at a cost of 4,000 killed and 6,000 wounded, many horribly so. © Michael Springler- AP

Norm Christie is a WWI expert, a well known military/historical author, lecturer, battlefield tour guide and former member of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission.

He says the soldiers of the 16th Battalion -3rd Brigade, known as the Canadian Scottish Regiment (Princess Mary’s) were killed during the battle at Vimy Ridge. In April 1917, the 650 members managed to break through the heavily defended German front lines. Some 100 Canadians were killed in the effort. “That’s a success, by First World War standards”, says Christie.

Of those 44 were buried in a giant bomb crater for convenience with the intention to have them relocated to a proper cemetery later, but somehow that didn’t happen.  The nearby 9 Elms Cemetery has their grave markers, but not the bodies.  Meanwhhile, the location of the makeshift crater site “CA-40” was lost.

After searching records and period maps, Christie thinks he knows the location, which is currently under a potato field at Neuville-St-Vaast.. However the nearby city of Arras has expropriated the farmland  and the area is slated for development into an industrial park, and Christie says it’s time to find the soldiers remains and give them a proper burial.

He says the men, mostly from Manitoba, if found, would be identified through DNA testing of current descendants.

Locating the remains would be done through deep penetrating ground radar. Some previous efforts had been made, but that radar did not go deep enough. Christie says the bodies are likely six metres deep.

He notes the French government remains cooperative but notes because of the plans to develop the area into an industrial park, time is becoming important.

He also points out that digging anywhere in the area around the battle zone is still very dangerous as it’s still riddled with unexploded shells.

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