Vimy Ridge Memorial

Canadian memorial. If you can visit, then take the tour run by Canadian students and which includes walking through various tunnels. All very interesting and humbling. The memorial itself is stunning. 

On the way back to Arras we made a diversion to visit the German Military cemetery at Maison Blanche (see extra). Very different to the Commonwealth War Grave sites but all these men were someone's son or husband. All a desperate waste. The graves are marked by a simple metal cross or other marker. Most crosses have 4 names, 2 on each side. 44,000 men lay here.

Back to Arras and our final stop on this short visit was to the Carrière Wellington. A strategic location and a place to live, the Wellington quarry, dug almost exclusively by the New Zealand sappers.  It preserves the memory of the thousands of soldiers quartered a few meters from the front line, before setting off on the battlefield 9 April 1917 at 5:30 in the morning, to attack by surprise the German positions. The bottles in my extra, extra were found on site.