Vimy Ridge
1: The victory at Vimy was a defining event for Canada,
2: It was considered by many contemporaries and later scholars to be a significant event in Canada’s progress to full independence from Britain. 3: Vimy Ridge is seven kilometers long field in northern France. 4: It was held as a commanding view over the surrounding countryside. 5: There were previous unsuccessful attacks on French and British as they had suffered over 150,000 casualties. 6: In early 1917, British High Command ordered the Canadian Corps to capture the position as part of a larger spring offensive in the Arras area. 7: In the coming campaign, British forces were sent to the south with limited success. 8:As for the French would fail badly, with many of their units reduced to mutiny. 9: Lieutenant-General Sir Julian Byng, the Canadian Corps commander, were ordered new tactics for the upcoming assault. 10: Having learned from the Battle of the Somme, intense training to better prepare the soldiers for what they might find on the battlefield was established. 11: It was efficient and successful as it helped them to make quick decisions on their own that were still in keeping with the overall plan. 12: Small units and individual soldiers were given much more information about the battle, and were expected to exercise initiative in keeping the advance moving, even if their officers were killed or wounded. 13: There was a tremendous artillery barrage, which included improved techniques for counter-battery fire against enemy guns, which would smash German positions and isolate enemy troops in their dugouts. 14: At 5:30 a.m. on 9 April 1917, Easter Monday, nearly 1,000 guns opened fire on the German positions. An estimated 15,000 Canadians rose from the trenches and advanced towards the ridge in the first wave, with thousands more behind them. Canadians captured most of the ridge on the 9th, and the remaining portions of it by the 12th. 15: Over four days of fighting and bloodshed, the Canadians had overrun Vimy Ridge at the cost of more than 10,600 killed and wounded. |
Dear Child of the Future,
Dear Child of the Future,
I have thought of when you would have to learn of all the chaos man has created. As you sit there, in your history class, you only know the facts. However, dear child you haven't seen its horrors. You sit there thinking "How was it like?", "What were the thoughts running through their heads?” Yet I am here, writing this to you so please try to understand.
I sit here in the most dark and empty space mankind has left. I sit here remembering my little girl Liliana, her beautiful smile as she holds her diary, my brave son John who has never failed to impress me, and my beautiful wife, her kind gentle hands stroking her children with all the love there is to give, eyes that warm your soul, keep you safe.
I ask for forgiveness, for I will not answer all of your questions, for I will give something much greater. I ask for your soul to never fade in the empty dark space of the human mind. Sitting in a small space were you must eventually cross the line that shouldn’t be crossed, you sit waiting for a chance to go back, you sit and think.
I ask for you not to think of me, but to think of all those who think. Sit and think. I shall never give up those thoughts, to those you caused them.
Sitting there in your chair and desk, don’t think of me, think of those you love, because one day you won’t be able to.
Mankind should be put in a cell, where we can’t cause harm to ourselves and others. The gods will one day forgive us and again we make the same mistakes. Don’t make them, fix them.
Man, should learn to forgive, to learn to learn more, accept more, and forgive. I ask for you, dear child, be a part of the solution, even if you sacrifice the things you love, to help those who can’t. Sacrifice something worth sacrificing; sometimes it’s best to interfere with your guts.
Dear child sitting in your chair and desk, don’t cross the line. No matter what.
Running and holding a gun in your hand you feel power and hopelessness, you run as you hear explosions, cries of pain, and you don’t stop moving. You run for a goal, don’t stop thinking of the goal, for it keeps you going, it’s your gasoline. Keep your gasoline going or else you will fail, you will collapse, you lose your fuel, game over. You can’t feel anything, you feel inhuman, and you are no longer the person you once were. So, if you forget you’ll be lost in your dark empty space for eternity. You memories it was keeps you going, you don't think of what your family thinks of you don't feel alone, those memories is the only thing that you need to put walls around keep it safe at all costs.
Dear Liliana, John, and my wonderful Mary, I ask for forgiveness, nothing is worth sacrificing you, others will one day learn from our one huge mistake.
-Peter Xavier Roberts
Dear Person of the Future,
August 19th, 1915
I am an eleven year old girl, hiding in my bedroom, to stay away from my family, hiding the pain that runs through me. I know that I will someday regret not spending time with my family, but I believe this is more important. I hide not because I hate my family, but because I don’t want to see my mother’s red and puffy eyes from crying every night. Or to see my brother’s disgust with my father for abandoning us for maybe forever, but I don’t blame him. I want to have the remaining happy memories with him to be happy.
So I sit here to plead to you, whoever you are, to save the future you have. If there is peace and freedom right now while you’re reading this, I want you to make it a priority to keep it. If there is suffering in a different country stop it, depose of it, make all those responsible of starting it, and thinking making a war was a a good idea pay dearly. So you and the people alive can live the lives you were meant to live. To make decisions and solve conflicts without resorting to violence.
Why Cause in the end, you will see, hear and live with such empty weight in your brain, that you start to question man’s capability of making smart decisions that lead to a brighter future. I have the memories of last year in my mind clear as day, I was still so petrified for months I couldn't sleep. Soon after I soon forced myself to forget, the peace didn't last long. The running, my heart begging to explode in my chest, the 10 huge explosions, the thoughts of "Why in a school?", but that picture will forever be planted inside my mind. Burned, they were completely burned, not one chance to run from the nightmare. Only a class of 6th graders and a couple of teachers left with a heartbeat.
I can already feel it in my bones that there will be another war soon, maybe mankind was put on this planet as an experiment, the gods wanted to see if some creature as destructive as we, be able to cure ourselves. However, we are left in the bitter dark rule of those who don’t have kindness in their heart, but full of greed, and not an ounce of selflessness.
Not everybody is bad but most can’t control those who can fix their mistakes, so we fight for what is left in our power to fix. The ones who want a cure spread the message nobody can do anything on their own.
Fighting for peace is a great cause, but sometimes I wish no one did in the first place. If no one started fighting there wouldn’t be such a big war, or there wouldn’t even be one. No troops, no gunman, no one to drive tanks, no one to fly jets, no one to command, no commander, no one left to fight.
No war.
No tears, no pain, no suffering, no loneliness, no regret.
“End what was never to be started”
-Liliana Marie Roberts
March 10th, 1940,
I found this in my old bedroom; I am know 39 years of age and only lived with 21 years with peace, my mother died of a heart attack 5 months after the yellow note.
The man that brought the note also found a letter my father wrote before going into battle, the note that I still have to this day in my pocket, and it’s never going anywhere, I promised my mother. My father passed away in the war, was what the yellow note said, she couldn’t handle the news her heart was already weak. I’m now with 2 children, a 10 year old son Luc, and a 7 year old daughter Julia. I have a loving husband, and an older brother that cares for my children as his own.
I already know that probably no will ever read this but it’s worth a shot. You if you’re reading this probably already know that there is now another way, the Germans still haven’t found the cure. Poor Jewish innocents are left to blame for the Germans not being able to comprehend the thought of just losing.
I no longer plead to you, but beg to you with the lives of my children, save yourselves, find a cure, or humanity will be lost for all the years that could have been.
Yours Truly,
Liliana Marie Roberts
I am an eleven year old girl, hiding in my bedroom, to stay away from my family, hiding the pain that runs through me. I know that I will someday regret not spending time with my family, but I believe this is more important. I hide not because I hate my family, but because I don’t want to see my mother’s red and puffy eyes from crying every night. Or to see my brother’s disgust with my father for abandoning us for maybe forever, but I don’t blame him. I want to have the remaining happy memories with him to be happy.
So I sit here to plead to you, whoever you are, to save the future you have. If there is peace and freedom right now while you’re reading this, I want you to make it a priority to keep it. If there is suffering in a different country stop it, depose of it, make all those responsible of starting it, and thinking making a war was a a good idea pay dearly. So you and the people alive can live the lives you were meant to live. To make decisions and solve conflicts without resorting to violence.
Why Cause in the end, you will see, hear and live with such empty weight in your brain, that you start to question man’s capability of making smart decisions that lead to a brighter future. I have the memories of last year in my mind clear as day, I was still so petrified for months I couldn't sleep. Soon after I soon forced myself to forget, the peace didn't last long. The running, my heart begging to explode in my chest, the 10 huge explosions, the thoughts of "Why in a school?", but that picture will forever be planted inside my mind. Burned, they were completely burned, not one chance to run from the nightmare. Only a class of 6th graders and a couple of teachers left with a heartbeat.
I can already feel it in my bones that there will be another war soon, maybe mankind was put on this planet as an experiment, the gods wanted to see if some creature as destructive as we, be able to cure ourselves. However, we are left in the bitter dark rule of those who don’t have kindness in their heart, but full of greed, and not an ounce of selflessness.
Not everybody is bad but most can’t control those who can fix their mistakes, so we fight for what is left in our power to fix. The ones who want a cure spread the message nobody can do anything on their own.
Fighting for peace is a great cause, but sometimes I wish no one did in the first place. If no one started fighting there wouldn’t be such a big war, or there wouldn’t even be one. No troops, no gunman, no one to drive tanks, no one to fly jets, no one to command, no commander, no one left to fight.
No war.
No tears, no pain, no suffering, no loneliness, no regret.
“End what was never to be started”
-Liliana Marie Roberts
March 10th, 1940,
I found this in my old bedroom; I am know 39 years of age and only lived with 21 years with peace, my mother died of a heart attack 5 months after the yellow note.
The man that brought the note also found a letter my father wrote before going into battle, the note that I still have to this day in my pocket, and it’s never going anywhere, I promised my mother. My father passed away in the war, was what the yellow note said, she couldn’t handle the news her heart was already weak. I’m now with 2 children, a 10 year old son Luc, and a 7 year old daughter Julia. I have a loving husband, and an older brother that cares for my children as his own.
I already know that probably no will ever read this but it’s worth a shot. You if you’re reading this probably already know that there is now another way, the Germans still haven’t found the cure. Poor Jewish innocents are left to blame for the Germans not being able to comprehend the thought of just losing.
I no longer plead to you, but beg to you with the lives of my children, save yourselves, find a cure, or humanity will be lost for all the years that could have been.
Yours Truly,
Liliana Marie Roberts