Day 6: Monday, June 3rd, 2021 (Vimy and Dieppe)
Visit the Vimy Ridge Historic Site
Walk along Vimy Ridge, where in 1917, Canadian troops came together to accomplish what larger British and French forces had failed to do, and what would become a defining moment in the first World War. See where these brave soldiers charged over the ridge, marching under continuous, heavy fire and cleverly isolating the German troops in their dugouts. A towering, white marble monument now marks Hill 145, the place where the capture of Vimy Ridge ended in a bayonet charge against machine-gun nests. Learn more about this stunning victory that Brigadier-General A.E. Ross called “the birth of a nation.”
Click here for a tour guide for vimy ridge
Visit the Neuville-St VaastGerman War Cemetery
Take the opportunity to explore a German War Cemetery to widen your perspective of the experience of war and memorialization. This cemetery was established by the French in 1919 as a concentration cemetery for German war casualties from the regions north and east of Arras. It is the largest German cemetery in France, containing 44,833 burials. There is no central building, just a field of crosses, with soldiers buried four to a grave. There are, too, a few headstones for Jewish soldiers who fell fighting for Imperial Germany. The bulk of the fatalities occurred during the Battles of Artois and the Battles of Arras during the First World War.
- Visit Rings of Remembrance. Over 500,000 names are listed from all nationalities who died fighting during the First World War in the small section of France that the monument overlooks.
Click here for Rings of Remembrance Tour Guide
Visit the Beaumont-Hamel Newfoundland Memorial
This morning you will have a guided visit of the Beaumont-Hamel Newfoundland Memorial, built to commemorate and honour all of the soldiers from Newfoundland and Labrador who were killed during the First World War. Opened in 1925, the memorial features a 15m bronze caribou overlooking the battlefield and remaining trenches. The site also includes an excellent visitors’ centre which details the story of the Royal Newfoundland Regiment. As the largest memorial site of the six memorials erected by the Government of Newfoundland following the First World War, it is an immersive, contemplative, humbling and emotional experience for all who visit.
- During the battle of the Somme, the Newfoundland Regiment was ordered over the top at Beaumont-Hamel, in a suicidal attack on the German front line. Out of 800 Newfoundlanders who attacked, only 68 survived to answer role call the next day.
Click here for tour guide to Beaumont Hamel
Visit the site of the 1942 raid that saw the Canadians suffer over 3,000 causalities. It was said their sacrifice saved countless lives on D-Day with the lessons learned from the operation.
- Tour Director-led Sightseeing of Dieppe
- Dinner and overnight in Dieppe