Members of the military, special guests, and residents paused Sunday afternoon at the Belleville Cenotaph to commemorate three pivotal battles and occasions in World Wars I and II.
The sacrifices of the thousands of Canadians killed and wounded in the Battle of Vimy Ridge, the Battle of the Atlantic, and the celebrations of VE day were remembered in a ceremony organized by the Belleville Veterans Council.
(Photo: Quinte News)
Vimy Ridge is in northern France and in April of 1917, during the First World War, the Canadian Corps fought the Germans there. The Canadians won but more than 10,000 were killed or wounded.
The Battle of the Atlantic, from 1939 to 1945, was the longest continuous battle of the Second World War as the Allies struggled to control the North Atlantic. Around 4,400 Canadian seamen, merchant mariners and airmen lost their lives in those years.
VE Day (Victory in Europe) was celebrated on May 8, 1945, as the official end of fighting in Europe, during the Second World War.
Across Canada, celebrations were held to mark the occasion. Celebrations continue to this day, especially in Europe. More than a million Canadians served in World War II and 42,000 lost their lives with many thousands of others being wounded.
Major Curtis Butler of the Salvation Army said wars were always started the same way.
“One hundred and fifty seven countries in the world Canada has the fallen soldiers, markers underground. One hundred fifty-seven countries, wars that began with words.”
Major Butler noted that although wars were always started with words, peace was also always attained by people talking to each other.
“Maybe the greatest monument that we have outside of Canada is the one at Vimy Ridge and maybe many of you have been there. As you make your way, you see those great pylons standing at a great distance, far off, these two great towering pylons of white limestone. The stone towers, and they stand vigil over a brutalized earth, a battlefield pocked and scarred with the millions of shells that were detonated upon it. As you stand in that place and gaze at the magnificence of Walter Allward’s sculpture you realize that this is not a memorial to war. He made it, he carved it over all of those years as a memorial to the futility of war. And as you look at all of the sculpted images there they are all in mourning. Statues of parents doubled over in grief, we see these incredible pictures of pain, for it is true that in peacetime, sons bury their fathers, but in wartime, fathers bury their sons.
And there is a great lady standing on the wall at Vimy. She represents Mother Canada herself. Her head covered in a shawl looking down, even bereft of tears, the mourning coming from her heart as she stands looking out over no man’s land, or Hill 145 as it was known in the battle coordinates. It is not a memory of a great victory, it is a memory of a great loss.”
Major Curtis Butler. (Photo: Quinte News)
Major Butler spoke about the power of the Vimy Memorial Monument in France and why such monuments and other war memorials are so important.
“So that we can see again the names, so that we can hear again this call to remember. So we can realize again the cost of war.”
Laying wreaths at the ceremony were Bay of Quinte riding MPP Todd Smith, mayor of Belleville Neil Ellis, 8 Wing AMS CFB Trenton, The Hastings & Prince Edward Regiment, Belleville Veterans Council, ANAVETS Duke of Edinburgh Unit 201, 1st Canadian Army Veterans Motorcycle Formation, Afghanistan Unit, Royal Canadian Legion Branch 99, 418 Wing Royal Canadian Air Force Association, and The Hastings & Prince Edward Regimental Association.
Veterans salute and to the right of them are the mayor of Belleville Neil Ellis and Bay of Quinte riding MPP Todd Smith. (Photo: Quinte News)
(Photo: Quinte News)
(Photo: Quinte News)
