Battle of Vimy Ridge

The Canadian National Vimy Memorial is a war memorial site in France dedicated to the memory of Canadian Expeditionary Force members killed during the First World War. It also serves as the place of commemoration for Canadian soldiers of the First World War killed or presumed dead in France who have no known grave. The monument is the centrepiece of a 100-hectare (250-acre) preserved battlefield park that encompasses a portion of the ground over which the Canadian Corps made their assault during the initial Battle of Vimy Ridge offensive of the Battle of Arras. The Battle of Vimy Ridge was the first time all four divisions of the Canadian Expeditionary Force participated in a battle as a cohesive formation, and it became a Canadian national symbol of achievement and sacrifice. France ceded to Canada the perpetual use of a portion of land on Vimy Ridge on the understanding that Canada use the land to establish a battlefield park and memorial. Wartime tunnels, trenches, craters, and unexploded munitions still honeycomb the grounds of the site, which remains largely closed off for reasons of public safety. Along with preserved trench lines, several other memorials and cemeteries are contained within the park. The project took designer Walter Seymour Allward eleven years to build. King Edward VIII unveiled it on 26 July 1936 in the presence of French President Albert Lebrun and a crowd of over 50,000 people, including 6,200 attendees from Canada. Following an extensive multi-year restoration, Queen Elizabeth II re-dedicated the monument on 9 April 2007 at a ceremony commemorating the 90th anniversary of the battle. The site is maintained by Veterans Affairs Canada. The Vimy Memorial is one of only two National Historic Sites of Canada located outside the country, the other being the Beaumont-Hamel Newfoundland Memorial.

The Battle of Arras was fought on 9 May 1915 on the Western Front in France. The so-called Bayonne Legion (a French Foreign Legion infantry unit which consisted of ethnic Polish volunteers) clashed with troops of the Imperial German Army, defending the hill of Vimy, located 10 kilometers north of Arras, France. The Czechoslovak battalion Nazdar also took part in the engagement, the first battle of what would become the Czechoslovak Legion, and was nearly wiped out in the process.

Givenchy-en-Gohelle (French pronunciation: [ʒivɑ̃ʃi ɑ̃ ɡɔɛl]; Picard: Givinchy-in-Gohelle) is a commune in the Pas-de-Calais department in the Hauts-de-France region of France. The village was destroyed during World War I but was rebuilt after the war.

Neuville-Saint-Vaast (French pronunciation: [nøvil sɛ̃ va]) is a commune in the Pas-de-Calais department in the Hauts-de-France region of France. It is located 3.2 kilometres (2.0 mi) south of the Canadian National Vimy Memorial dedicated to the Battle of Vimy Ridge. The Memorial was built on Hill 145, the highest point of the ridge to commemorate the battle and the Canadian soldiers who lost their lives during the First World War. The Memorial is also the site of the Canadian Cemetery No. 2, Neuville-St.-Vaast and Givenchy Road Canadian Cemetery, Neuville-St.-Vaast.The Neuville-St Vaast German war cemetery (also called Maison Blanche) is the largest in France from WWI, with 44,833 buried here.

William "Willie" Middleton Wallace (23 September 1892 – 22 August 1915) was a rugby union player. He played fullback for Cambridge University RFC and was capped for Scotland in 1913–14. Having grown up in Edinburgh, Willie Wallace went to King's College, Cambridge in 1912, where he was immediately noticed for his rugby-playing ability. He was selected to play against Oxford in the Varsity Match in his first term. Later in the season, in March 1913, Scotland picked him to play away against England, in a close game, which England won by just three points. The following season he played in all three Home Nations matches against Wales, Ireland and England. He was commissioned second lieutenant in The Rifle Brigade (Prince Consort's Own) at the start of the First World War and departed for the Western Front a few weeks later. In February 1915, he was attached to the Royal Flying Corps and soon became No. 2 Squadron's senior observer. In August 1915, while on a photographic reconnaissance mission, his aircraft was shot down in northern France, near Lille. At the time of his death, it was suggested that he might have been the first undergraduate to see action in the war.

The zone rouge (English: red zone) is a chain of non-contiguous areas throughout northeastern France that the French government isolated after the First World War. The land, which originally covered more than 1,200 square kilometres (460 sq mi), was deemed too physically and environmentally damaged by conflict for human habitation. Rather than attempt to immediately clean up the former battlefields, the land was allowed to return to nature. Restrictions within the Zone Rouge still exist today, although the control areas have been greatly reduced. The zone rouge was defined just after the war as "Completely devastated. Damage to properties: 100%. Damage to Agriculture: 100%. Impossible to clean. Human life impossible".Under French law, activities such as housing, farming, or forestry were temporarily or permanently forbidden in the Zone Rouge, because of the vast amounts of human and animal remains, and millions of items of unexploded ordnance contaminating the land. Some towns and villages were never permitted to be rebuilt after the war.

Souchez (French pronunciation: [suʃe]) is a commune in the Pas-de-Calais department in the Hauts-de-France region of France. It is located 3.2 kilometres (2.0 mi) northwest of the Canadian National Vimy Memorial dedicated to the Battle of Vimy Ridge and the missing First World War Canadian soldiers with no known grave; the Memorial is also the site of two Canadian cemeteries.

Thélus (French pronunciation: [tely]) is a commune in the Pas-de-Calais department in the Hauts-de-France region of France. It is located four kilometres (2.5 mi) southeast of the Canadian National Vimy Memorial dedicated to the Battle of Vimy Ridge and the missing First World War Canadian soldiers with no known grave; the Memorial is also the site of two Canadian cemeteries.

Vimy ( or ; French pronunciation: [vimi]) is a commune in the French department of Pas-de-Calais. Located 3.8 kilometers (2.4 mi) east of Vimy is the Canadian National Vimy Memorial dedicated to the Battle of Vimy Ridge and the Canadian soldiers who were killed during the First World War. The Memorial is also the site of two Canadian cemeteries.

The Neuville-St Vaast German War Cemetery (also called Maison Blanche) is a World War I cemetery located near Neuville-Saint-Vaast, a small village, near Arras, Pas-de-Calais, in Northern France. It is the largest German cemetery in France, containing 44,833 burials, of which 8,040 were never identified.

The Canton of Vimy was a canton in northern France, in the Pas-de-Calais département. It was disbanded following the French canton reorganisation which came into effect in March 2015. It consisted of 20 communes, and had 22,749 inhabitants in 2012.

Écurie (French pronunciation: [ekyʁi] ) is a commune in the Pas-de-Calais department in the Hauts-de-France region of France.