The uncanny inspiration behind Canada 's Vimy Ridge Memorial and
a really really poignant 9 minute youtube of the carvings (the plaster casts that are at the Canadian War Museum)
Walter Allward, the sculptor and designer of the memorial stated in a 1921 interview that his idea for the memorial was inspired by a wartime dream that he had never forgotten:
“When things were at their blackest in France, I went to sleep one night after dwelling on all the muck and misery over there, my spirit was like a thing tormented… I dreamed I was in a great battlefield. I saw our men going in by the thousands and being mowed down by the sickles of death… Suffering beyond endurance at the sight, I turned my eyes and found myself looking down on an avenue of poplars. Suddenly through the avenue I saw thousands marching to the aid of our armies. They were the dead. They rose in masses, filed silently by and entered the fight to aid the living. So vivid was this impression, that when I awoke it stayed with me for months. Without the dead we were helpless. So I have tried to show this in this monument to Canada’s fallen, what we owed them and we will forever owe them.”
Wow. "Without the dead we were helpless"
I am Canadian and lost two great-uncles (brothers) at Ypres. I would be interested know if anyone knows of any other memorial to fallen soldiers includes a reference to "sympathy for the helpless"
Here's think to the youtube...very powerful
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