BS: Vimy Ridge : 3598 Dead, 7000 Wounded

To Thread - Forum Home

The Mudcat Café ^TM
https://mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=46319
16 messages

BS: Vimy Ridge : 3598 Dead, 7000 Wounded

09 Apr 02 - 04:36 PM (#686496)
Subject: Vimy Ridge : 3598 Dead, 7000 Wounded
From: gnu

Standing at the Cenotaph today, it was hard not to shed more than a few tears for the 3598 dead and 7000 wounded Canadians at the battle of Vimy Ridge, France, eighty-five years ago. As well, many others of various nationalities died at Vimy in the years pervious to the Canadaian undertaking.

Lest we forget.

09 Apr 02 - 05:06 PM (#686522)
Subject: RE: BS: Vimy Ridge : 3598 Dead, 7000 Wounded
From: Mrs.Duck

Vimy
Chorus
Raise your flask, aim your rifles high
I've had a dream, I've seen we three should have no fear at all
You'll die in Kenora, Billy; you, Jim, in Winnipeg
And I will end my days in Montreal

These people come to see me in my bedroom
With faces dim and names I can't recall
Some woman with a golden ring she comes to comb my hair
Then she dresses me and walks me down the hall
Well I can still put one foot before the other,
If someone points the way for me to go
Today the sun is shining and a crowd has gathered 'round
They put circles of red flowers on the stone

Chorus

Old Jim Rankin stood behind me in the tunnel
Spat on his bayonet and he wiped it with his hand
And he rocked from heel to heel, blew out his cheeks and whistled
While we waited for the signal to advance
Jimmy Rankin he was twenty and we thought him an old man
He said he'd fathered children by the score
By girls back in Winnipeg and girls in Calais
And he bragged, by God, there'd be a hundred more

Chorus

And Billy Whitefish from Kenora: jet black hair and eyes like coal
We all called him 'Chief' behind his back
He never smiled or laughed or joked or spoke that much at all
Just sat and smoked while we waited to attack
Well they poured shells over our heads into the hillside
In thirty yards our kit and boots were full of mud
But as we made the ridge, Jimmy went down on both knees
And he coughed into his sleeve and there was blood

Chorus

The last sound I ever heard was an explosion
And bodies flew like apples thrown by boys play
When I could see again, I was alone Jimmy wasn't there
And a crater marked the hillside where he'd lain
And Billy Whitefish from Kenora wound up in a German trench
Where he captured their machine gun all alone
And held them off until his ammunition was all spent
And they swarmed around and they hacked him to the bone

Chorus

Now every day I still remember what I told them
My two friends who that day from this earth were torn
And the craters and the trenches where they died now bear the names
Of the cities and the towns where they were born

Chorus

Lyrics from Tanglefoot

16 Apr 02 - 09:50 AM (#691242)
Subject: RE: BS: Vimy Ridge : 3598 Dead, 7000 Wounded
From: GUEST

First one dead a 6'9" Canadian - Thankfully, he procreated being being shot.

17 Apr 02 - 09:17 AM (#692019)
Subject: RE: BS: Vimy Ridge : 3598 Dead, 7000 Wounded
From: Coyote Breath

Oh God, that is a sad and hard song.

I have never seen such words about a battle before, who is Tanglefoot? what is the music to that song?

17 Apr 02 - 09:24 AM (#692029)
Subject: RE: BS: Vimy Ridge : 3598 Dead, 7000 Wounded
From: Guessed

Tanglefoot - are probably the Torontoan group that tour regularly in the UK.

17 Apr 02 - 01:12 PM (#692252)
Subject: RE: BS: Vimy Ridge : 3598 Dead, 7000 Wounded
From: Mrs.Duck

Tanglefoot website
Hope that worked. They are well worth listening to and a really nice bunch of guys.

17 Apr 02 - 04:43 PM (#692338)
Subject: RE: BS: Vimy Ridge : 3598 Dead, 7000 Wounded
From: GUEST,Dagenham Doc

Lest we forget indeed that it's not old soldiers that die............. just the young ones.

Doc

18 Apr 02 - 12:35 AM (#692597)
Subject: RE: BS: Vimy Ridge : 3598 Dead, 7000 Wounded
From: Murrey

.I would strongly recommend that if you have not heard them yet run out and find some Tanglefoot music right now !! They are absolutely brilliant and just the finest guys to work with and never pass up a chance to hear them live -it is a remarkable performance they do -we have had the pleasure to present them three times now at the Chocolate Church and certainly hope to again !! Murrey

18 Apr 02 - 05:12 PM (#693129)
Subject: RE: BS: Vimy Ridge : 3598 Dead, 7000 Wounded
From: Irish sergeant

Very poignant. Let me thank you. My Grandfather whom I never knew supposedly fought at Vimy Ridge. Vimy is symbolic of the sacrifises Canadian soldiers have made over the years. Very moving Lyrics and a reminder especially for thoise of us south of the border that the United States isn't the only country in North America that sends it's young men to fight overseas in the cause of freedom. Kindest regards, Neil

18 Apr 02 - 05:22 PM (#693138)
Subject: RE: BS: Vimy Ridge : 3598 Dead, 7000 Wounded
From: John Routledge

Sorry I can't make the Yorkshire Gathering as I will miss Mrs D's great version of Vimy Ridge.

Tanglefoot have quite an extensive UK tour this summer. Try and catch them. Much of their other material is also first class.

Thanks for the post gnu

18 Apr 02 - 06:32 PM (#693188)
Subject: RE: BS: Vimy Ridge : 3598 Dead, 7000 Wounded
From: Jeremiah McCaw

The Battle at Vimy Ridge marked the first time that the Canadian Army fought under its own command (as opposed to being an adjunct of the British Forces). Both British and French assaults had failed to take the ridge. At an incredible cost, Canada's soldiers did. In that day, Canada came of age in the eyes of the world.

The freedom that we enjoy is a great prize. It has come at a great price: one that continues to be paid by our finest young citizens.

18 Apr 02 - 09:45 PM (#693323)
Subject: RE: BS: Vimy Ridge : 3598 Dead, 7000 Wounded
From: DonD

"And did they believe when they told them the cause? And did they believe that this war would end wars?"

We sing the songs , but do we understand them?

I cry for the young men who died and continue to die in battle, but have a hard time believing they died 'for freedom'.

18 Apr 02 - 11:13 PM (#693375)
Subject: RE: BS: Vimy Ridge : 3598 Dead, 7000 Wounded
From: Little Hawk

Everyone dies for "freedom", according to his own view of what freedom is...that is, the freedom for his country and its dominant way of life to put into effect exactly what it regards as the best and most justifiable plan of action, in the face of another group of people who have an entirely different plan in mind. Plus the freedom to go on living for another day, which seems to require killing the guy on the other side of no man's land...or the other side of the trench. This is an experience common to all soldiers, regardless of their uniform.

When a war is won, one side's idea of "freedom" is finally crushed, while the other side's idea of it appears to have triumphed for the time being. Thus the gaining of freedom for one combatant is identical to the loss of freedom for the other...just as in a fight between 2 individuals.

And to the victors go the spoils.

Politicians always dress up their wars by speaking grandly of freedom...God forbid that the public should guess at the real nature of the bloody game.

This world is ruled not by justice, but by violence... actual or implied.

To the soldiers, brave men used by politicians to play cynical power games, I accord all honour...regardless of which uniform they wore. I don't thank them for giving me my freedom (they did not do that), but I honor them for giving their lives, for their courage, and for doing the best they knew how in an absolutely desperate, horrific situation.

- LH

18 Apr 02 - 11:33 PM (#693382)
Subject: RE: BS: Vimy Ridge : 3598 Dead, 7000 Wounded
From: Mickey191

As a tourist,I happened to be at Halifax Harbor when a Ship filled with young Canadian sailors was going to the gulf war. The harbor was filled with thousands of people on private crafts, blowing horns, with signs everywhere about kicking Saadam"s Ass,etc. It was a party. In a way, I couldn't believe the jolly atmosphere. Old men make the wars and the young pay and pay.I've often wondered if they all returned safely. I don't mind telling you-I cried.

19 Apr 02 - 04:43 AM (#693507)
Subject: RE: BS: Vimy Ridge : 3598 Dead, 7000 Wounded
From: GUEST,Boab

In no way intending to diminish the right to feel pride in the bravery and achievement of Canadian soldiers at Vimy Ridge---the impression is almost always given that only Canadians were involved in the final assault. Not so; I believe about 50% were British and other units. Canada is right to be proud of their forces on the day--and on many another day---but the involvement of others should not be ignored .

19 Apr 02 - 09:58 PM (#694107)
Subject: RE: BS: Vimy Ridge : 3598 Dead, 7000 Wounded
From: Coyote Breath

Thank you, Mrs. Duck, for the Tanglefoot site.

Michael Noline, a Chiricahua Apache from the Bedonkohe band (San Carlos Reservation) was the first American casuality (KIA) in the Gulf War.

I mention Michael Noline because no one seems to know who he was, or even THAT he was. And the irony is so resonant with what Mickey191 mentioned. My grandaughter is Serena Noline, a distant cousin.

Every once in a while there comes a song or a poem about war or born in war or from war experiences which is intense and moving and shouts for an end, finally. But there is no end and that is damned depressing!

Ralph Chapin's "Red Feast" is such a poem. Look for the original Little Red Songbook, or the IWW site, the complete words might be there. It too is from the "War to end all wars".

If only.