The word conjures images of blood and death. Of men caught in barbed wire and mowed down by machine-gun fire. Of the horror and senselessness of war.
But for many Canadians it also sparks a fierce sense of nationalism. It91裸聊视频檚 the moment, they say, when Canada was born 91裸聊视频� or at least came of age as a country.
On Sunday morning, millions of Canadians will stop for a moment to remember those lost during the Battle of Vimy Ridge.
Some will gather around the soaring white monument erected on the high point that thousands of Canadians 91裸聊视频� farmers, miners, teachers and lawyers 91裸聊视频� had fought and died to capture exactly 100 years ago.
They will stand with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and other dignitaries, including Prince Charles and sons William and Harry, amid the mournful skirl of a lone bagpiper and a children91裸聊视频檚 choir singing 91裸聊视频淚n Flanders Fields.91裸聊视频�
Millions more will listen to the two-hour ceremony on their radios or watch on their televisions, or bow their heads at similar events at local monuments inscribed with the names of the dead.
Many like Toronto businessman Drew Hamblin, who will spend Sunday at Vimy with his father and two children, had grandfathers who told them about the rain and the cold and the rat-infested tunnels.
91裸聊视频淚 got to see how it affected my grandfather,91裸聊视频� Hamblin said. 91裸聊视频淎nd he, in turn, passed it on to me. We were inseparable when I was a kid, and this is my way of honouring him and everyone who fought with him.91裸聊视频�
Others have only sepia-toned photographs or letters and diaries to remember great uncles and distant cousins who were among the 10,500 Canadians killed or wounded during the four-day battle for the ridge.
And then there will be those for whom the connection to Vimy will be more symbolic, a recognition of the individual sacrifices and what they did for Canada and the world.
There is a fierce debate over the actual importance of the Battle of Vimy Ridge.
The battle marked the first time all four Canadian divisions fought together side-by-side during the war, advancing together into the sleet and bullets and bombs on April 9, 1917: Easter Monday.
Not only did the Canadians succeed where the English and French had failed by capturing the strategically important ridge from the Germans, they did it with several innovative approaches to warfare.
91裸聊视频淚t was important just as a symbol of bringing everyone together,91裸聊视频� said Jeremy Diamond, president of the Vimy Foundation, the mission of which is to promote and preserve Canada91裸聊视频檚 First World War legacy.
91裸聊视频淭here91裸聊视频檚 a sense of accomplishment of what we did.91裸聊视频�
In 1936, as Canadians and many others around the world watched the Vimy monument91裸聊视频檚 unveiling, retired brigadier-general Alexander Ross famously intoned that the battle had marked 91裸聊视频渢he birth of a nation.91裸聊视频�
But it wasn91裸聊视频檛 the largest battle that the Canadians fought in the First World War. The Somme and Passchendaele were bloodier. And even those who fought there said it wasn91裸聊视频檛 the most important.
91裸聊视频淲e fought other battles where the moral and material results were greater and more far reaching than Vimy91裸聊视频檚 victory,91裸聊视频� Canada91裸聊视频檚 greatest First World War general, Sir Arthur Curry, said in April 1922.
91裸聊视频淚t did not call for the same degree of resource and initiative that were displayed in any of the three great battles of the last hundred days: Amiens, Arras, Cambrai.91裸聊视频�
The battle doesn91裸聊视频檛 even have the distinction of being the first with a Canadian in command of the Canadian Corps. That would come four months later, at Hill 70, when the Canadians fought under Currie.
Vimy also wasn91裸聊视频檛 the first choice for Canada91裸聊视频檚 First World War memorial. That was Ypres, Belgium, until the British built their national memorial there. Vimy was the next best location because of its accessibility.
As for unity, there are those who say Vimy actually exacerbated divisions between English-Canada, which supported the war, and French-Canada, which opposed it, by pushing the country closer to conscription.
Those who herald the importance of Vimy acknowledge all this, but say it is what Vimy has come to represent over the years and decades that matters.
For Gov.-Gen. David Johnston, it is the way the battle was fought, with commanders trusting their troops and thinking about warfare differently, that he believes is reflective of what sets Canada apart today.
91裸聊视频淎ll of those were things that I think came to mark Canadians not only as warriors,91裸聊视频� he says, 91裸聊视频渂ut to some degree how we carry out our day-to-day affairs.91裸聊视频�
For others, Vimy represents Canada91裸聊视频檚 transformation from a British colony to a country confident of its place in the world and worthy of other91裸聊视频檚 respect 芒鈧�91裸聊视频� what some call its coming of age as a nation.
91裸聊视频淰imy is often shorthand for the First World War,91裸聊视频� says military historian and author Tim Cook, whose most recent book is entitled 91裸聊视频淰imy: The Battle and the Legend.91裸聊视频�
91裸聊视频淲e did emerge as a different country coming out of the First World War. Sixty-six thousand dead. A country that had stepped up. A country that was nearly torn apart. We91裸聊视频檙e never the same after the First World War.91裸聊视频�
But Vimy91裸聊视频檚 real importance and power appears to be in the fact that many Canadians believe it is important, which is why they will watch and listen as the country looks back in time.
91裸聊视频淓very society, every group has its own myths, symbols, explanations for where they came from,91裸聊视频� says Queen91裸聊视频檚 University history professor Allan English.
91裸聊视频淪ymbols are just shorthand for something that91裸聊视频檚 really much more complicated. So Vimy has over time become the symbol of a birth of a nation.
91裸聊视频淓ven though you can deconstruct it, it91裸聊视频檚 become that.91裸聊视频�
