Scarlett

The Canadian War Monument, Ypres. The Canadians played a huge part in Belgium in the First World War, and as a result, Vimy Ridge belongs to Canada.

Although it was fought in Western/Central Europe, troops fighting in the First World War came from all over the world. In the Commonwealth Graveyard in Ypres there are graves with the emblem of the soldier’s country. It is rather chilling to see pictures of the marching Commonwealth troops, each batallion from a different part of the world, with the different nationalities in their traditional uniform, displaced half-way accross the world, their only interest in this conflict being whether they were controlled by George V or Kaiser Wilhelm.