On November 11 Neil & Penny Summers and Robert & Linda Campbell went to Vimy Ridge Park in Winnipeg to lay the Manitoba Branch’s Remembrance wreath and keep two minutes of silence at the Vimy monument. It was erected on Vimy Ridge in 1917 by the men of the 44th Battalion as a memorial to the 328 from the battalion who fell in the battles that year at Vimy Ridge, the Triangle, and La Coulotte. The memorial was subsequently brought to Winnipeg and re-erected in 1926.
Vimy Ridge Park, which was redesigned in 2017 in recognition of the 100th anniversary of those battles, contains two other monuments, one for the Royal Winnipeg Rifles, the “Little Black Devils,” the other for Andrew Mynarski, V.C.. The inscription on the Mynarski memorial is particularly poignant:
“In a blazing, crippled Avro Lancaster bomber with his parachute and clothing on fire, P/O Andrew Mynarski made the ultimate sacrifice in trying to save his friend, F/O Pat Brophy trapped in the rear turret. The tail gunner would survive the crash and reveal the story of the selfless act that led to Mynarski receiving a posthumous Victoria Cross, the last presented in the Second World War.
Thanks to James Campbell for accompanying us and taking these pictures.
