Aubade at Vimy

To commemorate the 100^th anniversary of the Battle on April 9, 1917

We storm the ridge at 5:30 am.

Plan and rehearse.

More than 15,000 Canadian infantry,

four Canadian divisions,

we attack together for the first time.

Training behind enemy lines,

we use models to represent the battlefield.

Engineers dug deep tunnels from the rear to the front line.

Many had specialist roles as machine-gunners,

rifle-men, and grenade-throwers.

Plan and rehearse.

Devastating artillery barrage would isolate enemy trenches.

A moving wall of high explosives and shrapnel would force the Germans

to stay in their deep dugouts and away from their machine-guns.

Our artillery pounded the enemy positions on the ridge,

killing and tormenting defenders this past week.

Plan and rehearse.

Who of us will get to go home to Saskatchewan farms and Newfoundland fisheries?

We will fight for days, weeks, if necessary.

We will fight as one unit, as one nation called Canada.

Plan and rehearse.

We storm the ridge at 5:30 am tomorrow.

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