Halifax ceremony sends one-tonne ‘Canada Gate’ off to Passchendaele
HALIFAX — One hundred years ago this week, tens of thousands of young soldiers from across Canada were preparing for a battle in western Belgium that would prove to be the bloodiest in Canadian military history.
By the time the fight for the ridge near Passchendaele was over on Nov. 10, 1917, the carnage endured by the Canadian Corps. had reached a level that would leave a deep scar on this country’s collective psyche. Among the 15,000 casualties were 4,000 dead — most of them later buried in Flanders.
“Canadian soldiers fought like hell for this country and for each other,” Ken Hynes, curator of The Army Museum in Halifax, said Monday during an unusual ceremony inside a business park warehouse. “The last 700 metres, from Crest farm to the final capture of Passchendaele, took them 10 long, terrifying days.”
Hynes was among 30 people who gathered for a ceremonial send-off for a large, new monument that will soon be shipped to Belgium, where it will pay tribute to the soldiers who fought in the Battle of Passchendaele.