Vimy - Student Guides

[Ken Lees]

"Britain declared war on 3rd August, 1914..."

"All of the tunnels at Vimy were dug by Welsh miners...."

"The 13 tunnels were used to get the attacking troops safely into no-man's land..."

The trenches you can see, which are very close together were observation trenches. There would only have been about 8 men in them on each side..."

The front line trenches were over a hundred metres back from the observation trneches and that's where the rest of the troops were..."

 

I usually cut the guides some slack as they are not professionals, and they are not historians, but today was unacceptable. I despair that the public listening will go away with totally the wrong idea of the Vimy battles of 1917. I felt it necessary to tell my friends on the tour to ignore what they'd just been told as it was mostly nonsense.

 

Surely it's not difficult - and very much in the interest of the Canadian government, to ensure that the guides are giving the correct information.

 

[Rant over]

[Waggoner]

When we were there six years ago, I got tired of pointing out errors in displays and in the guides’ narratives. Case in point, when we were in one of the tunnels, the guide said the Black Watch had been there. “Great” said I, “which battalion”? After all, there were three of them. Poor guide had no idea of what I was talking about. Yes, they are students but they need to be better rehearsed in their history. Still, it was a great visit! Is there a feedback provision on the Vimy site?

 

All the best,

 

Gary 

[nigelcave]

4 hours ago, Waggoner said:

When we were there six years ago, I got tired of pointing out errors in displays and in the guides’ narratives. Case in point, when we were in one of the tunnels, the guide said the Black Watch had been there. “Great” said I, “which battalion”? After all, there were three of them. Poor guide had no idea of what I was talking about. Yes, they are students but they need to be better rehearsed in their history. Still, it was a great visit! Is there a feedback provision on the Vimy site?

 

All the best,

 

Gary 

To be fair, it was the Black Watch - but the Black Watch of Canada, 42nd Bn CEF.

[Waggoner]

When I asked the question I didn’t know if it was the 13th, 42nd or 72nd battalions. I was able to determine that it was the 42nd. 

 

All the best,

 

Gary