special report / Vimy Flight Remembering Vimy A group of volunteer builders, former military pilots and one current Royal Canadian Air Force captain played an essential role in honouring those who fought and died in the Battle of Vimy Ridge. By Ben Forrest llan Snowie flew over the Vimy memorial in France on April 9, 2017, as the pilot of a Royal Aircraft Factory S.E.5a replica biplane, part of a five-aircraft formation of Canadian pilots there to mark the 100 th anniversary of the Battle of Vimy Ridge. Tired and still processing the event a day later, he struggled at times to explain how it felt. But he admitted it produced an emotional high. As he flew by the monument, he tried not to be mesmerized by what he saw. “[I was] sitting on the edge of my seat, because in the bumpy afternoon air—I know why they call them kites,” said Snowie, who flew as part of Vimy Flight, an organization of builders, former military pilots and one current Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) pilot who participated in the ceremony. “They get tossed around a bit … It was a good run, and we all felt very good about it when we got back to our base.” Along with Snowie’s S.E.5a, the Vimy Flight formation included four Nieuport XI replica biplanes flown by Dale Erhart, Peter Thornton, Larry Ricker and current RCAF Capt Brent Handy. They were a key part of Canada’s contribution to the 100 th anniversary A 24 SKIES Magazine | May/June 2017 ceremony, which reportedly drew as many as 25,000 people, including Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Governor General David Johnston. The Battle of Vimy Ridge is arguably the most celebrated military victory in Canada’s history, and a key moment in the nation’s formation. The four divisions of the Canadian Corps fought together for the first time at Vimy, attacking the ridge from April 9 to April 12, 1917, and successfully capturing it from the German army. The toll was considerable: 3,598 Canadians died and 7,000 were injured. “These ordinary and extraordinary men of the British dominion fought for the first time as citizens of one and the same country,” Trudeau said in French as he addressed the crowd, according to the Canadian Press. “Francophones and anglophones. New Canadians. Indigenous peoples. Side by side, united, here in Vimy, within the four divisions of the Canadian Corps.” In 1922, the French government ceded Vimy Ridge and the land surrounding it to Canada in perpetuity. The striking Vimy Memorial was unveiled in 1936 and is a tribute to 11,285 Canadian soldiers killed in France throughout the First World War who have no known graves. Johnston referenced two massive columns on the memorial in a speech at the 100 th anniversary ceremony. “Those spires stand for peace and for freedom,” he said. “They stand for justice and hope. And they remind us that one cannot exist without the other. Without freedom, there can be no peace. Because freedom without peace is agony, and peace without freedom is slavery.” Vimy Flight was an ambitious effort to honour those who fought and died at Vimy, in a year that holds extreme significance to Canada as we know it today, marking both the 100 th anniversary of the battle and the 150 th anniversary of Confederation. Along with the four Nieuport XI biplanes and one S.E.5a, the organization transported two Sopwith Pup replica biplanes to France for the ceremony. All seven aircraft were packed into the belly of a 429 Transport Squadron CC-177 Globemaster III and flown from 19 Wing Comox, B.C., to Gander, N.L., before carrying on to Lille, France. The Nieuports were packed with their wings on but the remaining aircraft were packed with wings off—the only major disassembly required for the journey. Still, making them fit took effort. A post on the Vimy Flight Facebook page