Wartime tunnels, trenches, craters, and unexploded munitions still honeycomb the grounds of the site, which remains largely closed off for reasons of public safety.

King Edward VIII unveiled it on 26 July 1936 in the presence of French President Albert Lebrun and a crowd of over 50,000 people, including 6,200 attendees from Canada.

[4] The French Tenth Army attempted to dislodge the Germans from the region during the Second Battle of Artois in May 1915 by attacking their positions at Vimy Ridge and Notre Dame de Lorette.

During the attack, the French 1st Moroccan Division briefly captured the height of the ridge, where the Vimy memorial is currently located, but was unable to hold it owing to a lack of reinforcements.

[9][Note 2] Temporary Lieutenant Richard Jones was posthumously awarded the Victoria Cross for his ultimately unsuccessful defence of the Broadmarsh Crater during the attack.

[30][31] According to Pierce, "the historical reality of the battle has been reworked and reinterpreted in a conscious attempt to give purpose and meaning to an event that came to symbolize Canada's coming of age as a nation.

[40][38] The commission committee initially recommended placing the monument in Belgium on Hill 62, near the location of the Battle of Mont Sorrel, as the site provided an imposing view.

[32][44] This ran counter to the desires of Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King who, while speaking in the House of Commons of Canada in May 1922, argued in favour of placing the memorial at Vimy Ridge.

[47] The only condition placed on the donation was that Canada use the land to erect a monument commemorating Canadian soldiers killed during the First World War and assume the responsibility for the maintenance of the memorial and the surrounding battlefield park.

[56] The carvers used half-size plaster models produced by Allward in his studio, now on display at the Canadian War Museum, and an instrument called a pantograph to reproduce the figures at the proper scale.

[63] The Legion took the position that the pilgrimage would be funded by its members without subsidies or financial aid from Canadian taxpayers, and by early 1935 they had established that the price of the 3½-week trip, inclusive of all meals, accommodation, health insurance, and sea and land transportation would be CA$160 per person ($3,443.29 as of 2016).

[65] It is an inspired expression in stone, chiselled by a skilful Canadian hand, of Canada's salute to her fallen sons.On 26 July, the day of the ceremony, pilgrims spent the morning and early afternoon exploring the landscape of the memorial park before congregating at the monument.

[69] Senior Canadian, British, and European officials, including French President Albert Lebrun and Prince Arthur of Connaught,[70] and a crowd of over 50,000 attended the event.

[75] Ernest Lapointe, Canadian Minister of Justice, spoke first,[75] followed by Edward VIII who, in both French and English, thanked France for its generosity and assured those assembled that Canada would never forget its war missing and dead.

[93][94] By the end of the century, the many repairs undertaken since the memorial's construction had left a patchwork of materials and colours, and a disconcerting pattern of damage from water intrusion at the joints.

Veterans Affairs Canada directed the restoration of the memorial in cooperation with other Canadian departments, the Commonwealth War Graves Commission, consultants and specialists in military history.

[98] Queen Elizabeth II, escorted by Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, rededicated the restored memorial on 9 April 2007 in a ceremony commemorating the 90th anniversary of the battle.

[101] The Mayor of Arras, Frédéric Leturque, thanked Canadians, along with Australians, Britons, New Zealanders and South Africans, for their role in the First World War battles in the area.

[103][104] Elizabeth II issued a statement via the Governor General, remarking "[Canadians] fought courageously and with great ingenuity in winning the strategic high point of Vimy Ridge, though victory came at a heavy cost".

[118][Note 9] The statue, a reference to traditional images of the Mater Dolorosa and presented in a similar style to that of Michelangelo's Pietà, faces eastward looking out to the dawn of the new day.

[124] The twin pylons rise to a height 30 metres above the memorial's stone platform; one bears the maple leaf for Canada and the other the fleur-de-lis for France, and both symbolize the unity and sacrifice of the two countries.

[123] In a lightly veiled reference to the poem In Flanders Fields by John McCrae, the torch is passed from one comrade to another in an effort to keep alive the memory of the war dead.

[48] Most Commonwealth War Graves Commission memorials present names in a descending list format in a manner that permits the modification of panels as remains are found and identified.

[134][130] The French Legionnaires came, as attested to by a plaque installed on the memorial, from 52 different countries and included amongst them American, Polish, Russian, Italian, Greek, German, Czechoslovakian, Swedish, Armenian, various nationals of the Jewish faith (http://monumentsmorts.univ-lille3.fr/monument/2892/givenchyengohelle-autre/[permanent dead link‍]), and Swiss volunteers such as writer Blaise Cendrars.

[135][134] In the battle, General Victor d'Urbal, commander of the French Tenth Army, sought to dislodge the Germans from the region by attacking their positions at Vimy Ridge and Notre Dame de Lorette.

[139] In preparation for the Battle of Vimy Ridge, five British tunnelling companies excavated 12 subways along the Canadian Corps' front, the longest of which was 1.2 kilometres (1,300 yd) in length.

[147] In order to raise funds the Vimy Foundation granted naming rights in various halls of the visitor centre to sponsors, an approach which has met some level of controversy due to the site being a memorial park.

[33][34] Historian Denise Thomson suggests that the construction of the Vimy memorial represents the culmination of an increasingly assertive nationalism that developed in Canada during the interwar period.

Textually, she argues the inscription text celebrating the victory at the Battle of Vimy Ridge strikes a very different tone to the list of names of the missing at the base of the monument.

[162] A permanent bas relief sculpted image of the memorial is presented in the gallery of the grand hall of the Embassy of France in Canada to symbolize the close relations between the two countries.