Sunday Stamps II - 126

2017, Canada, 100th Anniversary Vimy Ridge
designer: Susan Scott

This joint issue international rate stamp (France and Canada) shows the Canadian version on  the left with the French version on the right. The statues on the stamps are (left) of the Mourning Parent and (right) Canada Bereft. On the sheet is the monument (sculpted by Walter Allward) that serves as a grave marker for all 11,285 Canadian soldiers of all ranks whose bodies were never found. Also shown are the preserved trenches at Hill 45.

for commemorative stamps

Sunday Stamps II - 89

1968, Canada, Armistice, 1918-1968
Vimy Memorial

designed by Harvey Thomas Prosser
engraved by Yves Baril (picture) and Gordon Marsh (lettering)
based on the Walter S Allward sculpture

The Vimy Memorial was unveiled in July 1936, on 100 ha of land on Vimy Ridge that was granted to Canada by France to be used 'in perpetuity' as a memorial park with a memorial dedicated to Canadian war dead. The Battle of Vimy Ridge was the first time that all four division of the Canadian Expeditionary Force participated together and it became a national symbol of achievement and sacrifice. The two limestone pylons of the monument rise 125' and has many stylized figures. This stamp shows the 'Breaking of the Sword' - three young men, with one crouching and breaking his sword, meant to represent the "defeat of militarism and a general desire for peace".

"Vimy Ridge is one of Earth's altars on which Canadians sacrificed for the cause of humanity"
~ William Lyon Mackenzie King

for monuments

Sunday Stamps II - 20

issued 2014 as part of the History of the First World War with a military equipment theme

this stamp shows the Brusilov Breakthrough (also known as Offensive) a high point for the Imperial Russian Army.  A part of Western Ukraine was liberated in 1916 during the four month offensive, but at a cost of 1,600,000 casualties, it was also one of the most lethal battles in world history.