Veteran of Vimy Ridge battle dies
CBC News | Posted: March 6, 2003 12:40 AM | Last Updated: March 6, 2003
The last Canadian infantry soldier to survive the First World War battle of Vimy Ridge has died.
Charles Reaper of Winnipeg died Saturday. He was 103.
Three other survivors of Vimy Ridge are still alive, but they were not with the infantry.
Reaper, who was born in Scotland, enlisted as a teenager.
Decisive battle
Early in the morning of April 9, 1917, 20,000 soldiers attacked heavily fortified German positions at Vimy Ridge, about 12 km northeast of Arras, France.
The Canadians took the ridge by afternoon and completed all their objectives within a few days.
The battle proved to be a turning point in the war, but the Canadian Corps suffered 11,297 men killed, missing or wounded.
There are now only about a dozen Canadian soldiers alive who fought in the First World War.