Saskatchewan’s Aviation Museum welcomed a few more planes over the weekend when it hosted the Vimy Flight cross-Canada tour’s stop in Saskatoon.
This year marked the 100th anniversary of the Battle of Vimy Ridge, which inspired the tour.
READ MORE: Vimy Ridge Anniversary
On the anniversary in April, Allan Snowie, along with three others, flew over the Vimy Ridge memorial in France.
“I was taken aback by how it struck me, but again, you talk to anyone who was at Vimy and that’s the initial reaction,” Snowie said.
After returning from France, Snowie and his team started the Vimy centennial tour.
“We’re passing on the Vimy story to our grandchildren, that next generation. To help them learn from what we learned, and so such things never happen again.”
READ MORE: B.C. father and son taking part in Vimy Ridge ride to honour those who died
Eric Frehlich, 16, was at the flight tour and was also at the Vimy Ridge memorial site on the anniversary, the same time as Snowie.
“I was just in awe. It was a totally different landscape. France is pretty different, but the battle there; all the potholes, all the trenches. I just try to imagine what it was like for the Canadians to be there,” Frehlich said.
“They went up against the Germans on this ridge that neither the French or the British could take,” Frehlich said.
“It’s part of our heritage, it’s part of our history. If we forget, then we forget the sacrifice of the people that made Canada what it is today.”
The flight tour started in May and will continue to travel west, until concluding in Victoria, B.C., in October.
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