Canadians heading to France for centenary of WW I battle

Canada is planning a major celebration for the one-hundred-year anniversary of the World War l Battle of Vimy Ridge.

Some 3,000 Canadian soldiers died capturing the ridge from German troops in a hard-fought battle in April 1917.

Nearly six times that number plan to cross the ocean to honor the dead at the ceremony on April 9.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Governor General David Johnston plan attend,

as do French President François Hollande, the Prince of Wales, Duke of Cambridge, and Prince Harry.

Towns and villages surrounding Vimy are adorned with the French, British, and Canadian flags as local residents welcome the relatives of their former allies.

Some of the trenches and shell craters that mark the battle site have been preserved. Those, and the many cemeteries, prove that a battle was fought there.