generosity and assured those assembled that Canada would never forget its war missing and dead. The King then pulled the Royal Union Flag from the central figure of Canada Bereft and the military band played the Last Post. The ceremony was one of the King's few official duties before he abdicated the throne. The pilgrimage continued, and most participants toured Ypres before being taken to London to be hosted by the British Legion. One-third of the pilgrims left from London for Canada on 1 August, while the majority returned to France as guests of the government for another week of touring before going home. Second World War In 1939, the increased threat of conflict with Nazi Germany amplified the Canadian government's level of concern for the general safety of the memorial. Canada could do little more than protect the sculptures and the bases of the pylons with sandbags and await developments. When war did break out in September 1939, the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) deployed to France and assumed responsibility for the Arras sector, which included Vimy. In late May 1940, following the British retreat to Dunkirk after the Battle of Arras, the status and condition of the memorial became unknown to Allied forces. The Germans took control of the site and held the site's caretaker, George Stubbs, in an Ilag internment camp for Allied civilians in St. Denis, France. The rumoured destruction of the Vimy Memorial, either during the fighting or at the hands of the Germans, was widely reported in Canada and the United Kingdom. The rumours led the German Ministry of Public Enlightenment and Propaganda to formally deny accusations that Germany had damaged or desecrated the memorial. To demonstrate the memorial had not been desecrated, Adolf Hitler, who reportedly admired the memorial for its peaceful nature, was photographed by the press while personally touring it and the preserved trenches on 2 June 1940. The undamaged state of the memorial was not confirmed until September 1944 when British troops of the 2nd Battalion, the Welsh Guards of the Guards Armoured Division, recaptured Vimy Ridge. Post-war years Immediately following the Second World War, very little attention was paid to the Battle of Vimy Ridge or the Vimy Memorial. The Winnipeg Free Press and The Legionary, the magazine of the Royal Canadian Legion, were the only publications to note the 35th anniversary of the battle in 1952. The 40th anniversary