Soldiers from Canadian Forces Base Shilo are in Belgium for World War 1 commemoration and re-dedication ceremonies.

Lieutenant-Colonel Bob Ritchie is Commanding officer with the Second Battalion, Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry. He says about 150 soldiers from bases at Shilo and Edmonton made the trip. He added the delegation also includes numerous veterans and youth.

On Friday they were part of three services; re-dedicating the WW1 Battle of Frezenberg Memorial, Exercising A Freedom of the City Parade of Ypres, and a Service at Menin Gate.

Ritchie called it a moving experience. “It's incredible to stand on battlefield a hundred years to the day when those heroic men would have done so. You see the land and positions and how perilous it was for the Canadian troops.”

He says they must have been so scared but they still held the line and he is so encouraged and inspired when he thinks of their deeds.

Ritchie says those battles were important because they saved towns and lives.

“Had those battle not gone as they did there is a chance Ypres would have fallen which would have paved the way to ports and given the German a way to move supplies in” said Ritchie.