Vimy, France — In the shadow of the towering Canadian Vimy Memorial, stone carvers are rewriting history.

Protected by the elements in a makeshift studio, they meticulously trace, then chisel into pieces of stone the names of many of the more than 11,000 First World War fallen soldiers listed on the 69-year-old monument.

The elements have not been kind to the memorial. Water damage, freeze-thaw cycles and patchwork repairs have left many of the names of those declared missing and presumed dead in France either cracked, chipped or obscured.

The deterioration triggered a $30-million Cdn public works project that began last year and will see a total of 13 Canadian war monuments in France and Belgium restored.

But Vimy is the true labour of love, taking two-thirds of the total funding and two full years to complete.

"We call it the Vimy virus because everyone just wants to do their best at this," Helene Robichaud, project co-ordinator for Veterans Affairs Canada, said during a recent tour exclusively for Canada media.

As the first walls were detached from the original structure, some people were reduced to tears, said Marc Monette, who is managing the project for the Department of Public Works.

"Taking it apart completely is a radical concept from a heritage perspective," said Monette.

Vimy Ridge is the scene of one of the most celebrated battles by Canadian troops of the First World War. Four soldiers earned the Victoria Cross.

All previous Allied attempts to take the heavily fortified ridge from the Germans had failed until the Canadian attack, which brought all four divisions of the Canadian Corps together for the first time.

On April 9, 1917, the Canadians moved up the ridge and advanced through driving wind, snow and sleet until they had taken almost the entire crest by mid-afternoon. Three days later, the final two areas were claimed.

The battle left 3,000 Canadians dead and another 7,600 injured.

The monument, designed by sculptor Walter Allward, took 11 years to build and was unveiled by King Edward VIII in 1936.

It is off limits to the public while the work is underway.

The two 27-metre towers, which can normally be seen from several kilometres away across the rolling northeastern French countryside, are shrouded in protective white wrap.

Inside the repair shop, carver Gregoire Sieux traces the name of fallen soldier "D-J Murphy" in pencil on a small slab of Seget stone procured from Croatia to match the original.

For him, the project is more than just a job and paycheque.

"How do you explain it? It's like touching the past, and their lives," said Sieux. "I do this with a lot of joy and love."

Sieux says he doesn't have the time to think a lot about the life each individual soldier led before his young death, but he tries to look at it all in the big picture.

"These are the people who gave their lives for us and so it's very moving to be part of making this like new again."

Only two small sections of wall near the base of one tower, or pylon, are healthy enough to be left intact as "witness walls" for future generations, said Monette.

The carving work is made all the more intricate by the fact the original names of the fallen were carved right across the original joints.

But crews are expected to be accurate to within one or two millimetres.

"What we're trying to achieve here is surgery in masonry terms," said Monette.

The restoration work is expected to be completed by December 2006, with a rededication ceremony planned for April 2007 to coincide with the 90th anniversary of the battle.

Precautionary checks for hazards buried in and around the work site have uncovered the skeletons of two German soldiers, two 40-kilogram unexploded shells and several other smaller, undetonated explosives, all less than a metre underground.