Canadians gathered at war memorials across the country Monday morning to remember the sacrifices of war.

• INDEPTH: Remembrance Day

The skies opened up to pour rain as the sound of a lone bugle rang out the Last Post at the National War Memorial at 11 a.m. in Ottawa.

The flag on the Peace Tower was lowered to half-mast. A two-minute silence was ended with the skirl of a piper playing Lament.

A battery of field guns gave a 21-gun salute from behind Parliament's West Block and a squadron of CF-18s flew past.

Hundreds of Canada's aging veterans stood in full uniform to remember their comrades who fell so long ago, and to honour the country's latest war dead.

Among them was 102-year-old Paul Metivier, a veteran of the First World War.

First World War veteran Paul Metivier

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Doreen Coolen, whose son was killed this spring in Afghanistan, was at the memorial to lay a wreath in honour of all those dead soldiers' mothers.

Pte. Richard Green was one of four Canadians killed in a so-called friendly fire incident last April near Kandahar.

Coolen followed Governor General Adrienne Clarkson in placing her wreath. Prime Minister Jean Chrétien and U.S. Ambassador Paul Cellucci were among other dignitaries to pay their respects with wreaths.

As the procession left the memorial site, the crowds approached. Many left their poppies on the tomb of the Unknown Soldier.

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