Vimy Ridge - Maple Ridge Royal Canadian Legion

The Battle of Vimy Ridge began on Easter morning 1917. Amid sleet, mud and shellfire, the soldiers of the Canadian Corps fought their way up the ridge to take the high ground overlooking the Douai plain.

This is the story of the Battle - please visit The Vimy Foundation for more detail and an in-depth review of this significant event in Canadian history.
The text is reproduced from the Vimy Foundation.

This stunning victory followed years of failed attempts to retake the ridge, and months of planning and preparation for the operation. The ridge had fallen into German hands during the initial advances of 1914. Since then, around 150,000 French and British soldiers had fallen trying to retake it. The Germans had been fortifying their positions on the ridge for years with deep bunkers, overlapping fields of machine gun fire and layers of barbed wire. When the Canadians attacked, they directly faced around 8,000 entrenched German defenders, not counting another 2,500 in reserve, and many more to the rear.

A preliminary bombardment began on March 20 and lasted for thirteen days. In the meantime, Andrew McNaughton and his counter battery staff were hard at work finding and silencing the German guns. The Royal Flying Corps provided aerial reconnaissance, returning with photographs of enemy batteries. The objectives set for the four divisions were four lines, the Red, Black, Blue and Brown Lines.

The battle began at 5:30am on April 9, with the first wave of around 15,000 men advancing under the creeping barrage of almost 1000 heavy guns. Most objectives were taken on schedule, and by afternoon most of the ridge was captured, with the notable exception of The Pimple, a high point at the North end of the ridge, where defenders held out until April 12.

By April 12, the Canadians had taken all of their objectives, as well as 4,000 prisoners. The Canadians held Vimy Ridge. This victory came at a high cost as 3,598 Canadians lost their lives, and 7,000 were wounded during the four-day battle. April 9, 1917 is still the bloodiest day in Canadian military history.

A key technological development that greatly contributed to the Canadians’ success at Vimy was the widespread use of the new 106 fuse in shells. This fuse made shells explode on contact with barbed wire, which marked a huge improvement from the shells used during the Battle of the Somme, which would often leave barbed wire untouched but create huge craters.

The most important tactical innovation used in this battle was the rolling barrage. Early in the war, when soldiers attacked a position, the artillery would bombard that position and then stop so that the soldiers could run over and take it. However, this caused problems, as often the time between the bombardment and when the soldiers actually arrived on the position allowed the defenders time to get prepared for the attack, and inflict devastating casualties on the attackers. The rolling barrage meant that the soldiers advanced at the same time as the bombardment. At Vimy, the artillery moved forward 90 metres every three minutes. This meant that soldiers had three minutes to catch up with the barrage and silence any defenders left.

Another important factor contributing to victory was the scale of preparations. The troops had been practicing and training for this battle for months. From frequent night raids to gain information on the opposing German troops, as well as night combat experience, to practice in the mock-up battlefield behind the lines, the Canadians were supremely ready for the battle. Each unit was told its objectives, as well as those of the units around it, so that they could take over should their neighbours get bogged down. Junior officers and NCOs were told the plans so that they could take over if their superiors were hit. 40,000 maps of the battlefield were also distributed to the troops.

Key people in the battle included Sir Julian Byng, the beloved commander of the Canadian Corps. Well-liked by his troops, who called themselves “the Byng boys”, Byng was a British officer, who would later be promoted to General and become Lord Byng of Vimy. Major Alan Brooke was the 33-year old mastermind behind the rolling barrage, and Sir Arthur Currie, who would soon become commander of the Canadian Corps, was in charge of the 1st Canadian Division during the battle.

The battle was a strategic victory, as Vimy Ridge was an important observation point over the whole of the Douai plain, a key industrial and railway region in Northern France. The Battle of Vimy Ridge was also the first time that all four divisions of the Canadian Corps had fought together. This symbolically showed the strength of Canadians when they fought as one. It was also important that the Canadian Corps, this small colonial unit, had managed to do what both its former colonial powers could not do in retaking the ridge.

April 9th - 12th 1917

In the summer of 1914 the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand resulted in an international crisis, due to political tensions and the complex military alliances of the era, and in August the fighting had begun.

The First World War involved Britain (and her Empire), France, Russia and the United States against Germany, Austria-Hungary and the Ottoman Empire.

Canada, whose external affairs at that time were governed by the United Kingdom, automatically joined the war once Britain declared it.

After more than two and a half years at war, in the Spring of 1917, Canadian forces were part of the Western Front, a line stretching for nearly 1000 km from the coast of Belgium, to the border of Switzerland. Life in the trenches was miserable, soldiers faced mud and cold, as well as rats, lice and fleas. There was a ’No Mans Land’ between the opposing trenches of mud, barbed wire and shell craters, with enemy machine gun fire, artillery and snipers.

A major attack was planned for April 2017, in Arras, France, as part of the Allied offensive. The Canadians were tasked with capturing Vimy Ridge.

Vimy Ridge is a long, high hill that Germany had captured early in the war. They had made it into a strong defensive position, with tunnels, trenches, and soldiers with machine guns and artillery.

The Canadians took part in rigorous training and planning for the battle. Models of the trench system were built and the soldiers trained on what to do, they also raided German positions to gather intelligence. Tunnels were dug beneath the German lines filled with explosives to be detonated during the attack.

For a week before the attack there was a massive artillery barrage from the Allied forces. More than a million shells rained down and the Germans came to call this the ‘Week of Suffering’

The Battle of Vimy Ridge

The battle of Vimy Ridge began at 0530 on Easter Monday, April 9th 1917. There was wind driven snow and sleet, and machine gun fire, for the first wave of 15,000-20,000 Canadian soldiers to fight through.

The Canadians had a precise line of Artillery fire move ahead at a set rate and time, known as a ‘creeping barrage’. The infantrymen followed closely which allowed them to capture German positions before the enemy soldiers could leave their underground bunkers. This attack was timed to the minute.

The assault proceeded on and by noon most of the ridge was captured, but not without a great number of casualties. The main height on the ridge, known as ‘Hill 145’ was taken on the morning of April 10th. Two days later the Canadians took the last height of the hill and the Battle of Vimy Ridge was over.

The Germans were forced to withdraw 3km east. The allies now commanded the heights overlooking the Douai Plain, which was still occupied by the enemy.

Four Canadian soldiers earned the Victoria Cross, the highest medal for military valour, when they captured enemy machine gun positions in separate actions. The Canadian Corps, along with the British Corps in the South, had captured more ground, prisoners and artillery than any previous British offensive of the war.

The battle of Vimy Ridge, although a great success militarily, suffered more than 10,600 casualties, of which 3.600 were fatal. Canada would see 66,000 Canadians losing their lives, and over 170,000 wounded by the end of the First World War.

This military triumph helped Canada bring a stronger sense of national identity and raised our international stature. It helped Canada earn a separate signature on the Treaty of Versailles that formally ended the war.

Today, the Canadian National Vimy Memorial sits on top of Hill 145, and is inscribed with the names of 11,285 Canadian soldiers who were listed as ‘missing, presumed dead’ in France during the First World War. It stands as a tribute to all who served our country and paid the ultimate price to help ensure the peace and freedom we enjoy today.

Vimy Ridge Memorial — Photo credit: Veterans Canada website

Veterans want Canadians to understand the price of freedom. They are passing the torch to the people of Canada, so the memory of their sacrifices will continue, and the values they fought for will live on in all of us. Find out more about Vimy Ridge on the Government of Canada website in the Remembrance section.