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.
Major Alan Brooke was the 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 1 st 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. The Canadian Corps attacked Vimy Ridge 98 years ago. The German position had successfully resisted earlier Allied attacks, and it was heavily defended. By , Canadians had been fighting for two years. The raw levies that held the Germans off at Ypres in April now were experienced soldiers. Currie learned they emphasized reconnaissance and used air photos extensively, distributing them widely.
When they attacked, their objectives were geographical features, and the French rehearsed their tactics. Currie recommended the Canadians, like the French, follow suit. Every man at Vimy knew his task. Indiscreetly, Pte. I understand we are going up against the Prussian Guards. When the assault troops went over the top at a. The Corps, having sustained 10, casualties, dug in after a gain of 4, yards. Canadians should remember that Vimy Ridge was not their triumph alone. British artillery and the elite 51st Highland Division helped make victory possible.
A visit to the nearby French military cemetery, Notre Dame de Lorette, reminds us that ten times as many French soldiers died to bring the Allied line to the edge of the Ridge as well as providing visitors on a clear day with the best view of the Canadian objective. It was a costly victory. Vimy was followed by other Canadian victories, some of them even greater feats of arms. The Vimy experience provided a pattern for future successes.
The Canadians had rehearsed tirelessly before the battle. They dug trenches and tunnels and piled tons of ammunition for the heavy guns that pulverized German trenches and wiped out most of the German artillery hidden behind Vimy Ridge. Nothing that could help soldiers succeed would be ignored. Digging trenches and tunnels and lugging artillery shells through miles of wet, muddy trenches was brutally exhausting work.
Soldiers grumbled and complained but they needed to win the war before they could go home. Exhaustion was a small part of the price. The Vimy victory shaped a Canadian way of making war. Other nations might celebrate flamboyant valour or dogged sacrifice; Canadians built on the conviction that only thorough preparation could spell success. No one claimed that their general, Arthur Currie, was a charismatic commander.
Few soldiers realized that he took his best ideas from men in the ranks of his Corps. In August , Borden and other premiers from the British Empire agreed that the war was destined to last two or three more terrible years.
It ended on November At Valenciennes on November 1, with Vimy-style tactics the Canadians collapsed the last German defensive line. Ten days later an Armistice was signed. Three more days of heavy fighting resulted in victory on April 12, when control of Vimy was in Canadian hands. Though the Nivelle Offensive as a whole failed miserably, the Canadian operation had proved a success, albeit a costly one: 3, Canadian soldiers were killed and another 7, were wounded. As Brigadier-General A.
Ross famously declared after the war, in those few minutes I witnessed the birth of a nation. In , the French government ceded Vimy Ridge and the land surrounding it to Canada; the gleaming white marble Vimy Memorial was unveiled in as a testament to the more than 60, Canadians who died in service during World War I. But if you see something that doesn't look right, click here to contact us!
On April 3, , the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. By April 12, King The fort, an important part of the Confederate river defense system, was captured by federal On April 12, , aboard the spacecraft Vostok 1, Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Alekseyevich Gagarin becomes the first human being to travel into space.
During the flight, the year-old test pilot and industrial technician also became the first man to orbit the planet, a feat The space shuttle Columbia is launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida, becoming the first reusable manned spacecraft to travel into space.
Piloted by astronauts Robert L. Overcoming this resistance, three of the four divisions captured their part of the Ridge by midday, right on schedule.
In the final stage, the 2nd Canadian Division was assisted by the British 13th Brigade, which fell under its command for the operation. The 4th Canadian Division's principal objective was Hill , the highest and most important feature of the whole Ridge. Once taken, its summit would give the Canadians a commanding view of German rearward defences in the Douai Plain as well as those remaining on the Ridge itself.
Because of its importance, the Germans had fortified Hill with well-wired trenches and a series of deep dug-outs beneath its rear slope. The brigades of the 4th Division were hampered by fire from the Pimple, the other prominent height, which inflicted costly losses on the advancing waves of infantry.
Renewed attacks were mounted using troops that were originally scheduled to attack the Pimple. Finally, in the afternoon of April 10, a fresh assault by a relieving brigade cleared the summit of Hill and thus placed the whole of Vimy Ridge in Canadian hands. Two days later, units of the 10th Canadian Brigade successfully stormed the Pimple.
By that time, the enemy had accepted the loss of Vimy Ridge as permanent and had pulled back more than three kilometres. Vimy Ridge marked the only significant success of the Allied spring offensive of But though they had won a great tactical victory, the Canadians were unable to exploit their success quickly with a breakthrough, mainly because their artillery had bogged down and was unable to move up with them through the muddy, shell-torn ground.
Instead, some Canadian artillerymen took over captured German guns which they had earlier been trained to fire. The Canadian achievement in capturing Vimy Ridge owed its success to sound and meticulous planning and thorough preparation, all of which was aimed at minimizing casualties.
But it was the splendid fighting qualities and devotion to duty of Canadian officers and soldiers on the battlefield that were decisive. Most of them citizen-soldiers, they performed like professionals. Canadians attacked German machine-guns, the greatest obstacles to their advance, with great courage. They saved many comrades' lives as a result. Four earned the Victoria Cross for their bravery in such dangerous exploits.
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