Battle of Vimy Ridge
| Battle of Vimy Ridge | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Part of the First World War | |||||||
.jpg) The Battle of Vimy Ridge after a painting by Richard Jack. Canadian War Museum. | |||||||
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| Belligerents | |||||||
| Canada | Germany | ||||||
| Commanders and leaders | |||||||
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Julian Byng Arthur Currie | Ludwig von Falkenhausen | ||||||
| Strength | |||||||
| 30,000 | Unknown | ||||||
| Casualties and losses | |||||||
|
3,598 dead 7,104 wounded | 20,000 | ||||||
The Battle of Vimy Ridge was one of the opening battles in a larger British campaign known as the Battle of Arras. It is also considered a seminal event in Canadian history for the primary role Canadian forces played in the attack.
Overview
Vimy, located in northern France, was one of the most heavily defended points on the entire Western Front and was thought to be an impregnable fortress. The German army had fortified it with tunnels, three rows of trenches behind barbed wire, massive artillery, and numerous machine gun nests. The French and British had suffered thousands of casualties in previous attempts to take the ridge; the French alone lost 150,000 men at Vimy Ridge in 1915. The ridge, stretching from the town of Vimy to Givenchy-en-Gohelle, was a crucial point that allowed the Germans to control much of the surrounding territory. The ridge was the only major barrier keeping the allies from the wide open Lens-Douai plain.
The Allied commanders decided to launch another assault in 1917. The duty was given to the still relatively fresh, but previously successful, Canadians. For the first time the four divisions of the Canadian Corps were brought together. They were joined by the British 5th Infantry Division.
The Canadian Corps' commanders were determined to learn from the mistakes of the French and British and spent months planning their attack. They built a replica of the Ridge behind their own lines, and trained using platoon-level tactics, including issuing detailed maps to ordinary soldiers rather than officers or NCOs alone. Each platoon was given a specific task by their commanding officers, rather than vague instructions from an absent general. They also employed older techniques such as the detonation of large mines under the German trenches.
On April 2, 1917, the Canadian Corps launched the largest artillery barrage in history up to that point. They shelled the German trenches for the next week, using over one million shells. The German and Prussian troops called this week the "Week of Suffering". The attack was loud enough that it could be heard in London. At dawn on Easter Monday, April 9, the 30,000-strong Canadian Corps began the attack, using a creeping barrage. The creeping barrage had been used by the British at the Battle of the Somme but had failed as it outpaced the soldiers. However, the Canadians managed to perfect the technique. Soldiers walked across no-man's land, just behind a continuous line of shells (an improvement over previous battles, in which both sides had often shelled their own troops). Several new and untested methods of counter-battery fire were also used successfully at the start of the battle. This disabled a large portion of the German artillery and protected the advancing infantry.
After less than two hours, three of the four Canadian divisions had taken their objectives; the fourth division, however, was caught by machine gun nests on the highest point of the Ridge known as Hill 145. The 87th Battalion suffered 50% casualties. The 85th Nova Scotia Highlanders, who had been intended to be in a supply and construction role, were sent into the battle and the division captured the hill by the end of the day.
It is said that upon learning of the victory, a French soldier replied, "C'est impossible!" ("It's impossible!"), and upon learning it was the Canadians who won, changed his answer to "Ah! les Canadiens! C'est possible!" ("Ah! The Canadians! It is possible!").
By April 12 the Canadians controlled the entire Ridge, at a cost of 3,598 men killed and 7,104 wounded. The German Sixth Army, under General Ludwig von Falkenhausen, suffered approximately 20,000 casualties. The Canadians also took 4,000 Germans as prisoners of war. The loss of the ridge also forced the Germans to retreat to the lower plains that were far more costly to defend. The attack and objective had only limited grand-strategic significance, and as the simultaneous British and Australian attack to the south of the Ridge was unsuccessful, very little was actually achieved after the Canadian victory.
However, in a war in which, battle after battle, thousands died for gains measured in yards, the breakthrough had tremendous tactical importance. It relieved the city of Arras from immediate threat of attack and proved that the front lines could be moved forward once again, after years of bloody stalemate. Vimy Ridge was the first Allied victory in almost a year and a half and it was especially demoralizing for the Germans who had viewed the Ridge as one of their most impregnable strong points.
A year later in April 1918, the fact Vimy Ridge continued to be held even as German advances reached the outskirts of Paris was also quite significant. The ridge provided a leverage point behind the lines from which an extremely effective counter-attack was launched (see Technology during World War I.)
Legacy
To Canadians, the name Vimy Ridge has been historically very meaningful. It was the first time in the nation's history that a corps-sized formation fought organized as such. The success of the attack, resulting from detailed planning and a variety of innovative tactics standing in stark contrast to what had happened at the Somme only months earlier, sealed the reputation of the Canadians as among the finest troops on the western front. The capture of the Ridge by the Canadian Corps, under the command of British General Julian H.G. Byng (with Canadian General Sir Arthur Currie acting as Chief-of-Staff), was a turning point for Allied Forces during the First World War. The success of the Canadian forces in this battle, at Passchendaele, and in Canada's Hundred Days helped earn Canada a place at the Versailles peace negotiations. Some have suggested that Canadian unity was fostered - all nine provinces were represented in the order of battle of the Canadian Corps - but as Pierre Berton points out in the seminal work regarding this battle (titled Vimy), the taking of the ridge achieved legend status very quickly, and with it the myths often surrounding legendary feats.
The Vimy Memorial
The battle is commemorated by the Vimy Memorial, set atop Hill 145 near Vimy and Givenchy in the French Pas-de-Calais. It is the largest of Canada's war monuments.
In recognition of the great sacrifices made by Canada, the French government formally granted Canada a portion of the ridge in perpetuity. Since the memorial stands on Canadian soil, it is tended by Veterans Affairs Canada.
In 2002 the Royal Canadian Mint released a 5-Cent Sterling Silver Coin to commemorate the Battle of Vimy Ridge.
The plot of The Stone Carvers, a 2001 novel by Canadian author Jane Urquhart, revolves around the construction of the Vimy Memorial.
Further reading
- Berton, P. (2003). Vimy. Pen & Sword Books. ISBN 0850529883
- Cave, N. (1997). Arras, Vimy Ridge. Cooper (Battleground Europe). ISBN 0850523990
- Federal Govt of Canada. (1992). Canada and the Battle of Vimy Ridge. Canadian Government Pub Centre.
- Turner, A. (2005). Vimy Ridge 1917: Byng's Canadians Triumph at Arras. Osprey Publishing. ISBN 1841768715
