The battle of Vimy Ridge was an assault on the German forces by Canadians, taking place on April 9th of 1917. However, the preparations of this attack actually began in February. The Germans had secured the Ridge, and could see any attacks coming from all directions. Many said that the hill would be impossible to conquer, but General Arthur Currie knew the value of good planning. Before the attack, soldiers were given maps of the surrounding area. Scale models were built to demonstrate specific strategies, and troops practiced and rehearsed the assault beforehand. When the time for action had arrived, every soldier knew exactly what to do.

The Ridge itself was 110 meters high, nearly 10 kilometers long, and was piled with machine guns and barbed wire along the length of it. Under the ground was a series of complex tunnels to provide protection from shells and bombs. The main attack consisted mainly of small groups of soldiers sent individually, that could hide and avoid machine gun fire better than a large crowd. The Canadian forces used machine guns to fire at areas where Germans were known to be, and scared them from performing raids on the Allies.

As the Canadian troops crept towards the enemy lines, shells were fired always slightly ahead of them, to prevent any Germans from getting near. All of the strongest points along the Ridge had been mapped weeks ago and bombed constantly since, and the machine gun shower had kept repair teams away. When the Allies arrived, most of the German defences were gone, and the Ridge was taken.

The victory at Vimy was the only victory celebrated by the Allies that whole year, but there were more than 10,000 deaths. This battle marked a turning point in World War I for the Allied forces, because it could be more useful in Allied hands than in German possession. The surrounding area was completely German territory, and could be destroyed from atop the Ridge. The fact that the whole procedure was organized and executed flawlessly by a nearly all-Canadian force depicted Canada's men for what they really were: fearless, cunning, and effective. By the signing of the Treaty of Versailles, Canada was represented apart from Britain, as many Allies kept Vimy Ridge in mind, and remembered the ferocity of the Canadians Corps.


Sources include: http://pages.interlog.com/~fatjack/vimybattle.htm

On this day, one hundred years ago, the Battle of Vimy Ridge began which was part of the larger Battle of Arras during World War One. German Forces had occupied the strategically important ridge since 1914 and the French had lost over 150,000 soldiers in previous attempts to take the German fortifications. The Battle of Arras was an assault of four Canadian divisions, their first major engagement of the war, and one British division against 45,000 German defenders. [1]Among the company of the Canadian Corps mounted rifles was my great-grandfather, my mother's-mother's-father, Private William Leroy Hodgins from Regina, Saskatchewan. I recall hearing from my grandmother that the weather was cold and with some snow and that it was the day after Easter.

Before the battle had ended on the 12th, my grandfather was wounded having received shrapnel wounds to the face and chest. He also suffered lung injuries from a gas attack. It was likely chlorine, phosgene or a combination of the two agents as mustard gas was not used by the Germans until July of that year.

Shortly after the attack, my great-grandmother, Minnie, received condolences from King George expressing his regret that her husband had been killed. I unfortunately do not have access to this letter or a copy of it.

Fortunately, this was only a clerical error of some sort. Within a few grievious weeks, my great-grandmother received the following telegraph,

Mrs Minnie Hodgins
Apl 23/17
Regina Jct PO Regina Sas
AC 85 sincerely Regret inform you 72813 private William Leroy Hodgins mounted rifles officially reported admitted thirteen stationary hospital Boulogne april sixteenth nineteen seventeen wounded slightly face chest
will send further particulars when received,
Officer in charge Records

While convalescing, my great grandfather received a brief hand written letter from King George V of England,

The Queen and I wish you God speed, a safe return to the happiness and joy of home life with an early restoration to health.
A grateful Mother Country thanks you for faithful service.
George R V

Included in the letter was an invitation to Windsor Castle on August 17th, 1917 between the hours of 11am and 4pm. My mother has this original letter and invitation, framed and hanging in her study.

I do not know if my great-grandfather made the trip to see the royal family. I understand that his convalescence in France was lengthy. He recovered from his shrapnel wounds but the injury to his lungs was irreversible. To escape the cold of Canada which troubled his breathing, he moved his family to South Bend, Indiana, which by the time of his death included my grandmother and her three sisters.

here is a poor picture of the original letters.

From the backside of the Canadian National Vimy Ridge Memorial it's not hard to see why both sides wanted Vimy Ridge. The Memorial is located at the very top of a tall ridge. Behind it the land falls away sharply and to see twenty kilometers is hardly difficult. Today preserved trenches of both sides run a few yards apart. But there are the craters, and one cannot visit any battlefield of the First World War without seeing the evidence that World War I was very much an artillery war. In front of the memorial you drive up through a see of craters, decorated with ubiquitous red signs warning visitors like me of all the unexploded ordinance.

The Battle of Vimy Ridge was a part of the Nivelle Offensive in 1917. The British Army's contribution was to attack around Arras in part to attract German north and away from the Chemin-de-Dans where Nivelle intended to make his main effort and recover a fair portion of France seized in 1914. This put Vimy Ridge at the far left end of he offensive. The Battle of Verdun had concluded months earlier, and Robert Nivelle had replaced Joffre as the General-in-Chief of the French Army. Nivelle had been an artillery specialist whose tactics had worked very well during the defensive battle for Verdun, but it had cost the French Army 400,000 men and left French soldiers wondering if their officers took them seriously. He planned an offensive intended to liberate France, but the Germans abruptly left their positions and retreated to new positions prepared for them along the Hindenberg Line. This retreat included the destruction of Chateau Coucy, arguably the greatest medieval castle.

The French army occupied the territory the Germans had left behind while Nivelle revised his plans, but not his strategy. The retreat to the Hindenberg Line had shortened the German Lines and allowed the German Army to create a substantial reserve. Although the Allies had far more aircraft, fort the first part of 1917 German aircraft were usually superior to their Allied counterparts and so short-range reconnaissance was readily possible, abetted by they fact the Germans were dug in on the high ground. So very little in Nivelle's attack came as a surprise.

While the much larger French Army had begun as an army of draftees. The British Army was quite the opposite, and the Canadian Corp had been trained and modeled in the British tradition. In the 1914 the British army was quite small compared to any continental army, but it was a professional army of volunteers, and very highly skilled. Casualties and rapid expansion had done a great deal to dilute the skills and professionalism of that army, but the training habits of of its officers and NCOs retained many pre-war habits. And by 1917 the British Army was an experienced army that knew his Enemy. The Battle of the Somme had taught the Brits a great deal, and they had dropped their ambition of massive breakthrough in favor of 'bite and hold' tactics, where the object was less to end the war than to end the battle ahead of where they started and with fewer casualties suffered than inflicted. By 1917 the tank had arrived upon the battlefield, and some of the problems in their operation made known and made good. British Generals understood the need for thorough preparation of the battlefield. Still, one must rememember that the whole of the First World War was fought inside France and Belgium, so it was quite natural for any French general to want to see his homeland liberated.

Vimy Ridge was the first place where all four Canadian divisions fought as one corp, under the command of General Henry Horne. Horne prepared his troops thoroughly. He had large sand tables built and prepared so that even ordinary infantrymen knew the terrain and their part in the attack. The effort was always going to be difficult. The Germans controlled the dominant terrain, and all cover had long ago been shot away. The land in front of Vimy Ridge was honeycombed with tunnels so that supplies and troops could be brought forward for the great attack. During my visit, a young Canadian docent told me those tunnels were a far bigger danger to me than unexploded ordinance. They were a century old and had never been maintained, "and if one gives way beneath you, we'll never find you." One of the tunnels has been preserved and it opened up on British trench line only yards from the German trenches.

By taking Vimy Ridge, the Canadians would protect British First and Third Armies as they assaulted Arras. On April 9, 1917, covered by a creeping barrage the Canadians went 'over the top'. By the end of the day the Ridge was theirs. By April 12 the final objectives had been siezed and the German Sixth Army retreated to a new line formed between Oppy and Mericourt.

Because of the extensive and careful preparation The Battle of Vimy Ridge, became a rare offensive victory. Arras was soon liberated but the Nivelle Offensive itself fizzled out, as the French Army suffered enormous casualties, which led some units to rebel and refuse to attack their German foes. Nivelle was dismissed and replaced by Marshall Petain and Ferdinand Foch. The instability of the French Army at this moment led Douglas Haig to expand the attack at Passchendaele in order to keep pressure on the Germans while the French Army recovered its balance. But the good work done by the Canadian Corp at Vimy Ridge proved very important in Canada. It can be argued the Battle of Vimy Ridge was a seminal moment in the formation of a Canadian national identity separate from the British Empire.

Log in or register to write something here or to contact authors.