The Battle of Vimy Ridge
The battle of Vimy Ridge was in the Nord-Pas-De-Calais region of France and took place between April 9 1917 and April 12 1917. This battle was the most influential battle for the Canadians and it helped Canada become internationally renowned for its military. This battle was actually a diversionary attack, so that the French could launch the Nivelle Offense against the German army.
The objective that the British laid down for the 4 divisions of Canadians was to take control of an escarpment that the Germans were holding which was on high ground. It was a very planned attack but it still looked almost impossible against an immovable German resistance. Yet the Canadians had been training for this battle for over a year and had even made a small scale re enactment of how the battle would go. Every soldier and general knew the objective and their role in attaining this objective.
On March 20th the British started to fire artillery upon the German defense and they were flying over the battlefield to find out where the German guns were located. The Germans called this the week of suffering and most of their guns and artillery were destroyed. Even Billy Bishop (Link) played a large part in this aerial war.
Finally on April 9th 1917, Easter Monday, 20,000 Canadian soldiers were marching towards the Germans and were slowly making their way through “No Man’s Land”. There was some hand to Hand fighting but the most casualties came from the Germans machine guns that were just firing down upon the Canadians. Yet on the First day they all captured their objectives.
Yet on April 10th the Canadians had finally captured the most important strategic position of Vimy Ridge which was Hill 145. Once we had conquered this position the Germans accepted defeat and retreated. Even though they had conquered Vimy ridge the Canadians could not bring their artillery up the escarpment because the ground was too muddy. The Canadians used the German artillery even though they had not been trained in these weapons and fired upon the German forces.
It is said that this was “the birth of a nation” and all Canadians should be proud of what their troops accomplished on a day like today. Now if you go to where the Battle of Vimy ridge took place you can see the monument called the Victoria Cross.