VIMY RIDGE

The battle of Vimy Ridge is one of the greatest battles in

Canada’s history. For the first time ever all four Canadian
divisions fought together on the same battlefield.

Both the British and the French had previously tried to take
Vimy Ridge but had failed. The job was left up to the
Canadians.

The Germans had held the Ridge since the beginning of the
war when the German 1st and 2nd Armies were pushed
back to north eastern France.

The goal of the battle of Vimy Ridge was to achieve the

ever elusive breakthrough in the German lines. It was at
Vimy Ridge that the German’s heavily fortified
Hindenburg Line made a junction with many other trenches
along the front. Behind the ridge there also lay many #
German factories which were vital for the construction of
munitions and other war materials. In the battle, it was the
Canadians’ task to take a portion of the ridge and two
important hills where the Germans had built strong-
defences.

Vimy Ridge was a formidable barrier for the Allies to

breach. A natural hill and barren slope provided little cover
for attacking troops and gave a good vantage point for
fortified machine guns and artillery to fire on invaders. The
Germans had built their own fortifications consisting of
three layers of trenches, barbed wire, deep tunnels into the
hill, and a light railroad to carry supplies to the front,
VIMY RIDGE-The Battle

-Canadian Commanders had learned a valuable lessen from

the British and French

-The Canadians made sure they ' very well prepared for
the mission, a simulation Oj ^be ridge was created and each
soldier knew his exact mission.

-Preliminary artillery bombardment commenced two weeks

before the launch dak; of A^ril 9, 1917. It was intensified in
the week of April 2, a weefc refeired to by the Germans as
“the week of suffering5’'

-Canadian Engineers dug huge tunnels up to the ridge that

could hold 1000 Canadian Soldiers, these tunnels sheltered
the Canadians until the last minute.

-At 5:30 am under the cover of snow and sleet 15,000

Canadians moved out. They faced heavy machine gun fire
but managed to wipe out the German front lines.

-The Canadians employed a “rolling barrage55 where they

would advance one hundred yards every three minutes until
each objective was taken.

-By mid afternoon the Canadians controlled the main points

of the Ridge. In just & few hours 3,598 Canadians had lost
their lives.
The Canadians built 40 kilometres of roads, and 30
kilometres of light railway, laid 70 kilometres of water pipe
and over 150 kilometres of signal wire. They dug seven
kilometres of tunnels from safe rear areas to the front lines
to keep troops safely under cover until the last moments.
One of the tunnels could hide 1,000 men.

The war would drag on for another 20 months and

thousands more Canadians would die. But when the
survivors returned home, they and their countrymen would
consider that Canada’s right to be a nation had been bought
and paid for.
In blood.