Battles of World War 1
The Battle of Vimy Ridge
Vimy Ridge was an extremely important piece of Canadian military history. It is important for numerous reasons: It was the first time Canada acted as a national unit rather then as a piece of the Allied forces, it was the most signifigant gain made by the allies up to its time in WWI, it was the most successful (and first clearcut military victory abroad) Canadian operation and helped give us a sense of national unity.
Vimy Ridge was an impressively fortified piece of the German defensive front. It was composed of several distinct section and canadian commanders took this into account when planning the assault. This, in itself, also made Vimy remarkable. Never before had a battle been so intricately planned. Canadian Commanders did everything in their power to give thier men every advantage and minize casualties. The battle was panned in four segments, the red line, the blue line, the black line, and the brown line. The first three coincided with German defensive arrangements while the forth line, the brown line was the general objective.
The attack took place on April 9, 1917. It commenced at 5:30 a.m. on a day with horrible weather. The weather hampered the German side far more then the canadians because for the first time in military history weather was taken into account when preparing the artillery to attack the German fortified position.
The First Division was orderd to overrun the southern slope of the Ridge. They consisted of the first three Brigades and they met stiff German oppposition but the Division was able to break through and reach the Brown line by 1 p.m. on schedule.
The Second Division attacked opposite the villages of Les Tilleuls and Thélus. As expected, they were met by strenuous opposition and were strengthened by the British Brigade. Second Division's Brigades worked differently than the others as each Brigade was sent to a different objective, with the 6th Brigade and the British reaching the final objective.
The Third Division attacked opposite La Folie Wood and did not have as difficult of a task as they only had to reach the Red line. They occupied the Black line by 6 a.m. and the remainder of their time was mainly spent in the clearing of La Folie Wood which they achieved by 9 a.m.
The Fourth Division was assigned the task of capturing Hill 145. This was definitely the most difficult of the assualts. What made Hill 145 so well fortified was the extremely well camouflaged defences. In the other attacks the Canadians were able to prepare for all defences. On Hill 145 many machine-guns were not discovered until the attacked and furthermore the Germans had constructed an elaborate network of tunnels that allowed them to move in behind the advancing Canadian and attack from the rear. Losses were heavy. It was decided to fall back and try to retake the hill the following day. The following day, profiting from the previous days experience, the Canadians cleared the Rigde.
The Canadians attacked again on April 12th. On this day they advanced against a hill of significant size nicknamed 'the pimple'. The 'pimple' had withstood the Canadian barrage on April 9th but, in hindsight, the new attack could not have been better timed. The Canadians were able to take 'the pimple' with relative ease and were now in a perfect position to defend the entire Ridge from any counter-attack. The Germans began to withdraw when this happened and the Canadians were able to advance on their heels and secure the entire region by April 14th.
Major-General Arthur Currie, who led the First Division, was personally knighted by King George V for his contribution and four other Canadians won the Victoria Cross for their efforts. The gunners of Vimy are often overshadowed by the heroism displayed by the infantry. In actual fact, they were probably the decisive element of the attack, without which the infantry would have been unable to capture Vimy Ridge.
A School Link Article. Courtesy of Micheal Chaif, LCCHS, March 9, 1999 .
