The sergeant majors bawled out the order, and up and down the four mile stretch of front, in dugouts, trenches and tunnels, thousands of young Canadian soldiers drew their long steel bayonets from their scabbards, and attached them to the muzzles of their rifles.
The surrounding noise was incredible, as hundreds of Canadian guns, firing as fast as the gunners could manage, were pouring shells at the German entrenchments just a few hundred metres away. Some of the men leaned against the walls of the trenches, feeling them tremble with the concussion of the shell blasts. It was bitterly cold, and a stiff north wind was blowing icy rain and sleet into the faces of the men.
The men waited nervously for the order to attack, and wondered what it would be like to finally face the enemy. The officers had assured them that the artillery barrage would destroy the German barbed wire. Piled 20 yards deep, the cruel barbs could snag an unwary soldier, making him an easy target for the machine guns. The machine guns would also be destroyed, they had been told, along with their crews. The artillery should make the attack easy, they had been told.
But, that is what the infantry had been told at the battles of Loos and Neuve Chappelle in 1915. And that is what the infantry had been told at the battle of the Somme in 1916. But each time, the wire had not been cut, the machine guns and their crews had not been destroyed, and the attacking infantry had been cut down in their thousands, like wheat before the scythes of farmers. Twenty thousand infantrymen killed in a single day at the Somme the previous year. Maybe, this time it would be different. Maybe!
“Stand by!”
The men stood up, checking their equipment for the last time. The noise made conversation impossible, so friends merely looked at each other, and gave a silent nod of ‘Good luck’. Many would never see each other again. They suppressed the fear in their hearts. The only thing that mattered was to not let down their comrades in the next few hours.
Platoon commanders put their feet on the lower rung of the scaling ladders. These officers would be the first over the top. They held a whistle in their clenched teeth, and a service revolver in their right hand. Their eyes were glued to their wristwatches as they counted down the seconds to Zero Hour.
10 … 9 … 8 … 7 … 6 … 5
Incredibly, the noise increased. Several heavy thuds were heard, and felt, as tunnels filled with explosives buried deep under the German lines were detonated, sending the bodies of the German defenders above, and their machine guns, flying into the air. Scores of Canadian machine guns suddenly opened up, providing covering fire for the infantry, each pouring out 500 bullets per minute toward the German positions.
4 … 3 … 2 … 1 … Zero!
The officers blew long blasts on their whistles and ran up the ladders.
“Right, lads, forward!!” And the 30,000 men, many of them teenagers, rose from the trenches in a vast wave and began the advance up the long slope, into a torrent of explosives and flying steel. It would be an uphill battle all the way.
Coloured flares rose from the German lines. They had spotted the attackers and were calling for reinforcements. The Canadians were upon them!
It was 5:30AM on April 9, 1917, and the Battle of Vimy Ridge had begun.
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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 ridge was a key asset for most of World War I. Stretching from the town of Vimy to Givenchy-en-Gohelle, it was a crucial feature that allowed the Germans to control much of the surrounding territory. For the Allies, it was the only major barrier keeping them from the wide open Lens-Douai plain.
The German army fortified it with tunnels, three rows of trenches behind barbed wire, massive amounts of artillery, and numerous machine gun nests. The French and British had suffered thousands of casualties in previous attempts to take it; the French alone lost 150,000 men in 1915.
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, all four divisions of the Canadian Corps were brought together.
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 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, 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 initiated the largest artillery barrage in history up to that point. They shelled the German trenches for a week, using over one million shells. The German artillery pieces were hidden behind the ridge, but by observing the sound and light from their firing, the Canadians were able to locate and destroy about 80 per cent of the German guns. The German troops called this period the "Week of Suffering". The bombardment was so loud it could be heard in London. ---------------------------- The young Canadians who went “over the top” on April 9th walked into history. They achieved a stunning success. By April 12, the Canadians controlled the entire ridge, at a cost of 3,598 men killed and 7,104 wounded. The German defenders suffered approximately 20,000 casualties. The Canadians also took 4,000 Germans as prisoners of war. The loss of the ridge forced the Germans to retreat to the lower plains that were far more difficult to defend. In a war in which, battle after battle, thousands died for gains measured in yards, the breakthrough had tremendous tactical significance. It relieved the city of Arras from the 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. The German reaction to the Canadian victory varied from disbelief to despair. Crown Prince Ruppprecht wondered, “All this leads to the question: Is there any sense in continuing the war?”
A year later, in April 1918, the fact that Vimy Ridge continued to be held even as German advances reached the outskirts of Paris was also significant. The ridge provided a leverage point behind the lines from which an extremely effective counter-attack was launched. And that counter-attack led to the German surrender, and the end of the war, in November 1918.
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In July 1936, the Canadian government unveiled a wonderful memorial at the top of Hill 145 on Vimy Ridge. It sits on 250 acres of ground, gifted to Canada in perpetuity by the grateful citizens of France. Carved into the limestone walls of the memorial are the names of the 11,285 Canadians who were killed in the 1914-1918 war, but who have no known grave. The cold, damp weather of northern France has caused the stone to erode badly, so in celebration of the 90th Anniversary of the Battle of Vimy Ridge, the Government of Canada is currently restoring the memorial at a cost of $30 million.
On Easter Monday, April 9th 2007, there will be a rededication and memorial service to mark its reopening and the 90th Anniversary of the battle that changed the course of World War I. Visitors to the memorial will be able to read the dedication:
To the valour of their countrymen in the Great War And in memory of their sixty thousand dead, This monument is raised to the people of Canada.
There will be 3,598 Canadian schoolchildren at the rededication ceremony. Each one will be wearing a replica WWI Canadian army uniform, with the name of one of the soldiers killed in action at Vimy Ridge on the blouse. Each student will have written an essay on the life of the soldier they represent, and these essays will be enclosed in a time capsule at the memorial. ----------------------
The highest military award in the British Commonwealth is the Victory Cross, which is awarded, in exceptional cases, for valour in the face of the enemy. Four Canadians won the Victoria Cross at the battle of Vimy Ridge. They were:
Lance Sgt. Ellis Sifton, of Wallacetown, Ont., who destroyed an enemy machine gun and killed its crew with his bayonet, but was killed in action shortly afterwards on April 9, 1917
Captain Thain MacDowell, put two enemy machine guns out of action, and took seventy-two enemy soldiers as prisoners.
Private Bill Milne, Manitoba Regiment, native of Lanarkshire Scotland, used grenades to put out of action two machine guns that had been holding up the Canadian advance. He was killed in action shortly afterwards on April 9, 1917.
Private John Pattison, of Calgary, put out of action two enemy machine guns that had pinned down the Alberta Regiment, and killed their crews with his bayonet. He was killed in action on June 3, 1917.
But uncommon valour is a common virtue in warfare, and this truism is best exemplified by this young soldier:
Private Percival Moore, of Carleton Place, Ont., member of the Eastern Ontario Regiment, killed in action on April 9, 1917 aged 16 years.
Anyone wishing to learn more about this historic Canadian battle should read “Victory at Vimy”, by Ted Barris.
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