Today is the 104th anniversary of the battle of Vimy Ridge a battle that lasted over 4 days during WW1.
This battle in particular was huge for Canada as it bought together all elements of the Canadian Expeditionary Force (all 4 divisions) and marks a date of huge national achievement and sacrifice in Canadian history.
When you look at what the Canadians did during the battle it also solidified Canadians as excellent and innovative Soldiers, Through the use of Rolling Artillery barrages, training and strong leadership Canada did what other military's couldn't do and took the ridge.
Under the command of Julius Byng, Arthur Currie and Henry Hume they devised a 3 dimensional battle plan that included strong air recon and artillary spotting, tunneling and of course a combination of infantry movements behind artillary and came up with training down to the platoon level.
At the same time the Canadians' began to do night time raids of the German trenches to secure prisoners and intelligence.
The battle really began at the end of March as the Canadians with British artillary began to pound the German fortifications and trenches with the intent of destroying the German barbed wire and obstructions to clear the way for troops to quickly get on top of the Germans.
On April 9th the attack began at 5:30 AM as Canadian engineers blew mines under the german positions and in no mans land to clear obstacles. Then all of the artillary pieces at the Canadian Command began to fire a massive barrage that advanced at 100 yards in three minutes. The combination of the mines and artillary pounded the germans and allowed the Canadian infantry to advance behind it,
By the end of the day most Canadian divisions had reached and secured their objectives and began to re-enforce with British troops, the only Canadian formation that didn't achieve their objectives were the 4th Division who's attack collapsed immediately due to leaving German machine guns in their sector untouched.
On April 10th the Canadians continued to advance behind artillary and with the assistance of tanks captured the Blue line.
On April 11th the final objective was capturing the Pimple a high defended position but Canadians using artillary and a determined push from all sides managed to capture it and end the battle.
In the end the 6th German Army had been broken, the Canadian Corp had done what the British and French couldn't do and captured the Ridge. The Canadian Corp took heavy casualties with 3598 killed and over 7000 wounded. 4 Canadians received the Victoria Cross.
The one thing that was unfortunate is that the Commonwealth and its allies didn't expoit this victory to push through a break through maneuver instead the win was consolidated and the lines became stagnant again.
But this was a victor that established Canada as its own nation within the commonwealth. It went a long way to establishing Canadian Military independence. As well the number of innovations through the use of combined arms attacks, rolling artillery barrages and the concepts of advanced scouting and the importance of intelligence gathering changed how wars were fought and started the evolution towards WW2's more fluid movement based strategies.
__________________
My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings;
Look on my Works, ye Mighty, and despair!
The Following 17 Users Say Thank You to CaptainCrunch For This Useful Post:
Vimy Ridge day
