The battle of Vimy Ridge started on April 9th, 1917
This was the battle where the Canadian Corps fought as a purely Canadian Unit under the command of a Canadian General Arthur Currie.
Currie was considered a bit of a maverick and an innovator at the time and he bought those to bear on the Germans.
He utilized not only overwhelming artillary on narrow corridors but used creeping artillary to allow his men to effectively close on the enemy.
Among the other innovations, he was the first one to try counter battery artillery to silence enemy guns. He also trained all non commissioned officers to know the duties and rolls of their more senior NCM's and officers so they could take command if those officers were killed or wounded. This meant that Canadian Units were less likely to panic, break down or flee under fire.
Most importantly he also felt that the best way to counter murderous machine gun fire and entrenched enemy troops was to find a way to get his troops as close as possible to the enemy.
In the days leading up to the battle, the Canadians secretly tunneled and trenched so that they would be positioned as close to the enemy as possible, at the same time Currie used his artillery to smash the enemies fixed artillery.
at 5:30 am on April 9th, the Canadians attacked, they opened with a massive artillery barrage, 30,000 Canadians then came out of their trenches and tunnels and walked behind a solid wall of artillary which allowed the Canadians to walk right up the enemy position. The Germans were caught un prepared and most were in their shelters when the Canadians hit the trenches. By 12:30 pm the battle was effectively over and the Canadian Corp had taken the Ridge. out of over 10,000 Canadian Casualties 3,598 Canadians were killed.
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My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings;
Look on my Works, ye Mighty, and despair!
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I would love to go there next year for the 100th anniversary
The Regimental Association attached to my fathers regiment is planning another tour to Dieppe in 2017. They have already tried to book hotels in France and the prices are still ridiculous in August. All the hotel prices are going to be higher there next year, a lot more than what we paid in 2012.
Dan Carlin has a fantastic podcast about WW1 if anyone is interested, called Blueprint for Armageddon. It's a 6 part series and probably about 15 hours long, so quite a monster, but it's a fantastic (if understandably depressing) series. I just listened to it all during a long roadtrip. It's amazing how depraved humanity can be, and how much courage those soldiers must've needed to even take a step forward.
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Thanks Captain for posting. I had meant to do the same yesterday but your history provides more background and colour. I have but pictures from a few years ago. It is a great monument and (like Dieppe) a very sobering experience visiting. A place all Canadians should make a point of seeing if they can. It's forever a part of us and helped form us into the awesome country we are.
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Hockey is just a game the way ice cream is just glucose, love is just
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I love how peaceful the memorial looks. Not a bunch of statues of soldiers, or the fighting (not that their's anything wrong with that either) but it just looks so respectful
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There are a couple of classic marble statues that you could consider soldier like but they are more of a Greek style. The only real sculpture I recall that gives a hint of the "modern" day is the marble casket with the helmet sculpted on top of it. It is an extremely well done monument. Huge but yet understated. Peaceful is an apt description.
As an aside, I had a similar feeling when visiting the American WWII cemetery at Coleville, the one at the beginning/end of Saving Private Ryan. Massive in scale but still simple and understated.
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Hockey is just a game the way ice cream is just glucose, love is just
a feeling, and sex is just repetitive motion.
Of all the cemeteries I saw, one that I found very beautiful was the Reichswald Forest War Cemetery in Germany near the Dutch border. Over 7,000 buried there. It was very emotional to see one that big.
Vimy Memorial and the Jono Beach Centre are both on my bucket list. My daughter is a little disappointed, they do a high school trip to Europe in Grade 11 and have been doing a battlefield themed tour for a couple of years now. She was very much looking forward to seeing some of these places but the teacher has decided to switch it up next year so they will be going elsewhere.
BTW, next years is Canada's 150th anniversary on top of Vimy's 100th, I really hope Vimy is a centrepiece of our official celebrations.
Do you remember that red-headed sinner that blew around your way one time about three years ago? Well, he is here now and does not easily forget to appreciate a friend. I will begin by saying that I read The High River Times over here. A bed-mate in the same hut by the name of Hamilton gets it.
Read this as an account of the battle of 9th April, when many of Canada's bravest and best gave their young and valuable lives against the most brutal race of mankind ever known. Our company went into the front line on the afternoon of the 7th for work and business. The great bombardment continued, sometimes steadily, then in great bursts of fir; shells of all calibers were sailing overhead towards the Hung line trenches, and great upheavals of ground were rising everywhere. His reply was weak, except at night, when he kept up a steady fire of gas shells and heavy stuff along our particular front on three great craters where we were stationed. Occasional flares went up, they were waiting and waiting. We were anxious to go over. The rain and mud and cold were awful.
On Sunday the 8th, we were withdrawn to the supports. His front line was swept from end to end, and we actually stood on top watching the whole show. Dugout timbers and Fritzies were going two hundred feet into the air. At nightfall, fifty of us went over and bombed them into their dug-outs, grabbed a few prisoners and bombed the dug-outs and judging from the squeals and confusion downstairs, we made them suffer severely. We had to hurry back as his guns were giving us a bit of hell. We had a few casualties, but got back over no man's land, which was a mass of mud and water and wire and stakes. There was the most beautiful display of fireworks for an hour. We killed many with bayonet and bomb. We worked hard all night and lost many men. Our trenches were a sea of mud and slime and bodies of our comrades killed by the terrible weight of naval shells which they showered on us from their eight-inch guns. We captured these same guns the next day and turned them on the enemy.
Next morning by 4 o'clock, all the bombs and grenades were ready and the Canadian army was in position for the attack. About 5 o'clock, like one gun, all our artillery opened up on the front of 18 miles and the hellish din and roar and line of fire opened in front of us was intermingled with flares.
It soon began to lift, and away we went into the enemy front line. Many fell, but we kept on. They bolted and we after them like wild cats. They their rifles away as they ran and pulled off their equipment to run the faster but it was no use, they were ours and they all died. We took the three lines in succession and reached our objective after an hour and a half strenuous fighting. We lost about forty per cent of our effectives and prisoners came in by the hundreds from shell holes. We bombed all the dug-outs on the way over and we took no prisoners till we reached the third line. It was now daylight and the next brigade were swinging past us. The enemy's shell fire was weak and wild, through his machine gun fire was quite lively and the continual stream of lead was annoying. Our wonderful artillery was churning a passage ahead. We were happy and feeling good, though smothered in mud and slime and blood.
I was slightly hit twice going over. I got bandaged and a snort of good rum, a life saver. The captain wanted me to take a message back to headquarters. I started out and went back over the ground we had gained, about a mile. I got into an old trench we had fought hard for, and there were many mother's sons lying with their eyes glazed in death. I actually cried bitter tears when I picked up a Fritz haversack and found in it a little parcel containing butter and sugar from his Frau in Germany. I took his big German pipe and his cap and slipped them in my pocket. One big Prussian laid there wounded in the arm. He pointed to his head. He wanted me to shoot him. I said no and explained to him that the British never killed the wounded. Putting a discarded sack under his head I went on and came to many more, some wanted water, which I dare not give them. Some of our own boys rose up on their broken bodies and waved to me for stretcher bearers. I was running into the Hun barrage, which was maintained all day on our old front line. All shell holes were full of water and the water was red with German blood. You can imagine the rest. I cannot tell you in English the horrors of that modern battlefield. I got through the barage [sic] all right but could not find company headquarters, our trenches being battered out of recognition. I reached the brigade headquarters and was shown down to Gen. Lomas, a fine man, and deservedly popular. He first asked me how the battle was going, when I gave him my company commander's report and he praised the boys for what at the time looked like one of the greatest victories of the war. He next asked me if I was hungry. I told him I was cold and hungry and had had little to eat or drink in two days, having been constantly in the front line. He asked me if I was in the raid and I told that I was, and he sent an orderly with me to the kitchen where I could get soup and bread, but I could not hold it down on account of getting so much gas. The gas is beyond explanation. I got a mouthful before I got my mask on and the air was permeated with it as the shells burst all round. I was gasping for breath.
I got to the dressing station and saw many of our boys passing through, being carried in by Fritzies. I left there and got about halfway back when with a terrific crash, a shell burst right over my head and I felt myself going. Next, I must have been at the dressing station. I could see dimly but could not speak. I was aware of the orderly telling the doctor I was dead. The doctor raised my eyelids and I could hear him say 'That fellow is all right, he is badly shell shocked and wounded and gassed, leave the blankets off his face and the snow will bring him too
Currie was one of the few in that war that understood the value of his men.
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Captain James P. DeCOSTE, CD, 18 Sep 1993
Favourite class I ever took was a World Wars class in my undergrad, we had an awesome prof from the University of Chicago teach it. He had recently left America due to political differences and his wife got some big chair at the UofS so here we were. He did an amazing job painting the pictures of all the battles and big events. One thing he talked about is how they would get the Canadians to switch uniforms with other units like British or Australian to fool the Germans. Because the Germans always lined their toughest up against the Canadians. We were known as finishers. Pretty cool heritage.
I always thought of my grand parents as so tough, to have lived through the depression and multiple world wars... just wow I couldn't imagine what would happen to the hipsters if they had to face that. RATIONS? WHERE IS MY ARTISAN CRAFT BREAD?!
__________________ "In brightest day, in blackest night / No evil shall escape my sight / Let those who worship evil's might / Beware my power, Green Lantern's light!"
Favourite class I ever took was a World Wars class in my undergrad, we had an awesome prof from the University of Chicago teach it. He had recently left America due to political differences and his wife got some big chair at the UofS so here we were. He did an amazing job painting the pictures of all the battles and big events. One thing he talked about is how they would get the Canadians to switch uniforms with other units like British or Australian to fool the Germans. Because the Germans always lined their toughest up against the Canadians. We were known as finishers. Pretty cool heritage.
I always thought of my grand parents as so tough, to have lived through the depression and multiple world wars... just wow I couldn't imagine what would happen to the hipsters if they had to face that. RATIONS? WHERE IS MY ARTISAN CRAFT BREAD?!
Canada is often credited with the invention of the trench raid.
The Canadians developed a reputation from the first major battle they fought in, The Second Battle of Ypres (Apr 1915). If you want a glimpse into hell read accounts of that battle.
It always makes me laugh when people talk about Canadians as Peacekeepers.
Canadians are Warriors.
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Captain James P. DeCOSTE, CD, 18 Sep 1993
aniversary of Vimy Ridge
