Battle of Vimy Ridge (1917): Canada's Defining Moment in the War

The Battle of Vimy Ridge was fought from 9 to 12 April 1917 in northern France, when the four divisions of the Canadian Corps stormed a long German-held ridge near Arras. Its swift capture, after earlier French attacks had failed at great cost, made Vimy one of the best-known Allied successes of the First World War and a lasting symbol of Canadian nationhood.

Background: a fortress ridge

Vimy Ridge is an escarpment roughly 7 km (4 miles) long, rising gently from the east and falling steeply to the west. Its highest point, known as Hill 145, gave German observers a clear view over the Allied lines and the Douai plain behind them. The Germans had held it since October 1914 and fortified it with trenches, deep dugouts, tunnels and machine-gun posts.

French troops attacked the ridge in May and September 1915 during the Artois offensives. They briefly reached the crest but could not hold it, and their losses ran into tens of thousands. British troops took over the sector in 1916, and in the autumn the Canadian Corps moved in.

In early 1917 the Allies planned a major offensive. The British Battle of Arras was intended to draw German reserves away from the French offensive of General Robert Nivelle on the Aisne. Taking Vimy Ridge would protect the northern flank of the Arras attack.

Preparation

The Canadian Corps was commanded by a British officer, Lieutenant-General Sir Julian Byng. He and his staff, including the Canadian divisional commander Arthur Currie, studied the lessons of the Somme and Verdun. Their planning was unusually thorough.

Troops rehearsed the assault over full-scale replicas of the German positions marked out with tape behind the lines. Maps were issued down to platoon level, and junior officers and sergeants were trained to take over if their leaders fell. Engineers dug or extended about a dozen tunnels, called subways, so that assault troops could reach the front line under cover.

The artillery plan was central. Close to 1,000 guns and mortars were assembled, and more than a million shells were fired in the weeks before the attack. Lieutenant-Colonel Andrew McNaughton led a counter-battery effort that used flash-spotting and sound-ranging to locate German guns, and a large share of them had been destroyed or silenced by the day of the assault.

The assault

The attack began at 5:30 a.m. on Easter Monday, 9 April 1917, in sleet and snow driving into German faces. About 15,000 Canadian infantry went over the top in the first wave, following a creeping barrage that moved forward about 100 yards (90 m) every three minutes. The British 5th Division’s 13th Brigade fought alongside them.

The 1st, 2nd and 3rd Canadian Divisions reached most of their objectives by early afternoon. The 4th Division, on the northern flank, had the hardest task: Hill 145 itself, where German machine-gunners survived the bombardment. After costly fighting the hill was taken on 10 April.

The last German position on the northern tip of the ridge, a knoll called the Pimple, fell to the 4th Division on 12 April. The Germans withdrew to a new line on the plain to the east. Four Canadians were awarded the Victoria Cross for actions during the battle.

The two armies

The ridge was held by units of the German Sixth Army under General Ludwig von Falkenhausen. German doctrine in 1917 favoured a flexible defence in depth, with the front line lightly held and strong reserves ready to counter-attack. At Vimy, however, the narrow ridge left little room for such a system, and the reserve divisions were kept too far back to intervene on the first day.

The artillery bombardment, which German soldiers came to call the “week of suffering”, cut supply routes and kept troops sheltering in their dugouts. When the barrage lifted, many defenders emerged to find Canadian infantry already at the entrances. Falkenhausen was removed from command of the Sixth Army later that month.

About 100,000 men served in the Canadian Corps at the time of the battle. They came from every province, and many were recent immigrants from Britain; others were French Canadians and Indigenous soldiers, some of whom became noted snipers and scouts. The four divisions had fought separately at Ypres, the Somme and elsewhere, but Vimy was the first time they attacked side by side under one plan.

Key people

• Julian Byng (1862–1935): commander of the Canadian Corps, later Governor General of Canada (1921–1926).
• Arthur Currie (1875–1933): commander of the 1st Canadian Division; in June 1917 he became the first Canadian to command the Canadian Corps.
• Andrew McNaughton (1887–1966): artillery officer whose scientific counter-battery work was key to the victory.
• Ludwig von Falkenhausen (1844–1936): commander of the German Sixth Army, criticised for keeping his reserves too far back.

Consequences

Vimy Ridge was a clear tactical success. The ridge stayed in Allied hands until the end of the war, and its loss deprived the Germans of a vital observation point. Yet the wider Battle of Arras soon bogged down, and the Nivelle Offensive in Champagne failed badly, leading to mutinies in the French army.

The cost was heavy. The Canadian Corps lost 10,602 casualties, including 3,598 dead. German losses are harder to pin down, but around 4,000 German soldiers were captured. The methods refined at Vimy, especially careful rehearsal and artillery science, became hallmarks of the Canadian Corps, which went on to fight at Hill 70, Passchendaele and in the Hundred Days Offensive of 1918.

Legacy and the Vimy Memorial

In Canada, Vimy quickly became more than a battle. It was the first time soldiers from every region of the country had attacked together as one corps, and the victory was widely seen as proof of Canadian ability and a step towards full independence. This “birth of a nation” view is still popular, although historians point out that Canada’s growing autonomy had many causes.

France granted Canada the use of about 100 hectares of land on the ridge in perpetuity in 1922. The sculptor Walter Allward designed the Canadian National Vimy Memorial, with two tall white pylons representing Canada and France. King Edward VIII unveiled it on 26 July 1936. It bears the names of 11,285 Canadian soldiers killed in France who have no known grave.

The memorial park still preserves shell craters, reconstructed trenches and part of the Grange Subway. Since 2003, 9 April has been marked in Canada as Vimy Ridge Day.

Myths and facts

Myth: Canadians took Vimy on their own. The plan was largely British-designed, the corps commander was British, a British brigade took part, and much of the heavy artillery was British. The infantry assault, however, was overwhelmingly Canadian.

Myth: Vimy was the turning point of the war. It was an important local success, but it did not change the overall course of the war in 1917.

Timeline

• 1915, May and September: French attacks on the ridge during the Artois offensives fail with heavy losses.
• 1916, October: The Canadian Corps takes over the Vimy sector.
• 1917, March: The preparatory bombardment and counter-battery campaign intensifies.
• 1917, 9 April: The Canadian Corps attacks at 5:30 a.m. and takes most of the ridge.
• 1917, 10 April: Hill 145 is captured by the 4th Canadian Division.
• 1917, 12 April: The Pimple falls, completing the capture of the ridge.
• 1922: France grants Canada land on the ridge for a memorial.
• 1936, 26 July: The Canadian National Vimy Memorial is unveiled.

Why it matters

Vimy Ridge showed how meticulous planning and artillery science could break strong defences on the Western Front. For Canada, it became a defining national memory, honoured by one of the most striking war memorials in Europe.