The Battle for Vimy Ridge

The Battle of Vimy Ridge was a military offensive by the Canadian Corps against the German Sixth Army along the Western Front in the Nord-Pas-de-Calais region of France, from 9th to 12th April 1917. It was part of the opening phase in the wider-scaled Battle of Arras, which served as a diversionary attack for the Nivelle Offensive by the French Army. The immediate objective of the Canadian Corps was to take control of the German-held high ground that dominated the Plains of Douai, to permit the southern flank of the Arras offensive to advance without being fired upon in enfilade.

Vimy Ridge had fallen under German control in October, 1914, during the First Battle of Artois. Situated 8 km northeast of Arras, the ridge is approximately 7 km in length and culminates at an elevation of 145 m, providing a natural unobstructed view for tens of kilometres. The German Sixth Army had heavily fortified the ridge with tunnels, three rows of trenches behind barbed wire, artillery and numerous machine gun nests to more effectively protect the Lens coal mines, which were essential to their war efforts. During the Second Battle of Artois, the French 1st Moroccan Division managed to take possession of the ridge, after an astonishing 4km advance, but was unable to maintain it due to a lack of reinforcements, and consequently suffered heavy losses. The French suffered approximately 150,000 casualties in their attempts to gain control of Vimy Ridge and surrounding territory. Following the Third Battle of Artois the Vimy sector became calmer with both sides taking a ‘live and let live’ approach.

The British XVII Corps, commanded by Lieutenant-General Sir Julian Byng, relieved the French Tenth Army from the sector in February 1916 permitting the French to expand their operations at Verdun. It was quickly discovered that German tunnelling companies had taken advantage of the relative calm on the surface to push aggressive tunnelling and deep mining activity against French positions, taking full control of the underground in the Vimy sector. Royal Engineer Tunnelling Companies were immediately deployed along the front to combat the German mining nuisance. This underground clash developed into a fierce struggle, with both sides blowing mines to destroy enemy infantry positions, and camouflet charges to destroy the opposition’s mining activity.

In response to increased British mining aggression, German artillery and trench mortar fire intensified in early May 1916. On 21 May 1916, after shelling both forward trenches and divisional artillery positions from no less than 80 out-of-sight batteries on the reverse slope of the ridge, the German infantry attacked the British lines along a 2000-yard front in an effort to repulse them from positions along the ridge. During the battle, Lieutenant Richard Basil Brandram Jones won his Victoria Cross for having led his platoon’s defence of the important Broadmarsh Crater, and having personally shot 15 of the enemy before being shot in the head attempting to throw a Mills bomb.

The German advance, having captured their objective of the British mine craters, halted and entrenched their position. Small counter attacks by units of 140th and 141st Brigades took place on 22 May, but did not manage to change the situation. The newly-formed Canadian Corps relieved the British IV Corps stationed along the western slopes of Vimy Ridge, in October 1916.

On 25 March 1917, the largest artillery barrage in history up to that point started. Over a million shells were fired onto the German trenches for 24 hours a day, for an entire week. The German artillery pieces were hidden behind the ridge, but by using aerial observers and microphones on the ground to triangulate the sound and flashes from the guns’ firing (techniques known as “sound ranging” and “flash spotting”), the Canadians were able to locate about 83% of the German guns. The German troops called this period the “Week of Suffering”.

Additionally, the heavy artillery was strongly reinforced, with nine British heavy artillery groups supplementing the 1st and 2nd Canadian Heavy Artillery Groups, for a total of 245 heavy guns and howitzers. The supporting field artillery was also reinforced to include “seven divisional artilleries … eight independent field artillery brigades, 480 eighteen-pounders and 138 4.5-inch howitzers”. Available if required were “132 more heavies and 102 field” and “a few heavy guns held under the command of the First Army”. This fire power gave a density of one heavy gun for every 20 yards (18 m) of frontage and one field gun for every 10 yards (9.1 m): in contrast, the proportions at the Somme had been one heavy gun to 57 yards (52 m), and one field gun to every 20 yards.

After a cold night the mud had hardened underfoot by dawn on Easter Monday. At dawn the assault divisions of the Canadian Corps attacked. The mines were fired, a blanket of shells from the barrage crept towards the German front line, and the first wave of the Canadian Corps walked closely behind it. As insurance, heavy machine-gun fire, calibrated to four hundred feet to their front, arced over their heads towards the German lines. The first wave of about 15,000 Canadian troops attacked positions defended by roughly 5,000 Germans, followed by the second wave of 12,000 Canadians to meet 3,000 German reserves. Over 1,100 cannon of various descriptions, from British heavy naval guns mounted on railway cars miles behind the battlefield, to portable field artillery pieces dragged into place by horses, mules, or soldiers just behind the Canadian lines, fired continuously. Nearly 100,000 men in total were to take and hold the ridge. The first wave advanced behind a creeping barrage, known specifically for the battle as the Vimy Glide. This tactic had been used earlier at the Battle of Neuve Chapelle and the Battle of the Somme, but required fine tuning in the absence of voice control.

After less than two hours, three of the four Canadian divisions had taken their objectives; the 4th Division, however, was held up by machine gun nests on the highest point of the ridge, known as Hill 145, or by its nickname, “The Pimple”. The 85th Battalion (Nova Scotia Highlanders), who had been intended to function in a supply and construction role, were sent in as reinforcements and the hill was captured by the end of the day. It would be three days before the entire ridge had been cleared. The total cost would be 3,598 Canadians killed and 7,104 wounded. The German Sixth Army, under General Ludwig von Falkenhausen, suffered approximately 20,000 casualties. The Canadians also took 4,000 Germans as prisoners.

The attack and objective had only limited grand-strategic significance, as the simultaneous British and Australian attack to the south of the Ridge was unsuccessful. Vimy Ridge came to have a strong symbolic significance, and to the Canadian Corps was an enormous boost to their confidence and sense of identity.

On April 9th, 1917, the 54th Battalion, Canadian Infantry, attacked to the south of Givenchy-en-Gohelle.