Vimy Ridge, Battle of

Vimy Ridge, Battle of, major engagement of World War I that took place in north-eastern France in 1917, sometimes referred to as the Third Battle of Arras. It was fought between the armies of Canada and Germany, and became a landmark event in the development of Canadian nationhood.

By 1917 the formidable Vimy Ridge, 12 km (7.5 mi) north-east of the Allied-held railway junction of Arras, had gained a great strategic importance due to its dominant position over that sector of the Western Front. It had been held since the autumn of 1914 by the Germans, who had since constructed an impressive series of defences. In April 1917 Sir Douglas Haig, commander of British and Empire forces in France, deemed its capture a vital prerequisite to the planned general offensive in the Ypres sector to the north that was aimed to end the trench stalemate with a breakthrough that would also recapture Belgium’s English Channel ports. Previous attempts to wrest the ridge from German control, by France in 1915 and Britain in 1916, had been repulsed.

The task of taking Vimy Ridge was given to the four divisions of the Canadian Corps. It was the first time all four would fight together, and they were to be led by Britain’s Lieutenant-General Julian Byng (later a governor-general of Canada). Months of preparation for the attack included extensive training, placing deep land mines, digging a labyrinth of tunnels to allow troops to move safely up to the front line, improved spotting of enemy artillery positions, as well as aerial reconnaissance that for the first time used observation balloons. After a heavy, three-week British and Canadian artillery barrage of more than 1 million shells to soften up the German defences, the attack was launched along a front of 7 km (4.4 mi) at dawn on Easter Monday, April 9, 1917, and was supported by a well-devised and innovative creeping barrage. After 30 minutes, and fighting through a snowstorm, 1 Division, under Major-General Arthur Currie, had captured the German front line, the second line falling on the hour. With the capture by 4 Division of Hill 145, the highest feature of the salient, on April 12, the entire ridge was in Canadian control, and the Germans withdrew 3 km (1.9 mi).

Vimy Ridge was a great victory, the single most successful Allied advance on the Western Front to that date. It had been achieved through meticulous planning, thorough preparation, and individual valour, and incurred some of the lowest casualty rates for the Allies in the entire war (Canada lost 3,598 killed and 10,602 wounded, while the Germans suffered more than 20,000 casualties in total). Although the ridge remained in Allied hands for the remainder of the war, it was the only significant Allied success that spring, as British and French attacks to the north and south of Vimy, designed to coincide with the Canadian attack, achieved little. Worse still, the later offensive at Ypres, also known as Passendale, proved to be an immensely costly British failure and not the big breakthrough that Sir Douglas Haig had hoped for.

The Canadian force’s victory in April 1917 was nevertheless a source of great pride, uniting the country in a feeling of true nationhood, and helping win it a separate signature on the Treaty of Versailles in 1919. On July 26, 1936, the spectacular Canadian Memorial at Vimy Ridge, designed by Walter Seymour Allward, was unveiled by King Edward VIII as a tribute to those Canadians who had fought and died in the war.