The Battle of Vimy Ridge
Posted May 30th, 2012 at 01:24 PM by Arete
This is just an essay I wanted to share with you about the Battle of Vimy Ridge, which many call a defining moment in Canadian history.
“April 9, 1917, will be in Canada’s history one of the great days, a day of glory to furnish inspiration to her sons for generations,” stated The New York Times in 1917. Canada, then a dominion of Britain, had just won a stunning victory against the Germans at Vimy Ridge, a feat that had previously evaded both the British and the French. There is great difficulty in finding a more celebrated battle by Canadians than the Battle of Vimy Ridge, the first victory won by a united Canadian armed force in this nation’s history. From the view of the war internationally, however, Vimy Ridge is a battle worthy of mention but one that pales in prominence next to battles such as Ypres and Somme, which had a greater influence in the tides and outcomes of the First World War. The Battle of Vimy Ridge was a unifying moment in Canadian history as well as a morale boost for the Allies in WW1. However, on the international scale it is not the crucial victory it was to Canada. It’s influence and legacy can be measured by the success of the mission and battle tactics, the birth of a sense of national unity within the Canadian troops and people, and it’s historical perception in Canada and internationally.
The Battle of Vimy Ridge took place in 1917, as part of a larger offensive known as the Battle of Arras. In his book The First World War AJP Taylor argues that the main objective of the battle was diversionary; the British did not want to draw attention to other preparations. However, Vimy was tactically an important offensive for the Allies since it allowed the Germans to join their northern defensive lines, which ran through North Belgium, to the Hindenburg system. The Germans also used Arras to operate the Lens coalfields, which served an important purpose to the Germans’ war economy. These factors caused the British to be hesitant about advancing east of Arras without taking Vimy Ridge from the Germans. Thus, it can be concluded that the capturing of Arras and of Vimy Ridge in particular was significant for the Allies in order to continue advancing eastwards. Furthermore, the Allies had already tried in vain to recapture the ridge from the Germans. The Germans seized Vimy Ridge in October 1914, and in 1915 the French managed to recapture most of the taken territory but were halted thrice at Vimy. Among the factors leading to their failure, French commanders Joseph Joffre and Ferdinand Foch cited inadequate artillery preparation, despite using large amounts of their ammunition in battle. That the French and the British, in 1916, had attempted to take Vimy Ridge and failed supported the case that Vimy Ridge did hold some value to the Allies.
It would fall to the Canadians to make the final attempt at taking the Ridge. From the onset of the war Canadians had fought with the British troops as “Imperials”, the term the British used for troops enlisted from the colonies under the British Army Act. In 1916, they finally became the Canadian Corps although they would remain under the overall command of the British until the end of the war. The Canadian Corps had proven themselves at Ypres and weathered the brutality of the Somme under the British, but there was much to prove in their first offensive taken together. They needed recruits, discipline, and a battle strategy that avoided the mistakes of the Somme.
The needed transformation came under Julian Byng, appointed by the British to command Canadians in May 1916. In the months prior to this assignment, Byng had been stationed at Vimy Ridge with the British, where “fascinated by Vimy Ridge and the problems it presented, Byng spent hours reconnoitering it until he knew every contour.” His thoroughness in planning the 1917 attack against Vimy Ridge annoyed senior British commanders but were fundamental to Canada’s success.
It is interesting to note that Byng’s initial reaction to commanding the Canadians was one of disappointment. When given the command, Byng wrote in reply to a letter of congratulations:
Why am I sent to the Canadians? I don’t know a Canadian. Why this stunt? Am rather sorry to leave the old corps as we were fighting like hell and killing Boches. However, there it is. I am ordered to these people and will do my best but I don’t know that there is any congratulations about it. And for God’s sake keep the advertisement out of it-it makes it much harder.
Byng’s response might be indicative to the unfamiliarity of the Canadian Corps as a single fighting unit, and their widespread perception as troops from a colony rather than a nation, as Byng, despite rising in position, did not view the command as a promotion. However, he did provide his best effort in preparing the troops for the battle.
Under Byng, the Canadian Corps was transformed extensively. The troops, instead of having the companies advance in lines as they did in Somme, were organized into four permanent platoons each with four sections. This was a significant move by Byng, as it helped forge a fighting team:
A permanently constituted platoon with four specialized sections represented a fighting team that an officer might be able to control. Instead of companies advancing in line, halting until flanks were safe or the artillery had dealt with a problem, attacking infantry could maneuver against an enemy post that held them up. An infantry company would have four teams, each capable of fighting its own small battle. Leaders and men would know each other, and through briefings and rehearsals, all would know what to do. It had taken a long time, but Canadian infantry would be organized and trained to fight their own battles and not to be patriotic automata.
Alongside reshaping the infantry, Byng transformed the artillery with the help of General Andy McNaughton, who observed that:
General Byng was one of the first to grasp the significance of the lessons of Somme and…set about perfecting our artillery organization. As the number of guns available began to increase, the existing artillery units had to be expanded and new ones raised. Technical skill had to be developed and previous lessons and teachings modified to suit the changing conditions. The field and horse gunners, accustomed to fighting under circumstances which enabled them to observe every round, had to cease from scoffing at corrections for temperature, barometric pressure, velocity and direction of wind, wear of guns and type of shell and fuse. And the heavy artillery, used to the utmost deliberation, had to learn speed. Accuracy of fire on unseen targets, and the ability to shoot closer over the heads of our own infantry, had to be acquired, and an organization built up which could effectively handle large masses of artillery.
In these preparations to take Vimy Ridge, Byng proceeded with his characteristic thoroughness that would come to characterize Vimy itself. In this, Arthur Currie, a senior divisional commander, joined him. Together, Byng and Currie formed a Canadian Corps that would be capable of taking the Ridge. According to military historian Desmond Morton, “Under Currie and Byng, the tactile style of the Canadian Corps was ponderous.” He attributed this to the aforementioned training and use of artillery, but also to tunneling and rehearsals.
The factor that most distinguished the Battle of Vimy Ridge was the amount of planning and rehearsal which saw all divisions equipped with maps and directions for their own task and the tasks of others, allowing any soldier to take on the role of another in the case of casualties. Every section of six or nine men would receive one map of their part of the front with their advance line clearly marked. This was unprecedented in the British army. The Canadian Corps thus created a precedent for itself in its thorough preparation that they took advantage of on April 9 1917.
The Canadians initiated the attack at 5:30 am and, with the exception of the challenged 4th Division, took Vimy Ridge by the afternoon. The victory consisted of heavy losses, with Canada suffering 10, 602 casualties of which 3, 598 perished. Nonetheless it was a victory, and one that would remain in Canadian memory, cemented by the legacy of the famous creeping barrage and the excitement at having done what had been attempted but not achieved by the two countries that had once colonized Canada, Britain and France.
The Germans fared better farther south. There, the Germans headed back to the Hindenburg Line, thinned their front lines and prepared for a counterattack, waiting until the exhausted Allies took a break before assaulting them with shellfire. In the Battle of Arras, the British force lost 150, 000 and the Germans lost 100, 000. The Battle of Arras was characterized with the kind of brutality that accompanied battles such as the Somme. The victory was useful in defending the Allied front against counter attacks from the Germans under Erich Ludendorf in 1918. Then, the Germans pushed towards Arras in March 1918, but were halted at Arras after facing strong British forces, where they suffered heavy losses and grew discontented after seeing the superior British supplies. Arras had proven useful to the Allies, and if they had lost the offensive they might have suffered heavier losses in 1918.
Another reward the Allies reaped from Vimy Ridge was a boost in morale, which had been low following the Somme. Here was a victory against the Germans that demonstrated that it could be done: “In the circumstances the Canadian success at Vimy stood out brightly in a scene of unrelieved gloom.” Vimy Ridge also demonstrated how a sustained victory might be achieved, as the Canadian force could move “readily from swift and sustained assault to aggressive and concerted defense.” The 1st Division claimed that:
The great lesson to be learned from these operations is this…If the lessons of the war have been thoroughly mastered; if the artillery preparations and support is good; if our Intelligence is properly appreciated; there is no position that cannot be wrested from the enemy by well-disciplined, well-trained, and well-led troops attacking on a sound plan.
The lesson was well taught, by a small corps from a nation that was just beginning to view itself as a sovereign entity capable of fighting its own battles. Vimy Ridge had provided a tactical victory and morale boost that was valuable to the Allies in that moment of the Great War.
The greatest spoils of the victory was the affirmation to Canadians and their Allies that Canadians could work as an independent, cohesive group, separate from the British, and achieve victory. At the onset of the war, Canada had fought as Imperials to the British troops and their inclusion in the war had been based solely on the inclusion of Britain. In 1910, Wilfred Laurier had stated that “When Britain is at war, Canada is at war. There is no distinction.” Additionally, the British instructors rated the incoming Canadians as two-week recruits regardless of how long they had served in Canada. In this light it is apparent how significant the Canadian victory at Vimy Ridge was, in raising their status in the eyes of the British. It also becomes easier to understand Byng’s initial disappointment in being assigned command of the Canadians; it was hard to know a Canadian when they were viewed as troops from the colonies, with no distinction from the British forces. In the aftermath of Vimy Ridge, the Canadian forces gained the will to see themselves as an independent force, and the British thought that they had won the right to be as such.
Earlier in history, in the face of real military threat from the United States British troops had fought with Canadian militia, causing Canada to become a junior member in the defense force of the British. Instead of entertaining large regular forces in peacetime, however, the Canadians accepted generals from the British forces that Britain was willing to provide. This had changed during the preparations for the offensive against Vimy Ridge, when Byng had “replaced most of the seconded British officers in the Corps with Canadians and had shown them at Vimy Ridge that they were competent to manage their own military affairs.” This viewpoint of independence spread from the army to the country as the world acknowledged that Canada had performed a significant act on the global stage for the first time.
The Canadians gained a sense of their identity, unity and a surfacing nationalism at Vimy Ridge, which was “a symbolic Canadian triumph, one of those ‘great things’ that nations must do together to achieve identity.” Upon examining the quotations of the veterans who fought at Vimy, the overarching theme that one finds is one of discovering a sense of patriotism and of what is distinctly Canadian. Veteran Roy Henley, who fought at Vimy with the 5th Royal Highlanders Battalion, stated that “At Vimy, it was the first time that we did what the Brits couldn’t do, what the French couldn’t do…We were a proud group. We were Canadians…I think Canada was born at Vimy.” Lieutenant Greg Clark from the 4th Canadian Mounted Rifles echoed him:
For the first time in our history, the four Canadian divisions lined up along that infernal and stinking front, shoulder to shoulder…As far as the eye could see, south, north, along the miles of ridge, there were the Canadians. And I experienced my first full sense of nationhood.
The overwhelming victory in Vimy Ridge was for that sense of nationhood, making the battle a unique event in history for Canadians, that would not be seen in the same light by France or Britain. Following the Battle of Vimy Ridge, Canada went on to fight other battles that proved costly. After replacing Byng, Arthur Currie annoyed his British superiors by refusing to take Lens as they ordered him, instead taking Hill 70 where he would “force the enemy to try to take it back, making it a killing-ground for the German counter-attack divisions.” Then they aided Britain in Passchendale, and in Cambrai, at great cost. In the face of the futility of those battles and the horror of the war, Canadians would come to emphasize the sense of nationhood that Vimy Ridge brought them, as if trying to celebrate a faint light amidst omnipresent darkness.
The Battle of Vimy Ridge became a national legend in the aftermath of the First World War. In the immediate wake of the battle, the international community had sung Canada’s praises. Prime Minister Robert Borden wrote in his diary that “…all newspapers ringing with praise of Canadians.” In particular the American newspapers were enthusiastic, as the Tribune wrote, in an editorial titled “Well Done, Canada” that:
Every American will feel a thrill of admiration and a touch of honest envy at the achievement of the Canadian troops…No praise of the Canadian achievement can be excessive. Canada has sent across the sea an army greater than Napoleon ever commanded on the field.
The initial reaction to Vimy Ridge was such excessive praise from the international community as well as in Canada. As time passed, however, its significance on the international stage began to wane in comparison to battles such as Ypres, Somme, and even Passchendale. While the victory at Vimy Ridge was an important one, it was not as prominent considering the long course of the war as a whole. Additionally, the First World War truly was what the title suggests, an international affair. Therefore the battles that international history highlights are those which were not dominated by a victory by one nation, or the loss by one nation, as Gallipoli was to Australia. That is why it is called the Battle of Vimy Ridge only in Canada, and the British Battles of Arras internationally. The international community ultimately decided the war through the progression of battles of more prominence to the outcome.
In Canada, the Battle of Vimy Ridge gained the status of a legend. Canadians were eager to pay attention to anything that would ease the hardship of the war. Canada had emerged from the war with severe losses and the enthusiasm they had held at the beginning of the war had faded to bitterness. The memory of Vimy Ridge as one of the “great days” in Canadian history as the New York Times had labeled it created a rationale for joining the war.
Canada entered the First World War as a mere dominion to Britain, and at the end it enjoyed its own autonomous vote in the Paris Peace Conference in 1919, where the League of Nations was founded. Vimy Ridge was a convenient moment to pin this newfound nationhood and the nation-building myth that surrounds the battle began to grow. As Pierre Berton writes in his book Vimy:
What counts is that in the minds of Canadians Vimy took on a mythic quality in the post-war years, and Canada was short of myths. There is something a little desperate-a little wistful-in the commentaries of the twenties and the thirties and even later, in which Canadians assured one another over and over again that at Vimy, Canada had at last found its maturity.
Canadians continued to assure themselves of this maturity, of this glory that provided a rationale for taking part in a gruesome “war to end all wars” by celebrating and embellishing the myth wherever they could. Any veteran who had served at Vimy was not a veteran of the Great War, but one of Vimy and the name was carved in a stone on the Peace Tower in Ottawa.
The importance of the battle in Canadian history and psyche is well evidenced by the monument they erected at Vimy Ridge to commemorate the achievement. Canada desired to pay tribute to their plight during the war, as evidenced by the formation of the Canadian Battlefields Memorials Commission. On January 31 1923, Julian Byng, now Governor General of Canada announced to the Parliament that the Government of France had offered 250 acres of land on Vimy Ridge in commemoration of the battle and as a tribute to the Canadian troops.
The chosen designer, Walter Allward, erected the monument and in 1936, 6, 200 pilgrims embarked to Vimy Ridge. At the unveiling ceremony King Edward VII presided as King of Canada, for the first time in history. Thus, the monument serves as a commemoration to the fallen Canadians in the Battle of Vimy Ridge and the Great War, as well as a celebration of Canada’s sense of nationhood. It was, if myths are to be heeded, a tribute to the moment when Canada was born.
The First World War saw Canada transform from a dominion of Britain into a sovereign nation, a “coming of age”, as many would portray it. In taking Vimy Ridge, Canada had won a tactically important victory that provided a much needed morale boost to the Allies and discovered a new sense of nationhood and identity. Historically, it has faded in comparison to more prominent battles fought by the Allies, but is preserved in Canadian history as a moment that united the nation. That is what makes the Battle of Vimy Ridge to be profoundly Canadian, a lasting legacy in national memory of the first time Canadians achieved victory by fighting together. A victory that inspired Canadians to seek out and discover an identity, a distinct culture that differentiated themselves from the world, and which held great promise for them in the future.
Bibliography
Barris, Ted. Victory At Vimy. Canada Comes of Age: April 9-12, 1917.
Toronto: Thomas Allen Publishers, 2007.
Berton, Pierre. Vimy. Toronto: Pierre Burton Enterprises Ltd, 1986.
Morton, Desmond. Canada and War. Canada: Butterworth&Co, 1981.
Morton, Desmond.When Your Numbers Up. Canada: Random House of Canada Ltd, 1993.
Taylor, A.J.P. The First World War: An Illustrated History. New York: The Berkley Publishing Group, 1963.
William, Jeffrey. Byng of Vimy. London: Leo Cooper published in association with Secker & Warbug, 1983.
“April 9, 1917, will be in Canada’s history one of the great days, a day of glory to furnish inspiration to her sons for generations,” stated The New York Times in 1917. Canada, then a dominion of Britain, had just won a stunning victory against the Germans at Vimy Ridge, a feat that had previously evaded both the British and the French. There is great difficulty in finding a more celebrated battle by Canadians than the Battle of Vimy Ridge, the first victory won by a united Canadian armed force in this nation’s history. From the view of the war internationally, however, Vimy Ridge is a battle worthy of mention but one that pales in prominence next to battles such as Ypres and Somme, which had a greater influence in the tides and outcomes of the First World War. The Battle of Vimy Ridge was a unifying moment in Canadian history as well as a morale boost for the Allies in WW1. However, on the international scale it is not the crucial victory it was to Canada. It’s influence and legacy can be measured by the success of the mission and battle tactics, the birth of a sense of national unity within the Canadian troops and people, and it’s historical perception in Canada and internationally.
The Battle of Vimy Ridge took place in 1917, as part of a larger offensive known as the Battle of Arras. In his book The First World War AJP Taylor argues that the main objective of the battle was diversionary; the British did not want to draw attention to other preparations. However, Vimy was tactically an important offensive for the Allies since it allowed the Germans to join their northern defensive lines, which ran through North Belgium, to the Hindenburg system. The Germans also used Arras to operate the Lens coalfields, which served an important purpose to the Germans’ war economy. These factors caused the British to be hesitant about advancing east of Arras without taking Vimy Ridge from the Germans. Thus, it can be concluded that the capturing of Arras and of Vimy Ridge in particular was significant for the Allies in order to continue advancing eastwards. Furthermore, the Allies had already tried in vain to recapture the ridge from the Germans. The Germans seized Vimy Ridge in October 1914, and in 1915 the French managed to recapture most of the taken territory but were halted thrice at Vimy. Among the factors leading to their failure, French commanders Joseph Joffre and Ferdinand Foch cited inadequate artillery preparation, despite using large amounts of their ammunition in battle. That the French and the British, in 1916, had attempted to take Vimy Ridge and failed supported the case that Vimy Ridge did hold some value to the Allies.
It would fall to the Canadians to make the final attempt at taking the Ridge. From the onset of the war Canadians had fought with the British troops as “Imperials”, the term the British used for troops enlisted from the colonies under the British Army Act. In 1916, they finally became the Canadian Corps although they would remain under the overall command of the British until the end of the war. The Canadian Corps had proven themselves at Ypres and weathered the brutality of the Somme under the British, but there was much to prove in their first offensive taken together. They needed recruits, discipline, and a battle strategy that avoided the mistakes of the Somme.
The needed transformation came under Julian Byng, appointed by the British to command Canadians in May 1916. In the months prior to this assignment, Byng had been stationed at Vimy Ridge with the British, where “fascinated by Vimy Ridge and the problems it presented, Byng spent hours reconnoitering it until he knew every contour.” His thoroughness in planning the 1917 attack against Vimy Ridge annoyed senior British commanders but were fundamental to Canada’s success.
It is interesting to note that Byng’s initial reaction to commanding the Canadians was one of disappointment. When given the command, Byng wrote in reply to a letter of congratulations:
Why am I sent to the Canadians? I don’t know a Canadian. Why this stunt? Am rather sorry to leave the old corps as we were fighting like hell and killing Boches. However, there it is. I am ordered to these people and will do my best but I don’t know that there is any congratulations about it. And for God’s sake keep the advertisement out of it-it makes it much harder.
Byng’s response might be indicative to the unfamiliarity of the Canadian Corps as a single fighting unit, and their widespread perception as troops from a colony rather than a nation, as Byng, despite rising in position, did not view the command as a promotion. However, he did provide his best effort in preparing the troops for the battle.
Under Byng, the Canadian Corps was transformed extensively. The troops, instead of having the companies advance in lines as they did in Somme, were organized into four permanent platoons each with four sections. This was a significant move by Byng, as it helped forge a fighting team:
A permanently constituted platoon with four specialized sections represented a fighting team that an officer might be able to control. Instead of companies advancing in line, halting until flanks were safe or the artillery had dealt with a problem, attacking infantry could maneuver against an enemy post that held them up. An infantry company would have four teams, each capable of fighting its own small battle. Leaders and men would know each other, and through briefings and rehearsals, all would know what to do. It had taken a long time, but Canadian infantry would be organized and trained to fight their own battles and not to be patriotic automata.
Alongside reshaping the infantry, Byng transformed the artillery with the help of General Andy McNaughton, who observed that:
General Byng was one of the first to grasp the significance of the lessons of Somme and…set about perfecting our artillery organization. As the number of guns available began to increase, the existing artillery units had to be expanded and new ones raised. Technical skill had to be developed and previous lessons and teachings modified to suit the changing conditions. The field and horse gunners, accustomed to fighting under circumstances which enabled them to observe every round, had to cease from scoffing at corrections for temperature, barometric pressure, velocity and direction of wind, wear of guns and type of shell and fuse. And the heavy artillery, used to the utmost deliberation, had to learn speed. Accuracy of fire on unseen targets, and the ability to shoot closer over the heads of our own infantry, had to be acquired, and an organization built up which could effectively handle large masses of artillery.
In these preparations to take Vimy Ridge, Byng proceeded with his characteristic thoroughness that would come to characterize Vimy itself. In this, Arthur Currie, a senior divisional commander, joined him. Together, Byng and Currie formed a Canadian Corps that would be capable of taking the Ridge. According to military historian Desmond Morton, “Under Currie and Byng, the tactile style of the Canadian Corps was ponderous.” He attributed this to the aforementioned training and use of artillery, but also to tunneling and rehearsals.
The factor that most distinguished the Battle of Vimy Ridge was the amount of planning and rehearsal which saw all divisions equipped with maps and directions for their own task and the tasks of others, allowing any soldier to take on the role of another in the case of casualties. Every section of six or nine men would receive one map of their part of the front with their advance line clearly marked. This was unprecedented in the British army. The Canadian Corps thus created a precedent for itself in its thorough preparation that they took advantage of on April 9 1917.
The Canadians initiated the attack at 5:30 am and, with the exception of the challenged 4th Division, took Vimy Ridge by the afternoon. The victory consisted of heavy losses, with Canada suffering 10, 602 casualties of which 3, 598 perished. Nonetheless it was a victory, and one that would remain in Canadian memory, cemented by the legacy of the famous creeping barrage and the excitement at having done what had been attempted but not achieved by the two countries that had once colonized Canada, Britain and France.
The Germans fared better farther south. There, the Germans headed back to the Hindenburg Line, thinned their front lines and prepared for a counterattack, waiting until the exhausted Allies took a break before assaulting them with shellfire. In the Battle of Arras, the British force lost 150, 000 and the Germans lost 100, 000. The Battle of Arras was characterized with the kind of brutality that accompanied battles such as the Somme. The victory was useful in defending the Allied front against counter attacks from the Germans under Erich Ludendorf in 1918. Then, the Germans pushed towards Arras in March 1918, but were halted at Arras after facing strong British forces, where they suffered heavy losses and grew discontented after seeing the superior British supplies. Arras had proven useful to the Allies, and if they had lost the offensive they might have suffered heavier losses in 1918.
Another reward the Allies reaped from Vimy Ridge was a boost in morale, which had been low following the Somme. Here was a victory against the Germans that demonstrated that it could be done: “In the circumstances the Canadian success at Vimy stood out brightly in a scene of unrelieved gloom.” Vimy Ridge also demonstrated how a sustained victory might be achieved, as the Canadian force could move “readily from swift and sustained assault to aggressive and concerted defense.” The 1st Division claimed that:
The great lesson to be learned from these operations is this…If the lessons of the war have been thoroughly mastered; if the artillery preparations and support is good; if our Intelligence is properly appreciated; there is no position that cannot be wrested from the enemy by well-disciplined, well-trained, and well-led troops attacking on a sound plan.
The lesson was well taught, by a small corps from a nation that was just beginning to view itself as a sovereign entity capable of fighting its own battles. Vimy Ridge had provided a tactical victory and morale boost that was valuable to the Allies in that moment of the Great War.
The greatest spoils of the victory was the affirmation to Canadians and their Allies that Canadians could work as an independent, cohesive group, separate from the British, and achieve victory. At the onset of the war, Canada had fought as Imperials to the British troops and their inclusion in the war had been based solely on the inclusion of Britain. In 1910, Wilfred Laurier had stated that “When Britain is at war, Canada is at war. There is no distinction.” Additionally, the British instructors rated the incoming Canadians as two-week recruits regardless of how long they had served in Canada. In this light it is apparent how significant the Canadian victory at Vimy Ridge was, in raising their status in the eyes of the British. It also becomes easier to understand Byng’s initial disappointment in being assigned command of the Canadians; it was hard to know a Canadian when they were viewed as troops from the colonies, with no distinction from the British forces. In the aftermath of Vimy Ridge, the Canadian forces gained the will to see themselves as an independent force, and the British thought that they had won the right to be as such.
Earlier in history, in the face of real military threat from the United States British troops had fought with Canadian militia, causing Canada to become a junior member in the defense force of the British. Instead of entertaining large regular forces in peacetime, however, the Canadians accepted generals from the British forces that Britain was willing to provide. This had changed during the preparations for the offensive against Vimy Ridge, when Byng had “replaced most of the seconded British officers in the Corps with Canadians and had shown them at Vimy Ridge that they were competent to manage their own military affairs.” This viewpoint of independence spread from the army to the country as the world acknowledged that Canada had performed a significant act on the global stage for the first time.
The Canadians gained a sense of their identity, unity and a surfacing nationalism at Vimy Ridge, which was “a symbolic Canadian triumph, one of those ‘great things’ that nations must do together to achieve identity.” Upon examining the quotations of the veterans who fought at Vimy, the overarching theme that one finds is one of discovering a sense of patriotism and of what is distinctly Canadian. Veteran Roy Henley, who fought at Vimy with the 5th Royal Highlanders Battalion, stated that “At Vimy, it was the first time that we did what the Brits couldn’t do, what the French couldn’t do…We were a proud group. We were Canadians…I think Canada was born at Vimy.” Lieutenant Greg Clark from the 4th Canadian Mounted Rifles echoed him:
For the first time in our history, the four Canadian divisions lined up along that infernal and stinking front, shoulder to shoulder…As far as the eye could see, south, north, along the miles of ridge, there were the Canadians. And I experienced my first full sense of nationhood.
The overwhelming victory in Vimy Ridge was for that sense of nationhood, making the battle a unique event in history for Canadians, that would not be seen in the same light by France or Britain. Following the Battle of Vimy Ridge, Canada went on to fight other battles that proved costly. After replacing Byng, Arthur Currie annoyed his British superiors by refusing to take Lens as they ordered him, instead taking Hill 70 where he would “force the enemy to try to take it back, making it a killing-ground for the German counter-attack divisions.” Then they aided Britain in Passchendale, and in Cambrai, at great cost. In the face of the futility of those battles and the horror of the war, Canadians would come to emphasize the sense of nationhood that Vimy Ridge brought them, as if trying to celebrate a faint light amidst omnipresent darkness.
The Battle of Vimy Ridge became a national legend in the aftermath of the First World War. In the immediate wake of the battle, the international community had sung Canada’s praises. Prime Minister Robert Borden wrote in his diary that “…all newspapers ringing with praise of Canadians.” In particular the American newspapers were enthusiastic, as the Tribune wrote, in an editorial titled “Well Done, Canada” that:
Every American will feel a thrill of admiration and a touch of honest envy at the achievement of the Canadian troops…No praise of the Canadian achievement can be excessive. Canada has sent across the sea an army greater than Napoleon ever commanded on the field.
The initial reaction to Vimy Ridge was such excessive praise from the international community as well as in Canada. As time passed, however, its significance on the international stage began to wane in comparison to battles such as Ypres, Somme, and even Passchendale. While the victory at Vimy Ridge was an important one, it was not as prominent considering the long course of the war as a whole. Additionally, the First World War truly was what the title suggests, an international affair. Therefore the battles that international history highlights are those which were not dominated by a victory by one nation, or the loss by one nation, as Gallipoli was to Australia. That is why it is called the Battle of Vimy Ridge only in Canada, and the British Battles of Arras internationally. The international community ultimately decided the war through the progression of battles of more prominence to the outcome.
In Canada, the Battle of Vimy Ridge gained the status of a legend. Canadians were eager to pay attention to anything that would ease the hardship of the war. Canada had emerged from the war with severe losses and the enthusiasm they had held at the beginning of the war had faded to bitterness. The memory of Vimy Ridge as one of the “great days” in Canadian history as the New York Times had labeled it created a rationale for joining the war.
Canada entered the First World War as a mere dominion to Britain, and at the end it enjoyed its own autonomous vote in the Paris Peace Conference in 1919, where the League of Nations was founded. Vimy Ridge was a convenient moment to pin this newfound nationhood and the nation-building myth that surrounds the battle began to grow. As Pierre Berton writes in his book Vimy:
What counts is that in the minds of Canadians Vimy took on a mythic quality in the post-war years, and Canada was short of myths. There is something a little desperate-a little wistful-in the commentaries of the twenties and the thirties and even later, in which Canadians assured one another over and over again that at Vimy, Canada had at last found its maturity.
Canadians continued to assure themselves of this maturity, of this glory that provided a rationale for taking part in a gruesome “war to end all wars” by celebrating and embellishing the myth wherever they could. Any veteran who had served at Vimy was not a veteran of the Great War, but one of Vimy and the name was carved in a stone on the Peace Tower in Ottawa.
The importance of the battle in Canadian history and psyche is well evidenced by the monument they erected at Vimy Ridge to commemorate the achievement. Canada desired to pay tribute to their plight during the war, as evidenced by the formation of the Canadian Battlefields Memorials Commission. On January 31 1923, Julian Byng, now Governor General of Canada announced to the Parliament that the Government of France had offered 250 acres of land on Vimy Ridge in commemoration of the battle and as a tribute to the Canadian troops.
The chosen designer, Walter Allward, erected the monument and in 1936, 6, 200 pilgrims embarked to Vimy Ridge. At the unveiling ceremony King Edward VII presided as King of Canada, for the first time in history. Thus, the monument serves as a commemoration to the fallen Canadians in the Battle of Vimy Ridge and the Great War, as well as a celebration of Canada’s sense of nationhood. It was, if myths are to be heeded, a tribute to the moment when Canada was born.
The First World War saw Canada transform from a dominion of Britain into a sovereign nation, a “coming of age”, as many would portray it. In taking Vimy Ridge, Canada had won a tactically important victory that provided a much needed morale boost to the Allies and discovered a new sense of nationhood and identity. Historically, it has faded in comparison to more prominent battles fought by the Allies, but is preserved in Canadian history as a moment that united the nation. That is what makes the Battle of Vimy Ridge to be profoundly Canadian, a lasting legacy in national memory of the first time Canadians achieved victory by fighting together. A victory that inspired Canadians to seek out and discover an identity, a distinct culture that differentiated themselves from the world, and which held great promise for them in the future.
Bibliography
Barris, Ted. Victory At Vimy. Canada Comes of Age: April 9-12, 1917.
Toronto: Thomas Allen Publishers, 2007.
Berton, Pierre. Vimy. Toronto: Pierre Burton Enterprises Ltd, 1986.
Morton, Desmond. Canada and War. Canada: Butterworth&Co, 1981.
Morton, Desmond.When Your Numbers Up. Canada: Random House of Canada Ltd, 1993.
Taylor, A.J.P. The First World War: An Illustrated History. New York: The Berkley Publishing Group, 1963.
William, Jeffrey. Byng of Vimy. London: Leo Cooper published in association with Secker & Warbug, 1983.
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