100 years since Vimy
One hundred years ago, on 9-12 April 1917, the Canadian Corps captured Vimy Ridge from the German Army. A battle alters the lives of soldiers, and occasionally transforms the face of an entire army.
EDITOR’S NOTE: One hundred years ago, on 9-12 April 1917, the Canadian Corps captured Vimy Ridge from the German Army. A battle alters the lives of soldiers, and occasionally transforms the face of an entire army. Victory can go beyond, touching the soul of a nation. Such was the case at Vimy Ridge. Summerside’s J. Clinton Morrison is the award-winning author of Hell Upon Earth: A Personal Account of P.E.I. Soldiers in the Great War, 1914-1918, published in 1995. To commemorate the 100th anniversary of the Battle of Vimy Ridge, the Journal Pioneer will run a portion of a three-part series from Morrison’s book, each Monday for the next three weeks.
PART ONE: Preparing for battle
Throughout the winter of 1916-1917, blooded and experienced after the horrific battle of the Somme, the Canadian Corps guarded the Western Front, north of Arras, beneath the German guns on Vimy Ridge. Meanwhile, Allied commanders made plans to break the stalemate.
The British were to spearhead an attack at Arras, with emphasis upon regaining Vimy Ridge. A strategic victory was needed to bolster Allied morale.
The task of recapturing the Vimy heights was given to the Canadian Corps.
Vimy Ridge, by itself, was unimpressive. The strategic value of the ridge lay in its location. Dominating relatively lower land, it commanded a view of Lens, Douai, and Arras. Privately, the Allies knew that its capture would also be of inestimable psychological value. In the meantime, on 19 March the German forward lines drew back to the Hindenburg Line where it was believed they could better defend themselves.
By the time preparations for the Arras campaign entered the final stage both sides had significantly altered military strategy and tactics in an effort to break the stalemate that had existed since 1914.
By spring 1917, the approaching Battle of Vimy Ridge was no longer a secret to the soldiers of either side. Opposing the Canadian Corps were three battle-hardened Bavarian and Prussian divisions of Group Vimy.
On 20 March the Allied preliminary bombardment commenced. The artillery fire became so intensive that the German defenders on the ridge would later refer to it as the “week of suffering.”
The Canadians began to move into attack positions on Easter Sunday evening, 8 April. They were assisted by an intricate maze of 12 underground tunnels or subways which extended up to the Canadian front line in front of Vimy Ridge.
For the first time all four divisions of the Canadian Corps would attack an enemy position simultaneously, along a seven-kilometre frontage. As darkness settled over the battered landscape 40,000 Canadians moved up to the forward jump-off points, beyond the subways, amid mandatory silence, their assembly actions concealed in part by the Allied bombardment. The attack was set for 5:30 Easter Monday morning.
As zero hour approached the temperature dropped noticeably and a combination of snow and sleet swept in from the northwest, straight into the faces of the German defenders. Sloshing about in almost kneedeep mud and water, the Canadians were wet and cold but the darkness and the storm fortuitously masked their assembling actions.
Brad MacKay of Coleman was with the 25th Battalion (Nova Scotia Rifles). He remembered they were weighted down with Mills bombs, bandoleers of ammunition, rifles, rations, sandbags, waterproof sheets, entrenching tools, canteens, flares, smoke helmets, and gas masks - all in addition to their damp winter clothing and heavy overcoats. As zero hour approached their bodies had already wearied from carrying the more than 25 kilograms of equipment through the gruelling mud of the assembly trenches. Throughout the night company sergeants spoke words of encouragement to the men waiting in the cold and darkness. About an hour before jump-off the troops received a rum ration.
MacKay remembered it well: “And then next thing there was a little tot of rum, the old SRD; it was supposed to be Special Red Demerara rum but they had it nicknamed Soldiers’ Rum Diluted. Well, we had a tot of that.
It probably give us a little bit of heat.” Each soldier was also given a hot meal in the predawn darkness.
As daybreak neared, thousands of restless troops stirred uneasily up and down the line. A young Island soldier in the 25th Battalion wrote: “At last the first streaks of dawn appear in the east and we know that within a few minutes the guns which have been silent for a couple of hours, will break out with a crash which will make Thor, the thunder god, blush with envy.
The silence is uncanny, and everyone’s nerves are strained to breaking point. Will the Canadians take Vimy Ridge and hold it?
Of course they will. There is not the shadow of a doubt. Everybody is confident. We look at our watches and give the order to get ready.”
Youthful soldiers faced the prospect of their deaths. James McBride of Scotchfort, with the PPCLI, recalled afterwards the coming fury across No Man’s Land: “Many strange thoughts come into a man’s mind. The next few hours might be his last in this world and he thinks of Home and the ones he loves. It is an awful feeling. We did not know how hard the fight was going to be and you would ask yourself the question, has our artillery done its work, has it smashed his wire, has it broken his trenches, has it destroyed his machine gun emplacement, has it broken down his strong points, has it broken the spirit of the men?” Meanwhile, Ben Conrad of Sturgeon, a signaller with the 2nd Canadian Siege Battery, got an early and unexpected introduction to the slaughter that was soon to follow. Conrad had laid down his signal equipment and struck up a conversation with a young Vancouver infantryman. With a minute to go to zero hour an event occurred which made the Vimy battle lodge in his memory the remainder of his long life: “I bent down to pick up the telephone and just then there was an explosion overhead, and there was a s-s-suck in the trench beside me.
And I was going to say, ‘My goodness that was close!,’ and when I turned around to this chap he was sagging down in the trench. There was nothing left but his lower jaw! His whole head had been carried off!”