88 Years Ago

[Terry]

Eighty-eight years ago today the Canadian Corps and British units assaulted and took the German stronghold of Vimy Ridge in a brilliant victory. Here in Canada Vimy Ridge has taken on much greater status than it probably deserves, being referred to by some as the actual birthplace of modern Canada. Later, and in some ways, more significant battles fought by the Canadian Corps (Hill 70, Passchendaele, and in particular the great victories of the Last Hundred Days) are forgotten, but Vimy Ridge is firmly entrenched in the Canadian psyche.

[Stebie9173]

My great-uncle Herbert William Beeby, was (very likely) mortally wounded near the railway triangle at Arras on 9th April 1917. He died of his wounds on the 14th.

I have only just recently starting researching my family history and my relatives war service, before which I had never really thought about his sacrifice. Today has brought a tear to my eye.

Steve.

[Borden Battery]

I concur with Terry. Vimy Ridge is an important symbolic battle.

The Canadian-planned Battle of Hill 70, which was a well-orchestrated combined arms operation, created an efficent "engineered killing ground". The full impact of the refined staff officer planning and execution is best illusrated by the continous string of winning battles in the the open warfare battles of the Last Hundred Days.

[Derek Robertson]

Remembering all those who fell in probably the most forgotten battle of the Great War.

Perhaps if it wasn't for Canada remembering their triumph at Vimy, Arras would be even more unacknowledged?

Below is a segment of the 28th Bn's War Diary for 9th April, 1917:

[6th Shropshires]

Also remembering the men of the 5th and 7th Battalions Kings Shropshire Light Infantry who fell helping to take part of the Harp and Tilloy.

Annette

[Borden Battery]

Vimy Ridge - Canadian Action

Source: Official History of the Canadian Army in the First World War - Canadian Expeditionary Force, 1914-1919, Colonel G. W. L. Nicholson, C.D., Army Historical Section p 230

[Note: Can be downloaded as a .pdf file and used for key-word searches. However, the pagination in the online document is different than the original document - therefore citations with page number references cannot be used.]

http://www.forces.gc.ca/hr/dhh/downloads/O...ories/CEF_e.PDF

Promptly at 5:30 on the morning of Easter Monday, 9 April, the attack on Vimy

Ridge opened with the thunderous roar of the 983 guns and mortars supporting the

Canadians. The main field artillery barrage was provided by one gun to every 25 yards of

front. These guns, opening at zero hour, fired for three minutes on the enemy's foremost

trenches at three rounds a minute, and then lifted 100 yards every three minutes, slowing

their rate of fire to two rounds per minute. This was supplemented by 18-pounder standing

barrages, 4.5-inch howitzer concentrations, barrages by heavy guns and howitzers, and the

continuous fire of 150 machine-guns,* creating a bullet-swept zone 400 yards ahead.

This employment of machine-guns for barrage and supporting fire was on a scale

unprecedented in military history. Other guns and mortars bombarded German battery

positions and ammunition dumps with high explosive and gas shells, while some mortars

laid smoke in front of Thélus and Hill 135. This great volume of fire neutralized a large

proportion of the enemy's guns, and the response of the remainder to the frantic S.O.S.

rocket signals from the German front lines was weak and ineffective, the ill-directed

counter-barrage falling well behind the attacking troops.

The ground over which the Canadians had to advance was peculiarly difficult. The

heavily laden infantry had to pick their way between deep shell-holes and negotiate a maze

of shattered trenches and the torn remnants of wire entanglements. In some places great

mine craters from former operations presented insuperable obstacles that had to be

by-passed, and everywhere the continuous shelling had pulverized the earth into vast

puddles of clammy mud. Nevertheless the long line of twenty-one battalions pushed

forward in good order, keeping well up to the barrage.

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* The total number of machine-guns under the Canadian Corps for the operation was 358.

Each Of the sixteen Canadian M.G. Companies and the four companies of the British 5th

Division had 16 Vickers and the 1st Canadian Motor Machine Gun Brigade had 38. These

figures do not include the "liberal" supply of Lewis guns with the infantry battalions.

[Desmond7]

Lt. A. W. Duncan

Lieutenant Andrew Warwick Duncan, Military Cross, Canadian Infantry, who has been officially reported killed in

action, was the seventh son of Mr. Archibald Duncan of Carnearney, Kells, Co. Antrim. Lt. Duncan was officially

reported missing, believed killed and later information from the War Office Authorities intimates that he had been

killed in action on 9th April, 1917.

The deceased had been awarded the Military Cross for conspicuous gallantry and devotion to duty when in command

of a raiding party. He gallantly led his men into the enemy trench in spite of heavy fire and carried out the task

allotted to him with success.

He was on a visit home on the outbreak of war and enlisted in the ranks on his return to Canada. He was later given a

commission and came to England in November 1916 going to the front early in December. His two brothers, James

and Hugh are at the front with the Canadians.

Ballymena Observer, April 27, 1917