Canadians from coast to coast will celebrate the 150th anniversary of Confederation this year – and with good reason.
But there is another milestone that should also be honoured and celebrated across the nation in 2017: the 100th anniversary of Battle of Vimy Ridge.
Widely regarded as one of the greatest “moments” in Canadian history, the battle took place April 9 to 12, 1917.
In recent decades some historians have argued the Battle of Vimy Ridge was not strategically significantly to the outcome of the First World War. Others are quick to point out the victory, while impressive, was not exclusively a Canadian accomplishment.
All that may be true, but the April 1917 battle marked the first time the Canadian army fought as a totally unified force and the victory helped serve notice, to allies and enemies alike, that Canadians were first-class soldiers.
“Vimy wasn’t the biggest battle; there was a lot more to come – Passchendaele … and others,” said Doug Kirkwood, service officer at the Royal Canadian Legion, Branch 442 in Erin.
“But we sort of established a reputation out of it … (Canadian soldiers) would drive through anything.”
The April 1917 battle captured more ground, more prisoners and more guns than any previous British offensive in the war up to that point.
The victory had an immeasurable effect on morale, not only for Canadian troops, but also for those at home.
It also signalled a new era in international relations. Canada emerged from a very large British shadow, earning a separate signature on the Versailles Peace Treaty at the end of the war, and later a seat at the League of Nations.
“A lot of people have talked about how [the battle signalled] Canada coming of age,” said Kirkwood. “It instilled a lot of pride in Canadian soldiers and in Canada.”
But all that did not come without a cost. About 3,600 Canadian soldiers died in the battle and an additional 7,000 were wounded.
Background
In 1914, the German army took control of one of the few dominant features in the relatively flat area of northern France: Vimy Ridge, a 14- kilometre escarpment that overlooks the Douai plain.
From its heights, the Ger- mans dominated the terrain for many kilometres, and threatened Allied control of the entire region.
Through 1915 and 1916, the French and then the British tried to seize the ridge, but were unsuccessful, losing over 150,000 men between them.
The Germans held firm, and fortified the ridge so well that most Allied commanders deemed it impregnable.
But what allowed the Canadian forces to turn the tide was meticulous planning and preparation under the command of British General Sir Julian Byng and British and Canadian staff officers, including Lieutenant-General Arthur Currie.
All four Canadian battalions, totalling 100,000 men, plus an attachment of approximately 70,000 British soldiers, began training in November of 1916 for a major assault on Vimy the following spring.
All winter they trained for the battle, including work on a built replica of the ridge. Each battalion reviewed its plan of attack over and over again until every soldier knew the land and strategy in detail.
Soldiers also dug tunnels into “no man’s land” so troops could start their assault closer to enemy lines, preventing many casualties.
At the same time, the Canadian artillery was making plans for an advance assault. The man most responsible was Canadian Lieutenant-Colonel Andrew McNaughton.
It was his job to coordinate parts of the plan, in particular locating the German batteries’ positions.
In spite of casualties, the Royal Flying Corps was able to provide McNaughton accurate information that, combined with geometric calculations based on ground observations, enabled the Canadians to pin-point the position of more than 180 of the 212 German artillery batteries behind the Vimy front.
The battle
On March 20, 1917, the Canadians began a heavy bombardment. It went on for days, severely weakening the German front lines and artillery positions.
On April 2, the concentration of firepower was increased even more. The Germans would later call the seven days that followed “the week of suffering.”
McNaughton’s counter-battery fire took out more than 80 per cent of those battery positions before they could be used against Canadian troops, thus making the infantry advance much easier. Finally, at dawn on Easter Monday, April 9, the Canadians attacked.
With a “creeping barrage” of artillery fire before them and driving snow and sleet at their backs, all four Canadian divisions advanced over the shell-torn ground.
A rehearsed advance rate of 100 yards every three minutes helped ensure the Germans remained in their underground bunkers until the Canadians were within yards of their positions (in previous attacks, artillery fire ceased even before the infantry climbed from their trenches into no man’s land, leaving the soldiers to face the deadly machine gun fire).
At the same time, other artillery would concentrate on German batteries, ammunition dumps and communication centres.
By mid-afternoon on the first day, Allied forces had captured most of the ridge. The Germans remained on only two features, known as Hill 145 and The Pimple. Those were taken in hard fighting over the next few days, solidifying a victory many had considered impossible. The operation was an important success, even if the larger Allied offensive of which it was a part failed.
Vimy Ridge remained firmly in Allied hands for the rest of the war. A year and a half later, the Germans were defeated.
‘The birth of a nation’
Canadians went on to other battles and victories such as Amiens and Canal du Nord, but Vimy helped cement their reputation as outstanding soldiers.
In the summer of 1917, Currie was named the first Canadian commander of the Canadian Corps. One of the key architects of the Vimy Ridge assault plan, Currie was knighted on the Vimy battlefield by King George V.
Currie commanded the Canadians for the rest of the war, and earned a reputation as one of the best commanders on the Allied side.
When the war ended, Canada’s position in the world had changed. It was now more than just a colony; it was a major contributor to the Allied victory.
After the war, Canadian Brigadier-General A.E. Ross declared, “in those few minutes I witnessed the birth of a nation.”
The memorial
In the 1920s, when officials decided to build a memorial in France to mark the sacrifice of Canadians in the First World War, there was little doubt where it should go.
The magnificent Canadian National Vimy Memorial was built in the Canadian Park on Hill 145, the highest point on Vimy Ridge. France had previously (1922) ceded in perpetuity to Canada 91 hectares at the top of the ridge.
It took 11,000 tonnes of concrete and masonry, 5,500 tonnes of stone, 11 years, and $1.5-million to build the memorial, which was unveiled on July 26, 1936.
Inscribed on the memorial are the names of 11,285 Canadian soldiers who were posted “missing, presumed dead” in France. It also honours all 60,000-plus Canadians killed in WWI.
In 1936, approximately 6,200 Canadian war veterans, their family members, and relatives of the fallen – including nine from Fergus and others from throughout Wellington County – set sail from Montreal as part of a massive Legion-organized pilgrimage to the memorial’s unveiling.
The memorial, which receives about 750,000 visitors annually, was designated a Canadian National Historic site in 1997.
In 2004 a major restoration project was started on the memorial. It was completed in time for the 90th anniversary celebration and rededication on April 9, 2007.
Kirkwood, who has visited Vimy several times, including for the 95th anniversary of the battle, said, “it doesn’t matter how many books you read or how many movies you see,” there’s nothing like witnessing the scene at Vimy, including the massive memorial and thousands of nearby grave markers.
Wellington at Vimy
A large number of those who took part in the Battle of Vimy Ridge were from the prairies and western Canada, but that does not mean there were no Wellington County men in the crucial battle.
In fact, many locals joined regiments in the prairies or British Columbia, and some served as part of British forces.
Unfortunately, due to the time that has passed, it is difficult to say how many Wellington County boys fought at Vimy.
Approximately 337 from Wellington County died in the Great War. Add to that the number that survived, and it seems reasonable to assume the county was well represented at Vimy between April 9 and 12, 1917.
For instance, members of the 29th battery of the 11th Regiment in Guelph (some likely from Wellington) took part in the artillery barrage at Vimy, and there are stories of individual soldiers from the area who took part.
John S. Coker, born in 1885 in Eramosa, enlisted in the Canadian Army in Alberta in September 1914 and his unit sailed for Britain on Oct. 3. A crack shot, he did service as a sniper and led his men through much action.
At the Battle of Vimy Ridge Coker’s unit captured “the brown line,” completing the battle.
He later died of serious wounds – on May 3, 1917 – at the age of 32, and was buried in the Aubigny Communal Cemetery Extension in Pas de Calais. Coker was posthumously awarded the Military Medal in July 1917.
Lincoln Brown, from the Mount Forest area, signed up for the army in Saskatchewan and fought with his regiment at Vimy Ridge, where he was wounded. He was hit in the elbow, hand and left leg, and because he was injured in no man’s land, he had to wait for medical attention for about eight hours.
Brown’s leg became infected and later had to be amputated. Brown lived until the 1970s and received a pension of $12.50 per month for the loss of his leg.
William Sammon from the Rockwood area was one of the 3,600 Canadian soldiers who died during the battle of Vimy Ridge.
Born in England, Sammon emigrated to Canada in 1905 and worked as a farm helper near Rockwood until 1912, when he and his wife moved to Manitoba.
Sammon enlisted there in March of 1916 and arrived in England for training in November. He arrived in France on Feb. 9, 1917 and was transferred to the 44th Battalion, a New Brunswick regiment.
Thereafter, little is known about Sammon, except that he died fighting at Vimy on April 12, 1917. He is buried in the Canadian Cemetery No. 2 in Pas de Calais, about 1km from the Vimy memorial.
Local names on memorial
It is hard to know for sure all the Wellington County soldiers’ names inscribed on the Vimy Ridge memorial, likely because it contains the names of all Canadians killed in France with no known grave.
Past efforts by the Advertiser to track down the Wellington names inscribed on the memorial proved difficult, but a partial list includes:
– Robert Aitken, of Fergus;
– William Arthur Berry, of Orton, who went over seas as part of Wellington County’s 153rd battalion, and died on August 8, 1918 at age 20;
– Frank K. Clark, originally of Elora and later Toronto, who served with the 54th Infantry Battalion (B.C. regiment) and was killed, aged 19, at the Battle of the Somme on Nov. 18, 1916;
– James Gamble of Rockwood, who fought with the 42nd Battalion out of Quebec; he enlisted on Oct. 8, 1915 and died less than a year later on Sept. 16, 1916 during the Battle of Flers-Courcelette;
– Charles Reid MacLachlan of Erin, a member of a central Ontario regiment, who died on October 9, 1916, at the age of 21;
– J. Wilfred Oakes, of Ostic, who enlisted on Oct. 8, 1915 in Rockwood and saw action in several key battles (the Somme, Vimy and Passchendaele) before being shot and killed by an enemy sniper on Aug. 12, 1918;
– Alexander Whitelaw, of the Fergus area, a member of the 153rd (Wellington) Battalion, killed in action at the Battle of Cambrai on Aug. 28, 1918, at the age of 19; and
– Frederick Willis, of Ospringe, a member of a British Columbia regiment, who died on Nov. 18, 1916.
Kirkwood said the importance of relaying these stories to younger Canadians can not be overstated.
“It’s 100 years … (the anniversary) is being celebrated all across the country and at Vimy itself,” he said.
“It’s an important event. It’s important for young people to know about this.”
One can only hope the Battle of Vimy Ridge centennial next week will encourage Canadians to reflect on and honour the sacrifices made by those who contributed to the victory – and by all those who fought in the Great War.
This article was compiled with files from veterans.gc.ca, warmuseum.ca and Remembering the Fallen: A tribute to the soldiers remembered on the Rockwood Cenotaph.
