Canada has sent across the sea an army greater than Napoleon ever commanded! blared the New York Tribune. No greater army in world history than the daring and glorious Canadian Army Corps, read other newspapers. Canadian headlines stated, The Canadian Forces accomplished in mere days what the British and French failed to achieve in two years and with 150,000 casualties. In all, three hundred thousand German, English, and French had become casualties in the battle for the Ridge. Newspapers across the world congratulated Canada on her performance. The King sent a congratulatory telegram to Field Marshal and Commander-in-Chief of the British Expeditionary Forces, Sir Douglas Haig. The whole Empire will rejoice at the news of yesterday’s successful operation. Canada may well be proud that the taking of the coveted Vimy Ridge has fallen to the lot of her troops. I heartily congratulate you and all who have taken part in this splendid achievement. France exclaimed the capture of Vimy Ridge was Canada’s Easter gift to the Allies. France and England conceded the victory to be a Canadian accomplishment. Vimy was the furthest penetration into enemy lines by the Allies as well as the Canadians took more guns and prisoners than any previous British assault. Therefore, the battle was the grandest Allied success of the Western Front to date. 3,598 Canadian sons fell at Vimy Ridge. A further 7,004 Canadians were casualties. These numbers were yet significantly lower than all previous Allied attempts to recapture the ridge. An estimated twenty thousand casualties were sustained by the Germans. The Corps took over four thousand prisoners.
England’s armies attacking alongside the Canadians were vanquished; however, the battle could not have been conquered without England’s aid. The Corps was the sole victor. Canada became world-renowned for being outstanding in offensive fighting. Enthusiasm in the Corps and among the Allied armies surged exponentially. The capture of the Ridge would enable the English to gain further ground over the Germans in later battles.
After refusing on two occasions to depart as leader of the Corps, Byng was ordered by Haig to lead the British Third Army. Byng said farewell to his cherished Corps with tear-stained cheeks. Currie was made Commander-in-Chief of the most exemplary Force on the Western Front. For the initial time in Canada’s history, her military was brought under the command of a proper son.
For weeks afterward, letters poured across the Atlantic, in staggering numbers, of the taking of the Ridge. Any number of letters were published in newspapers and read aloud at functions.
In the early morning hours of April 9th, at exactly 0530 hours, the largest artillery eruption of the war started. All firearms the Western Front could claim appeared to fire. With strict precision, mines exploded, gas shells fell on targeted locations & transport ways and artillery fired. 425 field guns or 18 pounders and 225 heavier guns and howitzers were aimed at the Ridge, including 4 English companies, all 16 machine gun corps, and the 1st Canadian Motor Machine Gun Brigade. The majority of the shells were focused on artillery locations. How it sounded was nearly indescribable, given 1.6 million shells hit the Ridge. To make out anything at all above the noise, one had to place one’s hands around the ear of another fellow and yell at the top of one’s lungs.
The most marvellous creeping barrage, consisting of almost 1,000 heavy guns, started to rake over No Man’s Land and towards the ridge… Beneath her were 20,000 of us, loaded weightily with 32 kilograms of kit and roughly an additional equal amount in wallow… As the start lines were departed, many of us bowed our heads, while the barrage jibber-jabbered like mad, like an unstoppable blizzard of evil shells… Our 1st Division had the longest to go, roughly five kilometers to Farbus Wood… The 1st Division was commanded by, Canadian born, Major General Arthur William Currie from Strathroy, Ontario … Pertaining to the 1st Division, Western Cavalry’s 5th or the “Tuxford’s Dandy’s” (Saskatoon), 7th (Vancouver), and the Fighting 10th (Edmonton, Calgary, Lethbridge) Battalions’ start line was situated to the furthest righthand side, or the most eastern side, of the Ridge… The 15th (Toronto), 14th (Royal Montreal Regiment), and 16th (Canadian Scottish) were to the left, or to the west, of the 5th, 7th, and 10th… Shoulder to shoulder we marched in the Vimy glide, which meant, dear wife, one hundred yards per three minutes… The wallow made some of my mates’ boots come undone. They continued in socks towards the stirring campaign… The mud sizzled from falling shrapnel… More than a dozen times, we came to a standstill to allow the barrage to go another ninety meters… One in thirteen of the chaps fell to the barrage… Twenty-four-year-old Private William. J. Milne of the 16th was thwarted, comrades were dead about him. He crawled then tossed grenades into a machine-gun nest, and all the crew were killed. He captured the machine gun. His battalion was then able to progress. He then knocked out a second nest and its crew. He would die later in the day, being awarded the Corps’ first Victoria Cross for Vimy Ridge, posthumously… We followed the marked stakes, which were painted, across the horrid terrain… Over the landscape, there were grand craters, dozens of them, everywhere, some as deep as 15 metres. Craters were so big they often touched the sides of the other craters and we snaked around the edges of them… At the ridge’s base… The 5th, 7th, 10th, 15th, 14th, and 16th reached enemy front trenches, called “Zwolfer Stellung,” and then the second trench line named “Zwishchen Stellung” that was situated behind the first trench or the Corps’ black line at 0600 hours. This line spanned the entire length of the ridge’s base… The 1st (Western Ontario) and the “Dirty Third” 3rd (Toronto) marched through our 5th, 7th, and 10th Battalions. We gave encouragement and they took over… To the left of the 16th, the Fighting 18th (Western Ontario) and 19th (Central Ontario) harrowed in at the base for three quarters of an hour while artillery ceased for stray troops to rejoin the crew… Fritz was stunned to see British troops in their front trenches because they were accustomed to timely delays from barrage to laddie… Balloon trench was passed by the 19th. They were to the left of the 18th… The 21st (Kingston) marched through our 18th Battalion and the 19th at 0645 hours… Twenty-two-year-old Lieutenant J.E. Johnson, a rifle lot with him, happened on a cave. After Mills bombs were thrown in, Johnson went in solo with his gun raised. He came upon 105 armed Germans. He gave false statement that an Empire assembly was awaiting them. He disarmed and led them all, in small parties, up to his wee group of mates… By this time all manner of surprise had perished. They began machine-gunning us with everything they had… Thélus hamlet, Turko-Graben trench, and the red line were taken twenty minutes from the interlude. They fell to the 21st. The 25th and 21st also took 400 prisoners and 8 machine guns… Signalling flags were waved to air cavalry… The 2nd Division (Canadian born Major-General Sir Henry Burstall), to our left, went into action… The poor chaps in the 1st Division suffered tremendously, practically all mine craters passed were blood red with mangled corpses tangled on wire, beggaring description… Though the first line fell swiftly… Our 2nd Division had less ground to traverse than the 1st… At times, we leaned heavily on the barrage, no less than fifty metres from it… Byng gave our division all eight tanks; each was unemployable and quickly abandoned… Our division saw the heftiest action… A big shell crater was passed. In it was a chap (a Canadian). The mate in there continually yelled, “Water. Water.” The complete top of his skull was gone. His brain was entirely visible. He would be gone shortly. The agreement was to carry on no matter what. Halting for any reason was not allowed, even to comfort a chum in his final moments. But the bearers could get to one, provided he held on long enough… The grand discipline instilled in the lads proved infrangible, as they were to continue no matter what befell the fellow next to them, whom they had trained with from the start… Lance Sergeant Ellis Sifton and others of the Fighting 18th were completely hampered by machine-gun fire. He rushed the trench and took down all the Germans in it with his rifle. He continued on. Once his gun was empty, he used his bayonet on every German he encountered until the others were able to meet him, and they took the trench. An enemy, nearing death, shot Sifton, who succumbed to his wounds but would be accorded the second Victoria Cross for Canada at Vimy, also posthumously… The 24th (Montreal) and the Fighting 26th (St. John’s, New Brunswick, and one of the most acclaimed battalions of the Corps) reinforced by the 105th (Charlottetown) reached the red line… The 25th (Halifax) was piped over the parapet. Their officer gave agreement, “Even if one man is left alive, the objective must be taken and held.” They leap-frogged through the 24th and 26th to attain the red line… The 22nd, part of the 5th Brigade, was initially in the following up waves that cleared the trenches and dugouts. This job was, at times, easy enough, but other times it was not because some Fritzies fought to the bitter end. A number of ones in the 22nd thought their role was overly simple and went ahead and joined the attacking waves. Those in the Van Doos greatly aided the 25th in reaching the Red Line and in occupying Turko Graben Trench… The next immense barrage exploded at 1226 hours… To the left of the 3rd was the “Mad Fourth” 4th (Aurora, Brampton, Brantford, Hamilton, Niagara Falls), who advanced through the 15th & 14th. The 4th was piped over to their purpose by the 16th in a display of Corps unity… In the 4th Battalion, a shell tore past a fellow, who hardly avoided it, but the shell decapitated a gunner (a Canadian) a few yards from him. The gunner continued to walk, blood spewing furiously from his open neck. The shell also tore one leg from the chap who came after the gunner… The 31st (Alberta) made their way through the 21st… Not a scratch of earth escaped the damage done by our artillery… The blue line started to the very righthand side of the ridge from our lines and worked its way to the centre of the 2nd and 3rd Division start lines. This line consisted of Hill 135, the heavily defended village of Thelus and the wooded areas outside the town of Vimy. It was demanding; our units fought by bayonet after ammo and grenades were spent… much of the battalions whose objective it was to take the blue line, the 1st, 3rd, 4th, 21st, 28th, 29th, and the British 13th Brigade, who led the dominion troops for this stage of the operation, affirmed the line was theirs by 1300 hours… We traversed ever-escalating treacherous country… Vickers and Lewis machine guns and rifles along with “wooden crosses” were posted into the mud for body-snatchers, or bearers, to find their charges amid the steaming crimson snow… The Sergeant-Major that we took captive told us, “Camerads, you take Vimy Ridge, you win the war”… Fatal gas was everywhere… The 21st, to the left of them, the 28th (Moose Jaw, Regina, Saskatoon, Port Arthur, Fort Williams) and to the left of the 28th, the 29th (Vancouver), who marched through the 19th, reached the blue line… The majority of the Ridge was under our control at twelvenoon… A Canadian hero115… All the boys chanted “On we go!” & “Never stop!” the battle through. If this isn’t an endearing part of Canadian history… The Brown line, or the strongly defended Farbus Wood, spanned from the furthest righthand side of the ridge and ended after Farbus Wood: the very left of the line was directly in the centre of the 1st and 2nd Division start lines. The line was reached by two fifteen in the afternoon by the 2nd (King’s Own Scottish Borderers from Eastern Ontario), the 1st (Royal West Kent Regiment from Western Ontario and Alberta) accompanied by the 27th (Winnipeg) and the 29th who went through all previous 2nd Division Battalions to reach their aim… Three white rockets were spent in acknowledgement to headquarters… In the end, the 2nd Division was aided by the British 13th Brigade… After they went through the 25th and to the left of the 29th, the Iron Sixth (Western Canada) carried the last phase in the Bois de la Ville area… There were seemingly countless casualties. The bearers were overwhelmed, going this way and that, attempting to do what they could for those who were screaming bloody murder in delirium, and for others who could no longer speak due to their wounds. The bearers assessed who was most likely to live and would take that one with them, leaving the others beside that casualty to their fate… The 3rd Division (British Major-General Louis Lipsett) went over the top… By war’s end, the 3rd Division would be counted as one of the British Force’s most exemplary fighting units… The Princess Pat’s were stationed centerfold in the Corps’ lines. Their band rose alongside them and piped them ‘til battle’s end… It looked like, dreadfully near, was the prince of darkness in the flesh… From our division’s start lines, directly on the other side of the ridge, was the town of Vimy… Our path was shorter in distance; however, it was steeper than the divisions before us, and they gave our 3rd Division, as well as the 4th Division, strictly the Black Line, at the ridge’s crest, and Red Line, on the very left side of the ridge, to capture… To the right of the Princess Pat’s were the Royal Canadian Rifles (London). To the right of the C.M.R was the 4th Canadian Mounted Rifles (Toronto). To the right of 4th was the 2nd C.M.R. (Victoria), and to right of the 2nd C.M.R was the 1st C.M.R. (Brandon)… A part of the 2nd C.M.R, a high explosive shell wheeled its way into the mud right jolly in front of a chap. He was shot tens of yards into the air. Once he landed on the ground, he looked himself over to assess any injuries. He suffered none at all. After he took up his helmet and rifle, he carried on… To the left of the Princess Pat’s, our 42nd (Montreal’s Royal Highlanders) Battalion advanced on the red line… The enemy’s conversations could be listened to, since our unit was that near to where they were… The majority of the Corps had reached the red line, which included La Folie Farm, the toughest stronghold that was now in our hands. The Farm was taken 90 minutes after the battle started.… The 49th (Edmonton) captured the Folie Wood… The 4th Division (Canadian born Major-General Sir David Watson) had the bleakest task of all, which was capturing Hill 145 and, to the northwest of the Hill, the Pimple: the two highest and therefore strongest held points of Vimy… To the left of the 3rd Division, we were being slaughtered… The 38th (Ottawa) rushed the southwest part of Givenchy-en-Gohelle, the far-left side of the brow of the ridge, and reached the black line. The 78th (Winnipeg Grenadiers) moved past them to take their goal, the red line… Seven hundred metres of the steepest ascent was the next task… We were being annihilated from above, machine guns were firing down on us from the Pimple… amidst the almost blizzard of snow and waist-deep mud in places… Captain Thain MacDowell (38th) happened on a dug-out. He fooled seventy-seven Prussians, two of them officers, into thinking his battalion was with him; all surrendered, and MacDowell was awarded Canada’s third Victoria Cross for Vimy (MacDowell would be the sole Victoria Cross recipient awarded the medal from his actions at the battle for Vimy Ridge who would live to see the end of the war)… Hill 145 required proceeding through four lines of resistance… Distressingly, the Hill and the Pimple were still very much intact from the failure of the onslaught, in the days beforehand, to perform adequate harm… Added to the dismay, the barrage and the 4th Division were at variance with one another, which prevented their lads from reaching the Ridge in a secure fashion… Their primary assemblies were cut to ribbons… Of the un-afflicted, numerous were constrained to shell-holes or mere crevices, sheltering them from death by inches… Junior officers accounted for many of the casualties in the initial wave… Communication from our Division to Commanders behind our lines was greatly thwarted as a result… Confusion set in… The 102nd (Comox-Atlin) was followed by the 54th (Kootenay) and 75th (Mississauga, Hamilton, London), who attacked rear of a stone’s throw… As we advanced up the Hill, bodies torn open from head to foot, our push fell to bedlam… Pre-battle, the artillery was told by brigade headquarters to retire from one trench, so to give us a safe haven from the torrential fire and to act as an instruction-like post. However, this trench was not empty, as was supposed. Within the first handful of minutes, more than half the 87th (Montreal’s Grenadier Guards) were gone… We were panicking, given that once evening came, enemy replacements would come en masse… We did not have enough troops to conquer her… Hopelessly, the Commanders turned to the 85th (Nova Scotia’s labour unit of no combat experience). The Scotians were flabbergasted. Their badges have their saying embossed on them, which reads, “Siol na Fear Fearail” (Gaelic for “Breed of Manly Men”). One of their company’s captains avowed, “We will take it or never come back.” However, the commanding officer cancelled the barrage for the 85th. The C.O. was afraid his troops would perish from inaccuracy; however, the runners carrying this message were not to be seen again. Runners often times do not make it to their destination. Thrown into the front lines the afternoon of April 9th, the 85th was left unawares that they no longer had any protection. In place of a formidable barrage, those Highlanders met with silence and absence of direction. Essentially, they were left by themselves. Any officer will tell you the definition of insanity is to charge No Man’s Land without a barrage in front of your unit. With unparalleled courage, they went over the top alone. The Germans were at an utter loss. Covering hundreds of metres, the 85th made mad dash with bullets flying every which way. They captured three machine guns and more than one hundred enemy. After an hour’s battle, most of the Hill, aside from sections of the eastern part, had fallen to the incredulous 85th. Mother, the Germans and Allies are calling Nova Scotia’s act one of the most daring feats of the war in its entirety. Their motto is “Do your bit and a bit more.” I dare say they did… Stationed to the left of where the 85th fought, the 72nd (Vancouver Seaforth Highlanders) reached the end of the black line on the other side of the Ridge to where the 1st Division’s black line started. This line spanned the entire length of the ridge, excepting the area where the Pimple was located. To the left of the 72nd was the 73rd (Montreal Royal Highlanders), who reached the end of the red line to the very left-hand side from our lines. The red line spanned the entire length of the ridge, as well, and extended just further to the left of the black line… The first evening, the thought was that an enemy counterattack would happen, but it did not transpire… The following afternoon, April 10th, the Corps attacked again… The Pimple was the last objective to be rushed and found at the very far left of the Ridge from the Corps side. A section of the 44th (Manitoba) seized their goal: the Blue line, after going through the 54th. They were to take the very left of the Hill… But machine guns were pulverising the 50th (Calgary), who were supposed to take the Pimple. The other section of the 44th were to the right of the 50th…
Private John Pattison, who belonged to the 50th, charged a machine-gun post alone by jumping a number of shell-holes. He threw 3 grenades into a trench, then killed all 5 surviving gunners with his bayonet in the shattered trench before the rest of the 50th’s troops materialized. His battalion was then able to take the remainder of the ridge. (Pattison would fall in the Douai plain weeks later, knowing only commendation for the fourth and final Victoria Cross the Corps would be bestowed at the battle for Vimy Ridge. The medal would be presented to his family in his name)… On April 11th, the command was given to assault the last part of the battle… Every where one looked there were corpses wearing German green or Canadian khaki… With mud-jammed guns, Canadians attacked in a bayonet charge against German machine guns at point blank range, often resulting in hand-to-hand bitter combat, and the Canadian Tommies won… Hill 145 was completely under our control at 1945 hours … April 12th… at 0200 the 44th, 50th, and the 46th (Southern Saskatchewan) were awoken and given soup, biscuits, and rum. These three battalions, as well as the 73rd, were the only ones whose objective was outside of the Black line. Their start lines were to the very left-hand side of the Ridge and where the Black line stopped. The 73rd went forward towards Givenchy-en-Gohelle. To the left of them was the 44th, then the 50th, and the 46th respectively… They were tasked with seizing the Pimple, originally a part of the red line, and one hundred and thirty-five metres from the ridge’s base. It fell mainly to the 50th and 46th to take her. The surface of this German stronghold was a maze of trenches and, beneath the ground, there were deep dug-outs and covered ways and every form of defense the ingenuity of those brilliant German Engineers could devise… At 0500, the 46th were rained down on by Mausers, and 100 of their lads became casualties, merely doggedly crossing N.M.L in the wee hours… The E Battery (Yukon Motor Machine Gun), stationed near Givenchy, between the Pimple and the Hill, gave us cover with their machine guns to aid in the capture of the Pimple. They also provided support for Hill 145… The blizzard that came in caused laddies to go beyond their targeted position by dozens and dozens of yards given it was difficult to discern nearly a thing… Taking the Pimple fell to continually a smaller number of Tommy Canucks given two of them were killed for every one Fritz that died… After two hours and twelve hundred meters from our lines and to the furthest left-hand side of the Ridge, the Pimple fell on April 12th… Germany accepted her loss and retreated over three kilometers… April 9th would forever bear the bloodiest day history would write for Canada’s military… But none of us have ever seen the Commanding Officers so elated!… Everyone was thirsty in the frontlines, or drank petrol-tasting water during the battle… and he is buried in a foreign land, in a corner that shall forever remain Canada!
The Corps commanding officers wrote, Almost all were citizen soldiers and executed their duties like professionals, as three of the four divisions took their objectives exactly on schedule, by midday on April 9th… It was Canada’s day… Canada has earned for herself eternal glory… The Allies thought we did not stand a chance… It is no wonder the Germans couldn’t hold us for our artillery work had been terrible, everything smashed to pieces. We had broken their hearts first and there was no fight left in them… As the guns spoke, over the bags they went, men of CB (Cape Breton) sons of NS (Nova Scotia) & NB (New Brunswick) –- FC’s (French Canadians) and westerners – all Canucks…So far it was the most decisive, the most spectacular and the most important victory on this front since the Marne and Canada may well be proud of the achievement… The morale of our troops is magnificent. We cannot lose. A captured German Officer, upon being led behind Canadian lines, was quoted as saying, “This is the beginning of the end!” Germany’s Prince Rupprecht penned in his diary, Is there any sense in continuing this war? Brigadier-General Alexander E. Ross, who led the 28th North-West, would later remark, “It was Canada from Atlantic to Pacific on Parade! I thought then in those few moments, I witnessed the birth of a nation!” Byng wrote to his wife, I went over the Pimple yesterday. It is a sight: the dead are rather ghastly but a feat of arms that will stand for ever. Poor old Prussian Guard. WHAT a mouthful to swallow being beaten to hell by what they called “Untrained Colonial levies.” Currie stated, The grandest day the Corps has ever seen. A wonderful success. The attack was carried out exactly as planned. The sight was awful and wonderful!