In years after the event it would be pointed to as a galvanizing moment in the still young years of Canada as a nation.
At the time it was more precisely a major military victory in a war that would be bogged down in the mud and trenches of France for years.
The battle of course was that for Vimy Ridge.
The battle was a military engagement fought primarily as part of the Battle of Arras, in the Nord-Pas-de-Calais region of France, during the First World War.
The main combatants were the Canadian Corps, of four divisions, against three divisions of the German Sixth Army. The battle took place from April 9 to 12, 1917.
What makes the battle stand out from the many of the War is that it brought so many Canadian soldiers together as a consolidated force pushing for a single objective.
“The objective of the Canadian Corps was to take control of the German-held high ground along an escarpment at the northernmost end of the Arras Offensive,” details Wikipedia. “This would ensure that the southern flank could advance without suffering German enfilade fire. Supported by a creeping barrage, the Canadian Corps captured most of the ridge during the first day of the attack.
"The town of Thélus fell during the second day of the attack, as did the crest of the ridge once the Canadian Corps overcame a salient against considerable German resistance. The final objective, a fortified knoll located outside the village of Givenchy-en-Gohelle, fell to the Canadian Corps on 12 April. The German forces then retreated to the Oppy–Méricourt line.”
The cost of the captured ridge was huge.
By nightfall on April 12 1917, the Canadian Corps was in firm control of the ridge. The corps suffered 10,602 casualties: 3,598 killed and 7,004 wounded. The German Sixth Army suffered an unknown number of casualties with approximately 4,000 men becoming prisoners of war.
It was a number of years later that the battle began to take on the added significance of creating a greater sense of nationhood in this country.
And that has endured in part because of the creation of the Canadian National Vimy Memorial, which is Canada’s largest and principal overseas war memorial.
“Located on the highest point of the Vimy Ridge, the memorial is dedicated to the commemoration of the Battle of Vimy Ridge and Canadian Expeditionary Force members killed during the First World War," explains Wikipedia. "It serves as the place of commemoration for Canadian soldiers killed in France during the First World War with no known grave.
"France granted Canada perpetual use of a section of land at Vimy Ridge in 1922 for the purpose of a battlefield park and memorial. A 100-hectare (250-acre) portion of the former battlefield is preserved as part of the memorial park that surrounds the monument.The grounds of the site are still honeycombed with wartime tunnels, trenches, craters and unexploded munitions, and are largely closed off for public safety. A section of preserved trenches and a portion of a tunnel have been made accessible to site visitors.”
The memorial was designed by Toronto architect and sculptor Walter Allward. The memorial took 11 years and $1.5 million ($20.9 million in 2017 dollars) to build and was unveiled on July 26, 1936 by King Edward VIII, in the presence of President Albert Lebrun of France and 50,000 or more Canadian and French veterans and their families.
The battle is now a century behind us. The veterans of the war gone.
But the aura of the Battle of Vimy Ridge still reverberates in Canada. The details may be lost on most, but there is still an awareness that the battle holds a unique place in our history.
And so it should, and moving forward we owe it to those soldiers who fell, and to the history of the country they helped forge, to make sure Vimy always holds a special place in the hearts of Canadians.
