The Battle of Vimy Ridge
April 9 - 12, 1917
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Module objective: Guided by both research and inquiry-based questions, students will examine the historiography of the Battle of Vimy Ridge.
Intended audience: Grades 10-12 Prior knowledge required: Lens-Hill 70; The Somme Primary HTC addressed: Historiography Secondary HTCs addressed: Primary Source Evidence; Historical Significance |
Interested in combining the Lest We Forget project with some activities from this module? Here are links to the service files of two soldiers whose individual stories connect with this module’s topic:
Private William Luprt Private Patrick Raymond Arsenault |
Problem overview
The Battle for Vimy Ridge in April 1917 counts among the most widely known events in Canadian history. The battle took on a wider meaning for Canada after the war, becoming a symbol of the nation’s coming of age. Historians disagree over this viewpoint, some contending that the nationalist sentiments about Vimy Ridge were limited to urban, English-speaking parts of Canada. Others argue that the battle’s terrible casualties played a major role in bringing on the subsequent conscription crisis that had a divisive impact on Canada during and after the war. Some question how the battle’s significance was influenced by the selection of Vimy Ridge as the location for Canada’s national Great War memorial.
Historians also disagree over the military significance of the battle. Some believe the claims that the capture of Vimy Ridge marked a major turning point in the war overstates its effect. Others feel the emphasis on Canadian success devalues important British and French accomplishments during the Allied spring offensive and plays down the substantial British role in the capture of the ridge. Historians generally agree that the battle was an important Canadian and British victory and a significant point in the development of Allied war-fighting methods that ultimately won the war by 1918.
Historians also disagree over the military significance of the battle. Some believe the claims that the capture of Vimy Ridge marked a major turning point in the war overstates its effect. Others feel the emphasis on Canadian success devalues important British and French accomplishments during the Allied spring offensive and plays down the substantial British role in the capture of the ridge. Historians generally agree that the battle was an important Canadian and British victory and a significant point in the development of Allied war-fighting methods that ultimately won the war by 1918.
Problem background
Four divisions of the Canadian Corps assembled together along the Vimy Ridge front in November and December 1916, after all served in the Somme campaign. Under the command of British Lieutenant General Sir Julian Byng, the Canadians replenished their losses and carefully studied the lessons learned from three months of combat in the Somme campaign. The Vimy Ridge sector they moved into had seen fierce fighting between French and German troops in 1914 and 1915. The sector remained comparatively quiet in 1916 except for a limited German attack against British troops that had relieved the French there. Canadian historians disagree about the value of French and British efforts at Vimy between 1914 and 1916.
In early 1917, the British planned a new offensive at Arras designed to support a massive French Army offensive further south, near Soissons. The combined Western Front effort in April 1917 is commonly called “The Nivelle Offensive” after French General Robert Nivelle. The Canadian Corps role was to assist the main British attack by capturing the commanding heights at Vimy which overlook Arras. The Canadians made thorough preparations for the battle based on detailed reconnaissance of German positions, a tactical reorganization that emphasized platoon tactics, and rigorous rehearsals. Thousands of British and Canadian support troops worked strenuously behind the front to assemble vast quantities of ammunition, food, water, and other critical supplies for the assault troops. Canadian and British staff planners also developed an elaborate artillery plan employing some 850 field and heavy guns calibres to destroy German defences, neutralize enemy artillery, and to lay down a continuous curtain of exploding shells along enemy trench lines to prevent German troops from firing on Canadian infantry in no-man’s-land when the attack opened. By 1917, Allied factories were finally producing explosive shells in sufficient quantity to achieve such a barrage on a mass scale.
At 5:30 am on April 9, the massive Canadian and British artillery storm reached full intensity as the first wave of Canadian infantry surged out of tunnels and trenches. After defeating German troops manning the first shell-battered German trench line, fresh Canadian troops leap-frogged through to continue the momentum of the attack forward into German second and third line trenches on the crest of the ridge. By the end of the day most of the ridge had been captured except for powerful defences on the highest part of the ridge around Hill 145. Fourth Division continued the fight there and by April 12 the entire ridge was in Canadian hands.
News of the victory was greeted with great excitement in Canada and throughout the rest of the Empire. The news was welcomed at a time when no end to the long war appeared in sight. Despite initial Canadian, British and French success in April 1917 the Nivelle Offensive did not achieve the war-winning effects hoped for by many. Massive French losses, somewhere over 130,000 killed and wounded, added to exhaustion from three years of war led some French Army units to mutiny and necessitated a long period of rebuilding and recovery for the rest.
The cost of this Canadian success was high. Nearly 3,600 were killed and some 7,000 wounded in in four days, marking the highest Canadian losses in a single action during the entire First World War. Other costly Canadian operations at the Somme, Passchendaele, and during the Hundred Days cost more lives in total, but losses were spread across multiple actions spanning weeks or months.
Four Canadian soldiers received the Victoria Cross for acts of heroism during the battle. They are Captain Thain McDowell, Private William Milne, Lance Sergeant Ellis Sifton, and Private John Pattison.
In early 1917, the British planned a new offensive at Arras designed to support a massive French Army offensive further south, near Soissons. The combined Western Front effort in April 1917 is commonly called “The Nivelle Offensive” after French General Robert Nivelle. The Canadian Corps role was to assist the main British attack by capturing the commanding heights at Vimy which overlook Arras. The Canadians made thorough preparations for the battle based on detailed reconnaissance of German positions, a tactical reorganization that emphasized platoon tactics, and rigorous rehearsals. Thousands of British and Canadian support troops worked strenuously behind the front to assemble vast quantities of ammunition, food, water, and other critical supplies for the assault troops. Canadian and British staff planners also developed an elaborate artillery plan employing some 850 field and heavy guns calibres to destroy German defences, neutralize enemy artillery, and to lay down a continuous curtain of exploding shells along enemy trench lines to prevent German troops from firing on Canadian infantry in no-man’s-land when the attack opened. By 1917, Allied factories were finally producing explosive shells in sufficient quantity to achieve such a barrage on a mass scale.
At 5:30 am on April 9, the massive Canadian and British artillery storm reached full intensity as the first wave of Canadian infantry surged out of tunnels and trenches. After defeating German troops manning the first shell-battered German trench line, fresh Canadian troops leap-frogged through to continue the momentum of the attack forward into German second and third line trenches on the crest of the ridge. By the end of the day most of the ridge had been captured except for powerful defences on the highest part of the ridge around Hill 145. Fourth Division continued the fight there and by April 12 the entire ridge was in Canadian hands.
News of the victory was greeted with great excitement in Canada and throughout the rest of the Empire. The news was welcomed at a time when no end to the long war appeared in sight. Despite initial Canadian, British and French success in April 1917 the Nivelle Offensive did not achieve the war-winning effects hoped for by many. Massive French losses, somewhere over 130,000 killed and wounded, added to exhaustion from three years of war led some French Army units to mutiny and necessitated a long period of rebuilding and recovery for the rest.
The cost of this Canadian success was high. Nearly 3,600 were killed and some 7,000 wounded in in four days, marking the highest Canadian losses in a single action during the entire First World War. Other costly Canadian operations at the Somme, Passchendaele, and during the Hundred Days cost more lives in total, but losses were spread across multiple actions spanning weeks or months.
Four Canadian soldiers received the Victoria Cross for acts of heroism during the battle. They are Captain Thain McDowell, Private William Milne, Lance Sergeant Ellis Sifton, and Private John Pattison.
Key questions and debates
The two student activities in this module are designed to address the key questions and debates surrounding the topic, and are framed by the guideposts to historical thinking for each of the historical thinking concepts addressed in the module. Activities are intended to be completed in order. Please click below to see an activity overview, guiding questions, and additional topics/questions the teacher may introduce.
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Students will analyze Vimy Ridge narratives in newspapers and popular histories with the aim of identifying the purpose of the narrative and how it is intended to shape the readers' feelings about the Battle of Vimy Ridge.
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Students will analyze narratives of the battle of Vimy Ridge written by historians to identify the methods used to shape the readers' understanding of the battle.
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Culminating activity/assessment
To demonstrate understanding, students will consider the following questions:
In small groups, students will write two new entries for the Battle of Vimy Ridge: one for a high school textbook, and one for the Vimy Ridge Foundation website. Students will then annotate their entries, justifying why they wrote them the way they did.
Students demonstrating sophisticated thinking will be able to express that histories are written for specific purposes, for specific audiences. Students should also be able to demonstrate understanding that the way in which these histories are written – the conventions used, evidence included or excluded – will change depending on the audience and purpose.
We encourage the use of The Historical Thinking Project resources in addition to Provincial curricular recommendations to assess student thinking in this module.
- What questions should be asked about Vimy by your generation?
- Is the significance of Vimy overstated?
In small groups, students will write two new entries for the Battle of Vimy Ridge: one for a high school textbook, and one for the Vimy Ridge Foundation website. Students will then annotate their entries, justifying why they wrote them the way they did.
Students demonstrating sophisticated thinking will be able to express that histories are written for specific purposes, for specific audiences. Students should also be able to demonstrate understanding that the way in which these histories are written – the conventions used, evidence included or excluded – will change depending on the audience and purpose.
We encourage the use of The Historical Thinking Project resources in addition to Provincial curricular recommendations to assess student thinking in this module.
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