Vimy Ridge :: essays research papers

Shock and Awe, 1917Gary Graves, CBC News Online April 9, 2003We may marvel at the releasepower of the hundreds of missiles and smart bombs used in U.S. attacks on Iraq, but an overwhelming battle study fusillade creating shock and awe is not a new idea. In fact, Canadian soldiers fighting in the First sphere War were pioneers of the tactic.Click for map Source National Archives It was at Vimy Ridge, a strategic 14-kilometre long escarpment that overlooks the Douai plain of France. German occupying troops controlled the continueline using a network of trenches that snaked along the crest and down into the valley, connecting with another network of natural caves. 150,000 French and British soldiers had died trying to take it back. Allied commanders believed the ridge to be impregnable.But the Canadians had a cast, the first battle strategy for this new nations commanders to conceive and execute on their own. Even military "experts" of the time admitted dubiously that the Canadians externalise couldnt be any worse than the British tactics at the Somme, which cost 24,000 Canadian casualties. So the Canadian army all four divisions, totalling 100,000 men got the go-ahead.The earth assault had been planned meticulously for months. Full-scale replicas of the Vimy terrain were built to rehearse unit commanders on what to expect both from the enemy and from Canadian units on either side. Canadian spotters had identified and mapped about 80 per cent of the German gun positions. Five kilometres of tunnels were dug in order to move Canadian troops and ammunition up to the front without their being seen by German observers. And for a couple of weeks leading up to the battle, Canadian and British artillery pounded the Germans with 2,500 tons of ammunition per day.At 530 in the morning on Easter Monday, April 9, 1917, the assault began. It was raining. It was freezing cold. And it began with a huge artillery barrage shock and awe 1917-style.Canadians under f ire at VimySource National Archives Over 1,100 cannons of various descriptions, from British heavy naval guns mounted on railway cars miles behind the battlefield, to portable field artillery pieces dragged into place by horses, mules or soldiers just behind the Canadian lines, fired continuously in some cases until they exhausted their ammunition. The Canadian battle plan was simple the withering barrage provided a screen for the Canadian troops to hide behind.