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• SomeGuy
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• 1983-08-05
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Male
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• Vancouver, BC
Member Since
• 2003-08-02
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• Writer; Part-Time Hero
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• James
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• Visiting eight different myO friends in person thus far
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• Winter 2001
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• Neon Genesis Evangelion, .hack//SIGN, Naruto, Bleach, Beck, Peacemaker Kurogane, Ranma 1/2 (the guilty pleasure)
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• Visit the myO friends I've missed thus far; complete a cosplay from 300
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• Writing, Gaming, Kung Fu, Movies, Acting somewhat strange in general
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• Can recognise most quotes from almost any movie/show on first listen; Can recite the entire 12 days of Christmas by memory
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Tuesday, November 11, 2003
Vimy Ridge - April 9, 1917
This will be my final memorial post for Rememberance Day (which, as I type, is almost over). For today, I'm going to talk about a battle from the First World War that has essentially reached mythical status in Canada . . . at least, for the ones who actually know about it . . .
For much of the war, Canada fought on behalf of the British Commonwealth. Its military divisions were spread throughout the British divisions; its orders came from British commanders. Nevertheless, the Allied generals were willing to give the task of capturing this large, elevated piece of land overlooking the flat plains of France to the Canadian commanders as part of the larger British offensive across the entire country. For the first time, all four divisions from the Canadian corps were fighting as a single unit.
As most people know, a great deal of the war was strategized around "send everyone across and hope some of them don't get machinegunned or exploded" - this, as noted, made for huge loss of life at little gain. Well, no one wanted this to happen that day . . .
Preparations for this attack was started months in advance. The plan was essentially to have a "rolling barrage" or artillery exploding just ahead of the advancing troops, who would then walk short, timed distances behind it. Imagine walking to a schedule of maybe 20 yards a minute while stuff blew up directly in front of you. That was the plan.
And the plan was done almost flawlessly. That morning, 11,000 large guns started blasting the ground in front of the Canadian soldiers - as a news columnist put it, it was "shock and awe 1917-style."
By the next day or two, the stretch of land that had ended 150,000 British and French lives over a span of two years was taken. It was the first truly successful allied offensive of the war, though at the cost of 3,600 lives; supposedly after that, Canadian troops were often sent in first as shock troops of sorts in later battles. It is said in many forms that "Canada went up Vimy Ridge as a colony, and came down as a nation."
I had a pretty gung-ho Socials Studies teacher. He liked telling us these things. Aside from that, there are all sorts of stories about Canadian tenacity in that war. During the gas attacks at Ypres, the story goes that the Canadian highlanders (soldiers who wore kilts), in response to the chlorine gas, peed on their hankerchiefs and held them over their faces so that they could hold their positions! Nevertheless, Vimy Ridge continues to be the most celebrated moment of Canadian participation, 1914-1918.
Please note: I mention these odds bits of stuff not because I'm trying to stir up any sort of flag-waving whatevers or anything. It's just that these are some really incredible things that happened, and I don't think enough people - a fair majority of Canadians included - know about then. And all of it . . . every bit of it . . . . . deserves to be known.
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