Page 1 Page 2 Page 3 Page 4 Page 5 Page 6 Page 7 Page 8 Page 9 Page 10 Page 11 Page 12 Page 13 Page 14 Page 15 Page 16 Page 17 Page 18 Page 19 Page 20 Page 21 Page 22 Page 23 Page 24 Page 25 Page 26 Page 27 Page 28 Page 29 Page 30 Page 31 Page 32 Page 33 Page 34 Page 35 Page 36 Page 37 Page 38 Page 39 Page 40 Page 41 Page 42 Page 43 Page 44 Page 45 Page 46 Page 47 Page 48 Page 49 Page 50 Page 51 Page 52 Page 53 Page 54 Page 55 Page 56 Page 57 Page 58 Page 59 Page 60Vimy Ridge is an escarpment located 170 km north of the city of Paris and 8 km north of the city of Arras. The German army first occupied Vimy Ridge in October 1914 after the Battle of the Marne when the French and British armies, in September 1914, stopped the German army advance, 65 km east of Paris at the Marne River. What happened then became known as “The Race to the Sea”. The armies were trying to outflank each other until they reached the North Sea and in the south, the Swiss border. This became known as “The Western Front”. It stretched for 650 km. The French 10th army in May and September 1915 tried to take Vimy Ridge. For a brief period the 1st Moroccan Division took Hill 145 (where the monument now stands) but could not hold it. The French suffered some 150,000 casualties in the two attempts to take the Ridge. The British 17th Corps took over from the French 10th army in 1916 and held the Vimy Front until the fall of 1916. The Canadian Corps now started to move in and prepare for the coming “Battle of Arras”. The Canadian task in the upcoming battle was the taking of Vimy Ridge. Three Divisions of the German 6th Army held the Ridge. From south to the north the units were the 1st Bavarian Division, 79th Prussian Division and the 16th Bavarian Division. The 79th Prussian and the 16th Bavarian had just been transferred to the Vimy front in early February 1917. Each German Division consisted of three regiments of Infantry and each regiment had 3 battalions plus artillery units, machine gun companies and engineers. The German army had large numbers of reserves located behind Vimy to be called up as needed. The Germans had held Vimy since October 1914 and had very strongly fortified it. An interesting note, on the 12th of February 1917 the 6th Bavarian Division was replaced by the 16th Bavarian Division. The 6th Bavarian Division was Adolph Hitler’s Division. We can only speculate on how different history might have been had the 6th Division not been transferred out! For the first time in the war all four Divisions of the Cana- dian Corps were together and, at 5.30 a.m. on the 9th of April 1917, after a week of heavy bombardment, the Canadians came out of the trenches and began the attack on Vimy Ridge. The fighting lasted from the 9th to the 12th of April. The Germans fought hard. The Canadian Corps lost over 3,000 the first day and over 10,000 dead, wounded and missing for the whole bat- tle. The German losses of dead and wounded are not known Canada’s most impressive tribute overseas, to those Canadians who fought and gave their lives in the First World War is the majestic and inspiring Canadian National Vimy Memorial which overlooks the Douai Plain from the highest point of Vimy Ridge. Shown here is the statue of the weeping “Mother Canada” mourning the 114,000 Canadian soldiers, sailors and air force personnel who never came home. 1917 - 2017 14 FOCUS - APRIL 2017