Hard_Rom
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http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/vimy-ridge/
Battle of Vimy Ridge
The Battle of Vimy Ridge, during the First World War, is Canada's most celebrated military victory — an often mythologized symbol of the birth of Canadian national pride and awareness. The four divisions of the Canadian Corps, fighting together for the first time, attacked the ridge from 9 to 12 April, 1917 and captured it from the German army. It was the largest territorial advance of any Allied force to that point in the war – but it would mean little to the outcome of the conflict. More than 10,500 Canadians were killed and wounded in the assault. Today an iconic white memorial atop the ridge honours the 11,285 Canadians killed in France throughout the war who have no known graves.
The victory at Vimy Ridge was greeted with enthusiasm in Canada, and after the war the battle became a symbol of an awakening Canadian nationalism. One of the prime reasons is that soldiers from every region of Canada — fighting together for the first time as a single assaulting force in the Canadian Corps — had taken the ridge together. As Brigadier-General Alexander Ross would famously say: " . . . in those few minutes I witnessed the birth of a nation."
Vimy soon became emblematic of Canada's overall experience in the First World War — especially its 60,000 war dead — a sacrifice that convinced Prime Minister Robert Borden to step out of Britain's shadow and push for separate representation for Canada and the other Dominions at the Paris peace talks after the war. This was followed in later decades by Canada's increasing push for autonomy from Britain on the world's stage – a desire triggered, in part, by Canadian sacrifices in the war.
Vimy was a proud moment for Canada, and an extraordinary military accomplishment. Yet the battle was strategically insignificant to the outcome of the war. The French offensive of 1917 (of which Vimy was intended as a tactical diversion) was a failure. In addition, no sustained Allied breakthrough followed either the assault on the ridge or the wider, British-led Battle of Arras of which Vimy was a part. As historian Andrew Godefroy writes in Vimy Ridge, a Canadian Reassessment: "To the German army the loss of a few kilometres of vital ground meant little in the grand scheme of things."
http://www.roydenhistory.co.uk/roydenfhp/roydenbranches/charlesroyden/returntofrance/vimyridge/memorial1.jpg
http://gallery.nen.gov.uk/assets/0810/0000/0512/pict0066_mid.jpg
Battle of Vimy Ridge
The Battle of Vimy Ridge, during the First World War, is Canada's most celebrated military victory — an often mythologized symbol of the birth of Canadian national pride and awareness. The four divisions of the Canadian Corps, fighting together for the first time, attacked the ridge from 9 to 12 April, 1917 and captured it from the German army. It was the largest territorial advance of any Allied force to that point in the war – but it would mean little to the outcome of the conflict. More than 10,500 Canadians were killed and wounded in the assault. Today an iconic white memorial atop the ridge honours the 11,285 Canadians killed in France throughout the war who have no known graves.
The victory at Vimy Ridge was greeted with enthusiasm in Canada, and after the war the battle became a symbol of an awakening Canadian nationalism. One of the prime reasons is that soldiers from every region of Canada — fighting together for the first time as a single assaulting force in the Canadian Corps — had taken the ridge together. As Brigadier-General Alexander Ross would famously say: " . . . in those few minutes I witnessed the birth of a nation."
Vimy soon became emblematic of Canada's overall experience in the First World War — especially its 60,000 war dead — a sacrifice that convinced Prime Minister Robert Borden to step out of Britain's shadow and push for separate representation for Canada and the other Dominions at the Paris peace talks after the war. This was followed in later decades by Canada's increasing push for autonomy from Britain on the world's stage – a desire triggered, in part, by Canadian sacrifices in the war.
Vimy was a proud moment for Canada, and an extraordinary military accomplishment. Yet the battle was strategically insignificant to the outcome of the war. The French offensive of 1917 (of which Vimy was intended as a tactical diversion) was a failure. In addition, no sustained Allied breakthrough followed either the assault on the ridge or the wider, British-led Battle of Arras of which Vimy was a part. As historian Andrew Godefroy writes in Vimy Ridge, a Canadian Reassessment: "To the German army the loss of a few kilometres of vital ground meant little in the grand scheme of things."
http://www.roydenhistory.co.uk/roydenfhp/roydenbranches/charlesroyden/returntofrance/vimyridge/memorial1.jpg
http://gallery.nen.gov.uk/assets/0810/0000/0512/pict0066_mid.jpg
