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Updated: May 1, 2025
But that line had not been broken, mainly because it was not a line, having instead of none a breadth of several miles; and, apart from the important Vimy Ridge, the German position had not been greatly shaken. The warfare was one of attrition, and the true test was that of wastage, which can only be used when the losses on both sides are exactly known.
When this line of hills was firmly in the hands of the Canadians, they hauled their heavy guns up to the summit with extraordinary speed and proceeded to batter to pieces the powerful defenses of Vimy, while they made continual thrusts down the eastern slopes. In 1915 Vimy was for a time held by the French under Gen.
The result was that the first patrol was a little late in returning, as it came back the night after it started, having spent a quiet day sitting in a shell hole and noting the route they should have taken home the night before. To give in detail our life in the Vimy sector would not make interesting reading as it was a quiet time.
The British attack between La Bassée and Lens and the French attack on the Souchez side were admirably coordinated, and were directed mainly to assist the French to gain the heights west of Vimy, which were the unattained object of their efforts during May and June. By September 27, 1915, the French had all Souchez in their hands, and were advancing upon Givenchy.
How many more in the Somme graveyards? round Lens and Arras and Vimy? about Bourlon Wood and Cambrai? or in the final track of our victorious Armies breaking through the Hindenburg line on their way to Mons?
The victory came as a fitting climax to the British achievements in France during the preceding three months' campaign. By the capture during that period of Bapaume, Vimy Ridge, Monchy Plateau, and now Messines Ridge, the British had completely changed the military situation on the western front. The area gained in this vast operation was a front nine miles long to an extreme depth of five miles.
Ours was a holy cause, but despite the association of the tune the song was far from being a holy song. It was, rather, a chanted remonstrance against all hiking and against this one in particular. After our service at Vimy Ridge some one in authority somewhere decided that the 22nd Battalion and two others were not quite good enough for really smart work. We were, indeed, hard.
It was not very long before both were engaged in that terrible battle of the Somme, where to Canadian arms fell the honor of taking the village of Courcellette. We plugged right on and soon we put the "Vim" into Vimy, and took Vimy Ridge. As I write we are marking time in front of Lens. At Ypres we started our great casualty lists with ten thousand.
Meanwhile, in another section of the line our own plans were maturing, which were to bear fruit five weeks later in the brilliant capture of that Vimy ridge I had seen on March 2, filling the blue middle distance, from the bare upland of Notre Dame de Lorette.
It was little wonder the Germans made such desperate efforts to hold the Vimy ridge and to retake certain portions of it by counter attacks which failed miserably.
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