THE TAKING VIMY RIDGE

It took four days to capture Vimy Ridge. In those four days, 3,598 Canadians lost their lives and another 7,004 were wounded. That is the full meaning of the casualty figure we often hear on Remembrance Day. It represents 10,602 men killed or wounded in a single battle.

On Easter Monday, April 9, 1917, all four divisions of the Canadian Corps went into battle together for the first time. Their objective was a fortified ridge in northern France. From that high ground, German forces could observe the surrounding countryside and fire on Allied troops advancing below. Taking the ridge would help protect the flank of the wider British offensive around Arras.

The Canadians spent weeks preparing. Allied artillery hammered German positions before the assault. When the infantry went forward, the guns laid down a creeping barrage, a moving curtain of shellfire timed to advance just ahead of the soldiers. The timing mattered. The infantry had to stay close enough to reach German positions before the defenders could recover. The Canadians took most of the ridge by noon on the first day. The last German position fell on April 12.

Vimy became a source of national pride. Soldiers from across Canada had fought together and taken a position that earlier Allied attacks had failed to capture. For their families, the consequences lasted far beyond those four days. Some waited for men who would never come home. Others welcomed home men whose wounds would shape the rest of their lives.

Today, two stone pylons rise above the ridge. On the walls below are the names of 11,285 Canadians who died in France during the First World War and had no known grave. Those names reach beyond the battle at Vimy. The memorial gave families a place to see the name of someone they could never visit at a grave.

On Remembrance Day, we can take pride in what the Canadians accomplished at Vimy and still ask what that victory demanded of them. To tell the story honestly, we have to remember the men who took the ridge, the men who never came down, and those who came home wounded.

AI-generated depiction of the Canadian National Vimy Memorial in northern France. 

Its twin limestone pylons represent Canada and France.