WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:03.480 Welcome to today's deep dive. I am just so glad 00:00:03.480 --> 00:00:05.240 you could join us today because we are looking 00:00:05.240 --> 00:00:08.099 at a stack of sources that completely shifted 00:00:08.099 --> 00:00:10.480 my entire understanding of modern history. Yeah, 00:00:10.539 --> 00:00:12.699 it really is a fascinating collection of materials 00:00:12.699 --> 00:00:15.880 we have today. It really is. So we are diving 00:00:15.880 --> 00:00:18.219 into the Battle of Vimy Ridge, which took place 00:00:18.219 --> 00:00:22.899 from April 9th to the 12th back in 1917. And, 00:00:23.039 --> 00:00:24.760 you know, if you're looking at these materials 00:00:24.760 --> 00:00:27.359 with us, you might initially think this is just 00:00:27.359 --> 00:00:30.579 another grim, muddy story about a World War I 00:00:30.579 --> 00:00:32.579 battle. Right, just another tragic trench warfare 00:00:32.579 --> 00:00:35.920 scenario. Exactly. But it's not. It is an absolute 00:00:35.920 --> 00:00:39.280 masterclass in how meticulous planning, technological 00:00:39.280 --> 00:00:42.219 innovation, and just a massive radical shift 00:00:42.219 --> 00:00:44.700 in military tactics allowed the Canadian Corps 00:00:44.700 --> 00:00:46.740 to capture a fortress that literally everyone 00:00:46.740 --> 00:00:49.289 else believed was completely impregnable. Okay, 00:00:49.310 --> 00:00:51.469 let's unpack the script. It's a phenomenal case 00:00:51.469 --> 00:00:53.789 study, really. We're looking at a specific moment 00:00:53.789 --> 00:00:58.350 in time where the sheer scale and the creativity 00:00:58.350 --> 00:01:00.950 of the preparation fundamentally changed what 00:01:00.950 --> 00:01:04.010 was possible on a battlefield. Because the Canadian 00:01:04.010 --> 00:01:05.969 Corps, operating as part of the British First 00:01:05.969 --> 00:01:08.510 Army, they were given the subjective primarily 00:01:08.510 --> 00:01:11.549 to protect the flanks of a much larger Eris offensive, 00:01:11.790 --> 00:01:14.730 and also to draw German reserves away from a 00:01:14.730 --> 00:01:16.730 massive French offensive planned further to the 00:01:16.730 --> 00:01:20.680 south. But to really grasp why taking this ridge 00:01:20.680 --> 00:01:23.560 was considered an impossible task, we have to 00:01:23.560 --> 00:01:25.900 understand the geography. Right, let's set the 00:01:25.900 --> 00:01:28.510 scene for you. Imagine you're standing in northern 00:01:28.510 --> 00:01:31.510 France, you're looking out over the Douai Plains, 00:01:31.569 --> 00:01:34.290 which are relatively flat, and then suddenly 00:01:34.290 --> 00:01:36.370 there's this massive escarpment. It just rises 00:01:36.370 --> 00:01:38.450 right out of the landscape. Yeah, Vimy Ridge 00:01:38.450 --> 00:01:42.390 is seven kilometers long and rises 145 meters 00:01:42.390 --> 00:01:45.170 high. Now, 145 meters might not sound like Mount 00:01:45.170 --> 00:01:48.310 Everest to you, but in this specific flat landscape, 00:01:48.670 --> 00:01:51.689 it is the ultimate high ground. It offers a completely 00:01:51.689 --> 00:01:54.209 unobstructed view for tens of kilometers in all 00:01:54.209 --> 00:01:56.129 directions. What's fascinating here is how the 00:01:56.129 --> 00:01:58.609 Germans Sixth Army capitalized on that geography. 00:01:59.170 --> 00:02:02.310 By early 1917, they had held this ridge for two 00:02:02.310 --> 00:02:04.409 whole years. Two years is a long time to dig 00:02:04.409 --> 00:02:07.480 in. Exactly. They had spent that entire time 00:02:07.480 --> 00:02:10.039 turning it into an absolute state of the art 00:02:10.039 --> 00:02:13.080 fortress. Because the ridge is steep on the eastern 00:02:13.080 --> 00:02:15.580 side and drops off quickly, the Germans knew 00:02:15.580 --> 00:02:18.919 that if they ever lost the top, it would be incredibly 00:02:18.919 --> 00:02:21.680 difficult for them to counterattack uphill to 00:02:21.680 --> 00:02:23.780 take it back. So their strategy was just, well, 00:02:23.860 --> 00:02:25.840 never lose it. Right. Never lose it in the first 00:02:25.840 --> 00:02:29.000 place. They built a rigid, heavily fortified 00:02:29.000 --> 00:02:31.539 defensive structure packed with deep concrete 00:02:31.539 --> 00:02:34.710 reinforced dugouts, multi -layered trench and 00:02:34.710 --> 00:02:37.370 a devastating interlocking network of machine 00:02:37.370 --> 00:02:39.770 gun nests. And the history of the Allies trying 00:02:39.770 --> 00:02:43.189 to take this ridge before 1917 is just, it's 00:02:43.189 --> 00:02:45.430 incredibly dark. The sources outline how the 00:02:45.430 --> 00:02:47.449 French 10th Army had tried and failed multiple 00:02:47.449 --> 00:02:50.430 times to push the Germans off Vimy Ridge. In 00:02:50.430 --> 00:02:52.590 those attempts alone, the French suffered a staggering 00:02:52.590 --> 00:02:55.409 150 ,000 casualties. Yeah, that number is just 00:02:55.409 --> 00:02:58.550 hard to comprehend. 150 ,000. Just let that number 00:02:58.550 --> 00:03:01.169 sink in. And then the British took over the sector 00:03:01.169 --> 00:03:04.229 in 1916. And they essentially got bogged down 00:03:04.229 --> 00:03:07.129 in this terrifying underground tunnel warfare. 00:03:07.990 --> 00:03:11.110 So I really want you to imagine the psychological 00:03:11.110 --> 00:03:13.990 weight of that. You were a Canadian soldier standing 00:03:13.990 --> 00:03:15.990 in the freezing mud and you were being ordered 00:03:15.990 --> 00:03:18.610 to attack a hill where hundreds of thousands 00:03:18.610 --> 00:03:20.889 of allied troops have already been slaughtered. 00:03:21.069 --> 00:03:23.409 How do you not just view that as a suicide mission? 00:03:23.550 --> 00:03:26.270 You would absolutely view it that way if your 00:03:26.270 --> 00:03:28.710 commanders were using the same old tactics. And 00:03:28.710 --> 00:03:30.870 that is exactly why the leadership of the Canadian 00:03:30.870 --> 00:03:33.289 Corps realized they needed a fundamental shift 00:03:33.289 --> 00:03:35.409 in doctrine. They knew the old way wasn't working. 00:03:35.530 --> 00:03:38.930 Right. In early 1917, officers from the Canadian 00:03:38.930 --> 00:03:41.289 Corps actually went and attended lectures given 00:03:41.289 --> 00:03:44.069 by the French Army. They meticulously analyzed 00:03:44.069 --> 00:03:46.270 the French successes during the massive Battle 00:03:46.270 --> 00:03:48.729 of Verdun. General Arthur Curry, commanding the 00:03:48.729 --> 00:03:50.990 1st Canadian Division, really took those lessons 00:03:50.990 --> 00:03:53.069 to heart. He saw what worked and what didn't. 00:03:53.229 --> 00:03:57.030 Exactly. The major realization was that the standard 00:03:57.030 --> 00:04:00.069 First World War tactic, simply sending wave after 00:04:00.069 --> 00:04:03.150 wave of men to walk in rigid lines toward machine 00:04:03.150 --> 00:04:07.250 guns, was not just tragic, it was entirely ineffective. 00:04:07.530 --> 00:04:09.389 Wait, I want to pause on that because this is 00:04:09.389 --> 00:04:11.389 where the sources get really surprising for me. 00:04:11.689 --> 00:04:13.990 The preparation they did to fix that problem 00:04:13.990 --> 00:04:16.829 sounds almost absurd compared to standard military 00:04:16.829 --> 00:04:19.310 practices of the time. They started doing something 00:04:19.310 --> 00:04:22.230 called democratizing information. Yes, a huge 00:04:22.230 --> 00:04:24.910 paradigm. Because before this, in most First 00:04:24.910 --> 00:04:27.430 World War battles, only the top aristocratic 00:04:27.430 --> 00:04:29.930 officers had the maps and actually knew the overall 00:04:29.930 --> 00:04:32.569 plan. The enlisted men were just told to walk 00:04:32.569 --> 00:04:35.050 forward. The problem is, if that one officer 00:04:35.050 --> 00:04:37.610 gets killed five seconds into the charge, the 00:04:37.610 --> 00:04:40.149 rest of the men are completely lost. Precisely. 00:04:40.470 --> 00:04:42.550 The rigid command structure was a fatal flaw. 00:04:42.800 --> 00:04:45.699 So for Vimy, the Canadian Corps flipped the script 00:04:45.699 --> 00:04:48.759 entirely. They printed upwards of 40 ,000 highly 00:04:48.759 --> 00:04:51.240 detailed topographical maps and handed them out 00:04:51.240 --> 00:04:53.579 to platoon sergeants and even section commanders. 00:04:53.839 --> 00:04:56.939 40 ,000 maps. Yeah, they taught the regular soldiers 00:04:56.939 --> 00:04:59.879 the specific jobs of the men beside them and 00:04:59.879 --> 00:05:02.699 the officers above them. That way, if a leader 00:05:02.699 --> 00:05:05.160 was killed or wounded, which was virtually guaranteed 00:05:05.160 --> 00:05:07.220 in this kind of warfare, the attack wouldn't 00:05:07.220 --> 00:05:09.379 just stall out in the mud. The surviving men 00:05:09.379 --> 00:05:11.439 knew exactly what the objective was and could 00:05:11.439 --> 00:05:13.319 keep fighting for it independently. Exactly. 00:05:13.319 --> 00:05:15.399 And they didn't stop there with the preparation. 00:05:15.500 --> 00:05:17.839 No, they didn't. The notes say they took entire 00:05:17.839 --> 00:05:20.540 units to Hills safely behind the front lines 00:05:20.540 --> 00:05:23.420 and laid out full scale replicas of the battlefield 00:05:23.420 --> 00:05:26.360 using colored tape. They literally practiced 00:05:26.360 --> 00:05:30.040 walking the exact distances over and over. They 00:05:30.040 --> 00:05:33.800 even build a giant plasticine model like a massive 00:05:33.800 --> 00:05:36.660 Play -Doh diorama at headquarters to show officers 00:05:36.660 --> 00:05:40.189 every single topographic dip crater and German 00:05:40.189 --> 00:05:42.910 trench. It's just mind -boggling. It was an unprecedented 00:05:42.910 --> 00:05:45.290 level of rehearsal and alongside that knowledge 00:05:45.290 --> 00:05:47.389 they championed small unit flexibility. Instead 00:05:47.389 --> 00:05:49.370 of just outfitting everyone with a standard rifle 00:05:49.370 --> 00:05:51.790 they gave individual platoons specialist roles. 00:05:52.290 --> 00:05:54.050 They equipped them with hand grenades to clear 00:05:54.050 --> 00:05:57.610 dugouts and crucially Lewis machine guns. Hold 00:05:57.610 --> 00:06:00.829 on, why was the Lewis gun such a game changer 00:06:00.829 --> 00:06:03.389 here? Aren't machine guns what the Germans were 00:06:03.389 --> 00:06:06.160 already using to defend the ridge? They were, 00:06:06.220 --> 00:06:08.740 but standard machine guns of the era were incredibly 00:06:08.740 --> 00:06:11.540 heavy and usually required a whole team to operate 00:06:11.540 --> 00:06:13.680 from a fixed defensive position. You couldn't 00:06:13.680 --> 00:06:16.339 just run across a battlefield with one. The Lewis 00:06:16.339 --> 00:06:18.720 gun, on the other hand, was relatively lightweight 00:06:18.720 --> 00:06:20.959 and portable. So one guy could carry it forward. 00:06:21.149 --> 00:06:24.569 Right. By giving these two advancing infantry 00:06:24.569 --> 00:06:26.990 platoons, it meant the attacking troops finally 00:06:26.990 --> 00:06:29.829 had their own mobile, suppressive firepower. 00:06:30.350 --> 00:06:32.810 If a Canadian unit got pinned down by a German 00:06:32.810 --> 00:06:35.050 bunker, they didn't have to wait for artillery 00:06:35.050 --> 00:06:37.310 support. They could use their own Lewis guns 00:06:37.310 --> 00:06:39.649 to keep the Germans' heads down while the Grenadiers 00:06:39.649 --> 00:06:41.689 flanked the bunker and took it out. That makes 00:06:41.689 --> 00:06:44.629 total sense. Now, while all of this surface training 00:06:44.629 --> 00:06:47.850 is happening, there is something even crazier 00:06:47.850 --> 00:06:50.310 going on underground. Because the ground in the 00:06:50.310 --> 00:06:53.649 Erasmus sector is this soft, stable chalk, it 00:06:53.649 --> 00:06:56.149 is actually perfect for digging. It's a tunnel 00:06:56.149 --> 00:06:58.670 builder's dream, relatively speaking. The British 00:06:58.670 --> 00:07:01.790 tunneling companies of the Royal Engineers excavated 00:07:01.790 --> 00:07:06.250 an entire subterranean city. They dug 12 massive 00:07:06.250 --> 00:07:09.209 subways, some up to 1 .2 kilometers long, buried 00:07:09.209 --> 00:07:11.410 up to 10 meters deep. And we aren't just talking 00:07:11.410 --> 00:07:13.990 about dirt tunnels here. Far from it. They installed 00:07:13.990 --> 00:07:16.750 light rail lines, piped water, underground hospitals, 00:07:16.889 --> 00:07:19.389 and command posts. All of this was so they can 00:07:19.389 --> 00:07:22.310 move thousands of troops securely and entirely 00:07:22.310 --> 00:07:25.189 unseen right up to the front lines. The sheer 00:07:25.189 --> 00:07:27.069 engineering of it is remarkable, but we should 00:07:27.069 --> 00:07:29.490 also clarify that these tunnels weren't purely 00:07:29.490 --> 00:07:32.029 for logistics and safety. They were actively 00:07:32.029 --> 00:07:35.170 designed as offensive weapons as well. The engineers 00:07:35.170 --> 00:07:39.089 painstakingly laid 13 massive explosive mines 00:07:39.089 --> 00:07:42.470 directly under the key German surface fortifications. 00:07:43.009 --> 00:07:45.029 But even more fascinating is their use of what 00:07:45.029 --> 00:07:48.300 the sources call wombat charges. Yes. I was reading 00:07:48.300 --> 00:07:50.180 about these wombat charges in the source material, 00:07:50.519 --> 00:07:51.839 and I couldn't quite wrap my head around them. 00:07:52.040 --> 00:07:54.540 What exactly were they doing with these? So imagine 00:07:54.540 --> 00:07:57.680 pushing long, explosive -filled pipes out from 00:07:57.680 --> 00:08:00.500 the very ends of these subways, resting just 00:08:00.500 --> 00:08:03.379 beneath the surface of no man's land, the deadly 00:08:03.379 --> 00:08:06.480 open ground between the two armies. The idea 00:08:06.480 --> 00:08:08.579 was that the exact moment the battle started, 00:08:08.699 --> 00:08:10.819 they would detonate these wombat charges. What 00:08:10.819 --> 00:08:14.259 would that do? It instantly blew an elongated 00:08:14.259 --> 00:08:16.699 crater that formed a ready -made communication 00:08:16.699 --> 00:08:19.319 trench. Oh, wow. It meant attacking troops and 00:08:19.319 --> 00:08:21.699 heavily burdened supply carriers could move across 00:08:21.699 --> 00:08:23.879 the most dangerous part of the battlefield while 00:08:23.879 --> 00:08:26.740 remaining below ground level, shielded from enemy 00:08:26.740 --> 00:08:29.439 fire. That is just brilliant. An instant trench 00:08:29.439 --> 00:08:31.779 across no man's land. So you have this massive 00:08:31.779 --> 00:08:34.860 operation underground. But the sources also focus 00:08:34.860 --> 00:08:36.580 heavily on what was happening up in the sky. 00:08:36.860 --> 00:08:39.620 They call it Bloody April. The Royal Flying Corps 00:08:39.620 --> 00:08:42.340 was taking these unbelievable risks just to gain 00:08:42.340 --> 00:08:45.179 air superiority and photograph the German defenses. 00:08:45.659 --> 00:08:48.179 The air war was brutal. The reconnaissance was 00:08:48.179 --> 00:08:51.720 so incredibly dangerous that they lost 131 aircraft 00:08:51.720 --> 00:08:54.580 in just the first week of April alone. The casualty 00:08:54.580 --> 00:08:57.399 rate for those pilots was horrific, but the intelligence 00:08:57.399 --> 00:08:59.399 they gathered was the linchpin of the entire 00:08:59.399 --> 00:09:02.700 operation. They brought back vital aerial photographs, 00:09:02.840 --> 00:09:05.179 but they also engaged in cutting -edge target 00:09:05.179 --> 00:09:07.559 acquisition techniques known as flash spotting 00:09:07.559 --> 00:09:09.960 and sound ranging. Okay, you have to explain 00:09:09.960 --> 00:09:12.740 sound ranging to me. Because trying to isolate 00:09:12.740 --> 00:09:15.759 a specific sound in a battle where a million 00:09:15.759 --> 00:09:18.799 shells are dropping sounds literally impossible. 00:09:19.039 --> 00:09:21.600 How does that even work? It's a brilliant piece 00:09:21.600 --> 00:09:24.340 of applied physics, actually. Essentially, they 00:09:24.340 --> 00:09:27.200 set up an array of microphones at precisely known 00:09:27.200 --> 00:09:30.480 locations along the allied lines. When a hidden 00:09:30.480 --> 00:09:33.320 German artillery gun fired, the sound wave of 00:09:33.320 --> 00:09:35.820 that boom would reach each microphone at a slightly 00:09:35.820 --> 00:09:37.919 different millisecond. Because sound travels 00:09:37.919 --> 00:09:41.259 at a fixed speed. Exactly. By using specialized 00:09:41.259 --> 00:09:43.500 oscilloscopes and stopwatches, technicians could 00:09:43.500 --> 00:09:45.539 calculate the time difference it took for the 00:09:45.539 --> 00:09:48.440 sound to arrive at each post. Using that math, 00:09:48.539 --> 00:09:50.779 they could draw intersects arcs on a map and 00:09:50.779 --> 00:09:53.139 pinpoint the exact coordinates of the German 00:09:53.139 --> 00:09:55.779 gun, even if it was hidden miles away behind 00:09:55.779 --> 00:09:58.860 a hill. Wow. So they are literally triangulating 00:09:58.860 --> 00:10:01.320 the sound of the guns to find them. And then 00:10:01.320 --> 00:10:03.019 they hand those coordinates over to the Canadian 00:10:03.019 --> 00:10:06.000 artillery, which, looking at these numbers, was 00:10:06.000 --> 00:10:08.620 absolutely massive. The scale of the artillery 00:10:08.620 --> 00:10:12.000 was unprecedented. They were allocated 1 .6 million 00:10:12.000 --> 00:10:14.059 shells for this battle. To give you the listener 00:10:14.059 --> 00:10:17.039 an idea of the density here. They had one heavy 00:10:17.039 --> 00:10:19.940 gun for every 20 yards of the front and one field 00:10:19.940 --> 00:10:23.179 gun for every 10 yards. That is three times the 00:10:23.179 --> 00:10:25.299 heavy artillery power they had at the incredibly 00:10:25.299 --> 00:10:27.360 destructive Battle of the Somme. The firepower 00:10:27.360 --> 00:10:29.940 was staggering, but arguably just as important 00:10:29.940 --> 00:10:32.419 as the number of shells was the technology inside 00:10:32.419 --> 00:10:35.259 them. Specifically, the introduction of the number 00:10:35.259 --> 00:10:39.279 106 instantaneous fuse. Right. The number 106 00:10:39.279 --> 00:10:41.600 fuse. The sources emphasize this heavily. Before 00:10:41.600 --> 00:10:43.679 this invention, a typical artillery shell would 00:10:43.679 --> 00:10:45.860 often plunge deep into the soft muddy ground 00:10:45.860 --> 00:10:48.299 before detonating. It would explode like a geyser 00:10:48.299 --> 00:10:50.500 throwing mud everywhere, but it did almost nothing 00:10:50.500 --> 00:10:53.019 to destroy the thick belts of barbed wire sitting 00:10:53.019 --> 00:10:55.879 on the surface. How did the 106 change that? 00:10:56.179 --> 00:10:58.220 Well, the number 106 was designed with a highly 00:10:58.220 --> 00:11:01.960 sensitive contact mechanism. The absolute millisecond 00:11:01.960 --> 00:11:04.539 it brushed against anything, even a single strand 00:11:04.539 --> 00:11:07.580 of barbed wire, detonated laterally above the 00:11:07.580 --> 00:11:09.899 ground. So it didn't dig in at all? No. Instead 00:11:09.899 --> 00:11:12.259 of blowing a hole in the dirt, it acted like 00:11:12.259 --> 00:11:15.519 a giant explosive pair of scissors. It completely 00:11:15.519 --> 00:11:18.100 shredded the German barbed wire and cleared a 00:11:18.100 --> 00:11:20.220 physical path for the infantry to walk through. 00:11:20.299 --> 00:11:22.360 And the effect this artillery had on the German 00:11:22.360 --> 00:11:26.139 defenders was completely catastrophic. The preliminary 00:11:26.139 --> 00:11:28.840 bombardment started on March 20th, and then the 00:11:28.840 --> 00:11:31.379 second phase, utilizing every single gun they 00:11:31.379 --> 00:11:35.039 had, began on April 2nd. If we look at this entirely 00:11:35.039 --> 00:11:36.980 impartially, just from the German perspective, 00:11:37.519 --> 00:11:39.799 their own sources refer to this terrifying period 00:11:39.799 --> 00:11:43.000 as the week of suffering. An incredibly apt name 00:11:43.000 --> 00:11:45.460 for what they endured. The bombardment was so 00:11:45.460 --> 00:11:47.919 intense and so unrelenting that their trenches 00:11:47.919 --> 00:11:49.759 were basically leveled. But more importantly, 00:11:50.139 --> 00:11:52.299 the shelling was so heavy that German ration 00:11:52.299 --> 00:11:54.080 parties couldn't even make it up to the front 00:11:54.080 --> 00:11:56.299 lines. The defenders were trapped underground 00:11:56.299 --> 00:11:59.960 in those deep bunkers, exhausted, starving and 00:11:59.960 --> 00:12:02.240 enduring the profound psychological torment. 00:12:02.330 --> 00:12:04.769 of 11 straight days of earth -shattering noise. 00:12:04.929 --> 00:12:07.809 Which sets the stage perfectly for the main assault, 00:12:08.250 --> 00:12:12.269 Easter Monday, April 9th, 1917. At exactly five 00:12:12.269 --> 00:12:13.970 through a year in the morning, the operation 00:12:13.970 --> 00:12:16.080 commences. The coordination of this moment is 00:12:16.080 --> 00:12:18.620 just incredible to visualize. The mines detonate 00:12:18.620 --> 00:12:20.799 on the German lines. One thousand guns open fire 00:12:20.799 --> 00:12:23.899 at the exact same second. And then there is this 00:12:23.899 --> 00:12:26.799 massive, unpredictable stroke of luck. A northwest 00:12:26.799 --> 00:12:29.559 storm blows in, sending freezing sleet and snow 00:12:29.559 --> 00:12:31.659 directly into the faces of the defending German 00:12:31.659 --> 00:12:35.620 troops. absolutely miserable for the Canadian 00:12:35.620 --> 00:12:38.059 troops advancing through the mud, provided a 00:12:38.059 --> 00:12:40.860 massive tactical advantage by blinding the defenders. 00:12:41.360 --> 00:12:43.840 But the real key to the advance was a highly 00:12:43.840 --> 00:12:46.600 choreographed tactic called the Creeping Barrage. 00:12:47.159 --> 00:12:49.779 The field guns laid down a continuous curtain 00:12:49.779 --> 00:12:52.539 of explosive fire that advanced forward roughly 00:12:52.539 --> 00:12:55.740 100 yards every three minutes. But wait, advancing 00:12:55.740 --> 00:12:58.320 100 yards every three minutes? That means the 00:12:58.320 --> 00:13:00.480 soldiers are walking almost directly inside their 00:13:00.480 --> 00:13:03.240 own artillery fire. That requires a terrifying 00:13:03.240 --> 00:13:05.879 amount of trust. It did. It was incredibly dangerous, 00:13:05.919 --> 00:13:08.519 but it was necessary. The infantry was trained 00:13:08.519 --> 00:13:11.539 to walk just yards behind this moving wall of 00:13:11.539 --> 00:13:13.519 explosions. So they're just hugging the barrage. 00:13:13.620 --> 00:13:16.779 Yes. The logic was that the barrage forces the 00:13:16.779 --> 00:13:19.360 Germans to stay huddled deep inside their concrete 00:13:19.360 --> 00:13:22.159 dugouts. By hugging the barrage closely, the 00:13:22.159 --> 00:13:24.039 Canadians would arrive at the lip of the German 00:13:24.039 --> 00:13:26.360 trench the very second the artillery lifted, 00:13:26.840 --> 00:13:28.919 giving the defenders absolute no time to climb 00:13:28.919 --> 00:13:31.480 up the stairs and man their machine guns. And 00:13:31.480 --> 00:13:33.460 to make sure the men didn't just collapse from 00:13:33.460 --> 00:13:36.379 exhaustion while doing this, they used a leapfrogging 00:13:36.379 --> 00:13:39.440 tactic. The planners had drawn out four colored 00:13:39.440 --> 00:13:41.899 objective lines on those thousands of maps we 00:13:41.899 --> 00:13:44.580 talked about earlier. The black, red, blue, and 00:13:44.580 --> 00:13:47.269 brown lines. Instead of one group trying to run 00:13:47.269 --> 00:13:49.450 the entire chaotic distance to the top of the 00:13:49.450 --> 00:13:52.590 ridge, the initial wave would fight to the black 00:13:52.590 --> 00:13:55.230 line and immediately stop to consolidate and 00:13:55.230 --> 00:13:57.370 defend it. They'd lock that position down. Right. 00:13:57.769 --> 00:14:00.230 Then a completely fresh unit behind them would 00:14:00.230 --> 00:14:02.750 physically leapfrog past them to attack the red 00:14:02.750 --> 00:14:06.070 line and so on. It kept the momentum relentlessly 00:14:06.070 --> 00:14:10.179 fresh. Exactly. And for the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd 00:14:10.179 --> 00:14:12.980 Canadian divisions, this plan was executed almost 00:14:12.980 --> 00:14:15.820 flawlessly. They hit their objective lines right 00:14:15.820 --> 00:14:18.299 on schedule. The speed of the Canadian advance 00:14:18.299 --> 00:14:20.960 was so rapid that even though the German commanders 00:14:20.960 --> 00:14:22.860 in the rear could communicate with their front 00:14:22.860 --> 00:14:25.240 lines, they simply didn't have the time to react 00:14:25.240 --> 00:14:27.539 or move their reserve troops forward before their 00:14:27.539 --> 00:14:30.440 positions were completely overrun. But, looking 00:14:30.440 --> 00:14:32.360 at the sources to make sure we give you a fully 00:14:32.360 --> 00:14:34.919 balanced view of this, it wasn't the perfect 00:14:34.919 --> 00:14:37.840 operation everywhere. The 4th Canadian Division, 00:14:37.879 --> 00:14:40.419 which was tasked with taking the extreme northern 00:14:40.419 --> 00:14:43.059 portion of the advance, faced an absolute nightmare. 00:14:43.179 --> 00:14:45.179 They had the toughest assignment. They were attacking 00:14:45.179 --> 00:14:47.299 the highest point of the ridge, a place called 00:14:47.299 --> 00:14:51.179 Hill 145. And there's this one detail in the 00:14:51.179 --> 00:14:53.919 sources that just stopped me in my tracks. A 00:14:53.919 --> 00:14:56.919 commanding officer of one of the assaulting battalions 00:14:56.919 --> 00:15:00.179 actually asked the artillery to leave a specific 00:15:00.179 --> 00:15:03.000 portion of the German trench completely undamaged. 00:15:03.340 --> 00:15:06.460 Why on earth would he request that? It was intended 00:15:06.460 --> 00:15:08.860 to preserve the trench so that his own men could 00:15:08.860 --> 00:15:11.779 use it for cover once they captured it, but tactically 00:15:11.779 --> 00:15:14.600 it was a fatal miscalculation. A massive mistake. 00:15:14.759 --> 00:15:17.179 When the infantry advanced, the surviving machine 00:15:17.179 --> 00:15:19.759 gun nests in that deliberately undamaged section 00:15:19.759 --> 00:15:23.440 of the trench immediately opened fire. They completely 00:15:23.440 --> 00:15:25.860 devastated the advancing Canadian troops on the 00:15:25.860 --> 00:15:28.220 right flank. That is just heartbreaking. And 00:15:28.220 --> 00:15:30.179 to make matters worse, while they were pinned 00:15:30.179 --> 00:15:32.820 down, their left flank was taking heavy, harassing 00:15:32.820 --> 00:15:35.379 fire from another fortified knoll known as the 00:15:35.379 --> 00:15:38.179 Pimple. The 4th Division's advance collapsed 00:15:38.179 --> 00:15:40.899 almost immediately. It took persistent, desperate, 00:15:41.100 --> 00:15:43.299 and bloody attacks by reserve units later in 00:15:43.299 --> 00:15:45.539 the day to finally force the Germans off the 00:15:45.539 --> 00:15:48.340 southwestern portion of Hill 145. And the fighting 00:15:48.340 --> 00:15:51.080 didn't end on the 9th. It wasn't until days later, 00:15:51.279 --> 00:15:54.000 on April 12th, fighting through a literal snowstorm, 00:15:54.379 --> 00:15:56.720 that they finally managed to take that last northern 00:15:56.720 --> 00:15:59.759 objective, the pimple. By nightfall on April 00:15:59.759 --> 00:16:02.779 12th, the entire length of Vimy Ridge was firmly 00:16:02.779 --> 00:16:05.440 in Canadian hands. Which brings us to the grim 00:16:05.440 --> 00:16:07.899 reality of the aftermath. By the time the ridge 00:16:07.899 --> 00:16:10.480 was finally secured, the Canadian Corps had suffered 00:16:10.480 --> 00:16:14.799 10 ,602 casualties, with nearly 300 -600 of those 00:16:14.799 --> 00:16:17.360 men killed. On the German side, later historical 00:16:17.360 --> 00:16:19.500 sources estimate they suffered around 20 ,000 00:16:19.500 --> 00:16:22.419 casualties, with roughly 4 ,000 men taken prisoner. 00:16:22.759 --> 00:16:24.700 The strategic fallout for the German command 00:16:24.700 --> 00:16:27.320 was immediate and severe. The German Supreme 00:16:27.320 --> 00:16:29.580 Army Command was furious at the loss of such 00:16:29.580 --> 00:16:33.179 a vital position. Field Marshal von Hindenburg 00:16:33.179 --> 00:16:35.759 launched a formal court of inquiry and ended 00:16:35.759 --> 00:16:38.580 up firing the Sixth Army Commander, General von 00:16:38.580 --> 00:16:40.759 Falkenhausen. The source mentions he was fired 00:16:40.759 --> 00:16:43.519 specifically for failing to use a new doctrine 00:16:43.519 --> 00:16:46.940 called Defense in Depth. What actually is that? 00:16:47.100 --> 00:16:49.639 Defense in depth or elastic defense was a new 00:16:49.639 --> 00:16:51.679 strategy where you don't put all your men in 00:16:51.679 --> 00:16:54.220 the very front trench to be slaughtered by artillery. 00:16:54.740 --> 00:16:56.940 Instead, you keep your best reserve divisions 00:16:56.940 --> 00:16:59.860 further back, out of artillery range, ready to 00:16:59.860 --> 00:17:02.179 rush forward and counterattack the enemy exactly 00:17:02.179 --> 00:17:04.160 when they're most exhausted and disorganized 00:17:04.160 --> 00:17:06.299 from taking the front line. Let them tire themselves 00:17:06.299 --> 00:17:09.039 out and then hit them. Precisely. But Volkenhausen 00:17:09.039 --> 00:17:11.859 completely failed to do this. He kept his reserve 00:17:11.859 --> 00:17:14.519 divisions up to 15 miles away from the battlefield, 00:17:15.079 --> 00:17:17.359 far too distant to launch any kind of timely 00:17:17.359 --> 00:17:19.799 counterattack against the rapid Canadian advance. 00:17:20.660 --> 00:17:23.099 Because of this failure, the Germans had no choice 00:17:23.099 --> 00:17:26.059 but to retreat eastward to a completely new defensive 00:17:26.059 --> 00:17:29.160 line, employing a scorched earth policy as they 00:17:29.160 --> 00:17:31.119 went. So they just destroyed everything as they 00:17:31.119 --> 00:17:33.359 pulled back? Yes. If we connect this to the bigger 00:17:33.359 --> 00:17:36.920 picture, the legacy of this battle is huge. The 00:17:36.920 --> 00:17:39.519 sources point out that tactically, Vimy was just 00:17:39.519 --> 00:17:42.000 one piece of the much larger Eris offensive. 00:17:42.730 --> 00:17:45.589 But historically and culturally, its significance 00:17:45.589 --> 00:17:47.730 took on a life of its own. It became something 00:17:47.730 --> 00:17:50.309 much larger than just a battle. That's a crucial 00:17:50.309 --> 00:17:52.630 distinction. In terms of the First World War, 00:17:52.869 --> 00:17:56.599 it was a localized tactical victory. But symbolically, 00:17:56.619 --> 00:17:59.319 it represents the very first time that all four 00:17:59.319 --> 00:18:02.119 Canadian divisions, meaning men from every region 00:18:02.119 --> 00:18:05.119 across the country, fought together side by side 00:18:05.119 --> 00:18:09.259 as a single unified force. In historical narratives 00:18:09.259 --> 00:18:11.359 that developed in the decades following the war, 00:18:11.740 --> 00:18:14.400 Vimy Ridge is frequently cited as the exact moment 00:18:14.400 --> 00:18:17.440 Canada came of age as a nation. It is widely 00:18:17.440 --> 00:18:19.380 viewed as the point where Canada stepped out 00:18:19.380 --> 00:18:21.259 from the shadow of the British Empire to forge 00:18:21.259 --> 00:18:24.140 its own distinct, confident national identity. 00:18:24.490 --> 00:18:26.809 So what does this all mean for you? Well, the 00:18:26.809 --> 00:18:28.829 legacy of Vimy Ridge isn't just something trapped 00:18:28.829 --> 00:18:31.329 in textbooks. It is physically carved in stone. 00:18:31.849 --> 00:18:34.410 Following the war, France actually granted Canada 00:18:34.410 --> 00:18:37.490 perpetual use of a massive section of the land 00:18:37.490 --> 00:18:40.960 at Vimy to create a battlefield park. Today, 00:18:41.119 --> 00:18:43.640 the Canadian National Vimy Memorial sits right 00:18:43.640 --> 00:18:46.160 on the highest point of the ridge, Hill 145. 00:18:46.299 --> 00:18:48.779 And the grounds of that memorial serve as a very 00:18:48.779 --> 00:18:51.759 stark, very literal reminder of the battle. The 00:18:51.759 --> 00:18:54.759 250 -acre park is still so incredibly honeycombed 00:18:54.759 --> 00:18:57.400 with collapsed tunnels, massive artillery craters 00:18:57.400 --> 00:18:59.859 and unexploded munitions that large portions 00:18:59.859 --> 00:19:01.660 of the surrounding forest remain permanently 00:19:01.660 --> 00:19:04.180 closed to the public for safety reasons. Even 00:19:04.180 --> 00:19:06.039 over a century later, the earth itself hasn't 00:19:06.039 --> 00:19:08.349 recovered. When the memorial was finally unveiled 00:19:08.349 --> 00:19:12.130 in 1936, it was a massive event. It took 11 years 00:19:12.130 --> 00:19:14.789 to build and cost millions. It drew a crowd of 00:19:14.789 --> 00:19:18.190 over 50 ,000 people, including over 6 ,000 Canadian 00:19:18.190 --> 00:19:21.029 veterans. King Edward VIII was there to unveil 00:19:21.029 --> 00:19:23.069 it. The sources note that the Canadian prime 00:19:23.069 --> 00:19:25.089 minister actually skipped the event due to some 00:19:25.089 --> 00:19:27.089 bitter domestic political disputes back home 00:19:27.089 --> 00:19:29.769 regarding veterans. But regardless, the unveiling 00:19:29.769 --> 00:19:32.579 was a monumental moment. But as we wrap up, I 00:19:32.579 --> 00:19:34.819 want to leave you with a final provocative thought 00:19:34.819 --> 00:19:37.220 to mull over. The memorial's architect, a man 00:19:37.220 --> 00:19:40.259 named Walter Seymour Alward, created this breathtaking 00:19:40.259 --> 00:19:43.440 towering limestone structure. But he didn't actually 00:19:43.440 --> 00:19:45.740 design it to celebrate a brilliant military victory. 00:19:45.839 --> 00:19:48.079 No, he had a very different vision for it. He 00:19:48.079 --> 00:19:50.740 explicitly described his masterpiece as a sermon 00:19:50.740 --> 00:19:53.720 against the futility of war. This raises an incredibly 00:19:53.720 --> 00:19:55.819 important question for anyone studying military 00:19:55.819 --> 00:19:58.880 history. How do you reconcile those two deeply 00:19:58.880 --> 00:20:01.700 conflicting ideas? On one hand, you have a young 00:20:01.700 --> 00:20:04.599 nation's proudest military triumph, a master 00:20:04.599 --> 00:20:07.119 class in modern tactical innovation, bravery, 00:20:07.259 --> 00:20:09.660 and absolute resilience. And on the other hand, 00:20:09.740 --> 00:20:12.079 the very monument built to honor that triumph 00:20:12.079 --> 00:20:14.559 stands as a permanent sermon against the violent 00:20:14.559 --> 00:20:17.960 nature of war itself. It forces us to ask, does 00:20:17.960 --> 00:20:20.700 even the most brilliantly executed, technologically 00:20:20.700 --> 00:20:23.390 advanced tactical masterpiece, ultimately just 00:20:23.390 --> 00:20:26.289 underscore the sheer unfathomable tragedy of 00:20:26.289 --> 00:20:28.430 the 10 ,000 casualties it cost to achieve it. 00:20:28.809 --> 00:20:30.710 It really makes you pause and think about the 00:20:30.710 --> 00:20:33.289 true lasting cost of these historic breakthroughs. 00:20:33.769 --> 00:20:35.390 That is all the time we have for today. Thank 00:20:35.390 --> 00:20:37.170 you so much for joining us on this deep dive.