Welcome to today's deep dive. I am just so glad
you could join us today because we are looking
at a stack of sources that completely shifted
my entire understanding of modern history. Yeah,
it really is a fascinating collection of materials
we have today. It really is. So we are diving
into the Battle of Vimy Ridge, which took place
from April 9th to the 12th back in 1917. And,
you know, if you're looking at these materials
with us, you might initially think this is just
another grim, muddy story about a World War I
battle. Right, just another tragic trench warfare
scenario. Exactly. But it's not. It is an absolute
masterclass in how meticulous planning, technological
innovation, and just a massive radical shift
in military tactics allowed the Canadian Corps
to capture a fortress that literally everyone
else believed was completely impregnable. Okay,
let's unpack the script. It's a phenomenal case
study, really. We're looking at a specific moment
in time where the sheer scale and the creativity
of the preparation fundamentally changed what
was possible on a battlefield. Because the Canadian
Corps, operating as part of the British First
Army, they were given the subjective primarily
to protect the flanks of a much larger Eris offensive,
and also to draw German reserves away from a
massive French offensive planned further to the
south. But to really grasp why taking this ridge
was considered an impossible task, we have to
understand the geography. Right, let's set the
scene for you. Imagine you're standing in northern
France, you're looking out over the Douai Plains,
which are relatively flat, and then suddenly
there's this massive escarpment. It just rises
right out of the landscape. Yeah, Vimy Ridge
is seven kilometers long and rises 145 meters
high. Now, 145 meters might not sound like Mount
Everest to you, but in this specific flat landscape,
it is the ultimate high ground. It offers a completely
unobstructed view for tens of kilometers in all
directions. What's fascinating here is how the
Germans Sixth Army capitalized on that geography.
By early 1917, they had held this ridge for two
whole years. Two years is a long time to dig
in. Exactly. They had spent that entire time
turning it into an absolute state of the art
fortress. Because the ridge is steep on the eastern
side and drops off quickly, the Germans knew
that if they ever lost the top, it would be incredibly
difficult for them to counterattack uphill to
take it back. So their strategy was just, well,
never lose it. Right. Never lose it in the first
place. They built a rigid, heavily fortified
defensive structure packed with deep concrete
reinforced dugouts, multi -layered trench and
a devastating interlocking network of machine
gun nests. And the history of the Allies trying
to take this ridge before 1917 is just, it's
incredibly dark. The sources outline how the
French 10th Army had tried and failed multiple
times to push the Germans off Vimy Ridge. In
those attempts alone, the French suffered a staggering
150 ,000 casualties. Yeah, that number is just
hard to comprehend. 150 ,000. Just let that number
sink in. And then the British took over the sector
in 1916. And they essentially got bogged down
in this terrifying underground tunnel warfare.
So I really want you to imagine the psychological
weight of that. You were a Canadian soldier standing
in the freezing mud and you were being ordered
to attack a hill where hundreds of thousands
of allied troops have already been slaughtered.
How do you not just view that as a suicide mission?
You would absolutely view it that way if your
commanders were using the same old tactics. And
that is exactly why the leadership of the Canadian
Corps realized they needed a fundamental shift
in doctrine. They knew the old way wasn't working.
Right. In early 1917, officers from the Canadian
Corps actually went and attended lectures given
by the French Army. They meticulously analyzed
the French successes during the massive Battle
of Verdun. General Arthur Curry, commanding the
1st Canadian Division, really took those lessons
to heart. He saw what worked and what didn't.
Exactly. The major realization was that the standard
First World War tactic, simply sending wave after
wave of men to walk in rigid lines toward machine
guns, was not just tragic, it was entirely ineffective.
Wait, I want to pause on that because this is
where the sources get really surprising for me.
The preparation they did to fix that problem
sounds almost absurd compared to standard military
practices of the time. They started doing something
called democratizing information. Yes, a huge
paradigm. Because before this, in most First
World War battles, only the top aristocratic
officers had the maps and actually knew the overall
plan. The enlisted men were just told to walk
forward. The problem is, if that one officer
gets killed five seconds into the charge, the
rest of the men are completely lost. Precisely.
The rigid command structure was a fatal flaw.
So for Vimy, the Canadian Corps flipped the script
entirely. They printed upwards of 40 ,000 highly
detailed topographical maps and handed them out
to platoon sergeants and even section commanders.
40 ,000 maps. Yeah, they taught the regular soldiers
the specific jobs of the men beside them and
the officers above them. That way, if a leader
was killed or wounded, which was virtually guaranteed
in this kind of warfare, the attack wouldn't
just stall out in the mud. The surviving men
knew exactly what the objective was and could
keep fighting for it independently. Exactly.
And they didn't stop there with the preparation.
No, they didn't. The notes say they took entire
units to Hills safely behind the front lines
and laid out full scale replicas of the battlefield
using colored tape. They literally practiced
walking the exact distances over and over. They
even build a giant plasticine model like a massive
Play -Doh diorama at headquarters to show officers
every single topographic dip crater and German
trench. It's just mind -boggling. It was an unprecedented
level of rehearsal and alongside that knowledge
they championed small unit flexibility. Instead
of just outfitting everyone with a standard rifle
they gave individual platoons specialist roles.
They equipped them with hand grenades to clear
dugouts and crucially Lewis machine guns. Hold
on, why was the Lewis gun such a game changer
here? Aren't machine guns what the Germans were
already using to defend the ridge? They were,
but standard machine guns of the era were incredibly
heavy and usually required a whole team to operate
from a fixed defensive position. You couldn't
just run across a battlefield with one. The Lewis
gun, on the other hand, was relatively lightweight
and portable. So one guy could carry it forward.
Right. By giving these two advancing infantry
platoons, it meant the attacking troops finally
had their own mobile, suppressive firepower.
If a Canadian unit got pinned down by a German
bunker, they didn't have to wait for artillery
support. They could use their own Lewis guns
to keep the Germans' heads down while the Grenadiers
flanked the bunker and took it out. That makes
total sense. Now, while all of this surface training
is happening, there is something even crazier
going on underground. Because the ground in the
Erasmus sector is this soft, stable chalk, it
is actually perfect for digging. It's a tunnel
builder's dream, relatively speaking. The British
tunneling companies of the Royal Engineers excavated
an entire subterranean city. They dug 12 massive
subways, some up to 1 .2 kilometers long, buried
up to 10 meters deep. And we aren't just talking
about dirt tunnels here. Far from it. They installed
light rail lines, piped water, underground hospitals,
and command posts. All of this was so they can
move thousands of troops securely and entirely
unseen right up to the front lines. The sheer
engineering of it is remarkable, but we should
also clarify that these tunnels weren't purely
for logistics and safety. They were actively
designed as offensive weapons as well. The engineers
painstakingly laid 13 massive explosive mines
directly under the key German surface fortifications.
But even more fascinating is their use of what
the sources call wombat charges. Yes. I was reading
about these wombat charges in the source material,
and I couldn't quite wrap my head around them.
What exactly were they doing with these? So imagine
pushing long, explosive -filled pipes out from
the very ends of these subways, resting just
beneath the surface of no man's land, the deadly
open ground between the two armies. The idea
was that the exact moment the battle started,
they would detonate these wombat charges. What
would that do? It instantly blew an elongated
crater that formed a ready -made communication
trench. Oh, wow. It meant attacking troops and
heavily burdened supply carriers could move across
the most dangerous part of the battlefield while
remaining below ground level, shielded from enemy
fire. That is just brilliant. An instant trench
across no man's land. So you have this massive
operation underground. But the sources also focus
heavily on what was happening up in the sky.
They call it Bloody April. The Royal Flying Corps
was taking these unbelievable risks just to gain
air superiority and photograph the German defenses.
The air war was brutal. The reconnaissance was
so incredibly dangerous that they lost 131 aircraft
in just the first week of April alone. The casualty
rate for those pilots was horrific, but the intelligence
they gathered was the linchpin of the entire
operation. They brought back vital aerial photographs,
but they also engaged in cutting -edge target
acquisition techniques known as flash spotting
and sound ranging. Okay, you have to explain
sound ranging to me. Because trying to isolate
a specific sound in a battle where a million
shells are dropping sounds literally impossible.
How does that even work? It's a brilliant piece
of applied physics, actually. Essentially, they
set up an array of microphones at precisely known
locations along the allied lines. When a hidden
German artillery gun fired, the sound wave of
that boom would reach each microphone at a slightly
different millisecond. Because sound travels
at a fixed speed. Exactly. By using specialized
oscilloscopes and stopwatches, technicians could
calculate the time difference it took for the
sound to arrive at each post. Using that math,
they could draw intersects arcs on a map and
pinpoint the exact coordinates of the German
gun, even if it was hidden miles away behind
a hill. Wow. So they are literally triangulating
the sound of the guns to find them. And then
they hand those coordinates over to the Canadian
artillery, which, looking at these numbers, was
absolutely massive. The scale of the artillery
was unprecedented. They were allocated 1 .6 million
shells for this battle. To give you the listener
an idea of the density here. They had one heavy
gun for every 20 yards of the front and one field
gun for every 10 yards. That is three times the
heavy artillery power they had at the incredibly
destructive Battle of the Somme. The firepower
was staggering, but arguably just as important
as the number of shells was the technology inside
them. Specifically, the introduction of the number
106 instantaneous fuse. Right. The number 106
fuse. The sources emphasize this heavily. Before
this invention, a typical artillery shell would
often plunge deep into the soft muddy ground
before detonating. It would explode like a geyser
throwing mud everywhere, but it did almost nothing
to destroy the thick belts of barbed wire sitting
on the surface. How did the 106 change that?
Well, the number 106 was designed with a highly
sensitive contact mechanism. The absolute millisecond
it brushed against anything, even a single strand
of barbed wire, detonated laterally above the
ground. So it didn't dig in at all? No. Instead
of blowing a hole in the dirt, it acted like
a giant explosive pair of scissors. It completely
shredded the German barbed wire and cleared a
physical path for the infantry to walk through.
And the effect this artillery had on the German
defenders was completely catastrophic. The preliminary
bombardment started on March 20th, and then the
second phase, utilizing every single gun they
had, began on April 2nd. If we look at this entirely
impartially, just from the German perspective,
their own sources refer to this terrifying period
as the week of suffering. An incredibly apt name
for what they endured. The bombardment was so
intense and so unrelenting that their trenches
were basically leveled. But more importantly,
the shelling was so heavy that German ration
parties couldn't even make it up to the front
lines. The defenders were trapped underground
in those deep bunkers, exhausted, starving and
enduring the profound psychological torment.
of 11 straight days of earth -shattering noise.
Which sets the stage perfectly for the main assault,
Easter Monday, April 9th, 1917. At exactly five
through a year in the morning, the operation
commences. The coordination of this moment is
just incredible to visualize. The mines detonate
on the German lines. One thousand guns open fire
at the exact same second. And then there is this
massive, unpredictable stroke of luck. A northwest
storm blows in, sending freezing sleet and snow
directly into the faces of the defending German
troops. absolutely miserable for the Canadian
troops advancing through the mud, provided a
massive tactical advantage by blinding the defenders.
But the real key to the advance was a highly
choreographed tactic called the Creeping Barrage.
The field guns laid down a continuous curtain
of explosive fire that advanced forward roughly
100 yards every three minutes. But wait, advancing
100 yards every three minutes? That means the
soldiers are walking almost directly inside their
own artillery fire. That requires a terrifying
amount of trust. It did. It was incredibly dangerous,
but it was necessary. The infantry was trained
to walk just yards behind this moving wall of
explosions. So they're just hugging the barrage.
Yes. The logic was that the barrage forces the
Germans to stay huddled deep inside their concrete
dugouts. By hugging the barrage closely, the
Canadians would arrive at the lip of the German
trench the very second the artillery lifted,
giving the defenders absolute no time to climb
up the stairs and man their machine guns. And
to make sure the men didn't just collapse from
exhaustion while doing this, they used a leapfrogging
tactic. The planners had drawn out four colored
objective lines on those thousands of maps we
talked about earlier. The black, red, blue, and
brown lines. Instead of one group trying to run
the entire chaotic distance to the top of the
ridge, the initial wave would fight to the black
line and immediately stop to consolidate and
defend it. They'd lock that position down. Right.
Then a completely fresh unit behind them would
physically leapfrog past them to attack the red
line and so on. It kept the momentum relentlessly
fresh. Exactly. And for the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd
Canadian divisions, this plan was executed almost
flawlessly. They hit their objective lines right
on schedule. The speed of the Canadian advance
was so rapid that even though the German commanders
in the rear could communicate with their front
lines, they simply didn't have the time to react
or move their reserve troops forward before their
positions were completely overrun. But, looking
at the sources to make sure we give you a fully
balanced view of this, it wasn't the perfect
operation everywhere. The 4th Canadian Division,
which was tasked with taking the extreme northern
portion of the advance, faced an absolute nightmare.
They had the toughest assignment. They were attacking
the highest point of the ridge, a place called
Hill 145. And there's this one detail in the
sources that just stopped me in my tracks. A
commanding officer of one of the assaulting battalions
actually asked the artillery to leave a specific
portion of the German trench completely undamaged.
Why on earth would he request that? It was intended
to preserve the trench so that his own men could
use it for cover once they captured it, but tactically
it was a fatal miscalculation. A massive mistake.
When the infantry advanced, the surviving machine
gun nests in that deliberately undamaged section
of the trench immediately opened fire. They completely
devastated the advancing Canadian troops on the
right flank. That is just heartbreaking. And
to make matters worse, while they were pinned
down, their left flank was taking heavy, harassing
fire from another fortified knoll known as the
Pimple. The 4th Division's advance collapsed
almost immediately. It took persistent, desperate,
and bloody attacks by reserve units later in
the day to finally force the Germans off the
southwestern portion of Hill 145. And the fighting
didn't end on the 9th. It wasn't until days later,
on April 12th, fighting through a literal snowstorm,
that they finally managed to take that last northern
objective, the pimple. By nightfall on April
12th, the entire length of Vimy Ridge was firmly
in Canadian hands. Which brings us to the grim
reality of the aftermath. By the time the ridge
was finally secured, the Canadian Corps had suffered
10 ,602 casualties, with nearly 300 -600 of those
men killed. On the German side, later historical
sources estimate they suffered around 20 ,000
casualties, with roughly 4 ,000 men taken prisoner.
The strategic fallout for the German command
was immediate and severe. The German Supreme
Army Command was furious at the loss of such
a vital position. Field Marshal von Hindenburg
launched a formal court of inquiry and ended
up firing the Sixth Army Commander, General von
Falkenhausen. The source mentions he was fired
specifically for failing to use a new doctrine
called Defense in Depth. What actually is that?
Defense in depth or elastic defense was a new
strategy where you don't put all your men in
the very front trench to be slaughtered by artillery.
Instead, you keep your best reserve divisions
further back, out of artillery range, ready to
rush forward and counterattack the enemy exactly
when they're most exhausted and disorganized
from taking the front line. Let them tire themselves
out and then hit them. Precisely. But Volkenhausen
completely failed to do this. He kept his reserve
divisions up to 15 miles away from the battlefield,
far too distant to launch any kind of timely
counterattack against the rapid Canadian advance.
Because of this failure, the Germans had no choice
but to retreat eastward to a completely new defensive
line, employing a scorched earth policy as they
went. So they just destroyed everything as they
pulled back? Yes. If we connect this to the bigger
picture, the legacy of this battle is huge. The
sources point out that tactically, Vimy was just
one piece of the much larger Eris offensive.
But historically and culturally, its significance
took on a life of its own. It became something
much larger than just a battle. That's a crucial
distinction. In terms of the First World War,
it was a localized tactical victory. But symbolically,
it represents the very first time that all four
Canadian divisions, meaning men from every region
across the country, fought together side by side
as a single unified force. In historical narratives
that developed in the decades following the war,
Vimy Ridge is frequently cited as the exact moment
Canada came of age as a nation. It is widely
viewed as the point where Canada stepped out
from the shadow of the British Empire to forge
its own distinct, confident national identity.
So what does this all mean for you? Well, the
legacy of Vimy Ridge isn't just something trapped
in textbooks. It is physically carved in stone.
Following the war, France actually granted Canada
perpetual use of a massive section of the land
at Vimy to create a battlefield park. Today,
the Canadian National Vimy Memorial sits right
on the highest point of the ridge, Hill 145.
And the grounds of that memorial serve as a very
stark, very literal reminder of the battle. The
250 -acre park is still so incredibly honeycombed
with collapsed tunnels, massive artillery craters
and unexploded munitions that large portions
of the surrounding forest remain permanently
closed to the public for safety reasons. Even
over a century later, the earth itself hasn't
recovered. When the memorial was finally unveiled
in 1936, it was a massive event. It took 11 years
to build and cost millions. It drew a crowd of
over 50 ,000 people, including over 6 ,000 Canadian
veterans. King Edward VIII was there to unveil
it. The sources note that the Canadian prime
minister actually skipped the event due to some
bitter domestic political disputes back home
regarding veterans. But regardless, the unveiling
was a monumental moment. But as we wrap up, I
want to leave you with a final provocative thought
to mull over. The memorial's architect, a man
named Walter Seymour Alward, created this breathtaking
towering limestone structure. But he didn't actually
design it to celebrate a brilliant military victory.
No, he had a very different vision for it. He
explicitly described his masterpiece as a sermon
against the futility of war. This raises an incredibly
important question for anyone studying military
history. How do you reconcile those two deeply
conflicting ideas? On one hand, you have a young
nation's proudest military triumph, a master
class in modern tactical innovation, bravery,
and absolute resilience. And on the other hand,
the very monument built to honor that triumph
stands as a permanent sermon against the violent
nature of war itself. It forces us to ask, does
even the most brilliantly executed, technologically
advanced tactical masterpiece, ultimately just
underscore the sheer unfathomable tragedy of
the 10 ,000 casualties it cost to achieve it.
It really makes you pause and think about the
true lasting cost of these historic breakthroughs.
That is all the time we have for today. Thank
you so much for joining us on this deep dive.