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Vimy Ridge: Recollections from the Famous Battle
To the French, The Battle of Vimy Ridge was bloody slaughter. To the British, it was stalemate. But to the Canadians, it was their finest hour.
On Easter Monday 1917, in the midst of the First World War, the Battle of Vimy Ridge began at 5.30 AM with the roar of a thousand heavy guns, howitzers and mortars. Six days later, the Canadian Corps seized Vimy Ridge from Germany. One of Canada’s most spectacular military triumphs – gaining more ground and capturing more prisoners than any British offensive on the Western Front – the victory was nonetheless bittersweet, coming at a cost of over 10,000 casualties.
Based on eyewitness accounts, Vimy Ridge is a chilling and highly personal recollection of the famous battle. Drawing on experiences in the trenches, ill-advised leadership and the true cost of First World War losses, McKee’s study is an invaluable reconstruction of both sides of the war.
‘A vivid, sometimes harrowing, always intensely exciting picture of the capture of Vimy Ridge on April 9, 1917 — the day on which Canada’s regiments became an army’ - Manchester Evening News
‘An exceptionally vivid and valuable picture of the obscenity of trench warfare. Alexander McKee avoids sensationalism and heroics and lets the facts speak for themselves. His own remarks are shrewd and the veterans’ stories are often very moving and revealing’ - Tribune
‘An excellent study written with powerful moral conviction’ - Kirkus Reviews
On Easter Monday 1917, in the midst of the First World War, the Battle of Vimy Ridge began at 5.30 AM with the roar of a thousand heavy guns, howitzers and mortars. Six days later, the Canadian Corps seized Vimy Ridge from Germany. One of Canada’s most spectacular military triumphs – gaining more ground and capturing more prisoners than any British offensive on the Western Front – the victory was nonetheless bittersweet, coming at a cost of over 10,000 casualties.
Based on eyewitness accounts, Vimy Ridge is a chilling and highly personal recollection of the famous battle. Drawing on experiences in the trenches, ill-advised leadership and the true cost of First World War losses, McKee’s study is an invaluable reconstruction of both sides of the war.
‘A vivid, sometimes harrowing, always intensely exciting picture of the capture of Vimy Ridge on April 9, 1917 — the day on which Canada’s regiments became an army’ - Manchester Evening News
‘An exceptionally vivid and valuable picture of the obscenity of trench warfare. Alexander McKee avoids sensationalism and heroics and lets the facts speak for themselves. His own remarks are shrewd and the veterans’ stories are often very moving and revealing’ - Tribune
‘An excellent study written with powerful moral conviction’ - Kirkus Reviews
- GenresWorld War IHistory
264 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 1967
37 people are currently reading
43 people want to read
About the author
Alexander McKee
55 books13 followersAlexander McKee was no "yes-man", he dared to criticise many military, political, economic, media and academic icons and he always kept an open mind. He was fanatical about making his works as accurate as he possibly could. He was ever alert to plain-wrong, biased, distorted or sloppy reports and hidden agendas; wickedly delighting (the more so as a self-educated man) in criticising and exposing assertions that did not fit the evidence. Among his targets were those who tended to emphasise media-image-managment, the accumulation of personal wealth and career progression over both personal integrity and respect for other people's contributions. He gleefully highlighted all the many lapses of integrity that he found. Equally, many established experts, often highly educated people and indeed experts regarding the theoretical aspects of their disciplines, but whom he considered scandalously remiss when they complacently failed to complement such theoretical understanding with practical knowledge as a way to test their theories empirically. Consequently, some of them came in for some harsh criticism on occasion. One gets the impression from his work that some of them appeared reluctant to venture outside the academy at all; out into the "real world": let alone to mix with ordinary people. Implicitly, he urged them to converse with the fishermen, the builders, the soldiers, the doctors, the nurses, the shipwrights and the firemen to glean practical understanding from these practical people, who had to be willing and able to carry out the ultimate tests on their theories to provide demonstably working solutions in order to fulfill their typical working roles. Then he urges such experts in the theory to re-test their theories against the empirically derived knowledge gleaned from their excursions among the working classes, and to do so conjunction with their own senses, out in the "real world": rather than limiting themselves and risking their reputations on the results of thought experiments alone. He dug deep into eye-witness testimonies and spent countless hours searching libraries and museums for the documentary evidence surrounding each his-story. One may find this slightly comical that viewed against the background of established caricaturisations, when the elevated "pillars of wisdom", went "building castles in the air" around about the "ivory towers" and he found strong contradictory "real world" evidence he often lambasted them mercilessly, although it does sometimes seem to be overdone. In contrast, he made the point that some of the sloppy documentary historical works such as that of Sir Robert Davis, that temporarily led his own research astray (and much to his annoyance caused him to repeat untruths in public lectures) while causing the propagation of serious errors until he uncovered them, were nevertheless probably a consequence of the pressures of work, owing to the high quality of the rest of the publication.
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
October 30, 2015
The Battle of Vimy Ridge is a worthy addition to any WWI library, particularly to anyone especially interested in the Canadian Army. McKee, a CA Army WWII veteran who fought over the ground after D-Day, gathers first-hand accounts from both sides. He begins with a 1965 reunion at Hill 145 of the veterans of the WWI Vimy Ridge warriors. He then takes you into the trenches for a unvarnished look at how they fought. It is pretty graphic and gory. McKee’s theme is that the CA Corp of 4 Divisions, commanded by a Brit for this battle, becomes a real army on the anvil of Vimy Ridge and will be commanded by Canadians from then on.
Before the Canadians take Vimy Ridge, the French had tried earlier:
They (the French) gained Lorette and a part of the Vimy slope; but they did not get the crest two hundred feet above. And they paid for their gains with 150,000 men dead, wounded, or missing, proof enough that bravery was not enough.
But, in the French Army, as in the British, the staff were out of touch both with their men and with reality, and still fiercely believed—it was easy to be ferocious some miles behind the lines—in bayonets, bravado, and what they assumed to be the lessons learned by the Japanese Army in Manchuria ten years before. These appeared to prove that infantry, if sufficiently suicidally inclined, could prevail over rifle and machine-gun fire, even if almost wiped out in the process. Therefore, any failure must be a failing in determination on the part of the infantry, and certainly not a flaw in the appreciations of the staff. But, if more Resolution (on the part of the infantry) equalled Victory, then, equally, a failure of Resolution equaled Defeat. And this must not be. In the winter of 1915, the French High Command took drastic measures against the growing reluctance of their soldiers to commit hara-kiri in vain.
In November, the Fifth Battalion of the 63rd Infantry Regiment refused to follow their officers over the top in an attack, and General Deletoile had the entire Battalion court-martialled.
The theme of incompetent and arrogant HHQ staffs continues throughout. Ypres I is excusable as the generals have to learn how to fight, Ypres II, III, etc are inexcusable and only due to stupid leadership. Vimy Ridge was a rare success but was not remarkable enough to have the lessons passed on to other battles. There are some famous and remarkable characters as a part of the story. Richtofen and his flying circus are overhead. One of the most unusual participants shows up on the Vimy Ridge battlefield. An admiral commanding an artillery battery. Can't find much on Admiral Eyres but here is a link to his medals. The footnote below the auction description covers his WWI actions quite well:
http://www.dnw.co.uk/auction-archive/...
Too bad he does not have a biography of his own.
I’m going with 4 Stars on this one. The Vimy Ridge battle does not lend itself to an easy choreography, especially on the left side of the battle. However, I thought the author could have done a little better job organizing the information. But a pretty minor complaint. Read this one for a heroic battle in a terrible war. Here is the final comment on the 4 Canadian divisions that attacked on Easter Monday, 1917:
And yet, with the Canadians, the most marked characteristic seemed to be that they did not really care if they had an officer along or not; they did not have to be told. If there was an opportunity, they would take it; with no shadow of a trace of feeling that they were either acting ‘above their station’ or ‘trying to keep in with the bosses’. If it needed doing, they did it, whether the officer was dead or not, and without bothering to find out if perchance the General approved. The affair of Kelly’s Blocks is a nagging case in point. Because they did not like the trench that had been given to them, Kelly and his three companions went and took the German strong-point, which offered better housing, and without so much as asking ‘by your leave’ either of the Germans or their own superiors. Kelly was a rum-lover and a thief of other people’s rum, before he died on the Douai Plain before the Vimy height. Which makes more than appropriate the marble plaque in the Memorial Chamber of the Peace Tower in Ottawa, on which the inscription reads:
They are too near
To be great
But our children
Shall understand
Where and how our
Fate was changed
And by whose hand
Before the Canadians take Vimy Ridge, the French had tried earlier:
They (the French) gained Lorette and a part of the Vimy slope; but they did not get the crest two hundred feet above. And they paid for their gains with 150,000 men dead, wounded, or missing, proof enough that bravery was not enough.
But, in the French Army, as in the British, the staff were out of touch both with their men and with reality, and still fiercely believed—it was easy to be ferocious some miles behind the lines—in bayonets, bravado, and what they assumed to be the lessons learned by the Japanese Army in Manchuria ten years before. These appeared to prove that infantry, if sufficiently suicidally inclined, could prevail over rifle and machine-gun fire, even if almost wiped out in the process. Therefore, any failure must be a failing in determination on the part of the infantry, and certainly not a flaw in the appreciations of the staff. But, if more Resolution (on the part of the infantry) equalled Victory, then, equally, a failure of Resolution equaled Defeat. And this must not be. In the winter of 1915, the French High Command took drastic measures against the growing reluctance of their soldiers to commit hara-kiri in vain.
In November, the Fifth Battalion of the 63rd Infantry Regiment refused to follow their officers over the top in an attack, and General Deletoile had the entire Battalion court-martialled.
The theme of incompetent and arrogant HHQ staffs continues throughout. Ypres I is excusable as the generals have to learn how to fight, Ypres II, III, etc are inexcusable and only due to stupid leadership. Vimy Ridge was a rare success but was not remarkable enough to have the lessons passed on to other battles. There are some famous and remarkable characters as a part of the story. Richtofen and his flying circus are overhead. One of the most unusual participants shows up on the Vimy Ridge battlefield. An admiral commanding an artillery battery. Can't find much on Admiral Eyres but here is a link to his medals. The footnote below the auction description covers his WWI actions quite well:
http://www.dnw.co.uk/auction-archive/...
Too bad he does not have a biography of his own.
I’m going with 4 Stars on this one. The Vimy Ridge battle does not lend itself to an easy choreography, especially on the left side of the battle. However, I thought the author could have done a little better job organizing the information. But a pretty minor complaint. Read this one for a heroic battle in a terrible war. Here is the final comment on the 4 Canadian divisions that attacked on Easter Monday, 1917:
And yet, with the Canadians, the most marked characteristic seemed to be that they did not really care if they had an officer along or not; they did not have to be told. If there was an opportunity, they would take it; with no shadow of a trace of feeling that they were either acting ‘above their station’ or ‘trying to keep in with the bosses’. If it needed doing, they did it, whether the officer was dead or not, and without bothering to find out if perchance the General approved. The affair of Kelly’s Blocks is a nagging case in point. Because they did not like the trench that had been given to them, Kelly and his three companions went and took the German strong-point, which offered better housing, and without so much as asking ‘by your leave’ either of the Germans or their own superiors. Kelly was a rum-lover and a thief of other people’s rum, before he died on the Douai Plain before the Vimy height. Which makes more than appropriate the marble plaque in the Memorial Chamber of the Peace Tower in Ottawa, on which the inscription reads:
They are too near
To be great
But our children
Shall understand
Where and how our
Fate was changed
And by whose hand
March 12, 2017
The leaders in WWI thought they were still fighting a war of the last century. They assumed the tactics were good and if they failed to achieve their objectives, they needed to throw more men at it, doing the same things, the same way, and expecting different results. It was Einstein's definition of insanity.
The men in the trenches could have told them they were wrong. The understood only too well that the technology has advanced well beyond the strategic thinking. Of course the decision makers never saw the carnage. They were too comfortable behind the lines patting each other on the back. In spite of grievous losses, they never did figure it out. Battle after battle, back and forth, the ground was littered with the dead and wounded. One particularly nasty piece of ground was Vimy Ridge.
Every time it had been attempted, the slaughter was horrible and the ridge stayed firmly in German hands. Then the Canadian boys were asked to give it a try. They did something unusual. They coordinated their attacks and used intelligence. Even they were shocked with how quickly they were able to succeed where no one else could. Canada was a young country then, barely 50 years old. Until that day, it still stood in the shadow of it British parent. Many say this was the day the country came of age.
Of course, none of the leaders learned lessons from the.Canadian victory and the bloodbaths continued for more than two years but there is a sense of pride and accomplishment in the memories of the soldiers who were quoted in this book. They are all long gone now but when the books was published first, some were still alive and they remembered only too well.
This book should be the template for histories for the masses: enough military detail to satisfy those who like to know where every piece of the puzzle was but not so much to turn off those who want the story not the minutiae. It was a fascinating read.
I give it five purrs and two paws up.
The men in the trenches could have told them they were wrong. The understood only too well that the technology has advanced well beyond the strategic thinking. Of course the decision makers never saw the carnage. They were too comfortable behind the lines patting each other on the back. In spite of grievous losses, they never did figure it out. Battle after battle, back and forth, the ground was littered with the dead and wounded. One particularly nasty piece of ground was Vimy Ridge.
Every time it had been attempted, the slaughter was horrible and the ridge stayed firmly in German hands. Then the Canadian boys were asked to give it a try. They did something unusual. They coordinated their attacks and used intelligence. Even they were shocked with how quickly they were able to succeed where no one else could. Canada was a young country then, barely 50 years old. Until that day, it still stood in the shadow of it British parent. Many say this was the day the country came of age.
Of course, none of the leaders learned lessons from the.Canadian victory and the bloodbaths continued for more than two years but there is a sense of pride and accomplishment in the memories of the soldiers who were quoted in this book. They are all long gone now but when the books was published first, some were still alive and they remembered only too well.
This book should be the template for histories for the masses: enough military detail to satisfy those who like to know where every piece of the puzzle was but not so much to turn off those who want the story not the minutiae. It was a fascinating read.
I give it five purrs and two paws up.
October 8, 2020
Vimy Ridge by Alexander McKee is the history of the Canadian Corps in a decisive WWI battle. McKee OBE was a British journalist, military historian, and diver who published nearly thirty books. He was a WWII veteran and veteran of the British Army on the Rhine.
Most nation's militaries have a defining moment in WWI. For the US Marines, it was Belleau Woods. For the Canadian Army, it was Vimy Ridge. The Canadian Corps' four divisions battled three divisions of the German Sixth Army. The battle was fought from April 9-12 of 1917 which was Easter week that year. The Canadian forces would incur almost 11,000 casualties. German casualties are not known, but 4,000 Germans were taken prisoner by the Canadian forces.
McKee does an outstanding job of combining first-hand accounts and primary source material to create and a captivating story. Much of the book reads like well-written fiction instead of a historical account. First-hand accounts of the conditions inside the trenches are vivid in detail. From the muck that could swallow a man to the rats, that shared in trenches in seemingly equal numbers as the troops the conditions were deplorable. Death surrounded trenches. Not only the threat of death from going over the top, enemy aircraft, and artillery but literal death. Bodies littered no man's land and even became parts of the parapets... not always complete buried. One soldier reported that crawling back from a raid he found himself stopped by enemy fire. Next to him was a corpse that had been rotting. Inside the corpse were two rats eating their way into their new home.
The conditions were bad and the leadership on both sides, but especially the French were not afraid to force large numbers of troops to charge into machine gun fire. The Allies believed that they could win the war by attrition. The Canadian forces fought as a unit for the first time. They like the US Marines fought as their own and were not filler troops for the European lines. It was the first time Canadian forces fought as independent Canada and not British forces. Actions in WWI like Vimy Ridge moved Canada from a Commonwealth to a nation on the world stage. Well written and important part of history for Canada as well as the nations involved in WWI.
Most nation's militaries have a defining moment in WWI. For the US Marines, it was Belleau Woods. For the Canadian Army, it was Vimy Ridge. The Canadian Corps' four divisions battled three divisions of the German Sixth Army. The battle was fought from April 9-12 of 1917 which was Easter week that year. The Canadian forces would incur almost 11,000 casualties. German casualties are not known, but 4,000 Germans were taken prisoner by the Canadian forces.
McKee does an outstanding job of combining first-hand accounts and primary source material to create and a captivating story. Much of the book reads like well-written fiction instead of a historical account. First-hand accounts of the conditions inside the trenches are vivid in detail. From the muck that could swallow a man to the rats, that shared in trenches in seemingly equal numbers as the troops the conditions were deplorable. Death surrounded trenches. Not only the threat of death from going over the top, enemy aircraft, and artillery but literal death. Bodies littered no man's land and even became parts of the parapets... not always complete buried. One soldier reported that crawling back from a raid he found himself stopped by enemy fire. Next to him was a corpse that had been rotting. Inside the corpse were two rats eating their way into their new home.
The conditions were bad and the leadership on both sides, but especially the French were not afraid to force large numbers of troops to charge into machine gun fire. The Allies believed that they could win the war by attrition. The Canadian forces fought as a unit for the first time. They like the US Marines fought as their own and were not filler troops for the European lines. It was the first time Canadian forces fought as independent Canada and not British forces. Actions in WWI like Vimy Ridge moved Canada from a Commonwealth to a nation on the world stage. Well written and important part of history for Canada as well as the nations involved in WWI.
January 11, 2020
This one is unusual in that it is a paperback I own and a Kindle purchase, nice to have an ebook version and track progress in actual pages. Not the longest of GW books it is one of the best.
It was one of the first WW1 book I ever read as a teenager I think then I mislaid the pbk, got it again off ebay then for Kindle. It lacks the usual slew of maps and pix so I found no problem following what went on. But there are quite a few typos in the ebook.
The author is in the anti-Haig camp by the way (his arguments based on VR are convincing). Good points about the obsolescence of cavalry forces for example. Especially after the artillery had churned up the terrain not to mention MGs etc. And to not settle for claiming the ridge as winter quarters... too many brave men lost in pursuit of the impossible by those who never went to have a look for themselves it would seem.
Also liked the coverage of the aerial side of the battle tho it did tend to ramble on a bit about the Red Baron etc interesting tho it was. Other bits were excellent especially the personal accounts such as the crazy artillery "Admiral" and the German side so it is a more balanced account than most.
Quite why it took until 1936 to erect memorials is a shame, just 3 years before it started all over again of course. I liked his wrap up re WW2 too few authors include this, how the Hun came through twice... second time chased by the Canadians again! But I would have liked to know about clearing the battlefield in 1919 and tourism etc.
It was one of the first WW1 book I ever read as a teenager I think then I mislaid the pbk, got it again off ebay then for Kindle. It lacks the usual slew of maps and pix so I found no problem following what went on. But there are quite a few typos in the ebook.
The author is in the anti-Haig camp by the way (his arguments based on VR are convincing). Good points about the obsolescence of cavalry forces for example. Especially after the artillery had churned up the terrain not to mention MGs etc. And to not settle for claiming the ridge as winter quarters... too many brave men lost in pursuit of the impossible by those who never went to have a look for themselves it would seem.
Also liked the coverage of the aerial side of the battle tho it did tend to ramble on a bit about the Red Baron etc interesting tho it was. Other bits were excellent especially the personal accounts such as the crazy artillery "Admiral" and the German side so it is a more balanced account than most.
Quite why it took until 1936 to erect memorials is a shame, just 3 years before it started all over again of course. I liked his wrap up re WW2 too few authors include this, how the Hun came through twice... second time chased by the Canadians again! But I would have liked to know about clearing the battlefield in 1919 and tourism etc.
February 14, 2018
I read this book when it came out as as a 10 year old and this was my first hearing of Vimy Ridge and the significance of the Canadian army. As a Canadian having been bombarded by American & British media I was confused why this story was ignored. It took a while, but the story of Vimy Ridge started to finally come back into the Canadian lexicon & to see the 100th anniversary celebrations was wonderful. This book left a lasting impression on me.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews