The Mourning Father on the back steps of the Canadian Memorial at Vimy Ridge, detail. © 2013, John Shea
Vimy
"To-day, at dawn, our armies began a great battle, which, if Fate has any kindness for the world, may be the beginning of the last great battles of the war. Our troops attacked on a wide front between Lens and St. Quentin, including the Vimy Ridge, that great, grim hill which dominates the plain of Douai and the coalfields of Lens and the German positions around Arras. In spite of bad fortune in weather at the beginning of the day, so bad that there was no visibility for our airmen, and our men had to struggle forward in a heavy rainstorm, the first attacks have been successful, and the enemy has lost much ground, falling back in retreat to strong rearguard lines, where he is now fighting desperately."
Beginning of report by Philip Gibbs on the first day of the Battle of Arras. The British were successful that first day, after a preliminary bombardment that killed many defenders and destroyed many of their trenches and dugouts. They advanced as much as three and a half miles. In their greatest single triumph of the war, the Canadians took most of Vimy Ridge, high ground seized by German troops in 1914 that had cost many French lives since. A journalist, Gibbs was one of the five official British reporters who covered the war.
The Great Events of the Great War in Seven Volumes by Charles F. Horne, Vol. V, 1917, p. 153, copyright © 1920 by The National Alumnia, publisher: The National Alumni, publication date: 1920
1917-04-09, 1917, April, Battle of Arras, Arras, Battle of Vimy Ridge, Vimy Ridge, Vimy, Mourning Canadian Father
