From Vimy Ridge to the Hundred Days: Canada's Soldiers and Their Sacrifice

Learning to win

After the Somme, the Canadian Corps studied what had gone wrong and changed how it fought. Its next big test came in April 1917 at Vimy Ridge in northern France: a high ridge the German army had held since 1914, which earlier French and British attacks had failed to take.

Vimy Ridge, 9–12 April 1917

For the first time, all four Canadian divisions attacked together, under British General Julian Byng, with Canadian Arthur Currie leading the 1st Division. Careful preparation made the difference:

• Rehearsals on full-scale practice grounds marked out behind the lines.
• Maps given to ordinary soldiers, so that if officers fell, others knew the objectives.
• Tunnels dug to bring troops close to the front safely.
• Counter-battery fire: finding and destroying German guns before the attack.
• A creeping barrage that moved forward ahead of the infantry at a set pace.

The Canadians captured the ridge, a major success for the Allies in a hard year. The cost: 10 602 casualties, including 3 598 killed.

Hill 70, Passchendaele and the Hundred Days

In June 1917 Arthur Currie became the first Canadian to command the Canadian Corps. At Hill 70 near Lens in August 1917, his troops took the hill and held it against many German counter-attacks. Japanese Canadian soldier Masumi Mitsui was awarded the Military Medal for bravery there.

At Passchendaele in Belgium (October–November 1917), the battlefield was a swamp of mud and shell holes. Currie predicted heavy losses and objected, but was ordered to attack. The Canadians took the ruined village of Passchendaele, with nearly 16 000 casualties.

In Canada's Hundred Days (8 August to 11 November 1918), the Canadian Corps led a series of attacks, starting at Amiens, then breaking through strong German defences near Arras, crossing the Canal du Nord, and taking Cambrai and Valenciennes. On the morning of 11 November 1918, Canadians entered Mons, Belgium, as the armistice took effect at 11 a.m. The Hundred Days were among Canada's greatest military successes, and among the costliest: more than 45 000 casualties.

Who served?

The Canadian forces were mostly white and English-speaking, but soldiers and nurses came from many communities:

• First Nations: Indian Affairs recorded more than 4 000 First Nations soldiers, and the true number of Indigenous soldiers, including Métis, was higher. Francis Pegahmagabow, Anishinaabe from the Parry Island (Wasauksing) First Nation in Ontario, was a scout and sniper awarded the Military Medal three times, one of the most decorated Indigenous soldiers in Canadian history. Onondaga runner Tom Longboat of Six Nations of the Grand River served as a dispatch runner in France. A few Inuit served, mostly with the Newfoundland Regiment.
• Black Canadians: many were turned away at first. In July 1916 the army created the No. 2 Construction Battalion, a segregated unit of more than 600 Black men, mostly from Nova Scotia; it did vital forestry and construction work in France. Other Black soldiers served in regular battalions, such as Jeremiah Jones of Nova Scotia, who fought at Vimy. In 2022 the Government of Canada formally apologized for the racism the battalion's members faced.
• Japanese Canadians: turned away in British Columbia, more than 200 enlisted in Alberta and fought in Canadian battalions, including Masumi Mitsui.
• French Canadians: the 22nd Battalion (later nicknamed the "Van Doos", from vingt-deux) was the French-speaking battalion at the front. It fought at Courcelette, Vimy and in the Hundred Days. Georges Vanier, later Governor General, lost a leg while serving with it.
• Women: more than 2 800 Canadian nursing sisters served with the Canadian Army Medical Corps, often close to the front; at least 58 died.

Was Vimy the "birth of a nation"?

Many Canadians see Vimy as the moment Canada came of age: Canadians from every region fought together and won where others had failed. A huge memorial was later built on the ridge, on land France granted to Canada. But historians also point out:

• The battle was planned within a British command, and British artillery and units took part.
• Many French Canadians did not see Vimy as a founding moment, and the war deeply divided French and English Canada (next lessons).
• The "united nation" story can leave out the racism faced by Black, Indigenous and Asian Canadian soldiers.
• Vimy was not the costliest or the most decisive Canadian battle: the Hundred Days did more to end the war.

So Vimy is historically significant, both for what happened and for what it later came to symbolize.