Vimy Ridge Success

The battle of Vimy Ridge was one that is still remembered to this day for the quick and effective victory that Canada achieved. With several new implementations into military tactics, the battle of Vimy Ridge's success is attributed to meticulous planning, powerful artillery support, and tactical innovation. Firstly, Canada’s success at Vimy Ridge can be greatly credited to the fact that it was heavily planned for. In previous battles, troops were very unaware of what they were getting into and lacked the proper tactics for achieving victory. This all changed in the battle of Vimy where “small units and individual soldiers were given much more information about the battle”("Land Battles - Vimy Ridge"). As Arthur Currie said, “Take time to train them”(Arthur Currie). This is …show more content…
Also, there were improvement in shell quality meaning that there were less duds (Sheffield). All of this artillery support directly influenced the outcome of the battle as the Germans couldn’t handle the large increase in artillery and thus couldn't keep hold of the ridge. Intense preparation and powerful artillery were not the only causes of the victory at Vimy Ridge. Tactical innovation was as well. During the battle of Vimy Ridge, troops would calculate the positions of enemy artillery based on the artilleries sound and flash. Likewise, many tunnels were dug in order to blow up the enemy trenches form under them. The most important tactic however was the Creeping Barrage. William Francis, a Marine said, “we had a wonderful barrage from our artillery, which was falling only a few yards in front of us, all the time we were advancing - this is called a creeping barrage” (Evans, 83). This Creeping Barrage was a very effective strategy that made a large amount of progress in terms of territory and eventually lead to success. Overall, it was these three main attributes of the Battle of Vimy Ridge, meticulous planning, powerful artillery support, and tactical innovation, that led it to