the battle of vimy ridge ended on 12 april 1917.
the battle of vimy ridge ended on 12 april 1917.
when did the battle of vimy ridge end?
12 april 1917
172nd tunnelling company stayed near vimy and remained active in the area in preparation for the battle of vimy ridge (9–12 april 1917), together with 175th and 182nd tunnelling companies. 184th tunnelling company and 255th tunnelling company also served a tenure at vimy. the canadian corps was posted to the northern part of vimy ridge in october 1916 and preparations for an attack were revived in february 1917. prior to the battle of vimy ridge, the british tunnelling companies secretly laid a series of explosive charges under german positions in an effort to destroy surface fortifications before the assault. the original plan had called for 17 mines and 9 "wombat" charges to support the infantry attack, of which 13 (possibly 14) mines and 8 "wombat" charges were eventually laid. at the same time, 19 crater groups existed along this section of the western front, each with several large craters. in order to assess the consequences of infantry having to advance across cratered ground after a mining attack, officers from the canadian corps visited la boisselle and fricourt where the mines on the first day of the somme had been blown. their reports and the experience of the canadians at st eloi in april 1916 – where mines had so altered and damaged the landscape as to render occupation of the mine craters by the infantry all but impossible –, led to the decision to remove offensive mining from the central sector allocated to the canadian corps at vimy ridge. further british mines in the area were vetoed following the blowing by the germans on 23 march 1917 of nine craters along no man's land as it was probable that the germans were aiming to restrict an allied attack to predictable points. the three mines already laid by 172nd tunnelling company were also dropped from the british plans. they were left in place after the assault and were only removed in the 1990s. another mine, prepared by 176th tunnelling company against the german strongpoint known as the pimple, was not completed in time for the attack. the gallery had been pushed silently through the clay, avoiding the sandy and chalky layers of the vimy ridge, but by 9 april 1917 was still short of its target. in the end, two mines were blown before the attack, while three mines and two "wombat" charges were fired to support the attack, including those forming a northern flank.
172nd tunnelling company
at the outset, members of the commission debated where to build allward's winning design. the jury's assessment was that allward's submission was best suited to a "low hill rather than to a continuous and lofty bluff or cliff like vimy ridge". the commission committee initially recommended placing the monument in belgium on hill 62, near the location of the battle of mont sorrel, as the site provided an imposing view. this ran counter to the desires of prime minister william lyon mackenzie king who, while speaking in the house of commons of canada in may 1922, argued in favour of placing the memorial at vimy ridge. king's position received the unanimous support of the house and, in the end, the commission selected vimy ridge as the preferred site. the government announced its desire to acquire a more considerable tract of land along the ridge after the commission selected vimy ridge as the preferred location for allward's design. in the interval between the 1st and 2nd session of the 14th canadian parliament, speaker of the house of commons of canada rodolphe lemieux went to france to negotiate the acquisition of more land. on 5 december 1922, lemieux concluded an agreement with france in which france granted canada "freely and for all time" the use of of land on vimy ridge, inclusive of hill 145, in recognition of canada's war effort. the only condition placed on the donation was that canada use the land to erect a monument commemorating canadian soldiers killed during the first world war and assume the responsibility for the maintenance of the memorial and the surrounding battlefield park.
canadian national vimy memorial