Vimy Ridge Canada’s Impossible Mission

1. Vimy RidgeCanada’s Impossible Mission

2. New Weapons of World War 1 Machine Gun • Accounted for most casualties in WW1 • Steadily refined and improved • Hundreds of rounds per minute

3. New Weapons of World War 1 Tanks • Developed by Britain • Used to crush barbed wire and cross No-Man’s-Land • Protect troops • Underpowered and hard to turn • Often stuck in the mud

4. New Weapons of World War 1 Artillery and Field Guns • Fired shells filled with explosives and shrapnel (metal balls or fragments) • “Big Bertha” • Could fire at targets 120km away • Mounted on railcars

5. New Weapons of World War 1 Aircraft • Used for reconnaissance (information gathering) • Later armed with machine guns for attack

6. New Weapons of World War 1 Poison Gas • Used by both sides by 1917 • Chlorine Gas • Burns lungs and eyes • Mustard Gas • Creates huge skin blisters • Phosgene Gas • Invisible – causes suffocation

7. Vimy Ridge • What we know so far … • The ridge was a strong point of German defenses in Northern Europe • Provided an unrestricted view of Allied positions • Considered impregnable • Strong fortifications along the ridge • Underground chambers inside the ridge • 212 artillery positions behind the ridge

8. Vimy Ridge • What we know so far … • Between 1914 – 1916, the French and English launched three unsuccessful attacks • Cost 150,000 Allied troops • Artillery failure • Troops in underground shelters • No Man’s Land was more treacherous • Poison gas failure • Tank failure • Mechanical problems, lots of mud in No Man’s Land

9. Vimy Ridge – Reconnaissance Photos Canadian Front Lines

10. Vimy Ridge – Reconnaissance Photos Allied Trench fortifications facing Vimy Ridge

11. Vimy Ridge – Reconnaissance Photos Protection for our snipers …

12. Vimy Ridge – Reconnaissance Photos A view of the terrain at Vimy (but, in 1917, this was muddy and filled with hazardous materials)

13. Vimy Ridge – Reconnaissance Photos

14. Vimy Ridge – Reconnaissance Photos German trenches at the top of the ridge … with a view DOWN onto the battlefield

15. Vimy Ridge – Reconnaissance Photos A German machinegun pillbox (the Ridge is littered with these)

16. Vimy Ridge – Reconnaissance Photos

17. Operation: Take that Ridge • Working alongside Canadian General Arthur Currie, you and your squad are to plan for the successful destruction or the German fortifications of Vimy Ridge … • You are to plan your attack based on our reconnaissance of the German defenses and the terrain. • Remember, the British and French failed on three different occasions. Let’s show the world what Canadians can do!