From Vimy to Victory
From Vimy to Victory

Author: Hugh Brewster

Publisher: Scholastic Canada

Published: 2014

Total Pages: 50

ISBN-13: 1443124613

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Hugh Brewster captures the remarkable heroism, sacrifice, and victories of Canadian soldiers during the Great War. All was not quiet on the Western Front during the last years of WWI. Soldiers faced mud, trench foot, bombardments, barbed wire, snipers, and poison gas. Despite dreadful odds, the Canadian Corps moved forward, reaching deep inside enemy-occupied Belgium. The war cost Canada 60,661 of its finest citizens and thousands more who were wounded in body and mind. After their hard-won victory at Vimy Ridge, Canadians earned the admiration of the world -- and a reputation as soldiers who could get the job done. From that moment in 1917, Canadian soldiers proved themselves again and again on the bloody battlefields of Passchendaele, Lens, Hill 70, and Amiens, during the Hundred Day's offensive. From Vimy to Victory is presented in an engaging and accessible scrapbook style, with facts and details accompanied by first-person accounts, letters describing life at the Front, wartime diaries, and numerous images, maps, and diagrams that bring World War I to vivid life.

At Vimy Ridge
At Vimy Ridge

Author: Hugh Brewster

Publisher:

Published: 2006

Total Pages: 48

ISBN-13: 9780439949828

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April 9, 2007 marks the 90th anniversary of the pivotal World War I battle - one that many historians view as the battle that defined Canada as a nation. At Vimy Ridge, Canadian soldiers achieved what more experienced soldiers from Britain and France could not - taking the strategic position of Vimy Ridge from the Germans. It was the battle that helped a young country discover its national pride, as for the first time, Canadians fought as Canadians, and achieved a significant victory.

Vimy
Vimy

Author: Tim Cook

Publisher: Penguin

Published: 2017-03-07

Total Pages: 472

ISBN-13: 0735233179

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#1 NATIONAL BESTSELLER Winner of the 2018 JW Dafoe Book Prize Longlisted for British Columbia's National Award for Canadian Non-Fiction 2018 Runner-up for the 2018 Templer Medal Book Prize Finalist for the 2018 Ottawa Book Awards A bold new telling of the defining battle of the Great War, and how it came to signify and solidify Canada’s national identity Why does Vimy matter? How did a four-day battle at the midpoint of the Great War, a clash that had little strategic impact on the larger Allied war effort, become elevated to a national symbol of Canadian identity? Tim Cook, Canada’s foremost military historian and a Charles Taylor Prize winner, examines the Battle of Vimy Ridge and the way the memory of it has evolved over 100 years. The operation that began April 9, 1917, was the first time the four divisions of the Canadian Corps fought together. More than 10,000 Canadian soldiers were killed or injured over four days—twice the casualty rate of the Dieppe Raid in August 1942. The Corps’ victory solidified its reputation among allies and opponents as an elite fighting force. In the wars’ aftermath, Vimy was chosen as the site for the country’s strikingly beautiful monument to mark Canadian sacrifice and service. Over time, the legend of Vimy took on new meaning, with some calling it the “birth of the nation.” The remarkable story of Vimy is a layered skein of facts, myths, wishful thinking, and conflicting narratives. Award-winning writer Tim Cook explores why the battle continues to resonate with Canadians a century later. He has uncovered fresh material and photographs from official archives and private collections across Canada and from around the world. On the 100th anniversary of the event, and as Canada celebrates 150 years as a country, Vimy is a fitting tribute to those who fought the country’s defining battle. It is also a stirring account of Canadian identity and memory, told by a masterful storyteller.

Vimy
Vimy

Author: Pierre Berton

Publisher: Pen and Sword

Published: 2012-11-19

Total Pages: 388

ISBN-13: 1783037237

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The bestselling, award-winning author of The American Invasion of Canada “has given great drama and immediacy to that turning point in Canadian history” (Maclean’s). On Easter Monday 1917 with a blizzard blowing in their faces, the four divisions of the Canadian Corps in France seized and held the best-defended German bastion on the Western Front—the muddy scarp of Vimy Ridge. The British had failed to take the Ridge, and so had the French who had lost 150,000 men in the attempt. Yet these magnificent colonial troops did so in a morning at the cost of only 10,000 casualties. The author recounts this remarkable feat of arms with both pace and style. He has gathered many personal accounts from soldiers who fought at Vimy. He describes the commanders and the men, the organization and the training, and above all notes the thorough preparation for the attack from which the British General Staff could have learned much. The action is placed within the context both of the Battle of Arras, of which this attack was part, and as a milestone in the development of Canada as a nation. “This wonderful book brings to life the amazing men who came across the Atlantic nearly a century ago and won a famous victory which helped change a nation forever . . . the wonderful prose of Pierre Berton is all from the heart and you should share in it.” —War History Online “The cinematic writing plunks the reader in the midst of the actual battle, and a judicious use of quotes from soldiers’ diaries and letters helps provide a ground-level perspective.” —Quill & Quire

Valour at Vimy Ridge
Valour at Vimy Ridge

Author: Tom Douglas

Publisher:

Published: 2017

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13:

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"The battle of Vimy Ridge in April 1917 saw Canadian troops storm a 14-kilometre long escarpment that was believed to be impregnable. This was the first time in Canadas history that a corps-sized formation fought together as a unit under its own leadership. Canadian troops persevered under heavy fire to take the ridge. The battle has since been much celebrated in Canada, as historians and descendants seek to explain the huge losses that military and political leaders accepted in a war that produced few gains for any nation. Tom Douglas recounts the events of this battle, and his narrative is accompanied by photos, drawings, and paintings by Canadian war artists."--

The Greatest Victory
The Greatest Victory

Author: J. L. Granatstein

Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA

Published: 2014

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9780199009312

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How did Canadians come to lead these mobile, well-coordinated, and hard-hitting attacks? The preparations were intense, according to Granatstein, ranging from individual training to massive corps-wide exercises; careful analysis of "lessons learned" studies; expansion of the role of signallers, gunners and engineers; and perfection of techniques like the "creeping barrage." The "fire and movement" philosophy emphasized by Sir Arthur Currie, Commander of the Canadian Corps, increased the use of tanks, machine guns, Stokes mortars, and phosphorus bombs, among other military hardware. Mobility was the key; Canadians used their two Motor Machine Brigades - with guns and mortars mounted on armoured cars and trucks - with great effect. Granatstein is an award-winning historian who has received six honorary degrees for his work on conflict and Canadian history.

Portraits of Battle
Portraits of Battle

Author: Peter Farrugia

Publisher: UBC Press

Published: 2021-04-01

Total Pages: 330

ISBN-13: 077486494X

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All Canadians are taught about Vimy Ridge. But that celebrated victory was just one battle among many to shape the country’s experience of the First World War. Portraits of Battle brings together biography, battle accounts, and historiographical analysis to examine the lives of a cross-section of Canadians who served in the war. Contributors to this thoughtful collection consider the range of Canadians touched by war – soldiers and their loved ones, deserters, nurses, Indigenous people, those injured in body or mind – raising fundamental questions about the nature of conflict and memory. These portraits of the formerly faceless men and women honoured on war memorials fill in what is often missing from accounts of the Great War. In the process, they provide a more nuanced perspective on the complex legacy of that war in Canadian history.

Fighting the Great War
Fighting the Great War

Author: Michael S. NEIBERG

Publisher: Harvard University Press

Published: 2009-06-30

Total Pages: 416

ISBN-13: 0674041399

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Michael Neiberg offers a concise history based on the latest research and insights into the soldiers, commanders, battles, and legacies of the Great War.

I Am Canada: Deadly Voyage
I Am Canada: Deadly Voyage

Author: Hugh Brewster

Publisher: Scholastic Canada

Published: 2012-01-01

Total Pages: 199

ISBN-13: 144311927X

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Historical fact and fiction blend in this riveting novel set aboard the Titanic. Fourteen-year-old Jamie Laidlaw is returning to Canada from England aboard the Titanic. In his four days on board, he busies himself with new friends, finding ways to explore the ship's forbidden areas, and generally landing himself in trouble. When disaster strikes and the horrifying scramble for survival ensues, Jamie is on the front lines — struggling to help free the lifeboats and get people on board them. When a huge wave washes over the ship's sloping deck, it's time for Jamie to take action — and take his fate into his own hands. With hundreds of others, he dives into the sea, hoping he will find a way to survive. Since its launch in Fall 2010, the I Am Canada series has been praised for its accurate and energetic exploration of fascinating moments in Canadian history, through the eyes of young men who lived through them. In Deadly Voyage, award-winning author and noted Titanic historian Hugh Brewster draws from his vast knowledge of that fateful journey to create an enthralling tale of historical fiction — the ultimate adventure, whose terrifying end we know all too well.

Vimy Ridge
Vimy Ridge

Author: Geoffrey Hayes

Publisher: Wilfrid Laurier Univ. Press

Published: 2007-03-23

Total Pages: 368

ISBN-13: 1554580951

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On the morning of April 9, 1917, troops of the Canadian Corps under General Julian Byng attacked the formidable German defences of Vimy Ridge. Since then, generations of Canadians have shared a deep emotional attachment to the battle, inspired partly by the spectacular memorial on the battlefield. Although the event is considered central in Canadian military history, most people know very little about what happened during that memorable Easter in northern France. Vimy Ridge: A Canadian Reassessment draws on the work of a new generation of scholars who explore the battle from three perspectives. The first assesses the Canadian Corps within the wider context of the Western Front in 1917. The second explores Canadian leadership, training, and preparations and details the story of each of the four Canadian divisions. The final section concentrates on the commemoration of Vimy Ridge, both for contemporaries and later generations of Canadians. This long-overdue collection, based on original research, replaces mythology with new perspectives, new details, and a new understanding of the men who fought and died for the remarkable achievement that was the Battle of Vimy Ridge. Co-published with the Laurier Centre for Military, Strategic and Disarmament Studies