Vimy Ridge by Alexander McKee is the history of the Canadian Corps in a decisive WWI battle. McKee OBE was a British journalist, military historian, and diver who published nearly thirty books. He was a WWII veteran and veteran of the British Army on the Rhine.


Most nation's militaries have a defining moment in WWI. For the US Marines, it was Belleau Woods. For the Canadian Army, it was Vimy Ridge. The Canadian Corps' four divisions battled three divisions of the German Sixth Army. The battle was fought from April 9-12 of 1917 which was Easter week that year. The Canadian forces would incur almost 11,000 casualties. German casualties are not known, but 4,000 Germans were taken prisoner by the Canadian forces.


McKee does an outstanding job of combining first-hand accounts and primary source material to create and a captivating story. Much of the book reads like well-written fiction instead of a historical account. First-hand accounts of the conditions inside the trenches are vivid in detail. From the muck that could swallow a man to the rats, that shared in trenches in seemingly equal numbers as the troops the conditions were deplorable. Death surrounded trenches. Not only the threat of death from going over the top, enemy aircraft, and artillery but literal death. Bodies littered no man's land and even became parts of the parapets... not always complete buried. One soldier reported that crawling back from a raid he found himself stopped by enemy fire. Next to him was a corpse that had been rotting. Inside the corpse were two rats eating their way into their new home.


The conditions were bad and the leadership on both sides, but especially the French were not afraid to force large numbers of troops to charge into machine gun fire. The Allies believed that they could win the war by attrition. The Canadian forces fought as a unit for the first time. They like the US Marines fought as their own and were not filler troops for the European lines. It was the first time Canadian forces fought as independent Canada and not British forces. Actions in WWI like Vimy Ridge moved Canada from a Commonwealth to a nation on the world stage. Well written and important part of history for Canada as well as the nations involved in WWI. ( )

Usually the battles of WW I were confusion royal with the commanders unaware of how things were going and the soldiers not sure where they were or where they were to go. In the case of Vimy, the troops rehearsed the attack over and over behind the lines until they knew exactly where they were to be all the times. This was at the insistence of Canadian General Currie and this preparation combined with a moving barrage of the most artillery seen on the front till that time, resulted in the Canadians taking Vimy Ridge, something the French & the British had not been able to do.

A German officer is quoted as saying that when he saw Canadians across the line, he knew something big was going to happen and it would be big trouble for him and hie men. A British soldier is likewise quoted as hating the sight of the Canadians because he said "Wherever you go there's always hell to pay!" The Canadians became the "shock troops" of WW I.

An interesting analysis of why the Canadians out performed British troops suggested that the Canadians were raised in a society where class structure had been broken down and more or less equalized. Thus Canadian troops did not quit when their officers were killed or injured. Someone just took over and they just kept going. ( )

I was really looking forward to this book, with mixed results. It gives a very good overview of the Canadian Corp at Vimy Ridge and it even gives a good account of the German side before the attack. The story is divided into 3 parts, the history of Vimy Ridge before 1917, the attack on the Ridge by the Canadian Corp and the results of the battle. I really enjoyed the history of Vimy Ridge, which included details on the Germans, the French and the Canadians. The second part was detailed but sadly confusing, each division gets it's own chapter which makes sense. To be honest I'm not sure how it could have been done better, so maybe my criticism here is unfair. The last part was an attack on British Generalship in WWI, as this book was written in the mid 1960's that is par for the course. The problem I have with it is it ignores how bad things were in every other Army. In fact the Author states that the British could have learnt a lot from the French and the Germans. The French Army mutinied and the Germans lost, it's a strange thing to say. Worth reading but not as good as I was hoping for. ( )