Vimy Ridge 1917: Byng's Canadians Triumph at Arras (Campaign) [Paperback]

Alexander Turner (Author), Peter Dennis (Illustrator)

Book Description

Series: Campaign | Publication Date: May 8, 2005

Vimy Ridge was one of the most important geographic features on the entire Western Front in World War I (1914-1918). In early 1917 it was considered practically impregnable, but on 9 April the Canadian Army Corps, under the command of the British Lieutenant General Sir Julian Byng, assaulted it as part of the Arras offensive. In one of the most spectacular operational attacks of the war, they seized almost the entire ridge in a single day. This book describes how the innovative efforts that went into every aspect of the preparation for this attack ensured that the Canadian and British troops achieved unprecedented success.

Editorial Reviews

From the Publisher

Highly visual guides to history's greatest conflicts, detailing the command strategies, tactics, and experiences of the opposing forces throughout each campaign, and concluding with a guide to the battlefields today.

About the Author

Alexander Turner is a serving British Army officer in the Irish Guards. His operational experience includes Northern Ireland, Kosovo, the Iraq War of 2003 and service as a United Nations Military Observer. He has a BA in War Studies from King's College, London, and led a battalion battlefield tour to Vimy Ridge in 2002.

Product Details

• Paperback: 96 pages
• Publisher: Osprey Publishing (May 8, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1841768715
• ISBN-13: 978-1841768717
• Product Dimensions: 7.3 x 0.2 x 9.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,349,531 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One of the better Campaign Series, August 20, 2005

By 

J. Brewster (Chicago, IL) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Vimy Ridge 1917: Byng's Canadians Triumph at Arras (Campaign) (Paperback)

The vice of the Campaign Series can be to cover so large a subject in one small volume and give so much introductory material that the subject of the book is covered in less depth than in an Encyclopedia. In the end you get little more than an introduction, a few nice pictures, if you're lucky some nice maps, and photographs so small you can never see the detail mentioned in the captions.
In Vimy Ridge the author has avoided these perils. He limits himself to the battle, not a history of the whole West Front, and assumes you knew something about World War One before you purchased the book. The result is a gem. A concise description of a battle very different from what you thought it would be, well-written, well-illustrated other than the too small photos. The only criticism is that you are left wanting more, but to get that you need a much larger and more expensive book than Osprey promised you.

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The Canadian Triumph, July 9, 2005

By 

R. A Forczyk (MD, USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Vimy Ridge 1917: Byng's Canadians Triumph at Arras (Campaign) (Paperback)

Alexander Turner, a battalion-level officer in the British Army, delivers a solid summary of the Canadian Corps' impressive capture of Vimy Ridge in April 1917. Although Turner offers the capture of Vimy Ridge as refutation of claims that Allied generalship in the First World War was fatally flawed, his conclusions skim by the fact that Vimy Ridge was one of the very few attacks that enjoyed this kind of success at such low cost. Furthermore, the amount of mistakes made by the German commanders at Vimy Ridge seem to be beyond the norm for that army in the First World War. Statistically speaking, Vimy Ridge was something of an aberration and therefore difficult to use as a case study. In any event, Turner provides a detailed summary of the preparation and execution of this highly successful Allied offensive.

Turner begins with the usual section on the background to the campaign and opposing forces, which tends to digress a bit into a broader discussion of the tactical-technological problems facing First World War armies. At points, the author appears to want to paint a broader canvas á la John Keegan, rather than deliver a campaign study, but he settles down by mid-volume. The volume includes five 2-D maps (the German retirement to the Hindenburg Line; Arras and the Chemin des Dames Offensives; Locations of Allied Artillery units near Vimy Ridge; the Battle of Vimy Ridge; Attack on the "Pimple" and Bois-en-hache, 12 April 1917) and two 3-D maps (the Assault on Vimy Ridge in the 1st and 2nd Canadian Division areas and the fight for Hill 145 and "the Pimple"), as well as two excellent battle scenes (advance of the 2nd Canadian Division on 9 April 1917 and the defense of the Zwischenstellung). The maps are decent, but the dominant nature of Vimy Ridge is less apparent on the 3-D maps than a standard military 1:50,000-scale map of the area. Furthermore, the operational-level maps provide only vague details on the larger picture of the Arras offensive, without even showing the equally impressive advance of the British XVII Corps to the south of Vimy Ridge.

The author makers clear that both the German and Canadian troops at Vimy Ridge were high quality, but that the Canadian Corps had an overwhelming superiority in artillery, which was enhanced by careful planning. The author also disputes the idea that Vimy Ridge was an all-Canadian affair and points out the contributions of various British support units. Although the author briefly mentions the air superiority battles that preceded the Allied offensive, he offers few details once the attack commenced. He does spend a fair amount of time describing the extensive Allied mining and tunneling efforts, much of which did not pan out during the actual offensive.

While Turner notes faulty German dispositions and planning, he does not seem to appreciate that the Allied attack was assisted by fog and snow, which severely reduced German visibility. Instead, Turner emphasizes the muddy ground as an impediment to Canadian mobility. The magnitude of the Allied success at Vimy Ridge is not always apparent in Turner's account, which does not mention that this attack resulted in the furthest Allied advance in one day since the start of trench warfare. Turner's background in an infantry battalion aids him in painting the portrait of Canadian infantry struggling through the mud and shellfire, but there is little actual analysis of the battle's outcome. Overall, Vimy Ridge 1917 is a solid campaign summary, albeit one that could benefit from a bit sharper focus.

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The battle that helped create a national identity for Canada, September 4, 2005

By 

Rick Kaneen "PrPro" (Tucson, Az USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Vimy Ridge 1917: Byng's Canadians Triumph at Arras (Campaign) (Paperback)

Essentially the first BEF victory on the western front (pre Messines), Vimy Ridge gave Canada an epic battle all its own. Today the towering memorial on Hill 145 holds the names of the nation's missing (including one of my distant relatives) and is a focal point for Canadian national pride as the statue of Canada weeping for her fallen sons looks out over the coalfields of Lens.

In typical Osprey fashion, this volume presesnts a clear, concise and complete story of this great battle, with excellent graphics, photos, and, perhaps most refreshing, maps (why can't WWI authors and publishers create some decent maps? Osprey seems to be able to pull it off). The final chapter is an excellent description of the battlefield today, made more interesting of course by the the fact that Canada has preserved portions of the trenches as well as part of the Grange Subway on the ridgetop.

Read this Campaign series to get the overview and the lay of the land (and subway system!) then root out a copy of Berton's Vimy for a real understanding of what the battle meant to a 'dominion' that had to fight the British to maintain their identity in a separate corps (a preview of the fight Pershing was to have with the same Brit leadership when the doughboys arrived)and protect their egalitarian society from the class structure the dominated the BEF.

Even if you know this battle well, and perhaps, because you do, the graphics are worth the small investment in this volume. Most Osprey Campaign issues are a nice addition to lengthy tomes simply for the maps and illustrations.