Product Description

Vimy Ridge is indelibly linked in popular memory to the exploits of the Canadian Corps. There, on 9 April 1917, all four Canadian divisions fought alongside one another for the first time. Battling through snow squalls and deep mud, they took and held the ridge, in the teeth of desperate German resistance, becoming the first Allied soldiers for two and a half years to see the view over the Douai plain.

It was a triumph of arms for Canada and fundamental to its future sense of nationhood but, at the same time, April 1917 was simply the final act in a drama which had begun with the German seizure of the ridge in October 1914. Bitter fighting for the Lorette Spur, followed by two major French offensives in 1915 and months of incessant mining and minor operations, when British formations held the line in 1916, are as central to the story as the heroic tenacity of the German defenders.

Drawing on the immense quantities of surviving archival material, dispelling myths and calling into question many of the `facts' in the accepted record, this vivid portrait of the fighting on Vimy Ridge provides a unique insight into the German aspects of this landmark battle and the thirty months of continuous operations above and below ground which preceded it.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #236409 in Books
• Published on: 2008-03-20
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 384 pages

Customer Reviews

Another excellent work from Jack Sheldon/Pen and Sword

This excellent volume commences with the capture of Vimy Ridge and Notre Dame de Lorette in October 1914 and concludes in 1917. In writing it, Jack Sheldon has once again triumphed in producing yet another outstanding and fascinating volume which I am certain will be sought after and will be sure to grace many military historian's and enthusiast's bookshelves in the years to come, as it is the type of publication that can be read over and over again! Those who have read this author's previous volumes will of course already be familiar with the quality of Jack's work and like me, praise his excellent style and ability to write both flowing and accurate narrative on what many consider to be fairly complex subjects! He has certainly gone to great lengths in his research to complete this splendid title and should be commended on that point alone, as his sources of information must have been numerous, widespread and often fragmented at times.

I am led to believe that the majority of the information contained in this publication may have been previously unpublished and therefore of immense interest to a widespread audience of readers. In my view, it will certainly challenge many previously held ideas and theories and therefore, may well prove controversial at times, however, having said that, in my opinion, that makes excellent and refreshing reading!

For anyone interested in the tunneling during the Great War, they will find this one aspect of the book alone, compelling reading. However I was personally engrossed with the tremendous amount of detail covering the fighting for Vimy Ridge and this along with German accounts covering interrogations of British and Canadian Prisoners of War made absorbing reading too!

There are some very useful and highly detailed maps and in traditional Pen and Sword style many excellent photographs support the highly readable narrative. And therefore in summary, I feel this publication will be indispensable to anyone interested in the Great War in general and the battles of the Western Front and Vimy in particular. I found it a joy to read and therefore, I cannot praise it too highly - it is a valuable addition to my library and I commend it to you too.

First class work again by Sheldon.
As with his previous books tracing the activity of the German Army on the Somme and at Passchendaele, this third volume from Jack Sheldon on the battles of Vimy Ridge is an invaluable reference. The number and variety of primary German sources is of great value to anybody researching the battlefield, and it adds further value by examining all of the battles, not just the Canadian assault of April 1917.
Sheldon has used his sources to reposition some of the perceptions that have conditioned some opinions about Vimy Ridge as an `impregnable fortress'. The ground was undoubtedly difficult for the Canadians to take but it equally posed problems for the Germans to defend in depth. The chapter on the mining under the ridge is excellent.
As well as the war diary reports and the extracts from soldier's letters and reminiscences there are some remarkable new items of research. The story of George McDonald aka Otto Dorr is excellent and is alone well worth the cover price. Another valuable contribution from Jack Sheldon that reinforces his reputation as the voice of the `Landser'.
Mike McCarthy
Editor 'The Battle Guide'
Guild of Battlefield Guides

Another outstanding book from Jack Sheldon
From the May 2008 edition of Navy News.

IN APRIL 1917, the Western Front was ablaze.
The Royal Naval Division stormed German lines outside Arras; the French attacked along the Chemin des Dames, an imposing ridge beyond Reims, intending to deliver the German Army a fatal blow; and in the skies, the Royal Naval Air Service was locked in mortal combat with its German foe.
There were few reasons for the Allies to cheer in `Bloody April':
Britain's diversionary attack at Arras failed to draw German reserves from the Chemin des Dames so the French offensive failed miserably; the French Army mutinied; and the RFC suffered horrendous casualties.
The one bright spot, however, was the capture of high ground to the north of Arras which offered a commanding view of Artois.
The capture of Vimy Ridge was a decisive success - and one which has become a defining moment in Canada's national identity, for her men were at the forefront of the onslaught.
Little space has been afforded to the defenders of Vimy... until now. In his unceasing efforts to give a voice to the men `on the other side of the hill', Jack Sheldon has turned his attention to The German Army on Vimy Ridge 1914-1917 (Pen & Sword, £25, ISBN 978-1844-156801).
Few people are better qualified to offer an insight into `Fritz' than the author whose trawl of the archives, regimental histories and countless first-hand accounts has already shed light where it is dark on the Somme and at Passchendaele.
His Vimy Ridge work continues in the same outstanding vein.
Foe or not, it is hard not to feel sympathy for the German defenders - who have left us with some vivid, and incredibly haunting, first-hand accounts.
All survivors of the Easter battle of 1917 attest to a strangely mesmeric "thunderous hail of iron". Feldwebel (Sergeant) Paul Radschun's regiment stood firm until "the last waves of the British burnt out and the dreadful storm of steel ebbed away", but at a cost of nearly 900 men.
"It had not yielded. It had defended its appointed place to the last drop of blood; worthy of its fathers; worthy of the heroic spirit of its beloved commander," he recalled.
The English-speaking focus is invariably on those fateful April days. But there were ferocious battles for the ridge, largely between Gaul and Teuton, in 1915.
And while the warriors fought to the death above, an army of tunnellers and counter-tunnellers burrowed beneath Vimy, determined to blow a gap in the enemy lines - or to bring their adversary's tunnel (or `gallery') crashing down. There was no more horrible a fate on the Western Front.
One German engineer tried to rescue a comrade trapped by a British charge which had already killed a second miner.
"We could hear the moans and groans of this unfortunate man, trapped by his legs which were gripped tight by the collapsed chalk walls," he recalled.
The unfortunate man was rescued - his legs had to be amputated and he died shortly afterwards.
Such was war on Vimy Ridge.