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The Battle of Arras, Vimy Ridge (April 9-12, 1917)
As noted on the main page we have now broken down the Vimy Pages into two
separate pages, on of which deals with the history of the battle and the second
which provides the report as seen through the maps and notes of Grandfather
Laughton. Each are important to the story.
This is the part of the story as retrieved from Forum Members and the
research texts.
For a concise overview of the
"Battle of Vimy Ridge" from April 9-12, 1917 we can refer you to an
excellent piece presented by the National Archives of Canada which have two
excellent web sites:
For a view of the Town of Vimy taken in May 1917 from
the crest of Vimy Ridge (as well as some other amazing pictures), don't miss
taking a look at the photograph to Vimy
Ridge on the National Archives site for Canada.
In May 2004 I also came across the text of the
Despatches of Sir Douglas Haig, British Army Commander in Chief. These
are excellent documents, as they provide a concise summary of the main
events. In reference to the Spring 1917 offensive, please refer to
Haig's Fourth Despatch as it covers this entire period. If you search
this document, you will find many references to the 34th Division. As
of yet I have not found the specific references in the Haig Despatches
referring to George Van Wyck Laughton, as mentioned in the London
Gazette. Not all of the despatches are published to the site at
present. You may wish to refer to these links:
An excellent account of Vimy Ridge for students of
Canadian ,military history is provided in the text edited by Colonel C.P.
Stacey, Former Director, Directorate of History at the Canadian Forces
Headquarters in Ottawa, Canada. A map provided with the text also shows
the relationship of the 51st Division (British) which bordered the 1st
Canadian Division on the north and the 34th British Division on the south, of
which the 26th Northumberland Fusiliers were a battalion. The Canadian
Forces web site has a newly prepared PDF version of the full text with
this famous battle and many others:
For a more detailed version of the battle, please see Nicholson's
text as referenced in the following table. With that information in
hand, the details that are provided in the records of George Van Wyck
Laughton will have much greater value.
A great new text was released in 2005 by Osprey
Publishing that details the exploits of the CEF and BEF at Vimy The
text "Vimy
Ridge 1917: Byng's Triumph at Arras" tells the story no
better than anyone else to date. Author Anderson Turner's work, are
magnified by the illustrations of Peter Dennis, so that you no longer wonder
what it was like at Vimy. Instead you are transformed to the fields of
Vimy. There are some specific sections (as it relates to my
research of paternal and maternal grandfathers) worth mentioning on our
web site:
 | Page 25: The Canadians see their first action at
Second Ypres - so now I have a tie between both grandfathers at the same
battle;
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| Page 53: Often the topic of discussion but often
not answered, who would have known that there were 50,000 horses and
mules at Vimy and that Vets dealt with 1,000 casualties per day;
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| Page 39: Previously unknown to me, the BEF and CEF
had different "Coloured Lines" for the Battle Front of April
9, 1917. The CEF had only the "black, red, blue
and brown" lines and it was only the BEF (paternal grandfather) who
also had the additional "Green Line". I erred in
correcting one of my cohorts on missing reference to the green line, not
knowing that it was only a BEF objective. See also the
continuation of this aspect on page 65 - a linkage in 2005 that would
have seemed so far apart in 1917.
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| Page 41: My maternal and paternal grandfathers are
for the first time linked "in battle" as there is reference to
the P.P.C.L.I. (Princess
Patricia Canadian Light Infantry) who are thrust into the same
battle. It makes me wonder how close they came to each other?
 | Note: Later research
shows that Grandfather Kennedy was no longer serving in the
PPCLI at the time of Vimy Ridge as by November 1916 he had
accepted an Officer Commission in the Royal Irish Rifles.
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| Page 51: This is of course the first of the
great illustrations and it responds not only to my grandfather's notes
to "dump the grey coats" but also to other member comments
about "what did they carry"? How many of us could do
that today?
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| Page 63; Page 70: The second and third of the
great illustrations - which put together with page 51 shows the whole
battlefield. Some day I hope to have time to put all of these
together into one battle map on my library wall. More than at any
time in the past, it brought together my thoughts, as I see that the
PPCLI and the 26th NF were so close in supporting each other in battle. |
There are many other excellent components of Turner's
text, the above examples are only a few. Perhaps one day I will find
that Grandfather Laughton and Grandfather Kennedy exchanged greetings or
crossed paths in battle, a premonition of a future family and my purpose to
date.
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