The Torch: "Vimy - Honour the Legacy"

A Veterans Affairs Canada site devoted to the "90th Anniversary of the Battle of Vimy Ridge and Dedication of the newly restored Canadian National Vimy Memorial". The "Background on Vimy" is very good.

Then there is "The Battle of Vimy Ridge, 9-12 April 1917", a useful short introduction (esp. the maps) from the Canadian War Museum website.

More at Library and Archives Canada, "Canada and the First World War"; the full text of the official history, "Canada And The Battle Of Vimy Ridge, 9-12 April; 1917", from the Canadian Forces' Directorate of History and Heritage; links to many other sites available with search for "Vimy Ridge" at the Canadian Military History Gateway website.

Update: Stupid political shenanigans by everyone. God save the Queen.

Upperdate: A multi-media site from the Ottawa Citizen, "Vimy - Triumph, Tragedy and the Birth of an Icon"; the CBC special site, "Vimy Ridge Remembered"; CTV site, "Vimy battle marks birth of Canadian nationalism".

CTV's David Akin posts the schedule of events in Canada and France.

Uppestdate: And for a bit of historical demythification--and in no sense to denigrate the significance of the battle for the Canadian Corps or (RoC) Canada:

A new scholarly account of the Battle of Vimy Ridge says the battle does not deserve its iconic status as one of the First World War's most decisive victories, and that generations of Canadians have grown up on a carefully constructed myth that Canada "came of age" at Vimy.

Vimy Ridge, A Canadian Reassessment, a collection of essays based on new archival research by 16 historians, was released only days ago [reviews here] -- on the eve of lavish ceremonies in France and Canada to commemorate the 90th anniversary of the famous battle...

Vimy Ridge was also the first time the four divisions of the Canadian Corps fought together in pursuit of a single objective. And it was Canada's first significant victory of the war.

But Mr. Bechthold [military historian at Wilfrid Laurier University in Waterloo, Ont.] and his colleagues point out that much of the credit for the victory should go to Britain. Not only was the Canadian Corps' commander, Sir Julian Byng [of Vimy], a British general, but Maj. Alan Brooke, the chief of staff to the Corps' artillery commander was also British, as were many other officers in the corps.

And while the bulk of the infantry that attacked Vimy Ridge was Canadian, they would not have been able to go up the slopes of the ridge that day if not for British artillery, engineers and supply units that supported them...

"In terms of changing the course of the war," says Mr. Bechthold, "the capture of Vimy Ridge probably had very little effect, and not nearly the impact, for example, of the later Canadian victory at Amiens in 1918."

Yet, how many Canadians today know anything about the Battle of Amiens [or the "100 Days" - MC]?..

The fact that the battle was launched on Easter Monday made it even easier for mythmakers to say that the battle itself had religious significance.

"Once the battle was identified with the rebirth of Christ," writes Mr. Vance [historian at the University of Western Ontario], "it was only a small step to connect Vimy with the birth of a nation. With the provinces represented by battalions from across the country working together in a painstakingly planned and carefully executed operation, the Canadian Corps became a metaphor for the nation itself."