Vimy

by Pierre Berton

Overview

On Easter Monday 1917 with a blizzard blowing in their faces, the four divisions of the Canadian Corps in France seized and held the best-defended German bastion on the Western Front - the muddy scarp of Vimy Ridge. The British had failed to take the Ridge, and so had the French who had lost 150,000 men in the attempt. Yet these magnificent colonial troops did so in a morning at the cost of only 10,000 casualties. The author recounts this remarkable feat of arms with both pace and style. He has gathered many personal accounts from soldiers who fought at Vimy. He describes the commanders and the men, the organisation and the training, and above all notes the thorough preparation for the attack from which the British General Staff could have learnt much. The action is placed within the context both of the Battle of Arras, of which this attack was part, and as a milestone in the development of Canada as a nation.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780385673617
Publisher:	Doubleday Canada
Publication date:	12/22/2010
Sold by:	Random House
Format:	eBook
Pages:	336
File size:	2 MB

About the Author

PIERRE BERTON was one of Canada’s most popular and prolific authors. From narrative histories and popular culture, to picture and coffee table books to anthologies, to stories for children to readable, historical works for youth, many of his fifty books are Canadian classics.

Born in 1920 and raised in the Yukon, Pierre Berton worked in Klondike mining camps during his university years. He spent four years in the army, rising from private to captain/instructor at the Royal Military College in Kingston. He spent his early newspaper career in Vancouver, where at 21 he was the youngest city editor on any Canadian daily. He wrote columns for and was editor of Maclean’s magazine, appeared on CBC’s public affairs program “Close-Up” and was a permanent fixture on “Front Page Challenge” for 39 years. He was a columnist and editor for the Toronto Star and was a writer and host of a series of CBC programs.

Pierre Berton received over 30 literary awards including the Governor General’s Award for Creative Non-Fiction (three times), the Stephen Leacock Medal for Humour, and the Gabrielle Léger National Heritage Award. He received two Nellies for his work in broadcasting, two National Newspaper awards and the National History Society’s first award for “distinguished achievement in popularizing Canadian history.” For his immense contribution to Canadian literature and history, he was awarded more than a dozen honourary degrees, was a member of the Newsman’s Hall of Fame, and was a Companion of the Order of Canada.

Pierre Berton passed away in Toronto on November 30, 2004.

Table of Contents

Overture: Ten Thousand Thunders

Book One: Marching As To War
Chapter One – Sam Hughes's Army
Chapter Two – A Ribbon of Deadly Stealth

Book Two: The Build-Up
Chapter Three – Marking Time
Chapter Four – The Byng Boys
Chapter Five – The Raiders
Chapter Six – Not What They Expected
Chapter Seven – Things Worth Remembering
Chapter Eight – The Final Days
Chapter Nine – The Final Hours

Book Three: The Battle
Chapter Ten – The 1st Division
Chapter Eleven – The 2nd Division
Chapter Twelve – The 3rd Division
Chapter Thirteen – The 4th Division
Chapter Fourteen – Mopping Up

Aftermath

Appendix One: British Army Formations
Appendix Two: The Canadian Battalions at Vimy
Author's Note
Acknowledgements
Select Bibliography
Index

Editorial Reviews

"Among the most important and vital accounts of war that we have…it is inexcusable not to read it."
—Timothy Findley

"…Vimy is Berton at his best and that's the best there is."
—Peter C. Newman

"A book to make us proud, to make us week."
—June Callwood

From the Publisher