Vimy Ridge Battle 100th Anniversary Today

[Bonam]

On 4/11/2017 at 6:22 PM, herples said:

My great grandfather was on the German side. His position was in artillery. When he moved to BC he threw most of his medals and a gun into the Fraser river. 

First thing he did in Canada was pollute a river?

[herples]

On 4/30/2017 at 10:15 PM, Bonam said:

First thing he did in Canada was pollute a river?

It was probably dredged up a long time ago and deposited on land or elsewhere. 

[carepov]

On 4/9/2017 at 4:24 PM, Army Guy said:

I guess not everyone got the memo.....Vimy was the first time that the Canadian army and it's 4 divisions fought as one group under our own flag, it was Canadians that made the plans, it was Canadians that lead their own troops into battle for the first time, instead of some other nation.....it was the first time we were not subservient to the British army......it was the first time we marched to our own drum...... 

Honest question: does it matter that the commander was Julian Byng a British Army Officer?

[DogOnPorch]

2 minutes ago, carepov said:

Honest question: does it matter that the commander was Julian Byng a British Army Officer?

 

They all sucked with the possible exception of the Hindenburg/Ludendorff team.

[Army Guy]

8 hours ago, carepov said:

Honest question: does it matter that the commander was Julian Byng a British Army Officer?

No,it was common for British officers to be placed in command positions through out the Units, British had a surplus of officers at the time.....It should be noted that after vimey , short time later Byng was promoted, and Curie took over a Canadian. 

[carepov]

13 hours ago, Army Guy said:

No,it was common for British officers to be placed in command positions through out the Units, British had a surplus of officers at the time.....It should be noted that after vimey , short time later Byng was promoted, and Curie took over a Canadian. 

Thanks, but I was wondering more specifically: if the fact that the commanding officer was British, would it still be true that

"... it was Canadians that lead their own troops into battle for the first time, instead of some other nation.....it was the first time we were not subservient to the British army......it was the first time we marched to our own drum...... "?

[Army Guy]

11 hours ago, carepov said:

Thanks, but I was wondering more specifically: if the fact that the commanding officer was British, would it still be true that

"... it was Canadians that lead their own troops into battle for the first time, instead of some other nation.....it was the first time we were not subservient to the British army......it was the first time we marched to our own drum...... "?

The General still reported to our parliament , on the use of it's citizens....many commonwealth countries did not have the skilled generals to conduct the war ......so it was common for British officers to fill in....just as it was in WWII it was common for junior  Canadian officers to command sub units in the british army do to a shortage of British officers.....