40 - The Oakville Beaver, Friday March 30, 2007 www.oakvillebeaver.com Artscene Oakville Beaver · FRIDAY, MARCH 30, 2007 40 Author captures horror and heroism at Vimy Ridge By David lea OAKVILLE BEAVER STAFF Nearly 90 years after the guns of the First World War fell silent, the mud filled trenches, blood and chaos of one of Canada's most defining battles have been made real once again in the book Valour at Vimy Ridge by Oakville's Tom Douglas. The April 1917 battle saw Canadian soldiers assault German positions, along a 14-kilometre front, that was thought to be impenetrable. The victory was great, but it was also costly with more than 10,000 Canadians, of a force of 30,000, being killed or wounded during the fourday battle. "They had no idea what they were getting themselves into," said Douglas of the young men who went to war thinking it would be a great adventure. "They figured it would only last a couple of months and then they'd get to see Paris and some of the other European centres." The reality of war would turn out to be far different. "There was nothing glamorous about this war. They were in ditches for months at a time. They had trench foot. There were rats running everywhere. These guys just lived in miserable conditions," said Douglas. Through his extensive research Douglas has recreated the epic battle capturing both horror and heroism down to the last cruel detail. At one point he explains how death did not only come during the battle, but was a constant part of life in the trenches. "The Germans would fly kites with English wording on them so some green kid would stick his head up and pow! They'd get it right between the eyes. That happened a lot," said Douglas. Their inability to help wounded comrades trapped between the German and Canadian trenches was another burden Canadian soldiers at the front had to live with. "They'd be crying and hollering for help, but there was nothing you could do because the moment you got up-- bang -- you got shot." These hardships proved too much for some Canadian soldiers, Douglas noted, with a fair number committing suicide. Some would purposely stick their BARRIE ERSKINE / OAKVILLE BEAVER VALOUR AT VIMY RIDGE: Author Tom Douglas holds up the cover of his new book Valour at Vimy Ridge, detailing one of Canada's most defining victories of the First World War. heads up for the waiting enemy snipers, while others turned their rifles on themselves. Despite the carnage of the war, Douglas says the battle of Vimy Ridge is a story that needs to be told as it shaped not only the way other countries saw Canada, but also the way Canadians saw themselves. "The battle of Vimy Ridge put Canada on the map. Until then we were thought of as just a colony of Great Britain," said Douglas. "It gave Canadians a confidence in themselves." This confidence was well deserved as both the British and the French had previously tried to take Vimy Ridge and were beaten back with over 150,000 casualties among the French alone. The preparation that led to the Canadians' iconic victory is another key focus of Douglas' book, which describes how the Canadians trained for months on terrain that was similar to Vimy Ridge. It explains how 30,000 Canadians were allowed to fight together and plan the assault for the first time in Canada's history, and how every soldier, down to the privates, were included in the planning and knew exactly where to go and what to do. "The lowliest private was taught how to take command in case his whole squad was annihilated," said Douglas. "And that happened time after time in this battle." The stories of the Canadian heroes of the battle, like General Arthur Currie, have also found their way into Douglas' book. Currie, who was largely responsible for the tactics used by Canadians during the battle, was one of the first to realize that the traditional methods being used by the Allies had no place in the 1917. "The British and the French, they charged enemy positions head on and that was okay before the machine gun became prominent, but this just annihilated everyone," said Douglas. While much of the book See Research page 43