Trenches and Tunnels at Vimy Ridge - Vimy, France - World War I Sites on Waymarking.com

These preserved First World War trenches of Vimy Ridge are within the bounds of the Canadian National Vimy Memorial Park and are open to visitors.

In 1922 the Canadian Government was granted a piece of land by France, on which to build a national memorial to her Canadian Forces who had served in the First World War in France and Belgium. This land was at the western end of the Vimy Ridge, a battlefield location where the Canadian Corps had fought and succeeded in pushing the Germans out of their heavily entrenched positions on the ridge in April 1917. The position of the national monument was agreed at the highest point of the ridge at Hill 145. In addition to the ground for the national monument the Canadian Government negotiated with the French Government to ask for an additional tract of the former battlefield so as to preserve it as a memorial park.

The battlefield was cleared and made safe in parts of the designated memorial park, but much of the ground was left untouched in its cratered state. This battlefield had been fought over by French and German troops before the British arrived to take over the sector in early 1916. As a strategic defensive line for the Germans high on the ridge from , they were protecting the view to the east across the Lens-Douai plain and their rear areas and lines of communication. The ground was pock-marked with crater of all sizes, it was entrenched with Front Line and support trenches and tunneled into by both sides.

During the construction of the Canadian National Vimy Memorial in the 1920s and 1930s the principal Canadian engineer working on the site, Major Unwin Simson, saw that some of the trenches were collapsing due to weather damage. He wondered if they might be preserved in a more permanent way. This would help prevent naturally occuring damage to them by the weather and undergrowth and the number of visitors wishing to walk through them. While he was waiting for the limestone to arrive for the construction of the national memorial on Hill 145, Major Simson gave a job to his workers to rebuild a section of the Allied and the German trenches using sandbags filled with concrete.

The trenches on the Vimy Ridge preserve a short section of the Allied Front Line and the German Front Line, with a few metres of No-Mans-Land in between them. This was the position of the two Front Lines on this part of the Vimy Ridge at the time of the launch of the Allied offensive as the Battles of Arras in April and May 1917. By the end of the Battle of Vimy Ridge (9th - 11th April 1917) the Canadians had pushed forward to the north-east and had pushed the German defenders out of their positions, one small section of which is preserved, to the far side of the ridge and down onto the plain.
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Type of Historic Site: Preserved trenches Address of Building, Object, or Site: Rte des Canadiens Vimy, Hauts-de-France France 62580 Website: [Web Link] Admission Prices: 0.00 (listed in local currency) One a Scale from 1-5, How Vital was the Site in WWI?: Posted Coordinates Location: The trenches to visit.

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