As the title may suggest, this book was written about the battle of Vimy Ridge, which took place on April 9, 1917. In this book the author, Pierre Berton, shows how civilians from Canada, a country without a military tradition, seized the best-defended German stronghold on the Western Front. The main thesis of the book, being suggested by Burton, is how Vimy became a turning point in Canada's relations with the world and in the image Canadians have of themselves. Throughout the entire book Burton continues to support the thesis by providing facts about how these simple civilians who's minds were "unfettered by military rules," displayed one of the most heroic and significant battle scenes "in all of history.".
The author shows that Vimy became the historic achievement that changed Canada's presence as a colonial land to an independent nation in the eyes of the world. The four divisions of the Canadian Corps in France did what neither the British nor the French armies had been able to do in more than two years of fighting. The French had lost more than 150,000 men trying to take over the ridge and they no longer believed it could be done; the British were also skeptical. But the Canadians succeeded under the command of Arthur Currie. At a cost of 10,000 casualties, the Canadians went over the top at dawn and held most of the ridge by the afternoon. Using "daring and common sense," the Canadians fought together as a united corps to achieve a victory that would drive their country towards further independence as a nation.
One of the key arguments that the author makes about the significance of this battle in making the Canadian image is that the brief explosive battle at Vimy Ridge "turned thousands into Canadians." Before Vimy, the Canadian Expeditionary Force poked fun at themselves by chanting tunes such as, "We are Sam Hughes's army; twenty thousand men are we. We cannot fight, we cannot march; what bloody use are we?" But after the capturing of Vimy, the Canadians lived down their reputation as a "rag-tag" army and became considered as one of the best.