Nova Scotia/Nunavut Command of The Royal Canadian Legion www.ns.legion.ca 13 machine-gun positions. Three more days of costly battle delivered final victory. The Canadian operation was an important success, even if the larger British and French offensive, of which it had been a part, had failed. But it was victory at a heavy cost: 3,598 Canadians were killed and another 7,000 wounded. The capture of Vimy was more than just an important battlefield victory. For the first time all four Canadian divisions attacked together, men from all regions of Canada were present at the battle. Brigadier-General A.E. Ross declared after the war, "in those few minutes I witnessed the birth of a nation." Vimy became a symbol for the sacrifice of the young Dominion of Canada. In 1922, the French government ceded to Canada in perpetuity Vimy Ridge, and the land surrounding it. The gleaming white marble and haunting sculptures of the Vimy Memorial (see cover photo), unveiled in 1936, stand as a terrible and poignant reminder of the 11,285 Canadian soldiers killed in France who have no known graves. The Battle of Vimy Ridge (continued)
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