The Battle of Hill 70 (August 15 – August 17, 1917)

With the victory at Vimy still fresh in their minds, the Canadians turn their guns to capturing this strategic high point.


The success at Vimy Ridge left the Canadian Corps brimming with confidence. The Canadians had become one of the best-trained and toughest attacking groups available on the Western Front.

With General Arthur Currie now in charge of all four Canadian divisions, their next mission was to capture the French city of Lens. British Field Marshal Douglas Haig hoped a direct attack by the Canadians on Lens would divert German resources away from the Allies’ main summer offensive at Ypres and Passchendaele in Belgium. Currie drew up an alternative attack plan, arguing that the capture of the city would be useless without control of the high ground that overlooked it. Haig accepted Currie’s revised plan and, in the early morning of August 15, 1917, the Canadians — like they did at Vimy Ridge — attacked behind a creeping artillery barrage. Soon, they controlled Hill 70.

As the Canadians dug in, artillery observers began directing concentrated fire against German counterattacks that were moving forward throughout Lens toward the newly created Canadian lines. Over the following days, the Canadians turned back no less than twenty German counterattacks.

Unfortunately, the Canadians failed to capture Lens. Fighting in the region of Hill 70 cost the Canadians more than nine thousand casualties — nearly as many as were lost capturing Vimy only a few months before. It also marked the first occasion that mustard gas was used against Canadian lines. But the attack did succeed in pulling German reserves from the Ypres Salient and helped bolster the troops’ reputation as being among the fiercest fighters at the front.

— Text by Joel Ralph


George Leslie Scherer

George Leslie Scherer

He was awarded the Military Medal for staying in the fight after he was told to go back to the dressing station after being wounded in the hand.
Green Family

Green Family

Arthur Green, 19, and his father Moses Green, 44, his brother-in-law Percy Edwin Biggs, and his cousin Harold Farrar.
Robert Frederic Hawke

Robert Frederic Hawke

He was ordered to go on duty, and told the Lieutenant that he had already “done my time,” and rolled over in his bivvy and went back to sleep.
Stanley Perrie

Stanley Perrie

Stanley sustained multiple shrapnel wounds throughout his body as well as skull fracture to the base of his skull.