Military History

Theatre of War	Medals	Commonwealth War Grave or Memorial
France and Flanders	British War & Victory Medals	Nine Elms Military Cemetery
Arrived in Theatre	Medal Citation (if app)	SWFHS Area Memorials
25 Mar 1916	~	Southam War Memorial
Action, Battle or Other Reason Killed	Date and Place Enlisted	Other War Memorials
Battle of Vimy Ridge	13 Jan 1915 at Walkerton, Canada
Place of Death	Previous Regiments or Units
Vimy Ridge, France

Circumstances Leading to Death (Normally from War Diary)           

Intended as a diversion to draw attention away from French actions farther south, and often serving only as a footnote to the less successful overall Battle of Arras in 1917 waged by the British armies, Vimy was the greatest victory of the war for the Canadian Corps, which by 1917 numbered four divisions. In a dramatic assault on Easter Monday, 9 April, and representing the best in Canadian tactical ingenuity, military engineering, and technical innovation, the Canadians seized most of this dominating feature in a few short hours, and finally clearing the entire ridge in three days. The British and French had been unable to clear these heights since the Germans first seized them in 1914, and had lost more men in the process of trying than the Canadians as a whole started out with on 9 April. The 10th Battalion had its own role to play in this great drama, and reached all its objectives on time, at the cost of 374 casualties including Leonard.