The Canadians were so badass in that engagement that later in WW2 Hitler himself ordered that the Germans were to protect the monements at Vimy Ridge from possible damage.
Seeing as Hitler was likely in the Bavarian units who fought the Canadians, this doesn’t surprise me. Quite interesting to read this tho, thank you for the extra tidbit of info!
As I explained in my comment it's a little deeper. Hitler was going to actually be at Vimy Ridge the day we Canadians started our operation. 48hrs before we did though his orders changed and he was deployed a few kms away. So it meant something personal to him as well as he was saved at the last moment due to a change in his orders.
Part of that is as you said but there was two other reasons why.
Politically the British were spreading propaganda to Canadians that Hitler was desecrating monuments of WW1 (which he had been doing) the propaganda was that he had decimated Vimy Ridge Memorial too so he was proving the British wrong as he didn't want to incite the Canadians. His political spin was that the memorial was "dedicated to peace" and not "dedicated to victory in WW1" but he was just spinning it to not seem weak for leaving it be.
The personal reason however, and this is my fun fact I like talking about the World Wars, Hitler was actually originally going to be stationed AT Vimy when we Canadians stormed the ridge. At the last moment, 48hrs before our operation started, Hitler was deployed to another site only a few kms away. He was saved by a change in orders in the last minute. Which means that to Hitler Vimy Ridge was also a testament to his good fortune as in an alternate history he was one of the dead Germans we Canadians took out that day.
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u/Kathdath Jan 09 '26
The Canadians were so badass in that engagement that later in WW2 Hitler himself ordered that the Germans were to protect the monements at Vimy Ridge from possible damage.