Britain
Julian Byng
1862–1935 Commander, Canadian Corps, 1916–1917, and Third Army, 1917–1918
The youngest son of the 2nd Earl of Strafford, Byng was commissioned in 1879, served in the Sudan and South Africa, and commanded the 3rd Cavalry Division in 1914. In 1915 he took over IX Corps at Gallipoli and oversaw its evacuation. In May 1916 he became commander of the Canadian Corps, which, after detailed rehearsals behind the lines, took Vimy Ridge in April 1917 at a cost of 10,602 casualties. Given the Third Army in June 1917, he opened the Battle of Cambrai on 20 November with tanks and no preliminary bombardment; the troops advanced several miles, but German counterattacks recovered much of the ground. Byng later served as Governor General of Canada from 1921 to 1926 and became a field marshal in 1932.
In the chronicle
Sources
Sources
- en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julian_Byng,_1st_Viscount_Byng_of_Vimy
- www.biographi.ca/en/bio/byng_julian_hedworth_george_16E.html
- en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Vimy_Ridge
- en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Cambrai_(1917)
- en.wikisource.org/wiki/1922_Encyclopædia_Britannica/Tanks
- en.wikisource.org/wiki/1922_Encyclopædia_Britannica/Artois,_Battles_in
- www.bbc.com/news/uk-39541940