VIMY
With Vimy Ridge in the possession of the Germans, their access for
observation placed us at a decided disadvantage; the Lens-Arras, the
Mont St. Eloi road--all vital feeding routes for our system--were
absolutely open to his inspection at all hours of the day or night;
there was no movement along these channels of communication of either
men, guns, ammunition, supplies of any kind, of which they were not
fully cognizant. So it will be seen that the possession of this
elevation was of wonderful advantage to the side holding it.
One of the chief gains to be derived from its possession was the control
of the vast coal mines of Lens, one of the richest coal producing
sections in France, and the benefit of which has been in German hands
since the gray rush first went through. And the possession of the output
of these mines gave Fritz a priceless advantage over us. His overlooking
position also made it impossible for us to work in the daytime the few
coal mines that we had; neither could we supply our guns with the
necessary ammunition during the hours of daylight; and further, the
possession of this vantage point would release for duty elsewhere a
tremendous number of men whose presence there was unavoidable, because
of the control he had over the valley and the surrounding country. So,
when the chief command decided to take the ridge, they went about the
job in a manner thoroughly characteristic of the Scotch commander, Sir
Douglas Haig, and his thoroughness was well borne out by the results.
For the space of a month prior to the drive, every hour of the darkness
was used to get guns, ammunition and supplies into place; all night long
the traffic on the roads was so congested that going faster than a walk
with any conveyance, over any part of the channels of communication, was
simply out of the question; but when day broke it was imperative that
not a single conveyance of any kind be in sight on any road.
Do not imagine, however, that we were free to work as long as the
shelter of night lasted; in the artificial light furnished by the
flares, Fritz did a lot of damage. On one single night during this work
of preparation on the Mont St. Eloi road alone, 156 horses were killed;
and on all through roads, each night that the stage was being set for
the production of the first scene, casualties were had with deadly
regularity.
When everything was in place and the curtain ready to be drawn up, 1400
batteries were in a position along the Lens-Arras road and valley,
standing wheel to wheel, many of them brought to bear over roads that
had been specially constructed for their conveyance, as regular routes
were not usable for them and a road one-and-a-half-miles long, made out
of three-inch thick planking, was placed ready for use in three days'
time, together with a narrow-gauge railroad, for rushing up ammunition
and taking back wounded men. This road and narrow-gauge railway took a
short cut across the valley and proved a godsend in relieving the
congestion on the regular road, and was of inestimable value in
achieving our end.
On the 2nd day of April, 1917, stage manager Haig ordered the curtain
raised and, with its raising, vengeance was let loose. Gaps 20 to 30
feet wide were blasted in the barbed wire; some of the mine shafts
about Lens were flattened and destroyed; Fritzie's supply roads were
rained upon with a steady hail of hell night and day, preventing the
entrance to his trenches not only of ammunition, but also of food, and
prevented the withdrawal of any men from his lines; his ammunition dumps
were set ablaze, the fires from them lighting up the whole country-side
for miles around. In the air the efficiency of our preparatory work was
equally demonstrated. A new type of flier winged his way back and forth
over the sausage-fed warriors, and the ability of our birds to hold the
line in the Heavens was amply demonstrated, one British airman, on the
28th of March, five days before the battle began, downing three German
eagles in quick succession. Spellbound I watched the magnificent work of
this flier.
Far up as the eye could reach, six British planes in battle formation,
the leader of the squad about three hundred yards in advance, four
others in a row, the sixth three hundred yards in the rear, winged their
way. Suddenly, the rear bird shot downward, volplaning and looping the
loop with as much abandon as if he were in an exhibition park. I
quickly discerned the object of his lightning-like descent. Hovering
over our trenches were three German vultures. As he dropped, Fritz
volleyed at him with his anti-aircraft mouthpieces, but failed to land.
The bird kept on his downward plunge until he reached his objective, and
as he dove into the vultures, our anti-aircraft guns, which had been
endeavoring to wing the German birds, ceased fire and all eyes were
turned heavenward. With bated breath we watched and waited the outcome.
The Fritzies spread out in circle formation, with a view to surrounding
it, each a little higher than the other. With a lightning-like swoop the
British bird, getting right in front of it and turning sharply, let fly
his machine gun in rapid fire, Fritz answering energetically. In less
than three minutes' time, a distinct wabbling was noticeable and the
British sparrow, seeing that his work there was done, turned his
attention to the others. His work was surely done; Fritz continued to
wabble and then plunged in a deadly drop until he got to the Lens-Arras
road, where he made a desperate attempt to alight on the highway; but he
got tangled up in the trees, his wings being smashed and remaining in
the branches, the body of the plane shooting down into a deep ditch and
embedding itself and its two occupants in the mud. They were dead. A
tremendous cheer greeted this victory over the first opponent. The other
two airmen followed our bird, volleying at him as they flew. With a
quick motion he turned upside down, swooping for the bird on his upper
left, and continued to chase and fight him in this position. The other
German bird was off to one side, put-put-put-put-ing! for all he was
worth, but his bullets were wasted by reason of the upside down
position. In a run of another 500 yards the work of our lad was
finished, his machine gun having done the trick; and Fritz and his pilot
being killed, the machine dashed rudderless to the ground, nose first.
There remained but one. Our bird again got on top, but there was no
fight left in Fritz; he scooted for a hundred yards in the direction of
home, but was winged while running, part of his left wing dropping off.
The rest was easy; his machine became unmanageable, an explosive bullet
smashed into his petrol tank and he dropped in flames.
The entire ceremony of sending the three German chickens to their
eternal hen-coop did not take ten minutes. As each bird fell to its
death, the entire valley resounded with wild cheering; and when the last
foe fell, the cheering wave of sound was followed by a tiger in the
shape of a volley from every rifle--in fact, everything that would
shoot, except the big guns.
Our bird then executed his stunt of victory, looping the loop several
times over Fritzie's trenches, and the spirit of Fritz was amply
exemplified by the thousand times ten thousand shots which were leveled
at the air king to bring him down. He bore a charmed life; although his
plane was perforated with machine-gun bullets, none touched a vital
spot.
But, suddenly, from out the clouds swooped a German swallow in a
frenzied attack to retrieve the disgrace. He had all the advantage of
position, and a great fear filled my heart that our champion might not
long enjoy the fruits of his victory. However, when about 400 yards
above our bird, our watchful boys at the Archee guns (the anti-aircraft
guns, so nicknamed because of their peculiar explosive sound) opened on
him, and with the third shot, off flopped his fish tail. He dove in a
wabble to the ground and, in his descent, his petrol tank was struck by
one of our explosive bullets. When it reached the ground in No Man's
Land, it was a mass of flames.
For seven days, every hour of the night and day, the mighty chorus of
1400 batteries rose and swelled unceasingly in a vast concourse of
sound.
Promptly at ten minutes past five, on the morning of the seventh day,
the word having passed from end to end of the lines, the men were up and
over. A mine that had been prepared in the Ridge by our engineers was
exploded, the shock rocking every German trench in the valley, killing
several thousand men and wounding twice as many more. The first and
second lines were taken without any trouble, and over we went into the
third. Some opposition was here met, but quickly overcome. The program
was repeated until the entire six lines of German trenches were in
Canadian hands, and late in the afternoon we were masters of the Ridge.
The personal comfort to the men taking a stroll through the streets of
Arras, after the Ridge was in our possession, had to be seen to be
appreciated. Heretofore such a thing as a pleasure walk or shopping tour
was out of the question, as the sniping was continuous, and the only way
now for Fritz to snipe the town was with his heavy naval pieces, six or
seven miles off, and as these visitors are a hundred times scarcer than
the callers from the short range boys, the peace and quiet of our
fellows were correspondingly increased one hundred fold.
No need now was there to hide our work in and around the coal mines, the
precious element being taken out of the bowels of bountiful nature in as
large abundance as was required; our hungry guns can now be supplied
with all the grub they require in any hour of the twenty-four; our wagon
lines moved forward behind the Ridge to a place of perfect security;
several army corps were released for service in other parts of the
lines, and the city of Lens, honeycombed with German soldiers, is
practically bottled up, they not daring to retreat, and it being
impossible for them to advance. But the over-weaning advantage of this
movement and the reduction of this obstacle is the tremendous impetus
that will be given our forces when the waves of the great drive that is
in contemplation sweep the gray-clad hordes of Huns from the land of
Sunny France. From a military point of view, it can be stated that our
success here was of far-reaching importance.