- from ‘the War Budget’ April 19th 1917
- 'Germany's Fate on the Vimy Ridge'
- by Philip Gibbs
Canada's Staggering Blow at the Enemy of Civilisation
Canadian firing a captured German gun
THE battle of Arras is the greatest victory we have yet gained in this war, and a staggering blow to the enemy. He has lost some 12,000 prisoners and more than a hundred guns, and in dead and wounded his losses are great. He is in retreat south of the Vimy Ridge, and as he goes our guns are smashing him along the roads. It is a black day for the German armies and for German women, who do not know yet what it means to them.
The "bombardment before the final" assault was a beautiful and devilish thing, and the beauty of it and not the evil of it put a spell upon one's senses.
All our batteries, too many to count, were firing, and thousands of gun flashes were winking and blinking from the hollows and hiding places, and all their shells were rushing through the sky as though flocks of great birds were in flight, and all were bursting over German positions, with long flames which rent the darkness and waved sword blades of quivering light along the ridges.
The earth opened, and great pools of red fire gushed out. Star shells burst magnificently, pouring down golden rain.
Mines exploded East and West of Arras, and in a wide sweep from Vimy Ridge to Blangy Southwards, and voluminous clouds, all bright with a glory of infernal fire, rolled up to the sky.
Then the scene changed as by a miracle. Snow was falling, blown gustily across battlefields, and powdering the capes and helmets of our men as they rode or marched forward to the front. But presently sunlight broke through the storm clouds and flooded all the countryside by Neuville St. Vaast and Thelus and La Folie Farm, up to the crest of the ridge, where the Canadians had fought their way with such high valour.
Our batteries were firing from many hiding-places, revealed by short, sharp flashes of light, but few answering shells came back, and the ridge itself, patched with snowdrift, was quiet as any hill of peace.
It was astounding to think that not a single German stayed up there out of all those who had held it, unless some poor wounded devils still cower in the great tunnels which pierce the hillside.
It was almost unbelievable to me, who have known the evil of this high ridge month after month and year after year, and the deadly menace which lurked about its lower slopes. Yet I saw proof below, where all Germans who had teen there before our terrific bombardment, thousands, of them, were down in our lines, drawn up in battalions, marshalling themselves, grinning at the fate which had come to them, and spared their lives.
Canadian Attack
The Canadian attack was astoundingly successful, and carried out by high-spirited men, the victors of Courcelette in the battles of the Somme, who had before the advance an otter and joyous confidence of victory.
They went away at dawn, cheering and laughing through the mud and rain which made scarecrows, of them. They followed close and warily to the barrage of our guns, the most stupendous line of fire ever seen, and by 6.30 they had taken their first goals, which included the whole front line system of German trenches above Neuville St. Vaast, by La, Folie Farm and La Folie Wood, and up by Thelus, where they met with fierce resistance.
The German garrisons were for the most part in long, deep tunnels, pierced through the hill as assembly ditches.
There were hundreds of them in Prinz Arnault Tunnel, arid hundreds more in Great Volker Tunnel, but as the Canadians surged up to them with wave after wave of bayonets, German soldiers streamed out and came running forward with hands up. They were eager to surrender, and their great desire was to get down from Vimy Ridge and the barrage of their own guns. That barrage fell heavily and fiercely upon the Turco trench, but too late to do much damage to our men, who had already gone beyond it.
Cheerful Prisoners
The Canadian casualties were not heavy in comparison with the expected losses; but the German prisoners were glad to pay for the gift of life by carrying our wounded back. The sight of these men was pitiful, and now and then laughable.
At least the Canadian escorts found great laughing matter in the enormous numbers of men they had to guard, and in the way the prisoners themselves directed the latest comers to barbed-wire enclosures, and with great satisfaction acted as. masters of the ceremony to their own captivity. ? I have never seen such cheerful prisoners, although for the most part they were without overcoats and in a cold blizzard of snow. They were joking with each other, and in great good humour, because life with all. its hardships was dear to them, and they had the luck of life.
They were of all sizes and ages and typos. I saw elderly, whiskered men with big spectacles, belonging to the professor tribe, arid young lads who ought to have been in German high schools. Some of their faces looked very wizened and small beneath their great shrapnel helmets. Many of them looked ill and starved, but others were tall, stout, hefty fellows, who should have made good fighting men if they had any stomach for the job.
"When Will the War End ?"
There were many officers standing apart. Canadians took over two hundred of them, among whom were several forward. observing officers, very bad tempered with their luck, because the men had not told them they were going to bolt and had left them in front positions. All officers were disconcerted because of the cheerfulness of the men at being taken.
I talked with a few of them. They told me of the horrors' of living under our bombardment. Some of them had been without food for four days, because our gunfire had boxed them in.
"When do you think the war will end?" I asked one of them.
“When the English are in Berlin," he answered, and I think he meant that that would be a long time.
Another officer said, "in two months," and gave no reason for his certainty.
"What about America ?" I asked one of them. He shrugged his shoulders and said, "It is bad for us, very bad; but, after all, America can't send an army across the ocean."
At this statement Canadian soldiers standing around laughed loudly, and said, "Don't you believe it, old sport. We have come along to fight you, and the Yankees will do the same."
Some of the bravest work was done by forward observing officers, who climbed to the top of Vimy Ridge, as soon as ft was captured, and through the sea of heavy barrage reported back to the artillery all the movements seen by them on the country below.
In spite of the wild day our flying men were riding the storm and signalling to the gunners who were rushing up their field guns. "Our" 60-pounders," said a Canadian officer, "had the day of their lives." They found many targets. There were trains moving in Vimy village and they hit them. There were troops massing on sloping ground and they were shattered. There were guns and limber on the move, and men and horses were killed.
Enemy's Frightful Losses
Above all the prisoners taken by the English, Scottish and Canadian troops, the enemy's losses were frightful, and the scenes behind his lines must have been and must still be hideous in slaughter and terror.
Some of the German officers wearing Iron Crosses wept when they surrendered. It was their day of unbelievable tragedy. A queer thing almost comical in spite of tragedy happened to some German transport men. They were sent out from Douai to Fampoux. They did not know they were going into the battle zone. They drove along until suddenly they saw British soldiers swarming about them.
Six hours after their start from Douai they were eating bully beef on our side of the lines, and while they munched could not believe their own. senses.
The prisoners I saw below Vimy Ridge — those masses of grey clad men who had come down from the great hill like the population of a bombarded town — belonged to many branches of the German army, from infantry of reserve field artillery, Landwehr foot artillery, pioneers, entrenchment companies, telegraph battalions, Red Cross, trench wireless stations and supply columns.
from 'the Illustrated War News' - Canadian soldiers on the Western Front
