From the News

Dated: August 31, 1918

0n Monday it was reported from British General Headquarters that at 3 a.m.- Canadian, Scottish and London troops had attacked on both sides of the Scarpe River from Croisilles to the neighbourhood of Gavrelle. On the south bank of the river Canadian divisions, attacking with great gallantry, passed rapidly through the enemy's foremost defences and captured the high ground known as Orange Hill in the first rush of their assault. Despite heavy storms of rain the Canadian troops pressed on and at an early hour reached Wancourt and Monchy-le-Preux. During the morning the rain ceased. These troops .completed the capture of both villages, and made progress beyond them.

In the afternoon the Canadian troops captured the ridge east of Wancourt and established themselves east of Guemappe.

On Tuesday morning the troops operating astride the Scarpe again attacked. Overcoming the resistance of the enemy in old front line defences held by him prior to his offensive on the 21st March, the Canadian troops penetrated deeply into the German positions between the Sensee and Scarpe rivers, and captured Cherisy, Vis-en-Artois and the Bois-du-Sart, with many prisoners.

Germans again Surprised

The arrival of the Canadians was an immense surprise to the Germans (writes Philip Gibbs in the Daily Telegraph). The last heard of them was outside Roye, after their glorious, advance on the left of the French, and the last thing in the world which the enemy expected was to find them right in the north beyond Arras. That was a brilliant piece of secret manoeuvre.

Before the Germans had any inkling of their presence•the Canadians were advancing upon them on Monday morning with a sweep, of shellfire in front of them. Without encountering much resistance, they swung round by Guemappe and Wancourt over the high ground on each side of the Cojeul. The Germans of the 214th Division, made up of men from the Rhineland, Stettin, and Lower Schleswig, and Hessians, were aghast at this sudden assault, and either retired or gave themselves up in the early stages of the Canadian advance. Their resistance stiffened on the crest of Monchy Hill, and there was fierce fighting all night in the trench on the top of the Wancourt spur. But the Canadians were determined to get this place, and, with great individual gallantry and good leadership, and a most dogged spirit, they worked around the: machine guns which were holding them off„ and rushed them in the darkness. By morning they held the spur, and this body of Canadians, who had taken over 820 prisoners on Monday, on the Tuesday morning added another 150, with many machine guns, most of whom were caught in the valley below the ridge. All told, the Canadians and the Scots attacking with them, had taken about 1,800 prisoners.

Tho Old Wancourt Tower

The highest point, most desired by the Canadians, was the old Wancourt Tower on the tip of the crest, and this they gained in time for a new departure on Tuesday morning, having to change their direction three times owing to the lie of the ground, and facing south instead of east after the beginning of the battle, which is always a difficult operation.

A little farther north other Canadian troops who had crossed Orange Hill — that hill which dominates many miles of country, so that the loss of it a few months ago was serious to us — advanced again on Tuesday morning to two woods on equally high ground beyond, for which our men strove many times in vain, in May of last year. Those are the Bois du Sart and the Bois de Vert.

The Morning Post's correspondent says: — One new division, the 35th, composed of good West Prussians, came in on Monday night against the Canadians. They counter-attacked about seven o'clock north-east of Monchy, and drove in the Canadian outposts about 400 yards, but could make no further impression. Doubtless the German communique will claim a much greater recovery of ground, for the Canadians, finding that Sart Wood could not be taken in the first rush, voluntarily withdrew part of their line before the counter-attack came in order to be better prepared to resume the advance next day.

The First Day's Casualties

Mr. J. F. B. Livesay, the Canadian Press correspondent at the Front, says:—Our casualties during the first day of the Battle of Arras were light, being less than the total number of our .prisoners. This was specially so on our right, where the chief obstacle was overcome by a turning movement, Neuville-Vitasse thus falling into our hands with practically, no loss. On our left the valley of the Scarpe and the formidable position of Monchy-le-Preux took a heavier toll. Casualties among stretcher parties evacuating the wounded from our centre and right on Monday, were disproportionately heavy, because the enemy was able to bring to bear a heavy fire over the captured ground from his artillery positions.

AMIENS BATTLE INCIDENTS

It is now possible to record some of the exploits of the Canadian cavalry on the three opening days of the battle. None is more tragic and wonderful than the ride to death of some men of a well-known Western regiment. The cavalry, set the task of breaking through the enemy lines and destroying his back organisation, undertook some desperate adventures in this quest over a country serrated with trenches and wire and containing hidden nests of enemy machine guns.

A small body of cavalry attempted to gallop the "Z" wood. Down the road they rode through the ranks of the advancing infantry, but they were wiped out long before they reached their objective, one trooper alone getting within a hundred

yards of it. Some empty saddles returned, and at night half a dozen wounded men crawled back into our lines.

More success came to another squadron of the same regiment, whose captain holds both the V.C. and the M.C. Advancing along this fatal road, the squadron met very heavy machine-gun fire west of Le Quesnoy, coming from the direction of Damery. It swung south off the road and crossed the French infantry line, and then, galloping over trenches and wire, captured the village of Andechy, and with it a very large enemy supply depot and a considerable number of prisoners.

Another famous Canadian cavalry regiment, whose deeds in the South African War are a matter of Canadian history, made on the opening day an attack on Quesnel, but the charge was stopped by enemy machine-gunners in a sunken road. The squadron swung to the right and the left, and here the major leading it got out in advance of his men, and with one corporal defended himself in a scrub for eleven hours against the attacking Boche, finally rejoining his command under cover of night. Meantime one troop galloped into Fresnoy, on the right, surprising the garrison and rounding up 150 prisoners. The enemy came back in force, and the troop was obliged to withdraw rejoining the regiment with all their prisoners. In this village was witnessed the remarkable spectacle of a trooper, leading a pack of ammunition, galloping with his reins over his arm, emptying his carbine at the enemy.

The Colonel and His Cigar

“Our colonel went over the top with a cigar stuck between' his teeth," said one soldier, in telling of his experiences at the Second Battle of Amiens, "and the next time I saw him he was toting along a horseshoe. Blest ,if he didn't carry it all day, and he needed it too. That cigar was never out of his mouth."

"Cigar be damned," chimed in another. "Whenever the old man went by me he was chanting them Scottish psalms that sound something like the Bible, except when he gathered together his bally batmen and charged the machine-guns in Snipe Copse, and then he was roaring like a bull of Bashan."

J. F. B. Livesay