LAND & WATER 
April 19, 1917 
give his opponents observation <jvcr the whole vast plain 
to the East, because it was exceedingly well suited for de- 
fence, being of dry chalk and affording a splendid field 
of fire over its long glacis westward, and because, so long as 
it was held, it wis impossible for the Allies to do anything 
immediately to the south. 
Now what lay immediately to-the south of Vimy Kidge ? 
If the reader will glance at Map II, he will see that a depression, 
which is the valley of the Scarpe, runs to the south of Vimy 
Kidge and between it and a spur of heights which run right 
out east beyond, and may be called the Heights of Monchy. 
This valley of the Scaipe holds the main railway and tiie main 
road, which supply, all that part of the enemy front 
from the point of IJouai. J'hroiigh Douai passes the main 
German line of communication, the railway and the roads which 
go up northward to Lille and Belgium. A (mal occupation 
of Douai by the Allies threatens all the north. Even an 
approach to it creates an impossible salient round Lens, 
which is the centre of the French coal district, compels the 
evacuation of that salient, but having done so creates a new 
salient round La Bassee. 
A successful advance then, along the Scarpe line, would 
shake the whole German plan of defence here, and that ad- 
vance was blocked by the German possession of the \'uny 
Kidge, because the British army could do nothing along the 
Scarpe so long as the \'imy Kidge held. 
But there was more than this. An advance along the 
Scarpe would not only have all these effects northward, it 
would also have a corresponding effect southward. The so- 
called " Hindenburg Line " ran, as we now know, from the 
suburb of St. Saviour over the hill of Tilloy, w hich was one of its 
main joints, through Heninel, East of Croisilles, west of 
Bullecourt and then in front of Qu^ant to near Boursies, 
and so southwards. 
An advance along the Scarpe and its neighbourhood would 
turn this line, that is, get behind it. The enemy in view of 
such a jjossibility, had long prepared a switch hne, leaving 
the Ilinbenburg line in front of Ou^ant and going pretty 
well north to Drocourt. Of this switch hne, which presum- 
ably is continued on behind Lens and joins the old line some- 
where between that and La Bass(5e, the Air Service had given 
ample information. Wliat its strength will be under the con- 
ditions of pressure to whicli it will be subjected, the immediate 
future will show us. But of one thing we can be sure. It is an 
expedient, it is not a permanent support. The enemy 
fallen back upon it must abandon Lens and all its coalfield, 
must put the junction of his communications at Douai under 
distant fire, must submit to a formidable salient again 
created to the north round La Basstc, and in general can only 
be halting in the process of a longer retreat. In other words, 
the turning of the so-called Hindenburg line by a pronounced 
advance on both sides of the Scarpe (itself dependent upon the 
successful attack of Vimy Ridge) would shake the whole 
sjSitem of defence which the enemy had planned before making 
his first retirement. The line was already fluid upon a trace 
of 75 miles or more up to the neighbourhood of Arras ; a 
successful blow delivered upon the axis of the Scarpe would 
extend its fluidity at least as far north as the neighbourhood 
of Loos, another 15 miles. 
VlTien we have thus gras|«d what the tasK was set to the 
first offensive we can proceed to follow the details of its 
success. 
Details of the British Actions 
I 
By the end of Holy Week all orders had been received 
for a general attack to be made by the British forces upon 
Easter Monday, and the points indicated stretched from the 
north of Vimy Ridge to the immediate neighbourhood of St. 
Quentin. The total front of the battle thus planned ran, as 
the crow flies, for a distance of nearly eighty kilometres, or 50 
miles. Its many convolutions gave a real total of over 60 
without counting the continuation of the line by the French, 
whose action though subsidiary was constant throughout 
the struggle and extended for another forty miles southwards. 
These figures alone show the tremendous change which lias 
come over the fire power of the Western Allies, an<l particularly 
the British, since the first offensive of 1915, with their few 
thousand 3'ards of front, and even since the Sommc of last 
year, with its ma.vimum of tliirty miles. 
This immense battle line had for its critical point the 
Northern pivot, the Vimy Ridge, for its most critical area of 
extension the V' alley of the Scarpe, but for very vigorous action 
also a whole chain of points right down to the rounded flats 
which overlook St. Quentin, within rifle range of that town. 
The preliminary bombardment, much tlie most intense 
Loncentration of which was against the Vimy Ridge, continued 
all Sunday, and all the night between Sunday and Monday. 
With the first breaking of a rainy dawn upon Easter Monday 
at hiJf past five (real time), the bombardment of the Ridge 
which had grown in intensity with every passing hour was 
lifted and the infantry were launched. 
The Canadians went forward for the attack upon Vimy 
Kidge, English and Scottish troops operated further south 
in the valley of the Scarf)c, south of these from near Oueant 
♦.o Havrincourt the Australians and troops (the particulars of 
which are not mentioned) continuing the pressure all the way 
down to St. Quentin. 
Monday, April 9th 
In tlio first advance .what may be called the Glacis of 
the \'imy Ridge was occupied, and to the south of it those 
suburbs of Arras, Laurent and Blangy which lie upon either 
side of the Scarpe and were here the strongholds of the German 
line. The very strongly fortified triangle of railway em- 
bankments formed by this junction of rails immediately to 
the east, w^as engaged before half i)ast eight in the morning 
and still further to the south pressure was being exercised 
upon Neuvillc-vitasse and all along the line to the Bapaume- 
Cambrai road. On this road the attack was pressing into 
Boursies and Hermies, getting into the outskirts of the great 
Havrincourt Wood ; approaching the ruins of Pontru and Le 
Verguier. 
During the morning's work the rain was replaced by thick 
5«:urries of snow in a very bitter wind, which luckily blew from 
the west, that is, in the same direction as the advance. 
These scurries of snow, which continued all afternoon, acted 
occasionallv as cover for either parti', but are described as. 
being upon the whole more favourable to the attack than to 
the defence. 
By the mid-day of Monday pouits upon the very summit 
of Vimy Ridge had been reached. By half past three the whole 
of the Ridge was in the hands of the Canadians and a barrage 
fire everywhere marked its summit, save in one point where 
resistance continued. 
This point must be specially noticed. It is the highest 
upon the flatfish top of the Northern part of the Ridge, and 
is marked upon the French Ordnance Map as Hill 145. It 
formed during the whole of that afternoon and evening a little 
stubborn projection from the conquered line and forbade the 
complete occupation of the heights. At the other extremity 
of the Vimy Ridge the ruins of Thelns had been held in some 
strengtli and had somewhat delayed the advance on to the 
southern summit where stood the old Semaphore Pole. But 
Thelus was passed in the course of the day, and by the evening 
of the Monday all the Ridge, with the exception of point 145 
was in the hands of the Canadians. 
Meanwhile, south of the ridge the advance along the 
Scarpe Valley had been particularly successful. I'-euchy, 
nearly 3,000 yards, behind Blangy, had been reached and 
carried ; the railway triangle wliich stands half-way between 
it and Blangy having been forced, largely with the help of 
tanks, in the neighbourhood of noon. Upon tlie Bapaume- 
Cambrai road far to the south, Boursies and Hermies had 
been taken, and further south still the villages of Pontru and 
Le Verguier, which had been approached in the morning, 
were carried. in the afternoon. A feature of this first very 
successful day was the excellent work done by the Air Ser\'ice 
in spite of the storm, and the consequent "repeated success 
of the artillery in catching enemy reinforcements that were 
being hurried across the plain to the aid of the crumbling 
line. Very large ntimbers of jirisoners had been taken during 
the day and a considerable, but as yet imknown number of 
guns. A count made in the afternoon of the .Alonday gave 
already 6,000 prisoners, specially large bodies having been 
captured upon the Vimy heights wjiere tunnels running under 
the ridge through the chalk had become traps for considerable 
groups of the enemy. 
All that night, the night between Monday and Tuesdav, 
the struggle for the redoubt on Hill 145 continued. As indeed 
the struggle continued with greater or less intensity all along 
the line. 
Tuesday, April 10th 
The morning of Tuesday, April loth, broke under the 
same conditions of atrocious weather, and the snow fell 
tiint day even more tliirkly tiiau the day before. But by 
that morning the Redoubt on Hill 145 and been reduced, and 
in the course of the forenoon the Canadians poured downi the 
splintered woods upon the eastern slope of the hills. 
Further south, upon the Scarpe, the same morning was 
