Letters From the Front

Dated: April 15, 1917

I just got back from the First Army School of Instruction in time for the big attack, and on Easter Monday the Canadians certainly made history and took part in what to my mind was the biggest success of the war. The attack commenced at 5.30 a.m., and everywhere on our front the Canadians reached their objectives and completely defeated the Hun Shortly after the attack, prisoners commenced to come in. They were very sure that we could not break through, but when later the numbers rose to the thousands and they were informed of the number of guns which had been captured they were very down-hearted and, as one officer said, 'It is the beginning of the end.' Bad weather and heavy snow-storms have made it very difficult, but everyone was so confident of success that no one could have had any fears as to the result. The Canadians captured the famous Vimy Ridge—a tremendous fortress; in fact, a position which commands the country for miles. A strong counter-attack by the enemy was dispersed by our artillery, the work of which was wonderful. News from our right flank is splendid, the British having driven the Hun back for miles. It has been a wonderful success. While you will have read of this long before my letter reaches you, I enclose part of a British paper which gives some of the details which I thought might be of interest.

Extract from British Paper:

The prelude to this great attack was an Eastertide of ironic contrasts. We saw the British armies moving up for battle yesterday through a countryside at prayer. Peasants trudged to Mass beside dust-covered columns of khaki and guns, and all the grim machinery of war, and knelt in little village churches while aeroplanes fought deadly duels overhead and the peace of Sunday morning was broken by the crash of German shells.

The Canadians have Vimy Ridge and are sitting on the far slope looking down on the plain of Douai. They took it with comparatively little fighting, pushing from one line to the next as punctually as though meeting their enemies by appointment.

There, as elsewhere in the Arras-Vimy area, most of the prisoners were haled out of their dug-outs in the most docile condition. The Canadians took more than 2,000 Germans at Vimy Ridge alone, while on the adjoining Canadian front there were 1,045 men and 26 officers in one cage alone before three o'clock this afternoon. The full extent of this day's fighting cannot yet be estimated, but we know that the Germans have been dealt a severe blow and there are many harder blows to come.