THE FRENCH BREAK THE GERMAN LINES AT VERDUN—CANADIANS GAIN AT LENS

North of Verdun, in a region that had witnessed many of the most desperate struggles of the campaign in France during the previous year, the French won a great victory on August 20, 1917. After three days of almost continuous shelling of the German lines the French armies attacked simultaneously on both banks of the Meuse and carried their objectives at all points. On the west bank of the river they gained Avocourt Wood, the summit of the famous Dead Man Hill, and the Corbeaux and CumiÈres Woods. The French advance reached at some points a depth of a mile and a quarter. Over 4,000 unwounded Germans were made prisoner.

At 4.40 in the morning the French artillery preparations reached the final phase when vigorous attacks were made on Avocourt Wood and Bezonvaux. The first objective was won by 6 o'clock and German prisoners were on their way to the rear. The three days' artillery fire had so devastated Hill 304, Dead Man Hill, and Talou Ridge that the Germans were forced to abandon their first line. The French found less opposition from the enemy than they had expected, for the well-served French guns had taken much of the fighting spirit out of their opponents. At some points, however, where the French fire had been less felt there was hard fighting. The greatest advance made was on the right bank of the river to the north of Vacherauville. They occupied Talou Ridge, Mormont Farm, and Hills 240 and 344. To the east the Germans were driven out of parts of the Fosses and Chaume Woods.

During the advance the French army was greatly aided in its operations by the brilliant and daring work of its aviators. Hovering low they showered machine-gun bullets on the enemy lines, dispersing assemblies forming for counterattacks and bombing German gunners at close quarters. In a series of combats in the air the French flyers brought down eleven German machines on the Verdun front, while two others were destroyed by antiaircraft guns.

An interesting phase of the fighting on the French front at this time was the unusually large proportion of German officers captured, 201 being taken with about 6,700 men. This seemed to show that the German officer class had deteriorated, that the best trained had been killed or made prisoners, and that the new officers who replaced them were lacking in spirit or had not become steeled to war work.

In the fighting on this front certain German army formations had been badly smashed. Three regiments which formed the Sixth Reserve Division of Brandenburgers and the kaiser's favorite troops were literally annihilated as fighting units, losing sixty-nine officers and about 2,800 men as prisoners.

On the same day that the French were advancing in the Verdun sector the Canadians around Lens were winning fresh laurels. Northwest of the city they had by desperate fighting established strong posts among the trenches and railway cuttings that formed the last line of German defense in that quarter. This was the scene of much strenuous but indecisive fighting two days before.

From their new positions the Canadians had now command of the last bit of ground from which the defenders of the city could overlook the advance from the west. They were now in a hollow all around the front which swings about Lens in a semicircular form. As every eastern exit to the city was now subjected to a continuous and harassing fire from machine guns and artillery, the work of bringing up provisions and supplies of ammunition had become extremely hazardous.

The Canadians in their continued struggle around Lens had displayed such irresistible courage and resolution that their deeds will long be remembered in the pages of history. No soldiers during the war faced more difficulties or confronted more formidable defenses. They forced their way through streets entangled with hedges of steel and houses bristling with machine guns. They penetrated tunnels too strong to be touched by shell fire. They threw themselves against fortress positions amid a fiery hail of shells and explosives. They swept through the towns of St. Laurent, St. ThÉodore, and St. Emilie to the north and west of Lens where sunken roads and slag heaps were strongly fortified, and so on through the apparently endless and formidable defenses to the western streets of the inner city.

The Germans never let a day pass without at least one attack on the Canadian positions, and once within twenty-four hours they launched no less than seven strong assaults. Between the attacks the men of Canada were subjected to a heavy gunfire from a wide semicircle of strong batteries.

Between August 10 and August 20, 1917, they were attacked in turn by six German divisions, each being shattered by the Canadians' dogged courage and amazing fighting power. These were the Seventh, Eighth, the Eleventh Reserve, the 220th and the First Guards Reserve Division. Besides those five divisions it was known that portions at least of the 185th Division and of the Sixth Reserve Division had also been engaged.

It was conservatively estimated by military observers of the struggle here that the German strength used at Lens was upwards of 50,000 men, and their losses were estimated at between 12,000 and 15,000 men.

At an early hour in the morning of August 20, 1917, the Canadians made a trench raid on the German front northwest of Avlon, where heavy fighting ensued. This front was strongly fortified by the Germans as protection for an important mining suburb southeast of Lens, and it was here that they had set up the guns withdrawn after the Canadian advance two days before. Here the hand-to-hand fighting was fierce and deadly, the Germans fighting with desperate courage, but the Canadians got the upper hand by slow degrees, and after inflicting heavy casualties took some prisoners and retired to their positions.

Early in the morning of the following day the forces from Canada again struck hard, attacking German trenches west and northwest of Lens. The battle raged throughout the day and far into the night. The Canadians advanced against strong opposition, using bomb and bayonet freely, winning important enemy positions to the northwest and southwest of the center of the city. It appears that the Germans had massed strong forces for a counterattack at daybreak against the newly won Canadian positions, and had already begun their forward push when they encountered the Canadians rushing across no-man's-land. Owing to a dense mist that prevailed at the time, the Germans did not see them until the foe fell upon them with bomb and bayonet.

This dramatic surprise for the Germans seemed to have had a chilling effect on their fighting spirit. They retreated in wild haste to the trenches they had left, despite the frenzied attempts of their officers to rally them. Close on their heels dashed the Canadians, and mounting the parapets showered bombs among the other troops that had gathered for the attack. As the Germans fled for the communication trenches the Canadians leaped among them, and with bomb and bayonet killed a great number.

In the Verdun region on this date the French continued to make important gains. All day long the tide of battle ebbed and flowed in waves of fire. On the left bank of the Meuse the French captured the famous CÔte de l'Oie and the village of RÉgneville. On the right bank of the river, sweeping through Samogneux, they seized an entire system of trenches between that village and Hill 344 which had been won on the previous day. The Germans delivered a number of strong and determined attacks on both sides of the river, but lost heavily in their attempts to check the French advance. Some idea of the French gains on the left bank of the Meuse may be gathered from the fact that when the Germans held the village of Fleury and menaced Verdun they were two and a half miles from the fortress. On August 21, 1917, when the French held the village of Samogneux, the Germans were seven miles from the fortifications.

Throughout the day's fighting the German counterattacks failed completely. The French maintained all their gains and organized captured positions. Nearly 7,000 prisoners were taken during the advance, of whom 116 were officers.

The capture of Dead Man Hill by the French troops was an especially notable achievement, for its system of underground defenses made it as nearly impregnable as human ingenuity could devise. That it could be captured in a single day was owing to the ceaseless activity of the French gunners, who had ravaged the stronghold with explosives so thoroughly that it seemed impossible that anything human could survive, however hidden underground. There were a hundred deserters to the French lines, and the Germans surrendered in squads with their noncommissioned officers. The whole garrison of Dead Man Tunnel, which included two battalion commanders, were also made prisoners. When it is considered that the Germans had 400 batteries in action back of their front lines during the two days' advance it will be understood that the French fighting man was heartened up and could look with confidence to the future.

The British resumed the offensive in the morning of August 22, 1917, east and northeast of Ypres along the Ypres-Menin road, capturing a series of fortified farms and strong points in front of their positions and gaining in the advance a third of a mile of territory.

Further to the north the British carried forward their lines about half a mile over a front of two and a half miles. Owing to the fierce character of the fighting encountered in the forward push the number of prisoners taken was out of all proportion to the total losses inflicted on the enemy. Since the offensive began in the morning of August 15, 1917, the British had taken 1,378 men, including officers. In the same period they captured thirty-one machine guns and twenty-one trench mortars.

South and southwest of Lens the Canadians continued to fight hard and to make important gains. They succeeded in getting a firm grip on a stronghold only 300 yards south of the main railway station of the town. This was a huge slag pile which had been tunneled by the Germans and was known as "Green Crassier." The odd position constituted a barrier between the Canadians and the defenses of the city proper. It was connected by tunnels with dugouts and defenses underneath Lens, and the Germans, appreciating its value, clung to it tenaciously. Preceded by a heavy bombardment the Canadians attacked at early dawn and were atop of the Germans before the latter had any warning of what was impending. The long series of counterattacks in which they had been engaged during the previous days had not entirely quenched the German fighting spirit, and the slag pile was such a network of defenses that the Canadians were from the start roughly handled, but they held on with dogged determination, though they had never faced more formidable conditions, and despite the desperate efforts of the Germans to oust them. Surrounding the slag pile or "crassier" many of the ruined buildings had been transformed into strong and most ingeniously constructed fortifications. The Canadians systematically bombed their way through these defenses and drove out the defenders, who sought refuge in the numerous tunnels under the city. Lens was crowded with German troops of the Fourth Guards Division and the First Guards Reserve. Forced to live among the dead and wounded in underground caves, their lot was hideous beyond description.

French troops operating in the Verdun sector gained an important victory on August 24, 1917. In the early morning they began a powerful offensive on the left bank of the Meuse between Avocourt Wood and Dead Man Hill. By a single charge they carried Hill 304 and Camard Wood to the west of it. All the German positions were captured and the defenders made prisoners. To make doubly secure their possession of Hill 304, the French pushed on beyond it for a distance of about a mile and a quarter. The loss of Hill 304 and Dead Man Hill, which commanded all the approaches and ravines as far as Douaumont, deprived the Germans of every observation point from which they could watch the operations of the French troops.

The Germans won some success against the British forces along the Ypres-Menin road on this date, while the Canadians were forced to retire from the crest of the "crassier," or slag-pile stronghold, and to take up positions adjoining it. The Germans had succeeded in bringing forward fresh troops against the Canadians, who were worn down but not discouraged by almost continuous fighting day and night. The enemy had the advantage of numberless underground retreats, tunnels, subterranean chambers, and a network of cellars connected by passages from which they could dash suddenly, and after striking a shrewd blow disappear mysteriously from sight. The Germans were in a precarious situation and showed a disposition to conserve their forces.

On the Verdun front the French continued their victorious progress, capturing north of Hill 304 three strongly fortified works near Bethincourt. Since the beginning of this offensive the French had taken over 8,000 prisoners. If they cherished any belief in the superiority of the Germans as fighters, they held it no longer. The German High Command had issued orders that every position must be held regardless of the cost, but except in isolated instances they had displayed no unusual fighting qualities, while the German officers often perpetrated amazing blunders.

The French renewed the offensive on August 25, 1917, when they delivered a smashing blow on the right bank of the Meuse in the Verdun sector, gaining two-thirds of a mile on a front of two and a half miles. This gave them possession of the Fosses and Beaumont Woods and brought them to the outskirts of Beaumont. Violent artillery fighting continued around Hill 304 during the day. The French continued the drive, pushing their advanced posts forward to the southern outskirts of the village of Bethincourt and Forges Brook. A violent counterattack made by the Germans from Wavrille Wood was caught by French artillery fire and driven back shattered and in disorder.

On the British front during the night of August 25, 1917, the Germans were driven out of a trench northeast of Guillemont Farm which they had captured earlier in the day. In the morning of August 26, 1917, British troops attacking east of Hargicourt on a front of over a mile won half a mile of ground, and carried by assault strong enemy positions at Cologne and Malakoff Farms. About the same hour of the morning when this advance was made the Germans under cover of a heavy bombardment attacked in the neighborhood of the Ypres-Menin road. In this assault flame projectors were freely used and they succeeded for a brief time in recovering positions in the northwest corner of Inverness Copse. Before they could organize their defenses the British rallied and in a hotly pressed counterattack drove them out and reestablished their positions.

The British did not undertake any infantry action on a large scale during the next few days, but their guns, which far outmatched the Germans', were not taking a rest. An eyewitness whose experience covered many battle fields said he had never seen so many guns great and small as on the wide stretch of country back of Ypres. For miles he walked through concentric lines of batteries and estimated that the British were able to fire a hundred shells to the Germans' one. It was probably with the hope of saving man power that the Germans now built concrete blockhouses in front-line positions capable of holding a score of men, while keeping their main forces far back for counterattacks. But notwithstanding their new methods of defense the Germans lost heavily, for the British guns in forward positions kept the enemy support lines under a constant and blasting fire.

Owing to the fine weather the German aviators were active. In the course of a number of aerial engagements the British brought down four German aeroplanes and drove three others out of control, losing two of their own machines. It had been circulated throughout the German press that the kaiser's forces had abandoned Hill 304 to the French for strategical reasons. This was disproved by the discovery of an order signed by the German commander in this sector of the Verdun front addressed to his troops, who were urged to hold the hill at any cost and emphasized the importance of the position as a point of observation.

The new French line on the west of the Meuse, now supported by the commanding positions on Hill 304 and Dead Man Hill, ran a mile beyond these strongholds, facing Forges Brook. On the heights east of the Meuse and along the river the line of the French left was now extended at Samogneux and on Hill 344. From this point the front runs eastward down hill past Mormont Farm to the Vacherauville-Beaumont highroad, then along the ravine between the Louvemont and Beaumont Woods up to the plateau, including what remained of the larger wood of Les Fosses, and so across the north to the Chambrettes Farm.

A comparative calm reigned in the Verdun region during August 27-28, 1917. The Germans attempted a few feeble counterattacks, and there were times when their guns became vociferous, but no important operation was begun, and the French had ample time to consolidate their gains and strengthen the newly won positions.

In the midst of a driving rain British troops in Flanders launched an attack in the afternoon of August 27, 1917, along the St. Julien-Poelcappelle road. They had set out to seize some of the concrete fortifications, each of which held a score or so of Germans with machine guns and heaps of ammunition, who could sweep a wide field with fire and had caused the British many losses in men. The Steenbeke and Hannebeke Rivers had overflowed and transformed the region round into bogs. Into this marshland the men from Yorkshire and other English counties, drenched to the skin from being out all night, struggled forward to destroy the Germans' "pill boxes." There was violent fighting near the Springfield and Vancouver Farms northeast of St. Julien, which were strongly held by the Germans. The machine-gun fire was especially heavy at these places, but the British pushed forward and the WÜrttembergers who had been sent up from Roulers to strengthen the German advance posts, were driven back. The British succeeded in capturing two of the concrete forts, making prisoners of the defenders.

On the Aisne front northwest of Hurtebise the Germans during the night of September 1, 1917, tried by desperate assaults to recover lost positions, but were driven off by gunfire. North of Hill 304, on the same date there was intermittent artillery activity, and on the heights above the river the French foiled two attempted surprise attacks.

Near Lens and La BassÉe the Germans endeavored to raid British trenches, but were repulsed. Southwest of Havrincourt they achieved a temporary success, bombing their way into British advanced posts and forcing the defenders to fall back. But the British quickly rallied, and by a dashing counterattack forced out the invaders and reoccupied the posts, taking prisoners and leaving a considerable number of dead Germans on the field.

The reappearance of the sun and fair weather after days of rain made it possible to resume military operations. The Germans were the first to attack during the night of September 2, 1917, a British position southwest of Havrincourt. The assault was preceded by a heavy bombardment in which gas shells were freely used, but the British artillery and machine-gun fire was so intense that the attackers were driven back in disorder.

Southeast of Monchy on the same date the British carried out a successful raid on the German trenches that proved a complete surprise to the enemy. British troops were atop of the Germans before they could make a strong defense, but finding they were inferior in numbers the raiders, after destroying many of the enemy, withdrew with their prisoners.

At Lens, where the Canadians had been holding on with grim determination to portions of the famous "crassier," or slag pile, and among the ruins adjoining, surrounded by nests of Germans and subjected to almost continuous fire, there was renewed activity with the clearing weather. During the night of September 3, 1917, the "Kanucks" struck in upon the outer shell of Lens, gaining 250 yards on a 600-yard front. This was really an advance of importance, considering the nature of the ground fought over. For the neighborhood was packed with Germans, who had guns everywhere. This forward push brought the Canadians in some places to the north of Lens, where there was only an open space of about 300 yards between their positions and the buildings of the city proper.

Fair weather brought renewed fighting on the Champagne and Verdun fronts. No day passed without a German attack, but the French, occupying commanding positions, were successful in holding their own and slightly extended their gains.

In this first week of September the British air service carried on an extensive campaign of bombing German bases back of the lines of Belgium and northern France. Tons of bombs and explosives were dropped with good results on railway tracks at Ghent, on aerodromes near Cambrai, Courtrai, and Lille, and on billets around Douai. German air raids over the British lines one night killed thirty-seven German prisoners and wounded forty-eight.

Early in the morning of September 6, 1917, troops from British Columbia, operating on the edge of the city of Lens, captured a row of houses 300 yards long occupied by four companies of German troops. This important success served to further reduce the area within Lens that still remained in German hands.

North of Frezenberg the British carried some strong positions and dispersed a hostile counterattack launched against them later in the day. In the evening the Germans returned in strength to the attack and forced the British out.

The Canadians around Lens continued to be in the center of the storm. In the morning of September 7, 1917, the Germans counterattacked all along the front to the west of Lens. After repeated efforts of extreme violence the Canadians were bombed out of part of their positions, but in the area of the slag pile or "crassier" the men from overseas extended their holdings and the new front they established now became a serious menace to German positions along the north side of the Souchez River. This latest advance so enraged the enemy that their entire front was deluged with the heaviest shells that had ever been seen in this area, while from time to time clouds of gas were released which blotted out the scene of the battle, but not the intrepid Canadians, whose gas masks afforded perfect protection.

On the French front there was continuous activity. Every time that the German press gave notice to its public that the French military power was waning and had become a negligible factor in the war the indomitable Gauls by some dashing attack gave evidence that they were very much alive and had no thought of surrender.

For some days the French in the Verdun sector had been busy every day in beating off German attacks, but on September 8, 1917, they assumed the offensive on the right bank of the Aisne and occupied important positions on a front of a mile and a half, capturing during the advance over 800 prisoners. Assaults on the French lines east of Rheims and on the Aisne front resulted in crushing German defeats. At almost every point the French wall of defense held firm, and against it the seasoned troops of the kaiser, who lacked neither persistence nor bravery, dashed themselves in vain.