World War, 1914-1918 -- Campaigns -- Western Front; World War, 1914-1918 -- Personal narratives
The Canadian attack yesterday 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 utter and joyous confidence of
victory. On their right were the Highland Brigades of the 51st Division
who fought at Beaumont-Hamel, and who shared the honour of that day with
the Canadians, taking as many prisoners and gaining a great part of the
ridge. They went away at dawn, 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 objectives, 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 Thélus, 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, and hundreds more in Great Volker Tunnel, but as
the Canadians and Scots 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. The Canadian
casualties on the morning of attack were not heavy in comparison with
the expected losses, though, God knows, heavy enough, but the German
prisoners were glad to pay for the gift of life by carrying our wounded
back. The eagerness of these men was pitiful, and now and then
grotesque. At least the Canadian escorts found good 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 deep 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 high 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 types. I saw
elderly, whiskered men with big spectacles, belonging to the professor
tribe, and 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. 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
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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