Throughout the night of August 14, 1917, the British big guns were sending a stream of high-explosive shells into the German positions east and south of Loos while preparations were going forward for a big offensive movement. The attack began at 4.25 when the first light of dawn was glimmering in the east. For a short space of time the British guns were silent, but ten minutes before the Canadians, crouching in their trenches, received the order to move forward every British gun within range poured a steady stream of fire on the German positions. The battle scene was wrapped in pink-tinted clouds, shot with streaks of crimson fire. Just when the time arrived for the Canadians to strike, and when a protecting barrage was dropped before their trenches, the clouds parted and a pale-yellow moon poured its mild rays over the scene. It was by this light that the Canadians advanced to attack. They mounted the famous Hill 70, where so much blood had been spilled in days gone by, expecting that heavy fighting awaited them on the crest, which was well manned with machine guns. They were agreeably disappointed, however, for the German resistance was not strong. It was only when the Canadians gained the first houses in the outskirts that really strenuous fighting began. There was one point where the enemy was strongly intrenched in concreted cellars where a struggle of the deadliest description developed. Lens before the war had a population of 30,000, but was now a mass of ruins. The Germans had constructed strong subterranean defenses, undermining the whole place with tunnels and dugouts reenforced with concrete. Such bits of ruined buildings that remained standing had been used for gun emplacements. It was through this stronghold that the Canadians had to force their way. The tremendous bombardment that preceded the attack had quite unnerved the Germans, and numbers were seen to desert their posts and flee to the rear, but in many parts of the outer defenses north and west of the city the garrison fought fiercely. In an hour and a half the Canadians had pushed forward 1,500 yards, having gained most of the outward bastion of Lens formed by the separate colonies, or "cités," so called, consisting of blocks of miners' cottages and works united in one big mining district. The most important operation during the day, however, was the capture of Hill 70, which the British had taken and lost two years before, for the hill commanded a wide territory and was the last dominating position in this section that had remained in German hands.