The heaviest fight in which the Canadians were engaged since the Second Battle of Ypres began in the night of April 3, 1916. The Battle of St.-Eloi will always rank among the highest achievements of the Canadian troops, who again demonstrated in this hard-fought struggle their indomitable courage and stubborn tenacity. The Second Division had taken over the ground won by the Third Division in recent engagements. The opposing lines opposite St.-Eloi ran due east and west. The new line won by the Third Division was a salient thrust due south into the German position, receding slightly on the right and abruptly on the left, to meet the old British line. To quote the official story: "The old British line had been the arc of a bow turned north and the new line became the arm of a bow pushed south. The distance between these bows never exceeded 500 yards, and both of them were less than 1,000 yards in length from end to end with a frontage of 600 yards. In the middle, running as the string of both concave bows, and separated by 200 or 250 yards from either old or new line, was the original German line, blown to atoms in most places, and represented through the center part of its length by a series of four huge mine craters. These crowned the mound of St.-Eloi, a rise in the ground which dominated the whole country." The explosion of the great mine had damaged trenches on both sides, and had created in the center of the arc of the bow a line of great piles of earth. The trenches captured by the Third Division lay in front. To the rear were the remains of the old line, a crater imposing a barrier between troops holding either side. The new front trench could not be reached except from the right or left, and a line is always in danger when supports cannot be brought up from the rear. The frontage at St.-Eloi was 600 to 1,000 yards, and the Germans' guns had hammered it for three weeks until the whole surface of the ground was uptorn. The Second Division occupied this area in the night of April 3, 1916. Brigadier General Ketchen and the Sixth Brigade took over the immediate front while the Fourth and Fifth Brigades were in reserve. The 27th (Winnipeg) Battalion, commanded by Lieutenant Colonel Snider, held the right of the line to the 31st (Alberta) Battalion under Lieutenant Colonel Bell on the left. The 29th (Vancouver) Battalion under Lieutenant Colonel Tobin was in support of the 27th while the 28th (Northwest) under Lieutenant Colonel Embury was behind the craters and in the center, supporting the 31st with its left.