At half past 5 on Easter Monday morning, April 9, 1917, the great attack was launched with terrible fire from massed artillery and from many field guns in hidden advance positions. The Canadian "heavies" bombarded the enemy positions on and beyond the ridge, and trenches, dugouts, emplacements, and roads, which for long had been kept in a continual state of disrepair by the Canadian fire, were now smashed to uselessness. An intense barrage of shrapnel from field guns, strengthened by the indirect fire of hundreds of machine guns, was laid along the front. At the same moment the Canadian troops advanced in line, in three waves of attack. Flurries of snow drifted over the battle field as the Canadians left their jumping-off trenches behind the rolling barrage. The light was sufficient for maneuvering purposes and yet obscure enough to obstruct the range of vision and lessen the accuracy of fire of the German riflemen and machine-gunners. The troops on the extreme left made a start under conditions as favorable as those in the center and right, but they were soon confronted by a strong and constantly strengthening opposition. The advance of these troops was soon checked between the first and second lines of objectives by heavy fighting, which was more formidable against the center of the line than against the flanks. A dip in the ground caused a change of direction, which swung these troops off their central objectives. They reached their goals on the flanks, only to find themselves subjected to heavy, close-range fire of machine guns and rifles. To be enfiladed from the center and the north was bad enough, but to add to the situation, caves or a tunnel, in the hostile line over which we had already advanced, now disgorged Germans, who promptly reoccupied their old front and opened fire on the Canadian rear. The enemy at these points fought with unusual vigor and resolution. These troops on the extreme left fought all day, and by 10 o'clock at night succeeded in disposing of the enemy in their rear and capturing the major portion of the enemy trenches in their center. "The Pimple," in the north, still remained to the enemy, but by then snow was falling heavily and it was wisely decided to consolidate the hard-won gains and prepare for a counterattack rather than to undertake a further assault that night. The "Pimple" would keep for the morrow. In the meantime the other troops fought forward to one line after another without serious check, but with many brisk encounters and not without casualties. Most of these were the result of shrapnel fire, only a small percentage were fatal, and the majority of the wounds were of a minor character.