tle of Arras, as this series of important
engagements was called, even before it was concluded with all the honors
in Allied hands.

For several days after the first dash on Monday morning, April 9, the
British tore through the German defenses on an extended front north and
south of Arras, from the north bank of the River Scarpe to the German
trench system just south of Loos, and straddled the iron line of
Hindenburg by April 13 as far as a point seven miles southeast of Arras.

But success did not stop here. To the south the British progressed on
a front of about nine miles, between Metz-en-Coutre and a point to the
north of Hargicourt The French columns joining the British in this
sector swept forward along with their allies. They attacked with
tremendous vigor German positions south of St. Quentin and carried
several lines of trenches between the Somme and the St. Quentin railway.
These positions were held despite every effort of the Germans to retake
them.

Throughout the length of interlinked chain of advances the fighting was
of the utmost ferocity.

For the first time in the war the British were making sharp drives and
smashes like a skillful pugilist, every one of which contained force
enough to have been considered a major attack in the history of other
wars. In places the attack has shaken loose from the trenches and was
being delivered along the lines of the old Napoleonic strategy.

The British captures of Vimy and later of Givenchy were looked on
as victories of the utmost importance, equal to the storming by the
Canadians of the Vimy Ridge. When this line of hills was firmly in the
hands of the Canadians, they hauled their heavy guns up to the summit
with extraordinary speed and proceeded to batter to pieces the powerful
defenses of Vimy, while they made continual thrusts down the eastern
slopes.

In 1915 Vimy was for a time held by the French under Gen. Foch, but they
were shouldered out with great slaughter by the Germans, who proceeded
to lavish the last details of their military science upon the
fortifications of the town.

Givenchy, too, before which many British dead lie buried, was a
stronghold upon which the Germans counted to stem any advance.

On April 16 the extension of the British attack nearly to Loos
threatened to pocket Lens, just as a loop had been thrown around St.
Quentin, and the fall of this industrial city with its rich coal mines
was considered inevitable. Indeed, credible