force was about to be made; but he did not know when
it would occur nor where. Hence it was necessary for him to be
constantly on the alert. Many of the Germans were under arms at all
hours of the day and night. In fact few of them on that part of their
line got any real rest during the week in which the bombardment
continued. The section between the two lines of trenches was
illuminated at night, and the cannonade kept up so that there was no
opportunity for the Germans to repair the havoc made by the British
shells.

The suspense was terminated on the evening of June 15, 1915, by an
additional flight of projectiles from the British guns. Every piece of
British ordnance on that part of the line was worked at top speed. The
Germans, knowing that this immediately preceded an infantry charge,
used their artillery to stop it. But the British charge formed in
their trenches, with the Canadians on their right. In addition to the
shrapnel the Germans made breaks in the lines of their foes by the use
of machine guns, but the breaks were quickly filled. On some parts of
the front the British and Canadians were successful and reached the
trenches. In all the captured trenches extended from Rue du Bois to
Rue d'Ouvert.

In the meantime those Canadians who had been directed against Stony
Mountain and Dorchester were doing heroic work. The First Company of
the Ontario Regiment charged through the debris of the mine explosion,
only to run into the deadly hail sent at them by the machine guns. But
the Canadians were determined to complete their task, and they took
Dorchester and the connecting trench. The fire was too heavy for them
to reach Stony Mountain. A group of bombers made a dash forward, but
were shot down before they could get near enough to use their weapons.

The second and third companies rushed forward, suffering severely from
the deluge of lead, but some of their men got into the German second
line and then began to bomb their way to right and left. The captured
first trench was utilized by the attacking force. From that vantage
the advance was led by a machine gun which was followed by a group of
bomb throwers. In working forward the machine-gun base became lost
when the man who had it was slain. Thereupon a Canadian "lumberjack"
named Vincent became the base, the machine gun being fired from his
back. But the German bomb throwers drove the attacking force out of
the trench. The Germans kept a rain of lead between