h]
ON VIMY RIDGE, WHERE CANADA WON LAURELS
The Canadians took the important position of Vimy Ridge on Easter
Monday, April 9, 1917. They advanced with brilliance, having taken the
whole system of German front-line trenches between dawn and 6.30 A.
M. This shows squads of machine gunners operating from shell-craters
in support of the infantry on the plateau above the ridge.

[Illustration: Photograph]
Photo from Western Newspaper Union
GENERAL SIR ARTHUR CURRIE
Commander of the Canadian forces on the Western Front.

The British held the section of front between Ypres and La-Bassee, about
thirty miles in length, the Germans, unfortunately, occupying all the
higher grounds.

Shortly after the arrival of the Canadian division the British,
concentrating the largest number of guns that had hitherto been gathered
together on the French front, made an attack on the Germans at Neuve
Chapelle. This attack, only partially successful in gains of terrain,
served to teach both belligerents several lessons. It showed the British
the need for huge quantities of high explosives with which to blast away
wire and trenches and, that in an attack, rifle fire, no matter how
accurate, was no match for unlimited numbers of machine guns.

It showed the enemy what could be done with concentrated artillery
fire--a lesson that he availed himself of with deadly effect a few weeks
later.

Though Canadian artillery took part in that bombardment the infantry was
not engaged in the battle of Neuve Chapelle; it received its baptism of
fire, however, under excellent conditions, and after a month's
experience in trench warfare was taken out of the line for rest.

The division was at the time under the command of a British general and
the staff included several highly trained British staff officers.
Nevertheless the commands were practically all in the hands of
Canadians--lawyers, business men, real-estate agents, newspapermen and
other amateur soldiers, who, in civilian life as militiamen, had spent
more or less time in the study of the theory of warfare. This should
always be kept in mind in view of subsequent events, as well as the fact
that these amateur soldiers were faced by armies whose officers and
men--professionals in the art and science of warfare--regarded
themselves as invincible.

In mid-April the Canadians took over a sector some five thousand yards
long in the Ypres salient. On the left they joined up with Fr