72nd Seaforth Highlanders of Canada - Electric Scotland

SEAFORTH HIGHLANDERS OF CANADA
to its former self by the rain of shells it had received in
termittently through the winter, and without respite dur
ing the past ten days, seemed nothing but a vast expanse
of small lakes formed by the linked-up shell-craters. Prog
ress across this ground under the most favourable condi
tions would have demanded great exertion.
As the hands of the officers carefully-synchronized
watches came to the stroke of half past five on that fate
ful morning, the western sky seemed to leap into a gi
gantic flicker of sheet lightning, as the immense concen
tration of guns began their final smashing of the doomed
German positions. Simultaneously with the opening of the
barrage the two mines under the Boche right front were ex
ploded, and the 72nd moved forward to the attack, as
promptly and with angry violence, in answer to frantic
S. 0. S. rockets, the German protective barrage came down
on No Man s Land and on the trenches which the Bat
talion had just left, being particularly heavy in the vi
cinity of Montreal Crater, which was the left centre of the
Battalion s front. There was also intense machine gun fire,
particularly from a small hillock of the Ridge to the left
of the Battalion which bore the name of the Pimple. The
Battalion quickly overran the enemy front line, hounding
the Boche from the remains of his shattered dugouts and
from the easterly lips of the group of mine craters. Stren
uous resistance was encountered from the triangle of
trenches formed by Clutch and Cluck trenches, and great
difficulty was experienced in keeping direction in the
blinding sleet and over the maze of water-filled shell-holes.
Some of these were 20 feet or 30 feet across and six or
seven feet deep.
The battle in which the Battalion was now bearing its
part, facing the long and sinister slope of Vimy Ridge
was a very comprehensive and tremendous assault in
which there were roughly 120,000 men in the storming
line with 40,000 advancing behind them. But it will be
48