72nd Seaforth Highlanders of Canada - Electric Scotland

IN THE HINDENBURG LINE.
"D"
Companies, not waiting
for the assault to reach their
stand, advanced to meet the enemy. These aggressive tac
tics somewhat damped the ardour of the Germans, as they
made no determined effort to reach our trenches. After
this last effort, the enemy quieted down, and it became pos
sible to proceed with the interrupted plans for the main
operation.
The difficulties which had arisen out of the bitter fight
ing of the 1st will be apparent even to the lay reader.
Casualties had been incurred, and reorganization was
therefore necessary.
Seven officers were out of the fighting,
and the N. C. O. s had suffered proportionately. When it
is
considered that there were but eleven hours in which to
accomplish the necessary changes, some idea of the task
may be gained. But the chain of responsibility was high
ly developed, and non-commissioned officers and men step
ped almost automatically into the blanks. Dawn on Sep
tember 2nd found the Battalion ready for the historic at
tack on the Drocourt-Queant trenches, the famous northern
switch of the Hindenburg Line itself.
As the men atood in the hush which always seems to
precede the opening bombardment of a big attack, it was
with an indescribable feeling of expectancy that they
looked towards the dawn and realized that within a few
hundred yards lay the trenches of a line which, according
to the German boast, was impregnable. In the \vest, the
Hindenburg Line was the Alpha and Omega of the Father
land s defence. Openly the Germans had told the world
of the consequences that would ensue to troops attempting
to storm it ;
of its belts of barbed w T ire defenses, of its dug
outs, its machine gun emplacements, and its admirable sup
porting trenches. The validity of these assertions was now
to be ascertained.
In silence along the trench the men slipped out their
magazine "cut-outs." Officers checked over their final in
structions to their men in short, tense sentences ;
in a word,
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