72nd Seaforth Highlanders of Canada - waughfamily.ca

SEAFOBTH HIGHLANDERS OF CANADAall was ready. The last remaining minutes sped, until onthe tick of 5 a.m., the barrage opened and the attack onthe Drocourt-Queant Line blazed out along the front.As the 72nd swept into the attack, the wearing effecton the enemy of the previous day s fighting was at onceapparent. His outposts, after but a scattered show of resistance, fell back to their trench lines. From the frontline enemy trench, the machine gun fire swelled in volumeas the attack became visible. The fire of these guns was,curiously enough, very wild. Profiting by this "A" and"D"Companies pushed rapidly forward, and sweepingthrough the barbed wire defences, poured in an irresistibletorrent into the famous trench line. Up and down thisline the men hunted out the enemy like rats. The trenchlineitself in this particular sector was disappointing. Theenemy s dugouts were for the most part merely uncompleted shafts, down the steps of which terrified Bochessought to evade the hated and feared tartan of the attackers. Swinging on /to the next support line, the twoleading companies swept into them with the same fine dash.Isolated posts, manned by defenders of sterner stuff heldout, but in a very short space of time the second line wascompletely in our hands. At this point and Com"B" "C"panies passed through and "A" "D," heading for the lasttwo support lines of the system.As the Arras-Cambrai-Hendecourt-Dury cross-roads wasreached, a more or less comprehensive view of the attackwas obtained. To the north the white curtain of the rollingbarrage stretched away towards the valley of the Scarpe,while on the south it moved eastward with deadly precision. Large numbers of prisoners streaming back fromthe point of the fighting wedge, showed plainly theprogressof the attack."B" and "C"Companies meanwhile had tackled therear two linesof the system with the same vim shown bytheir sister companies, and routing out the last discouraged130