VIMY RIDGE.

New Zealand Illustrated Sporting & Dramatic Review, Issue 1421, 19 July 1917, Page 2

VIMY RIDGE.

(By

H. B. C. Pollard.)

Along that terrible line of trenches, redoubts, inundations and mine tips that is the high water mark of the flood of war in Western Europe there are certain places whose names are familiar to us as those of the site of struggles almost superhuman in' their intensity. Sometimes the name is one that recalls a triumph, sometimes it recalls an indecisive result when neither side could claim a victory, but always those names bring to our mind memories of great deeds, heroic courage, and appalling carnage. Ypres, Verdun, the Somme, and Vimy Ridge all are familiar to us, and the very ground is soaked with the blood of Germans and of Allies.

The Vimy Crest has fallen at last, fallen to the assault of the Canadian troops, and this great breakwater of the German defence, against which previous offensives had been broken, has yielded to a brilliant attack. The German losses have been heavy, the blow to the German plan of campaign is even heavier, their fortress works that they had deemed impregnable have been won at little cost, and the celebrated Vimy Ridge has passed into our hands. The significance of this victory cannot be over estimated, for the Vimy position is one that has been ardently desired by both sides all through the war. These heights command the low Plain of Douai and in war to-day, as ever, high ground is an immeasurably important advantage. By their glorious success the Canadians have set the seal upon the heroic' sacrifice of their comrades, British and French, who gave their lives since the early days of the war to win this goal. When the battles of the Marne and the Aisne gave place to the race of Allies and Germans toward the sea in their attempt to outflank one another, the Germans seized the whole of the high ground north of Arras including the Vimy Ridge and its extension past Souchez, well known as Notre Dame de Lorette.

During the fighting around Arras, _ in October and November 1914, theGermans maintained this hold, and it was not until May 1915, that a French offensive was launched toward the Vimy Ridge. The earlier battles had been an attempt on the part of the Germans to break through. Arras had been bombarded, charges in mass formation had been made against the French positions and the Germans had always been beaten back ,mainly by rifle and mitrailleuse fire, and their rout completed by a victorious counter charge. Nevertheless until May 1915 the Allied .line was on the defensive.

During May and June the attack developed before Souchez and the' outlying hill of Notre Dame de Lorette, which is a continuation of those Artois chalk downs that are the Vimy Ridge. The position was defended by the' celebrated German defencework known as “the labyrinth”, a maze of trenches, barbed wire, saps and fortified redoubts. It was here that the fiercest fighting took place, the men struggling bareheaded and shirtsleeved in the hot sun. The casualties to the Germans were prodigious, and the attackers paid a high price for their success, but despite three weeks of furious resistance the French troops won their way foot by foot, and captured Buval Bottom and lastly Notre Dame de Lorette. The Germans were driven back to tfie Vimy Ridge position and here, safe in their prepared works and reinforced with artillery, it was found impossible to dislodge them without a period of preparation such as is demanded by modern scientific warfare. Roads were repaired, artillery emplacements and gun. positions constructed, water supplies were laid, and, in September, the French again attacked. The action was fiercely contested and gallantly fought but such was the natural strength of Vimy Ridge that the assault only gained the village of Souchez and a position upon the western spur of the ridge. This was consolidated and held.

The position of affairs now was that Allies and Germans both had command of the wide field of view commanded by the ridge, but this was far more important an advantage to the Germans than it was to us, for their lines were on the high ground and ours upon th,e level. To-day the position is reversed; the Germans are in retreat, and their next positions are down upon the plain of Douai, overlooked by this very Vimy Ridge.

In May, 1916, a heavy bombardment and attack led to our abandonment of a portion of the ridge, which we had taken over from the French when we extended our lines east toward Arras. Since then it has been a part of the line where no offensive has been launched, although active mining and countermining measures were always in progress. _

Beyond Vimy Ridge lies the Plain of Douai, rich and fertile, and leading directly to the centre of the great coal fields of Northern France. Across this level radiate a network of roads and railroads, communications - that have been of inestimable value to the German for the swift movement of his troops and supplies from point to point. Vimy Ridge is more than a tactical victory, more than a moral victory—it is the actual demonstration that ground which the Germans have deemed impregnable, ground every' inch of which has cost the blood of countless men, a position so fortified by nature and artifice as to be held by all soldiers to be the finest defensive work on the Western front, has fallen before the Allies.