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Show I' GREAT VPMY H Germans Amazed at the Swift H Advance of the Canadians H Tliousands Surrender. H (From a Staff Correspondent of the Associated Press.) H WITH THE BRITISH ARMIES TN H FRANCE, via London, April 10, 10 p. m The Briitsh sweep east of Arras H today turned the northern pivot of the M famous Hindcnburg line and large M forces of British troops tonight were M pressing fur beyond the top of that H fiorinan barrier which was prepared H after endless months of labor. H The' manner in which the British H have advanced over scores of German H trenches, which the Germans must H hae believed would protect them in- m definitely, has been little short of mi- H raculous. The Germans themselves H have been amazed at the audacity of H the invaders and have surrendered H with an air of complete mystification. M The success of the attack launched H yesterday against some of the strong- H est sections of the German lines of m the entire western front seems to Hj prove tho fact that the artillery has m finally solved tho problem of entrench- M ed warfare. It has taken months and B years of preparation, but when the H guns wero finally massed against tho j German front they hammered it into H submission. H JL?V s this nammormg that demor- alized tho German lines on tho Somme during the recent retirement of tho HIndcnburg lino stretching from Arras Ar-ras southeastward to St. Quota tin. Now tho top of this line has been crossed and Is being attacked along tho entire en-tire distance. The meaning of tho airplane activity last week, when tho British fliers deliberately set out to clear tho air of Germans, has been revealed re-vealed in tho new attacks. Hard on Air Scouts. Today the intrepid airmen were covering cov-ering the advance everywhere, keeping keep-ing the troops advised of enemy movements move-ments and enabling the British artillery artil-lery to shell every area where concentrations con-centrations appeared Tho day was anything but ideal for flying, it was blustery from sunrise to sunset, and furious snow squalls were In the air at half-hour intervals. During these the machines were completely submerged sub-merged by tho snow barrage. Tonight the Canadians triumphantly triumph-antly announced that the famed Vimy ridge had beon cleared of all Germans. Vimy ridgo hns been a historic battleground in this Avar. The country on both sides is dotted with graveyards, m which lie tens of thousands of French and German soldiers who gave up their lives in the fight cither to take or to hold this imposing position. The British too have tasted of the bitterness of tho battles there and the Canadians had been holding onto a slender position po-sition on the western slope all winter win-ter only by tho display of most tenacious te-nacious courage In connection with the new offensive offen-sive it was determined that Vimy must fall. The ridgo positions had been flayed by an incessant bombardment bom-bardment for ten days and nights, when yesterday at dawn tho Canadians Canad-ians climbed out of their lowly I I I II HI - " '" - -I . - --- trenches and bpgan moving toward the top of it. They fought thoir way from tho foot to the creBt before mid-afternoon yesterday, today they swept down the farther sldo and now dominate tho enemy remaining in the Douai plains. Vimy, German Fortress. Vimy was one of the vaunted German Ger-man field fortresses, and the British Brit-ish find it difficult to imagine any "strategical reasons" that would caH for giving it up. More than three thousand Germans in the Vimy garrison, gar-rison, including one hundred officers, offi-cers, fell into Canadian hands before be-fore sunset last night. The Canadians did not for a moment mo-ment under-estimate the seriousness of tho task before them in taking Vimy. They knew that the artillery artil-lery had paved the way to success but were frankly surprised when they saw what the guns liad actually actual-ly done. They found hundreds of Germans holding up their hands over the bodies of their fallen comrades and bc&ging for something to eat. These men said they had been cut off for days from all supplies by the s'cadiuess of tho artillery fire. They could not retire and no relief supply sup-ply columns from tho rear ever i cached tho neighborhood of where the shells had been falling in continuous con-tinuous showers. Some of the stronger redoubts, manned by machine gun detachments, detach-ments, in which were found men of the highest morale in the German army, resisted for several hours. But, closing around them during the night, the Canadians silenced all resistance. re-sistance. The final bombardment had sent most of the German defenders into tho depths of their dugouts and they did not daro venture out until the British called upon them to surrender, surren-der, which they did precipitately. Among tho officers captured on the ridgo were seven lieutenant-colonels and also several doctors who surrendered with all their staffs. Somo of the officers were inclined to be sulky, blaming their predicament upon tho failure of the supports to i come up as promised. They were told that the British artillery had "attended to that." Others of the officers were deeply depressed. Hundreds Hun-dreds of prisoners taken were found lying in tho assembly tunnels from which they had attempted to reach ' the front line but could not emerge on account of the shell fire. oo |