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Show il Till ON gerrunjurces Shells Made in Germany Are Now Bursting Among the Retreating Germans. FROM A STAFF CORRESPONDENT CORRESPOND-ENT OF THE ASSOCIATED PRESS, WITH THE BRITISH ARMIES IN FRANCE, via London, April 13, 1026 p. m. From the Vimy ridge lato today fires could be seen burning in the German Ger-man lines, and Canadian patrols had advanced beyond tho outskirts of Gi-venchy. Gi-venchy. t An exploration of Vimy ridge shows that the British artillery virtually blew off the top of it. and the German Ger-man stronghold, which had resisted all efforts of the French and British during more than two years of war, was finally forced into such a position by high explosives that it could not resist infantry charges. These charges, charg-es, of course, were backed up by continuous con-tinuous gunfire and accompanied by all the terrible machines and devices of modern war. , Walking on lop of tho ridge was virtually impossible, as it is just one continuous climb from one shell crater to another. Two surmounting knobs, known only on military maps as numbered num-bered hills, had attracted tho fire of the heaviest British guns and had been shattered into unrecognizable buttes on the landscape. It is little wonder thathe Germans made such desperate efforts to hold the Vimy ridge and to retake certain portions of it by counter attacks which failed miserably. The ridge stood as a natural barrier between the Germans Ger-mans and their opponents and was a sreat protective chain of hills shielding shield-ing invaluable coal, iron and other mineral lan,ds, that Germany had wrested from France in the first onrush on-rush of the war in 1914. The city of Lens, now within sight of the British lines, is a great mining center. It is generally believed that in yielding yield-ing the mines, which have been of such help to the Invaders, the Germans Ger-mans undoubtedly will try to wreck them by every menns. But even if France does not regain the immediate use of the mines, tho shutting off of Germany from their precious products will mean an important step toward the ultimate allied victory. From the lop of Vimy ridge the British Brit-ish now look down on the plain of Douai and toward the great industrial sections of France, which so long have been in enemy hands. "We are the top dogs at last, ' a Canadian Ca-nadian officer said to the Associated Press correspondent today. "We have tho Germans on the downhill, and once they are started you may be sure they will go back fasL" In the continuous hail of shells that is going over and upon the Germans many are their own and thrown from their own abandoned field pieces. They are tasting what a British Tommy calls "the joys of some of their own devilish devil-ish explosives." The Germans also are getting a bitter pelting from hundreds of their own machine guns. nn |