n in the Langemarck region. The contact between the
French and British forces was excellent throughout the fight; in fact,
the perfect co-operation of the two armies continued to be one of the
minor wonders of the war.

CANADIAN VICTORIES AT LENS

Canadian troops added to their laurels by the storming and capture of
Hill 70, dominating the important mining center of Lens, in northern
France, August 15, following up their victory by the occupation of the
fortified suburbs of the city and apparently insuring its redemption
from German hands, after a struggle that had lasted for two years.

The men of the Dominion swept the Germans from the famous hill, defeated
all counter-attacks, and thus gained command of the entire Loos salient.
It was on this hill that the British forces under Sir John French were
badly broken in their efforts to reach Lens in the first battle of Loos,
in September, 1915. Hill 70 was the last high ground held by the Germans
in the region of the Artois, and its fall menaced their whole line south
to Queant and north to La Bassee.

The Canadian attack began at 4:25 o'clock, just as the first hint of
dawn was appearing. All night the British big guns had been pouring a
steady stream of high explosive shells into the German positions,
great detonations overlapping one another like the rapid crackling of
machine-gun fire and swelling into a mighty volume of thunder that shook
the earth and stunned the senses. Then, a short time before the hour set
for the attack arrived, the batteries ceased abruptly and a strange,
almost oppressive stillness crept over the terrain which until then had
been an inferno of crashing noise and death. It had been raining and
gray clouds still hung over the trenches where crouched the Canadian
infantrymen, waiting eagerly for the arrival of the moment which would
summon them to attack.

Suddenly, ten minutes before the time set for the advance, every British
gun within range broke out with a hurricane of shelling, and solid lines
of crimson lightning belched from the German trenches as the explosives
broke about them. To this lurid picture was added the spectacle of
burning oil, which the British threw on the enemy lines. Great clouds of
pinkish colored smoke rolled across the country from the flaming liquid
and the murky sky threw back myriad colors from the conflagration below.

The moment of attack arrived, and as the British guns dropped their
protecting barrage fire