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Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: Chapter III. THE BATTLE OF ARRAS: THE PUSH. ASTER Sunday morning, April gth, whilst the peasants of Artois behind the firing line were gathering in the village churches to worship and to pray for deliverance, the British Army of attack gathered for the battle of the morning. In Arras Divine Service was held in the cellars, as the town was being heavily bombarded by the enemy?the last bombardment that they would be able to inflict upon it, for the day of deliverance was at hand. The citizens had some idea of what was afoot, and there seemed a special fervour, one cur6 relates, in their prayers of intercession that day. In the afternoon, to mark the greatest festival of the Christian year, there was held a Vesper Service even in the shell-swept district. There was a note of hope in the appeal of the Benediction hymn? 0 Salutaris Hostia, Quse coeli pandis ostium, Bella premunt hostilia, Da robur fer auxilium. Easter Sunday evening was spent within the British lines in a confident preparation. The greater part of the infantry brought up for the attack slept in bivouacs. The night was cold though fine; towards the morning rain came with a north-westerly wind. Dawn was anxiously awaited by the troops, dawn and the chance to get forward. The darkness was intensified rather than relieved by the occasional flash of a gun taking part in a feeble and desultory bombardment of the enemy's lines, a bombardment which seemed to mark the flickering out of a threatened attack, and to promise to the enemy a chance to repair his sorely shattered lines. From the evidence of prisoners it seems clear that the Germans did not expect an immediate attack, and that when the rain came it was taken A rough translation: " O Saving Host, guardian of Heaven's Gate, armed foes oppress us...