The failure of their counterattacks seemed to have completely unnerved the German troops. Reserves that had been brought forward to relieve shattered battalions lost their head completely and wandered aimlessly about in the open, where they were shot down or surrendered.
The number of prisoners taken by the British since August 10, 1917, had now risen to 454, including nine officers. In the same operations six guns were captured.
During the night of August 11, 1917, French troops resumed their counterattacks against the positions which the Germans had captured during the night of August 9-10, 1917, north of St. Quentin. They were successful in recovering all the trench elements lost in the previous fighting, and also took a considerable number of prisoners. In the sector of Noissy Farm and Laffaux Mill French scouting parties penetrated the German lines at a number of points and returned with prisoners. South of Ailles German troops made a determined effort to recover trenches which the French had occupied a few days before. Two attacks were made with strong forces, the Germans displaying a reckless disregard of life, but their determined efforts came to naught and the attackers were dispersed with heavy losses. The French not only maintained their positions but in the course of the night made further progress.
During the day there was violent cannonading in Belgium and along the Aisne and in the Verdun region. The Germans also directed a scattered artillery fire all over the city of Rheims, killing two civilians and wounding another.
In the night of August 12, 1917, Lens became the center of activity on the British front. The Germans were desperately anxious to maintain their hold on this valuable city, because of its important position in the Pas de Calais coal fields.
The Canadian troops occupying strong positions in the western outskirts of the city received special attention from the German guns. They were continuously harassed too by German snipers hidden among the ruined houses to the north of the Lieven road, and early in the night of August 13, 1917, their advanced posts were pushed out over a front of 600 yards and the ruins occupied, the enemy offering only a slight resistance.
This advance brought the Canadians within 800 yards of the center of the city on the west. From houses on the other side of a belt of open ground covered with the débris of shattered buildings the Germans directed a heavy machine-gun fire on the Canadian positions. In the violent artillery duel that raged through the night the Canadian gunners had far the best of it, eight explosions being noted in German gun positions and their gun pits entirely destroyed.
Throughout the night of August 14, 1917, the British big guns were sending a stream of high-explosive shells into the German positions east and south of Loos while preparations were going forward for a big offensive movement. The attack began at 4.25 when the first light of dawn was glimmering in the east. For a short space of time the British guns were silent, but ten minutes before the Canadians, crouching in their trenches, received the order to move forward every British gun within range poured a steady stream of fire on the German positions. The battle scene was wrapped in pink-tinted clouds, shot with streaks of crimson fire. Just when the time arrived for the Canadians to strike, and when a protecting barrage was dropped before their trenches, the clouds parted and a pale-yellow moon poured its mild rays over the scene. It was by this light that the Canadians advanced to attack. They mounted the famous Hill 70, where so much blood had been spilled in days gone by, expecting that heavy fighting awaited them on the crest, which was well manned with machine guns. They were agreeably disappointed, however, for the German resistance was not strong. It was only when the Canadians gained the first houses in the outskirts that really strenuous fighting began. There was one point where the enemy was strongly intrenched in concreted cellars where a struggle of the deadliest description developed.
Lens before the war had a population of 30,000, but was now a mass of ruins. The Germans had constructed strong subterranean defenses, undermining the whole place with tunnels and dugouts reenforced with concrete. Such bits of ruined buildings that remained standing had been used for gun emplacements. It was through this stronghold that the Canadians had to force their way. The tremendous bombardment that preceded the attack had quite unnerved the Germans, and numbers were seen to desert their posts and flee to the rear, but in many parts of the outer defenses north and west of the city the garrison fought fiercely. In an hour and a half the Canadians had pushed forward 1,500 yards, having gained most of the outward bastion of Lens formed by the separate colonies, or "cités," so called, consisting of blocks of miners' cottages and works united in one big mining district.
The most important operation during the day, however, was the capture of Hill 70, which the British had taken and lost two years before, for the hill commanded a wide territory and was the last dominating position in this section that had remained in German hands.