Here again the hidden German machine-gunners gave considerable trouble. Many of those nests of machine-guns were concealed in pockets near or in dug-outs, and as our men advanced they were met by unexpected bursts of fire. Just before reaching Zwischen Stellung the battalion was again held up by a concrete emplacement hidden in a hay-stack near Terry Trench.
Milne undertook to clear out this nest as before. He repeated his tactics, stalking the gun in the same way. He was again successful. This time he knocked out the weapon, causing the garrison to surrender. The second objective of the battalion was taken soon afterwards.
Milne, however, did not live to know his bravery had won him the Victoria Cross. He was killed not many hours afterwards; but his contribution towards the Vimy Ridge victory was officially recognized when the dust of conflict had settled down.
LANCE-SERGEANT ELLIS WELWOOD SIFTON, 18TH BATTALION
On Easter Monday (April 9th), 1917, in a mixture of recurrent rain and driving sleet, the Canadian troops took Vimy Ridge from the Germans.
When it is said that the Canadians "took" this ridge the literally correct phrase is used. No other word expresses the historic incident so well. The Canadian battalions took Vimy Ridge; and Lance-Sergeant Ellis Welwood Sifton, of the 18th Battalion, from Ontario, was one of a few men whose deeds on that tremendous day won for them the highest mark of admiration their fellows could offer for valour. He gave his life for the award.
The taking of Vimy Ridge was an operation which involved practically every Canadian unit. It was a scheme the authors of which hardly dared to hope would be so completely carried out, for the ridge was the pivot of the German millions on the whole western front. It was an eight-thousand-yards-long fortress, deemed by its occupants to be impregnable, a bastion of inestimable strength and importance, an inland Gibraltar.
British and French armies had tried several times to wrest it from the German grasp. The Germans had met their smashing blows, had quivered under them--but had continued to hold the ridge. On the morning of that Easter Monday they held it, arrogant as ever. In the evening they were gone!