Vis-en-Artois Memorial
The Memorial is within Vis-en-Artois British Cemetery which is located between Vis-en-Artois and Haucourt on a slope to the North of the main road from Arras to Cambrai, the D939, about 7 miles from Arras. The Memorial takes the form of colonnades with screen walls in three sections with stone panels in which the names of 9813 British and South African casualties are inscribed and who have no known grave and fell in the period from 8th August 1918 to the Armistice in the advance to victory in Picardy and Artois between the Somme and Loos. The names are listed under the Regiment in which the casualty served, the Regiments following the order of precedence, under the title of each Regiment by ranks and under each rank alphabetically. First come Commands and Staff, Marines and Navy, Cavalry and Yeomanry Regiments, Artillery and Engineers, then the Foot Guards and Infantry and other Corps and Services. The Memorial was designed by J R Truelove.
Commemorated here and on the listed Village War Memorial
Brinklow Village Memorial
Private Walter Tew
5th Battn King’s Own (Yorkshire Light Infantry)
Killed in Action 12th September 1918
Harborough Village Memorial
Private John Edward Grimsley
2/7th Battn Royal Warwickshire Regiment
Killed in Action 1st November 1918
Wolston Village Memorial
Private Joseph James Clarke
1st Battn Coldstream Guards
Killed in Action 22nd August 1918
Commemorated here
Ernest Edward Harris was born at Takeley in Essex, son of Thomas John and Sarah Harris of Rosemary Lane, Dunmow, Essex. He was living in Dunmow when he enlisted at Chelmsford and joined the 10th (Service) Battalion of the Essex Regiment which was formed at Warley, near Brentwood in Essex.
The Battalion was formed from K2, Kitchener’s Second 100,000 recruits for his New Army in September 1914. As part of the Second New Army the 18th (Eastern) Division began to assemble around Colchester, Essex in September 1914. The Division in the main was recruited throughout East Anglia and the Home Counties and the 10th Battalion Essex Regiment became part of the 53rd Infantry Brigade.
The Division went to Salisbury Plain between the 4th and 12th May 1915 and in July 1915 it was announced that the Division was to move to France as part of the new Third Army comprising V11 and X Corps, X Corps being the 5th, 18th and 51st Divisions.
The 10th Battalion landed at Boulogne on the 26th July 1915 travelling to Third Army concentration area near Flesselles south of Doullens.
In August 1915 the Third Army took over from the French the front line from Curlu on the north bank of the River Somme to Hebuterne, 9 miles north of Albert and by January 1916 had extended further north to a position south of Arras.
At the opening of the Battle of the Somme on 1st July 1916 the 18th Division attacked south and west of the village of Montauban, then on the 19th July 1916 fought at Delville Wood, the 10th Essex led the advance on the 26th September 1916 from Nab Valley in the attack on the Thiepval Ridge taking the Pozieres – St Pierre Divion sunken road.
In early 1917 the 18th Division was involved in operations along the Ancre River the 53rd Brigade helping to take Irles west of Bapaume, then on the 3rd and 4th May 1917 the Division was engaged in the 3rd Battle of the Scarpe as part of the Arras offensive.
The Division moved to the Ypres sector taking part in the Battles of Pilckem Ridge on the 31 July 1917 and the 10th August 1917 the 53rd Brigade being engaged in the Battle of Langemark on the 16th and 17th August 1917.
On the 11th November 1917 there was a conference in Mons when the German plan for an attack near St Quentin on a 50 mile frontage was developed the object being the destruction of the British Expeditionery Force by first breaking the Front Line then turning North West and rolling up the British front from the south pushing the British back to the Channel ports.
The Division returned to the Somme in February 1918 when, with the 66th and 20th Divisions, the 18th Division transferred from 4th Army in the Ypres Sector to 5th Army in the area from La Fere on the Oise River in the south, west of St Quentin to a point some 9 miles east of Peronne. By March 1918 it was known that an attack would be made on the 5th Army front.
Just before 5 am on the morning of Thursday 21st March 1918 began the most concentrated artillery bombardment the world had ever known. Nearly 6000 German guns opened fire almost simultaneously along a 40 mile front between the Sensee River and the Oise. At 0940 the German infantry began attacking. The 18th Division was holding a line of some 10,000 yards along the line of the Oise River south of St Quentin. German storm troops overwhelmed the British front line and made deep penetrations particularly against the 5th Army which was so thinly stretched in the south. The British retreat which started that day lasted for two weeks the Germans advancing more than 30 miles.
By the 23rd March 1918 the 10th Battalion the Essex Regiment had retired to the Noureuil – Frieres Faillouel Road when they made a counter attack against the advancing Germans during the course of which the Commanding Officer Major A S Tween was killed. He is buried in Chauny Communal Cemetery British Extension.
The German Army attacked next in April north of Givenchy forcing the British out of Armentierres and giving up Bailleul. On the 27th May 1918 the third German offensive opened with an attack along the Chemin des Dames, with a fourth attack on the area between Montdidier and Noyon and the final attack on the Aisne between 27 May and 18 July. Following these five attacks Ludendorf the German Chief of Staff postponed but did not abandon his ultimate aim, a decisive offensive in Flanders. The initiative had finally passed to the Allies.
At the end of the Retreat the British Army in the sector we are concerned with held a line east of Amiens running by the village of Hangard to the south, east of Villers-Brettonneux, across the Somme River at Sailly Laurette through Dernancourt then west of Albert, then north and to the west of Mailly – Maillet and north towards Arras.
The main blow was to be delivered by the British Fourth Army under the command of General Sir Henry Rawlinson and the French First Army which had been placed temporarily under British Command.
Punctually at 420 am on the 8th August 1918 with the first gleam of dawn of a typical August day the storm broke and the British Army which only a few months before was in danger of defeat had begun its march to the Rhine. The first to start were the tanks which leaving their position of assembly about 1000 yards behind the infantry “starting line” some minutes before “ zero” had to time their advance so as to arrive close up to the artillery barrage at the moment it fell. At “zero” the artillery opened the creeping barrage fell 200 yards in front of the infantry “starting line” and was then to be lifted to cover the advancing infantry.
The 18th Division was part of III Corps and the attack was to be with three Divisions the task being to secure the Amiens outer defences between the Somme and the Ancre. On the right the 58th (London) Division and the 18th (Eastern) Division were to attack side by side with the right of the 58th Division making liaison on the Somme with the left of the Australian Corps. On the left and after a gap of some 500 yards where no attack was to take place the 12th Division was to attack on a front of 2000 yards.
For the first objective ( including the village of Sailly Laurette and Malard Wood) the 36th Brigade less one Battalion and one Battalion from the 55th Brigade were involved whilst the 53rd Brigade was engaged for the second objective, the commanding ground of the Chipillly Spur, Gressaire Wood and the southern portion of Tailles Wood.
On the attack being launched it was found that the enemy’s barrage was not formidable but the hostile infantry and especially the machine gunners resisted the advance with determination. At the time the 174th Brigade (58th Division) was due to be in Saily Laurete and Malard Wood the village had been taken but the hostile posts in the wood were still uncaptured and for some hours continued to offer resistance.
The second phase of the attack proved a more arduous task. On the right the 173rd Brigade (58th Division) was strongly opposed from the western slopes of the Chipilly spur and during the 8th August it was not found possible to advance the line beyond the eastern outskirts of Malard Wood.
On the left the 53rd Brigade had some hard fighting before it reached its starting position on the first objective being drawn into the fighting by the 174th Brigade to take Malard Wood. From there the left of the Brigade pushed on against considerable opposition. The 7th Royal West Kent on the left and the battalion commander and about 80 men of the 10th Essex in the centre reached a line running south east from the Brickyard, the 8th Royal Berkshire on the right of the 10th Essex advanced along the northern edge of Malard Wood, but was unable to reach its objective, and parties of the enemy with machine guns working westward from Gressaire Wood were thus able to attack the advanced troops of the 53rd Brigade in flank and rear. These advanced troops were in consequence compelled to withdraw and only isolated detachments of troops remained between the first and second objectives.
General Sir Henry Rawlinson commanding Fourth Army appears never to have intended the III Corps to do much more than offer a degree of flank protection for the main thrust south of the Somme. The attack immediately to the north of the river Somme was delivered by just two relatively weak divisions much battered in the Spring fighting and now made up in large part of recent conscripts.
By the date of his death Ernest Harris had been promoted to the rank of Sergeant.
Sergeant Ernest Edward Harris no 12748 was killed in action on the 8th August 1918 aged 21 he has no known grave and is commemorated on the Vis-en-Artois Memorial Pas de Calais France.
Commemorated here
Charles Lawson
No. 6409 Sergeant Charles Lawson Military Medal 10th Battalion the Sherwood Foresters (Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire Regiment) killed in action 18th September 1918 aged 38 years. He has no known grave and is commemorated on the Vis-en-Artois Memorial.
Charles Lawson was born in 1881 the son of Charles Lawson and his wife Selina. In 1891 the family was living at 133 Lentons Lane Sowe. Charles senior was the head of the household, aged 44 years, and a Coal Miner. Selina was 48. The couple had 3 children, Selina aged 21, Joseph 17 and working as a Coal Miner and Charles, 10, a scholar. All members of the family were born in Sowe.
This was a Parish about 3 miles North East of Coventry, since the late 19th century more commonly known as Walsgrave on Sowe. The Northern boundary was Hawkesbury Lane, and the Western, Sowe Pool and stream. In 1891 the area of the Parish was just over 4 square miles with collierys in the Western part and Craven Colliery at Wyken to the south. The Parish was extinguished in 1931 as over the intervening 40 years most of the parish had become part of the City of Coventry.
In 1901 Charles Lawson senior was living at 136 Lentons Lane with his wife Marina aged 60 from Hinckley. A different family the Oldhams was living at No. 133.
In 1911 Charles Lawson (64) a widower was living at Lentons Lane Hawkesbury Coventry working as a Coal Miner/Hewer, his son Charles Lawson (30) was living with him, a single man, also working as a Coal Miner/Hewer with a step-daughter Mary Ann Hewitt aged 45 described as Housekeeper.
In the first quarter of 1913, Charles Lawson married in the Foleshill District of Coventry Edith Maud Blythe. In 1911 Edith (she had not used her Christian name of Maud for some time) aged 21 and single was living with her Father Thomas Blythe (also a coal miner) in Lentons Lane, Hawkesbury near Coventry. She was employed as a Silk Worker and also resident there was her mother Eliza and sisters Florence (15) and Hettie (11).
Charles Lawson served first with the 2nd Battalion of the Sherwood Foresters. On the 4th August 1914 the Battalion was at Sheffield and was part of 18th Brigade in the 6th Division. Charles Lawson landed at St. Nazaire in France on the 8th September 1914 and was then a Corporal. In the 23rd July 1915 Edition of the Coventry Graphic an article recorded “Though a large number of men in the Wyken and Hawkesbury district are required to work the pits the response to the Call to Arms has been very satisfactory” and was followed by the 14th Roll of Honour of 42 men who had joined the Army from those districts and at No. 19 referred to Corpl. C. Lawson, Sherwood Foresters.
On the 16th September 1914 the Division arrived in the Aisne sector and was temporarily broken up in order to provide relief to the war-worn troops of the first five divisions, the 18th Brigade being attached to I Corps, the 18th Brigade on the 19th September taking over the trenches forming the right flank of the BEF about 1 mile East of Troyon, the French holding the line immediately to their East. Soon after dawn on the 20th September the Germans attacked the Moroccans immediately on the right of the British line and eventually occupied the entire front line occupied by the 1st West Yorkshire. Support came from the 2nd Cavalry Brigade and then in the afternoon the Sherwood Foresters counter attacked and finally regained the trenches but at a cost of 200 casualties mostly from machine-gun fire.
On the 1st October Sir John French told General Joffre that he wished to move the BEF from the Aisne to a new position north of La Bassee mainly to be in a position to defend the Channel ports and be in a better position to concert combined action and co-operation with the Royal Navy. This was acceptable as the Allied front north-west of La Bassee was held only by French cavalry and Territorial troops and on the night of 1/2nd October 1915 the BEF began to move north. The 2nd Cavalry Division left first and the III Corps formed by the 4th and 6th Divisions left on the 9th October reaching St. Omer on the 11th October and set out eastwards towards Hazebrouck. On the 13th October the Corps was ordered to advance against the line Armentieres-Wytschaete, the line of attack assigned to the Corps.
In the evening of the 15th October the Battalion crossed the Lys River, cleared the enemy from Sailly and then dug in south of the town. The advance continued and during the night of the 18th October the Battalion relieved the Durham Light Infantry east and south of Ennetiers. In that position on the 20th October the enemy attacked, the troops were ordered to fall back to the high ground at La Vallee but were surrounded and forced to surrender. Only 2 officers and 49 other ranks survived to drive off the German’s last attack, 3 officers being killed, 3 wounded and 10 captured. Of the other ranks, 710 were either killed, wounded or taken prisoner. The survivors were joined at Bois Grenier by HQ and transport details and drafts received on the 26th and 30th brought the Battalion up to strength. In November and December the Battalion began tours in the trenches around Rue du Bois and the Houplines sector.
The Battalion remained in the Houplines sector throughout the Period January to May 1915 and then moved to the Le Touquet sector until the 28th May when the Battalion moved North to the Ypres salient and began tours of the Potijze sector trenches on the 5th June 1915.
The 10th Battalion of the Sherwood Foresters was formed at Derby on the 13th September 1914 and that Battalion landed in France on the 14th July 1915 as part of 51st Brigade in the 17th Division, Divisional HQ being established on the 17th July at Lumbres about 8 miles from St. Omer, units concentrating in the area south west of St. Omer.
The 17th Division was then transferred North to the Ypres salient as part of Fifth Corps the movement north beginning on the 21st July when Divisional HQ was established at Steenwoorde 4 miles east of Cassel. The practice at that stage of the war was to gradually initiate new Divisions into the ways of trench warfare sending officers and detachments of their men into the trenches for brief spells of service amongst the experienced troops who held them. This period began on the 25th July and continued until the 1st August 1915.
On the 1st March 1915 Army Council Instruction laid down that two Regular sergeants and two corporals who had seen service in France should be posted to each battalion in the First New Army so as to ensure that each company had one experienced NCO.
In the absence of his Service Record, it is uncertain of course when exactly Charles Lawson was transferred from the Regular 2nd Battalion to the 10th Service Battalion but it was probably at this period when both the 6th and the 17th Divisions were serving in the same sector of the Ypres salient.
The Battalion fought in the Battle of the Somme from the 1st July 1916 until early November 1916, at Passchendaele (3rd Ypres) on the 12th October 1917 and at the time of the Great German Offensive in the Spring of 1918 was in the area of Hermies North of the Canal du Nord.
On the 8th August 1918 the Allied forces launched the surprise attack that heralded the end of the First World War. With skill and daring 21 Divisions breached the German lines, supported by 500 tanks (the largest number to have been seen in any one battle of the war) and 1000 aircraft. In their wake they left 50,000 dead or wounded German soldiers along a stretch of 11 miles. On this “black day” for the Germans the Allied forces began to see a glimmer of hope and the dawn of victory that was to come only 100 days later with the Armistice on 11 November 1918. The Advance to Victory can be divided into 7 phases, The Advance in Picardy 8th August-3rd September, The Advance in Flanders 18th August-6th September, The Breaking of the Hindenburg Line 26th August-12th October,The Pursuit to the Selle 9th-12th October,The Final Advance – Flanders 28th September-11thNovember, The Final Advance – Artois 2nd October-11th November and The Final Advance – Picardy 17th October – 11th November 1918.
On the 24th March 1918 the Germans re-entered the ruins of Bapaume during the course of the Spring Offensive and remained there until the 29th August 1918 when the town fell to the New Zealand Division. At the close of the Battle on the 1st September it appeared the enemy was intending a gradual and deliberate withdrawal to the Hindenburg Line. The 17th Division was in the Third Army, Vth Corps., whose general line of advance was from East of Bapaume towards the Canal du Nord , the North Boundary of the Corps being to the South of the southern edge of Havrincourt Forest. On the 14th September 1918 at a conference the part to be played by the 17th Division was explained. The Division was to clear the Chapel Hill Ridge and the positions in its rear to the south-east of Gouzeaucourt, the 17th Division would take the centre of the attack and was to be carried out in three bounds. The first would carry the advance to the crest of the Ridge and the summit of Chapel Hill, the second would clear the trenches on the reverse slope and reach the hollow running south from Gouzeaucourt. The 21st Division to the right of the 17th would continue, to take the high ground south of and dominating the village of Villers-Guislain while the 17th Division was to press forward between Villers-Guislan and Gouzeacourt along a hill crowned by Gauche Wood, the wood and the hill being both strongly entrenched. The capture of this dominating feature would leave Gouzeaucourt encircled by the general advance and it was anticipated that the result would be its early abandonment by the enemy. The attack was to be on a single Brigade front with the 52nd Brigade taking the 1st Objective, the 50th would then pass through to attack the next objective leaving the final objective to the 51st Brigade. Zero hour was fixed for 5.20 a.m. on the 18th September and was to be preceded by gas shelling of as many of the enemy batteries as possible on the nights of 15th/16th, 16th/17th and 17th/18th September with a hurricane bombardment by trench mortars and a creeping barrage of artillery on the 18th September. The enemy’s artillery had opened fire promptly as soon as the British barrage began but apparently the Germans were not prepared for the attack and the first objective was captured quickly, the trench system up to the crest of the Ridge being cleared with no very serious resistance. However machine gun fire from Gouzeaucourt which increased as the morning went on was brought to bear on the left of all the three British attacks in succession. The 51st Brigade began its advance passing through the 2nd objective at 7.47 a.m. and the 10th Sherwood Foresters on the right took its objective easily with many prisoners at a cost of only thirty casualties. The 7th Border Regiment in the centre was strongly opposed in Gauche Wood and eventually trench mortars had to be brought up to knock out a machine-gun nest formed of 4 derelict British tanks, when the wood could be cleared and the final objective gained. 1,069 unwounded prisoners had been captured, including 19 officers, 3 Field Guns had been taken in Gauche Wood plus several machine guns.
Including Sergeant Lawson, the Battalion had 33 casualties killed in action, 18 of whom have no known grave and are commemorated on the Vis-en-Artois Memorial:
2nd Lieutenant John Langham,
No. 67101 Lance Corporal Samuel Aldington Dove,
N. 117193 Private John Keeton,
No. 103377 Private William Davies,
No. 116329 Private Leonard Ingram,
No. 101296 Private Arthur Massey,
No. 105685 Private George Reynolds,
No. 89175 Lance Corporal Claude William Fisher,
No. 116446 Private George Hazlehurst,
No. 6409 Sergeant Charles Lawson,
No. 73952 Private Reginald Ellis,
No. 306220 Sergeant William Fores,
No. 16636 Private James Palfreyman,
No. 116417 Private Maurice Gregory,
No. 116592 Private William George Mallatratt,
No. 116038 Private George Henry Allsopp,
No. 265112 Private Archie Gear and
No. 103564 Private George Arthur Moore.
The following are buried in Villers Hill British Cemetery, Villers-Guislain, Nord (South East of Gouzeaucourt).
Lieutenant Hubert Henry Stuggall,
No. 265815 Private W Cleaver,
No. 116183 Private F S Lane,
No. 107026 Private William Keogh,
No. 116527 Private G Straw,
No. 31816 Private J H Tempest.
The following are buried in Gouzeaucourt New British Cemetery, Nord (South of the village),
2nd Lieutenant Eldred William Tack,
No. 116941 Private W R Allton,
No. 203159 Private G Upton.
There are two burials in Gauche Wood Cemetery, Villers-Guislain, Nord. (South of Gouzeaucourt and West of Villers-Guislain). These are No. 116390 Private H Severn and No. 117358 Private Thomas Wilfred Meakin.
The remaining four are 2nd Lieutenant W Meek buried in Trefcon British Cemetery, Caulaincourt; No. 72707 Private A Ellard buried in Brie British Cemetery; No. 268389 Private George Edward Seller buried in Trefcon British Cemetery, Caulaincourt and No. 116815 Private H Oakland buried in Montay-Neuvilly Road Montay. These three cemeteries are some way from the actual fighting in September 1918 where the Sherwood Foresters were involved.
Sergeant Charles Lawson was awarded the Victory and British War Medals and the 1914 Star.
Memorial to the Australian Missing at Villers-Bretonneux
The Australian National Memorial in Villers-Bretonneux Military Cemetery, Fouilloy, Somme records the names of all the 10,770 Australian servicemen who died on the Western Front and have no known grave.
The Memorial was designed by Sir Edwin Lutyens and was unveiled by King George VI on July 22nd 1938.
Vimy Memorial
The Canadian National Memorial, Vimy Ridge, Pas de Calais is about 5 miles North East of Arras on the N17, was designed by a Canadian sculptor Walter Seymour Allward and is erected on Point 145, the highest point of Vimy Ridge. The twin pylons rise to a height of 30 metres above the stone platform of the memorial, one has the maple leaf of Canada and the other the fleur-de-lis for France, symbolizing the unity and sacrifice of both countries. On top of the front wall is the carved figure of a cloaked young woman overlooking the Douai Plains. Her head is bowed, eyes cast down and her chin is resting on one hand. The figure is described as Canada Bereft or Mother Canada.
Inscribed on the outside wall of the monument are the names of 11,825 Canadians killed in France who have no known grave.
It is also a great memorial to all Canadians who served their country in battle during the First World War and particularly to the 60,000 who gave their lives in France.
The Memorial was unveiled on the 26th July 1936 by King Edward VIII.
Commemorated here:
No. 425195 Private James Peden 28th Battalion Canadian Infantry killed in action 15th September 1916.
Son of David and Isabella Peden of 125, 11th Street, Portage la Prairie, Manitoba.
The 28th (North West) Battalion, with the 27th (City of Winnipeg), 29th (Vancouver) and 31st (Alberta) Battalions formed the 6th Brigade of the 2nd Canadian Division. The 15th September 1916 was the opening day of the Battle of Flers-Courcelette, remembered now mainly for the first use of the new weapon, the tank. The plan involved almost every Allied division attacking on a front from south of Thiepval to the west curving round in front of Pozieres, Bazentin le Petit, Longueval and Delville Wood and Guillemont where the front turned to the east to where the French Sixth Army was also to attack. Major General R.E.W. Turner, commanding 2nd Canadian Division had the 4th Brigade to the right and the 6th to the left, the jumping off trenches being at right angles to the main road through Pozieres and to the north east of Pozieres windmill. The line of advance was to the north east attacking an enemy who was well dug in and who had the protection afforded by the brick and concrete structures of a large sugar-beet processing plant, the Sugar Factory, south of Courcelette and adjacent to the main road. In April 1916 it was a substantial, totally undamaged building. The 28th Battalion was to attack generally north eastward towards Sugar Trench and the German held remains of the village of Courcelette. Zero hour was at 6.20 a.m. but some hours before then the enemy launched an ill thought out attack on some of the Canadian units which was quickly repulsed but it left the Germans forward trenches packed with infantry most of whom were caught by the Allied preliminary bombardment. However the creeping barrage which had started 50 metres from the enemy front line and then moved through it, moved too quickly leaving the first five attacking battalions, including the 28th, in the open and reduced to inching forward on their bellies being shot at by the enemy who had come up from the dugouts after the barrage had gone. The Canadians suffered heavy casualties but still managed to gain their initial objectives including the Sugar Factory by 8 a.m. Just before 7 a.m. Canadian infantry poured into the ruins of the Sugar Factory, fighting for every piece of ground and hurling themselves against the defenders, stopping only when faced with fire from the German machine guns. This fire stopped when tank Crème de Menthe crossed the perimeter trench and used its 6 pounder guns to smash through walls and barricades and destroy the German machine gun emplacements. The German garrison surrendered 10 officers being brought up from one dugout alone. A few desultory counter attacks were launched but the enemy then laid down an offensive of heavy artillery fire. It was during this phase of the attack that Private Peden was killed.
At 6 p.m. in broad daylight three other Battalions of Canadian infantry attacked with the objective of capturing the village of Courcelette itself which was taken but only after fierce hand to hand, no-weapons barred combat.
Commemorated here:
No. 427586 Private William Johnstone Milne, V.C., 16th Battalion (Canadian Scottish) Canadian Infantry killed in action 9th April 1917 aged 24 years.
Native of Lanarkshire, Scotland.
The 16th Battalion was part of 3rd Brigade in the 1st Canadian Division. The other battalions in the Brigade were the 13th (Royal Highlanders), 14th (Royal Montreal) and 15th (48th Highlanders).
The 9th April 1917 was the opening day of the Battle of Arras, a major and mainly British attack on the long-established German positions in Artois east of Arras including Vimy Ridge. Originally planned for February it was put back for a number of reasons and then further disrupted in March by the German tactical withdrawal along the front south east of Arras to the new fortified German Hindenburg Line. The attack opened at dawn on the 9th April after a five day 2,800 gun preliminary bombardment. The Third Army attacked either side of Arras and the Scarpe whilst to the north the Canadian Corps, part of General Sir Henry Horne’s First Army attacked the stronghold of Vimy Ridge. Vimy Ridge runs for about 7 miles just north east of and overlooking Arras. Occupied by the Germans in September 1914 German engineers almost immediately began digging under the chalk ridge to improve defensive positions adding over time a net-work of artillery proof trenches.
The 1st Canadian Division was on the right of the Canadian Corps and to its right was the British 51st Division. The 2nd Brigade was on the right and the 3rd Brigade on the left with the 1st Brigade behind to “leapfrog” over the other brigades on reaching the Red Line, a German trench system in front of Thelus. On the evening of Easter Sunday, 8th April 1917, the Canadian attackers had left their concentration areas and moved up to the assembly areas. At 5.30 a.m. the British artillery opened fire and two mines were exploded on the left under the German front line. Even before the barrage had made its first lift the leading companies of the infantry were advancing. No Mans Land was crossed with few casualties. In the 16th Battalion two companies moved in the front line and two in support, each front company was in two waves, each wave consisting of 2 platoons with 1 platoon of the support company following in 2 lines to mop up. Troops of the 2nd Brigade reached the first German trench and rushed the sentries before the garrison could emerge from the deep dug-outs but the 3rd Brigade suffered more loss, little clusters of men being shot down before 3 German machine-guns were silenced though none of them was given time to fire more than a few rounds. The 6 battalions pressed forward to the second trench and though casualties became more frequent the dug-outs were again captured after opposition had been beaten down with the aid of rifle grenades and Lewis guns often fired from the hip. In the third trench a strong point opposite the 14th Battalion caused heavy loss before two machine-guns were silenced by grenades, another by rifle fire and a fourth by bayoneting the team. The 16th Battalion also met with strong resistance in this trench and this was where Private Milne actions led to the posthumous honour of the Victoria Cross. A machine gun on the left of the Battalion’s line of advance was doing fearful damage and it crew fought off all attempts to capture it. Private Milne leaped from a nearby shell hole, crawled on his hands and knees through the mud and managed to destroy the Germans with a bomb. Shortly thereafter German machine guns were firing from the red line and holding up the Battalion’s advance. Private Milne noticed the fire was seemingly coming from a haystack directly in front. Private Milne crawled forward and found the haystack was a cover for a concrete machine-gun emplacement. His first Mills bomb put the gun out of action and terrified the crew who looked up to see Private Milne charging at them. They all surrendered but Private Milne was shot soon after this attack by him. By 6 a.m. the 1st Canadian Division was in possession of the Zwolfer-Graben trench (on the Black Line), its first objective, having captured or killed practically the whole garrison. The Black Line included the enemy crater posts, his observation line and his front-line defences. On the 1st Division’s front, the Black Line ran from north to south to the west of Les Tilleuls almost paralled but to the west of the Arras – Lens road. On the capture of the Black Line there was to be a pause of 40 minutes to allow the troops to dig in as new units passed through to continue the push. The 16th Battalion had 333 casualties that day. The troops of the 1st Division had succeeded in taking all their initial objectives had advanced over 2 miles and hundreds of prisoners were arriving in the rear areas. By nightfall on the 9th April 1917, apart from Hangstellung (the line of German defences at the bottom of the reverse slope) and The Pimple (a knoll to the north of Vimy Ridge which was just to the south of Bois de Givenchy and overlooked Souchez) – both of which would fall in the following 3 days – the whole of Vimy Ridge was in Canadian hands and would remain so for the rest of the war.
The extract from the London Gazette dated 8th June 1917 records “For most conspicuous bravery and devotion to duty in attack. On approaching the first objective Private Milne observed an enemy machine-gun firing on our advancing troops. Crawling on hand and knees he succeeded in reaching the gun, killing the crew with bombs and capturing the gun. On the line re-forming, he again located a machine gun in the support line and stalking this second gun as he had done the first, he succeeded in putting the crew out of action and capturing the gun. His wonderful bravery and resource on these two occasions undoubtedly saved the lives of many of his comrades. Pte. Milne was killed shortly after capturing the second gun.”
Commemorated here:
Lieutenant Robert Grierson Combe V.C., 27th Battalion Canadian Infantry, killed in action 3rd May 1917 aged 35 years.
Son of James and Elizabeth Combe of Aberdeen, Scotland, husband of Jean Traquair Donald Combe of 155 Linden Avenue, Victoria, British Columbia.
The 27th Battalion was part of 6th Canadian Infantry Brigade in 2nd Canadian Division. The 2nd Division was one of four Canadian Divisions in the First Army commanded by General Sir Henry Horne. On the 3rd May 1917 First Army was north of Arras with the 2nd Canadian Division the most northerly division from the British front line which was then just under 3 miles East of Vimy the objective being the hamlet of Fresnoy-en-Gohelle about 900 yards to the East (behind) the German front line. Fresnoy had become an important anchor on the German Oppy-Mericourt line and had remained largely undamaged during the recent fighting in the Battle of Arras. The objective of the 27th Battalion was to capture a network of trenches to the north of Fresnoy itself to form a strong left flank protection. The Germans were well aware of the impending attack and tried to fend it off by smothering the Canadians forming up areas with high explosive and gas. The German wire had not been so well cut as in other sectors and owing to the consequent delay, touch was lost with the creeping barrage. Despite these handicaps the Battalion after crossing 500 yards of open ground succeeded in capturing the greater part , about 400 yards, of the German front trench alongside the Fresnoy-Acheville road after a sharp fight at close quarters. The final objective, the German support trench, 200 yards beyond, was reached soon after sunrise and the captured trench was then blocked at its northern end. Attempts were then made to gain touch with the 31st Battalion on the left which had been held up about half way to the German front line by a recently dug albeit unoccupied German trench protected by almost intact wire where the 31st Battalion was swept by enfilade fire from German guns to the north.
It was during the advance of the 27th Battalion that Lieutenant Combe’s conduct led to the posthumous award of the Victoria Cross the extract from the London Gazette dated 27th June 1917 recording “For most conspicuous bravery and example. He steadied his Company under intense fire and led them through the enemy barrage, reaching the objective with only five men. With great coolness and courage Lt. Combe proceeded to bomb the enemy and inflicted heavy casualties. He collected small groups of men and succeeded in capturing the Company objective, together with 80 prisoners. He repeatedly charged the enemy, driving them before him, and whilst personally leading his bombers was killed by an enemy sniper. His conduct inspired all ranks and it was entirely due to his magnificent courage that the position was carried, secured and held.”
Commemorated here:
No. 57113 Sergeant Frederick Hobson, V.C., 20th (Central Ontario) Battalion Canadian Infantry killed in action 18th August 1917 aged 41 years.
The 20th Battalion with the 18th (West Ontario), 19th (Central Ontario) and 21st (East Ontario) Battalions formed the 4th Brigade in the 2nd Canadian Division.
The Division was in the First Army sector which included the Lens front and at the beginning of June 1917 a series of attacks had begun for the envelopment of the town. The transfer of a number of heavy Artillery batteries to Flanders and Italy had led to the postponement of an important part of the programme, the capture of Hill 70, north of the town. On the 10th July 1917 orders were issued to the Canadian Corps to take over the front opposite Hill 70 from I Corps and to formulate a scheme for the capture of Lens by a frontal assault from the north-west on or before the 30th July. This would have involved an attack on well dug in defenders in the low lying part of the city. Lieutenant General Sir Arthur Currie felt that this would lead to the destruction of the Canadian attackers and proposed to his superior Sir Henry Horne an assault on Hill 70. Hill 70 was North of Lens suburbs of which lay in part on the southern slope of the hill, the summit being a barren expanse of chalk down with commanding views over the open fields of the Douai plain. It was a desolate, blasted, chalky hill, mined and bristling with machine-gun strong-points which overlooked and outflanked Lens and Currie knew that the Germans would not relinquish it without a fight. Sir Douglas Haig, the Commander in chief, told Currie as much but authorized the operation as his goal was not for the attack to capture Lens but to draw German reserves away from the Flanders front where the 3rd Battle of Ypres was about to start.
The objective was an old German trench dug in an arc around the Eastern slope of the hill from Cite St. Elisabeth in the south to Bois Hugo in the north. The battered trenches on the hill with their deep dug-out were only used by the Germans as shelters against bombardment and the weather; the defensive battle would be fought from machine-gun nests and open shell-hole positions in the area of the old lines. It was also expected that the enemy would rely on a succession of immediate counter-attacks by fresh troops from behind their thinly held forward zone to retake any lost ground.
Preceded by an artillery bombardment over a two week period, which neutralized 40 out of an estimated 102 enemy batteries, at zero hour 4.25 a.m. on the 15th August 1917, more than 5,000 Canadians in 10 battalions moved forward behind a barrage rained down by 200 guns. The 1st Division attacked to the North, the 2nd Division to the south and nearer to Lens. The 4th Infantry Brigade’s front lay either side of the Lens-Bethune road and protected by the barrage and the clouds of smoke from drums of blazing oil and poison gas launched by Royal engineers from mortar-like Livens projectors into the enemy lines. By 6 a.m. the operation had been completed. The first of the expected counter attacks began at around 8.15 a.m. on the 15th August but the forward artillery observers could now overlook the Douai plain to the east and north-east of Lens and messages which came in from ground and air observers enabled observed barrages of both heavy and field gun batteries to break up these attacks repulsing with what must have been terrible slaughter the German attackers and not one German soldier reached the new Canadian line alive.
On the 17th August the Germans mass-wave attacks were replaced by smaller groups of attackers worming their way forward but by now the battle had also become a duel between the British and German artillery, German shells falling into the Canadian lines with earth and body shattering explosions.
On the 18th August the 10th and 6th Brigades of the 4th and 2nd Canadian Divisions began an operation to close in on the town of Lens which attack coincided with a German counter attack. The 4th Brigade was still holding its old position on the reverse slope of the hill defending against persistent German attacks. Often the isolated Canadian outposts were outnumbered and on the 18th August an attack against the 20th Battalion’s positions by the German 55th Reserve Infantry Regiment developed. Behind a concentrated barrage, the enemy moved forward killing or stunning many Canadians and burying an essential Lewis gun position. Sergeant Hobson raced forward, dug the gun out of the debris and put it into action firing at the advancing enemy troops. He cut them down until the gun jammed. Although bleeding profusely from a wound, Sergeant Hobson handed the gun to Private A C Fuller of the same Battalion to clear it whilst he rushed a group of Germans. Firing, bayoneting and even clubbing the enemy, Sergeant Hobson (now drenched in his own blood) held off an entire section giving Private Fuller time to bring the Lewis gun back into action. When the enemy retreated 15 dead Germans were found around Sergeant Hobson.
Sergeant Hobson was awarded a posthumous Victoria Cross the citation in the London Gazette dated 16th October 1917 recording “During a strong enemy counter-attack a Lewis gun in a forward post in a communication trench leading to the enemy lines was buried by a shell and the crew with the exception of one man was killed. Sergeant Hobson, though not a gunner, grasping the importance of the post, rushed from his trench, dug out the gun and got it into action against the enemy who were now advancing down the trench and across the open. A jam caused the gun to stop firing. Though wounded he left the gunner to correct the stoppage, rushed forward at the advancing enemy and with bayonet and clubbed rifle single handed held them back until he himself was killed by a rifle shot. By this time however the Lewis gun was again in action and reinforcements shortly afterwards arriving the enemy were beaten off. The valour and devotion to duty displayed by this non-commissioned officer gave the gunner the time required to again get the gun into action and saved a most serious situation.”
The gunner Private A C Fuller was awarded the Military Medal.
Commemorated here:
No. 475212 Sergeant Robert Spall, V.C., Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry (Eastern Ontario Regiment) killed in action 13th August 1918 aged 25 years.
Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry, with the Royal Canadian Regiment, the 42nd (Royal Highlanders of Canada) Battalion and the 49th (Edmonton) Battalion formed the 7th Brigade in the 3rd Canadian Division.
On the 8th August 1918 the Allied forces launched the surprise attack that heralded the end of the First World War. With skill and daring 11 Divisions of infantry and 3 cavalry divisions breached the German lines, supported by 430 tanks with another 200 more acting as supply tanks or gun-carriers or a reserve (the largest number to have been seen in any one battle of the war) and over 1700 aircraft, supported on 4th Army front by 2,034 guns. On this “black day” for the Germans the Allied forces began to see a glimmer of hope and the dawn of victory that was to come only 100 days later with the Armistice on 11th November 1918.
On the 29th July 1918 G.H.Q. issued to General Sir Henry Rawlinson, commanding the British 4th Army, and General Debeney, commanding the French First Army an Operation Order the object being to end the enemy threat to the Amiens rail centre and the Paris-Amiens railway as a preliminary to any wider move or attack. “The enemy between the rivers Somme (running from east to west from the area of Peronne to Amiens and then the sea) and Avre (running north west towards Amiens from the area around Montdidier) will be attacked with the utmost vigour and driven back in the direction of Ham (about 35 miles south east fo Amiens). The line Mericourt-Harbonnieres-Caix-Quesnel-Hangest will be seized as quickly as possible and organized for defence. When the line Mericourt-Hangest is secured, the British 4th Army keeping their left flank on the Somme will press the enemy in the direction of Chaulnes (about 20 miles south east off Amiens). The French 1st Army with its right on the Avre will in the same manner press the enemy in the direction of Roye (a similar distance and position as Chaulnes but Roye is about 8 miles south of Chaulnes.”
For this operation, the Fourth Army was to be strengthened by the Divisions of the Canadian Corps (still guarding Vimy Ridge and the Bethune coalfields) but the arrival of the Corps in the area of Amiens had to be kept secret from the enemy because the Canadians were very much the “shock” troops and their appearance in a new position would lead the Germans to expect an early offensive. In order to mystify and mislead the enemy 2 Canadian battalions, 2 Canadian casualty clearing stations and the Canadian wireless section were placed in the line opposite Kemmel Hill, lost on the 25th April, which, it was expected would lead the enemy to imagine that the British 2nd Army was preparing to recover that position. Once in the 2nd Army area the signallers started a flow of dummy radio traffic suggesting a corps build up which in turn would indicate an imminent attack. The 4 divisions of the Canadian Corps (less the detachment sent to Kemmel which rejoined just before the battle) arrived in the 4th Army area on the nights between 30th/31st July and 3rd/4th August 1918.
The front on which it was decided to attack extended from near Moreuil on the south as far as the Ancre on the north, a distance of about 20 miles. Of this, the front from the Amiens-Roye road to the northern limit of attack was allotted to the 4th Army and was subdivided among the three Corps as follows: the Canadian Corps (on the right) from the Amiens – Roye road to Villers Bretonneux-Chaulnes railway. The Australian Corps (on the left) from the Villers Bretonneux-Chaulnes railway to the Somme River and III Corps from the Somme to the Ancre (a front of about 13 miles) The French allotted the front of about 7 miles from Moreuil to the Amiens-Roye road to their XXXI Corps. The main attack was to be made by the Canadian and Australian Corps whilst the III Corps and the XXXI Corps were to form defensive flanks.
Zero hour was at 4.20 a.m. on the 8th August 1918 and the 3rd Canadian Division was on the right adjacent to the Amiens-Roye road. Ready to pass through the Division was an Independent Force, two Canadian Motor Machine Brigades, a battalion of cyclists and medium trench mortars mounted on lorries with the object of assuring flank protection by securing the road. Next in the centre was the Canadian 1st Division and then on the left, the Canadian 2nd Division with the 4th Division behind in support. The planned advance of both the Canadian Corps and the Australian Corps was of 6 to 7 miles to what had once been the outer defence line covering Amiens, running east of Le Quesnel, west of Rosieres, between Harbonnieres and Framerville, west of Proyart to Mericourt south of the Somme River. By 11 a.m. both the Australians and the Canadians had reached their designated objectives, the old Amiens defence line. The enemy had been driven back to a depth of 7 miles on an 11 mile front sustaining heavy losses in guns, particularly engineering material and casualties of about 27,000 (of which 15,000 were taken prisoner). British and Dominion casualties were about 9,000.
On the 9th August only 155 tanks were available. The reasons were tank crews were exhausted and tank losses had been heavy on the 8th August. Even so, aided by a regiment from the American Expeditionary Force, III Corps took its main objectives which had eluded them on the 8th, and the Australians and the Canadians advanced a further 2 miles. The Canadian Corps resumed its attack at 10 a.m. and many villages in the area were captured including Folies and Bouchoir; Warvillers, Beaufort and Rouvroy, Vrely and Rosieres. On the 10th August against increasing German resistance, although Le Quesnoy was taken, and with the British 32nd Division passing through the 3rd Canadian Division to carry the advance to the outskirts of Parvillers and Damery, the losses sustained by the Canadian Corps resulted on the 12th August with the 3rd Canadian Division relieving the 32nd Division holding the Damery-Parvillers sector and the 4th Canadian division relieving the 2nd Canadian Division on the Chilly front.
On the 11th August 1918 Sir Henry Rawlinson held a conference of Corps Commanders at Villers Bretonneux when, appreciating that the German resistance had stiffened, fresh artillery had been brought up and the enemy was holding a belt of country suited to defence it was decided to call a halt to any further general advance and that any alterations in the line should be for the purpose of obtaining a good line for a general attack on the 15th August.
So, on the 12th August following the relief of the 32nd Division by the 3rd Canadian Division, on the 3rd Canadian Division’s front patrols were pushed forward towards Damery and Parvillers but any gain of ground was not made without considerable hostile opposition. These villages are about 3 miles north west of Roye. In the fighting near Parvillers Sergeant Spall gave his life in order to extricate his platoon from a most difficult position.
Sergeant Spall was awarded a posthumous Victoria Cross the citation in the London Gazette dated 26th October 1918 recording “For most conspicuous bravery and self-sacrifice when, during an enemy counter-attack his platoon was isolated. Thereupon Serjt. Spall took a Lewis gun and standing on the parapet fired upon the advancing enemy inflicting very severe casualties. He then came down the trench directing the men into a sap seventy five yards from the enemy. Picking up another Lewis gun, the gallant N.C.O. again climbed the parapet and by his fire held up the enemy. It was while holding up the enemy at this point that he was killed. Serjt. Spall deliberately gave his life in order to extricate his platoon from a most difficult situation, and it was owing to his bravery that the platoon was saved.”
Commemorated here
No. 436879 Private Edward George Raymond 15th Battalion Canadian Infantry killed in action 15th August 1917 aged 30 years.
Son of Frederick Raymond of 11343, 69th Street, Edmonton, Alberta.
The 15th Battalion was in 3rd Brigade of 1st Canadian Division. On the 14th June 1917 at an Army commanders’ conference called to discuss the forthcoming operation in Flanders, with the strategic objective of securing the Belgian coast following taking the Passchendaele-Staden-Clercken ridge, an operation planned to commence on the 25th July 1917 (in fact postponed until the 31st July) by suitable operations by First Army near Lens and by Second Army south of Warneton, the impression could be created that the next objective would be Lille.
At the end of June the First Army began a series of attacks for the envelopment of Lens but an important part of this programme, the capture of Hill 70, north of the town, had been postponed owing to the transfer of a number of heavy batteries to Flanders and Italy. On the 10th July 1917 orders were issued by First Army for the Canadian Corps to take over the front opposite Hill 70 from the I Corps and to formulate a scheme for the capture of Lens from the north-west before the 30th, in order to draw pressure both off the Ypres sector and off the French Aisne front. Later it being agreed that the operations in the north fixed now for the 31st July were quite independent, the 15th August 1917 was finally fixed for this operation.
See the entry above for Sergeant Frederick Hobson for information as to the background and commencement of the attack on the 15th August.
CZero hour was at 4.25 a.m. on the 15th August when the barrage crashed down on the German defences. Protected by the barrage and the clouds of smoke which shrouded the battle area, the Canadian infantry broke down all resistance. Although the Germans were expectant and ready, such was the swiftness and strength of the onslaught that the trench garrisons were overwhelmed and within twenty minutes the first objective beyond the Lens-La Basee highway, an average advance of 600 yards, had been reached by the two divisions. The 2nd Canadian Brigade with the 5th and 10th Battalions assaulting, gained the summit of Hill 70 and the 3rd Canadian Brigade with the 16th, 13th and 15th Battalions occupied the western edges of Bois Rase and Bois Hugo. The 3rd Brigade then carried through for another 400 yards tits next and final objective. On the 2nd Brigade front, the fresh 8th and 7th Battalions pressed on to their intermediate objective along the German Second Position and successfully accomplished that part of their task; numbers of Germans who ran back were killed by the barrage, and enemy machine guns in Bois Hugo, after causing some casualties, were quickly silenced by bombing parties working round the flanks.
The second waves of the 15th Battalion attacked over the cratered battlefield, with bagpipes playing them into battle. Picking their way through shredded barbed wire that tugged at their legs and scrambling from crater-lip to crater-lip when the German gunners opened up on them, the 15th closed the distance. Private Raymond rushed one machine-gun nest that was playing havoc with his section. As bullets sprayed all around his bare legs, the Highlander tossed his grenade into the pit but was killed by the last burst of a machine-gun before the crew was wiped out.
His section pushed deeper into the enemy lines, scanning and then stalking the next machine gun, the next dugout, the next German defender.
Private Raymond’s body was never found, his comrades reaching their objectives by 6 a.m. when rifles were exchanged for shovels as the Canadians dug in, in expectation of an enemy counter attack.
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