– snowing, miserable
Enemy aeroplane falls over line in flames. Attacked by our airmen.
Archives for 2017
Sunday 21 January 1917
The RCRs carry out a successful raid & got 5 prisoners (one with an Iron Cross). Our casualties two slightly wounded. Several German dugouts were bombed & inmates killed.
*RCR ~ Royal Canadian Regiment
*The Iron Cross (in German ‘Eiserne Kreuz’) was reinstituted during the Franco-Prussian War of 1870-71 and again by Kaiser Wilhelm II on 5 August 1914 for use during the First World War. The medal was awarded to recognise acts of heroism, bravery and leadership. In spite of its evident prestige it was a widely issued medal: almost six million were awarded during wartime, although by far the majority of these (5,500,000) were awarded to the lowest of three classes of the medal, the Iron Cross (Second Class). (www.firstworldwar.com)
Saturday 20 January 1917
To church in Officers Mess @ 9:30.
In morning & afternoon I go up to front line for a tour of inspection. Enemy shell heavily. I had to turn back.
Friday 19 January 1917
cold & frosty
The snow is still with us. Busy all day with maps. An order comes out for Box Respirators & steel helmets to be worn continuously – must be expecting something.
Thursday 18 January 1917
Enemy very active & we also.
Sniper Loptson “Military Medal” is before the general for a commission in the 49th Br.
We have chestnuts as part of our rations.
*The Military Medal is awarded to Warrant Officers, non-commissioned officers and men for individual or associated acts of bravery on the recommendation of a Commander-in-Chief in the field. (www.veterans.gc.ca)
Wednesday 17 January 1917
Snow falls during night to a depth of 4 inches. Continues to snow during day.
A party of men are at work endeavouring to find an underground tunnel used by the monks & Huguenots.
Enemy shell heavily in morning & again in evening.
*The Huguenots were French Protestants who, due to religious persecution, were forced to flee France to other countries in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Some remained, practicing their faith in secret. (www.huguenot.netnation.com)
Tuesday 16 January 1917
Brigadier General MacDonnel calls me in to receive a cheque for £5.0.0 in recognition for valuable services rendered. Sorry he could not give me any promotion as Army rules do not permit it, being only attached to Bde.
*Pierre Berton described Macdonell in the book “Vimy”: Macdonell was known as a front-line soldier; indeed, (28 year old intelligence officer Hal) Wallis was to say he spent as much time at the front with his brigadier as he had in his days as a private. Not for nothing did the men of the 7th call Macdonell “Fighting Mac” and sometimes “Batty Mac” because of his eccentricities under fire. Everybody knew the story of how he’d gone so far into No Man’s Land that a sniper put a bullet in his arm. Instead of ducking, Batty Mac had stood up swearing, shaking his unwounded arm angrily at the sniper, who immediately put another bullet in his good arm. And everybody also knew that Macdonell, at the Somme, had insisted on walking among the wounded after the attack on the Regina Trench, unmindful of the enemy shells, to salute the corpses of the Black Watch. A sentimental Scot who sometimes swore in Gaelic in moments of great pressure, Macdonell stopped at every corpse and said “I salute you, my brave Highlander,” until Wallis managed to pull him to safety.(Berton, Pierre: Vimy).
Monday 15 January 1917
Ration Bully beef and bread. No fresh meat obtainable but all thankful for what comes.
A terrific bombardment opens up suddenly on our left. Lasts for three hours.
One of our PPs Pte. Kerr wounded in head yesterday & shot dead (thru head) today.
*The main staple in the trenches was corned beef, or bully beef: cooked, preserved, tinned meat, chiefly from Argentina. The men were advised to pierce the tin before fully opening them. If they hissed, they had gone off. When British solders traded bully beef with the French their reaction to the contents of the tins was that it was ‘singe’, or monkey. (www.telegraph.co.uk)
Sunday 14 January 1917
I go up to the craters. Very muddy and in some places it’s 3 feet deep. I go overland in full view of the enemy into Watling Crater. Risky but information is necessary.
In afternoon to 4th Div. front.
Enemy shell Bde. Hdqts. A shell burst only 20 feet from here. He is using an old [Paltim] shell and not the Field gun [unist…..]. No damage done.
*As bombs rained down on the Western Front, thousands of craters opened up on the battlefields. Meteorites had created the occasional crater before, but large-scale bombing was a new phenomenon on earth, which two geographers (Joseph Hupy & Randall Schaetzl) have called “bombturbation.” Bombs actually shattered bedrock and created the bizarre, dimpled landscape of modern day Verdun. Artillery shells could blast craters up to 30 feet wide and many feet deep. Land mines were even more powerful, creating holes up to 160 feet deep. Curiously, artillery shells did more damage to the ground in WWI than WWII in the same area. That’s because early artillery shells were designed to explode on impact, but more advanced detonators during WWII allowed shells to explode in the air. (www.gizmodo.com)
Saturday 13 January 1917
Capt. H.M. Wallis with Major Willet of R.C.R. go into No Man’s land & capture a German. Previous to this a German raiding party had come over and captured one of our men (an American Legion man).
*Most commonly associated with the First World War the phrase “no man’s land” actually dates back until at least the 14th century. Its meaning was clear to all sides: no man’s land represented the area of ground between opposing armies – in this case, between trenches. For newly arrived novice soldiers No Man’s Land held a certain allure. Such troops were cautioned against a natural inclination to peer over the parapet of the trench into No Man’s Land. Many men died on their first day in the trenches as a consequence of a precisely aimed sniper’s bullet. During this period the area of No Man’s Land scarcely varied although its width would vary widely from sector to sector, from one kilometre to as little as a few hundred yards (as at Vimy Ridge for example). In the latter instance troops would be able to overhear conversation from their opposing trenches or readily lob grenades into their midst. (www.firstworldwar.com)
