Hill
70
17 April 1918
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The 4th received orders to take
a section of front before Hill 70, north of the city of Lens. Executing
a large raid, 60 daringly broke through German lines to secure identifications
of enemy numbers. While storming forward positions, they destroyed several
machine gun nests and discovered arms caches. As one squad pursued a German
down a trench, they managed to hit him clambering down a ladder. At it's
base, the Lieutenant in charge came upon a dugout full of enemy. After
much shouting, gas bombs were thrown in, yet still there was no surrender.
The Lieutenant threw in Mills bombs enough to destroy the dugout and all
40 enemy perished. The Lieutenant was subsequently awarded the military
cross.
"Over the top"
By April 25th, the German advance in the north ended with their taking
of Mont Kemmell. Four days earlier, the great German flying ace Manfred
Von Richthofen, the Red Baron, was shot down near Amiens.
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Magincourt
May 1918
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By May 2nd the battalion was resting in Magincourt, and were in wonderful
spirits. There were marching bands and parades in the flowering full bloom
of springtime in northern France. The month was spent in training. They
slept in bivouacs behind a farm, and swam in the stream or played baseball
when not working on the defenses of La Bassée canal. One month
ago they were charging through barbed-wire trenches under enemy fire, and
now they relaxed in the sun. All the while the Allies were being overwhelmed
again to the south. The advancing armies were destroying Amiens, taking
Soissons and threatening Rheims.
The Germans, however, had failed by mid-June in their objective to inflict
mortal damage to the Allies by severing the defensive rail supply network,
and too many high quality troops had been spent. Three offensives had created
three large salients which invited counterattack, and while 800,000 German
troops had been lost, 300,000 fresh Allied soldiers were arriving every
month. |
Enquin-les-Mines
June 1918
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The 4th spent the whole of June in maneuvers with the rest of the brigade
at Enquin-les-Mines. On the 18th, the battalion won the brigade baseball
championship, but further games were cancelled after an outbreak of the
Spanish flu. |
Mercatel front
July 1918
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After a voyage by train from Aire to Savy, and a march to Manin, near
Avesnes-le Comte, behind Arras, the 4th re-entered the front lines.
July was spent at the Mercatel front south-east of Arras, while the
Germans launched an unsuccessful attack farther to the south on Champagne.
The unit war diary records the air was chilled, but instead of requisitioning
heavy coats, rum was rationed as an effective antidote to the cold evenings.
By July 18th, the Allies had turned the tables on the enemy attack and
won a major counter-offensive on the Champagne front late in the month.
To maintain their momentum, a planned second engagement was rapidly put
into action. The poorer performance of the German troops, now quite spent
since April, revealed the possibility of a much earlier victory. |
'Tasks' at Bray
27 July 1918
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On the 27th of July it rained through-out the day, and most of
George's battalion were ordered to construct defensive trenches at Bray,
a small town south of Albert. They spent the day on 'tasks', where 500
men of the 4th were given a certain amount of trench to dig, calculated
in feet and based on soil conditions and required depth. Tasks were supervised
by a surly sapper Sergeant and combined with the elements, were an unpopular
chore. After being soaked to the skin, they spent the next day sunbathing,
all the while expecting a repeat of more trench digging the next day. Late
in the evening of the 28th, orders arrived to pack up and prepare for a
move to an unknown destination. With such a mysterious order, rumors abounded.
Maybe they were heading south to the larger German salient near Amiens,
or maybe north to attack on the River Lys. They even imagined going to
Russia and fight in the civil war between the White and Red Armies. Whatever
their destination, they received notice with their paybooks to keep their
mouths shut. (27)
Keep you mouth shut!
The next day the 4th C.M.R. boarded their train and departed
Bray and the Arras region  .
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