. . . . R and R - Rest and Relaxation . . . .

In early January there had been days of bitter cold and snowstorms but the spells were of short duration. On January 21, a cold snap returned. It increased in intensity until the 23rd, when there was a heavy snowstorm  and accumulation of snow. From that date until February 16 there were frequent snowstorms.

The snowstorms drifted unrelentingly. The great flakes found their way through the smallest chinks in shelters and filled dugouts with fluffy heaps that melted and soaked George. Outside, the white drifts were feet deep. The snow showed black paths where soldiers had walked the previous night. Any thaw filled low trenches to the brim with chilly slush.

The whole landscape was enveloped in a white sheet; the ground was as hard as granite. Water lines were frozen, and much of the transport vehicles became inoperable. Training sessions were canceled and men worried more about staying warm than participating in a war.

It was during this time that the 2nd Pioneers were placed in reserve. The battle plan for Vimy Ridge required all battalions to be released from the front to rehearse and prepare for the upcoming battle. These grand offensives were always referred to as “the show.” On January 14, 1917, the 2nd Pioneers left the front to prepare for “the show”.

They marched for several hours going through several rear area towns. From the roads George could see troops building new camps, sheds and horse barns. All along the road were rows of artillery shell dumps.

There were only two paved roads available to serve the needs of the 1st, 2nd and 3rd Canadian Divisions.  The rest of the roads were muddy sticky laneways. Traffic congestion clogged the rear area roads, and for miles behind the line there was a continuous stream of traffic, vehicles, troops, horses and wagons. The roads were in a very bad state. It was impossible to keep them in repair.

For the one thousand Pioneers, the trip to the rest area was tiring with the slow pace and the constant stopping and starting. The marching was slow as battalion men shared the road with convoys using the roads to bring supplies to the front.  The mud on George’s greatcoat made it heavy, so that it flapped like lead against his legs. Mud was up to the tops of his boots. Eventually, the wearisome battalion reached the small village of Thieuloye.

 
George’s billet in Thieuloye was a barn with cracked and broken walls stuffed with straw and sandbags. There was damp and muddy straw scattered on the floor. Candles flickered beside cast off boots and sodden packs as winter winds howled through the wooden slats. That morning the men enjoyed a leisurely breakfast of tea, bully beef and biscuit stew, damp bread and congealed bacon.

Here in the war zone were many French civilians. Many refused to leave the death zone, more concerned about their farmland and animals than their own personnel safety.During the spring, women and children could be found going about their farm chores and the men would  be working the fields when they could. Many times shells burst in their fields while they were ploughing. George looked out onto the road and noticed a Frenchman riding in a tiny cart drawn along by four galloping dogs.

For the most part, the French peasants did not like the Canadian soldiers. Soldiers took their straw, scrounged their wood and searched for eggs. They were not above milking their cows and stealing their hens. Every theft was exploited by the peasants, who made extravagant and perpetual claims to the army.

 
Many hated the soldier for dumping the wastes of war. Their cigarette stubs, bully beef tins and dumps of dung were left behind by men and horses. The French farmers wanted to be left alone to their life work - farming.

Despite the passive resistance by the French peasants, behind the lines in these French villages a Commonwealth invasion of some two million men lived and played.  Fresh and adventurous, soldiers came from every corner of the map-surging throughout the villages, filling the streets, the small houses, halls and barns, ignorant of the customs of the country, seeing unfamiliar sights, relaxed from their home conventions.

French peasants were deeply religious. It seemed that every town had a church that dominated the central town squares.  George noticed the big life-sized crucifixes along the roads in prominent places. Some of the crosses were made of real trees. Generally there was a little iron gate and a hedge -ined approach. There were also little shrines with the image of the Virgin Mary. George came on these in the most unexpected places. He saw one in a niche in the gable end of a very ordinary looking brick house. 

     
After training for eight days in Thieuloye the unit then moved to Lozinghen. The march was interesting moving through the quaint villages and the larger towns. 

 
The men hoped to be billeted in Auchel, thought by many to be the “Queen of billets in the corps area.” Auchel was a typical colliery town.  The town was built around coal operation Fosse 4.

As it turned out, the men marched past Auchel and instead were billeted just a kilometre down the road in the nearby town of Lozinghen. The men were able to spend their time taking in all the area around Auchel and Lozinghen in their spare time. This was to be home for two weeks.
Billets were waiting for the troops at Lozinghen. George and his section were billeted in an old brick barn. The barn was missing wooden windows and doors that had long ago become firewood for earlier battalions. The lower level stable were occupied by cows. About four feet in front of the entrance was a huge manure pile, and the odour from it was anything but pleasant. The men smelled  the old, steaming juices of the cow mound in their sleep.

George reached his billet in the loft by climbing a shaky ladder on the outside of the building. It was terribly cold and the barn had a hundred vents for the wind. George laid on bare boards and tried to get warm but it was impossible. A few of the boys in the section sat smoking and talking in the old wreck of the barn. It was full of evil-smelling hay on which thousands of soldiers had rested.

 
George noticed that there were names inscribed on the beams of earlier battalions who had used the barn. George added his name.That night, George and two others slept together for warmth, each man taking turns sleeping in the middle.

From the barn loft, Private Kirkham had a bird’s eye view of the planes using the Auchel/Lozinghem Aerodrome. The airbase consisted of Bessoneau canvas hangers and wooden buildings. The airport was surrounded by huge slag heaps and the runway surface was very rough. Triplanes would bump down the runway and leave Auchel on offensive patrols across Vimy Ridge and the reserve trenches to the German stronghold of Lens.

 All hours of the day, George watched the constant air activity roaring overhead as the planes flew next to the Pioneer training area. The squadron using the airfield in February 1916 was the RAF 25th Squadron. During the war, the 25th had 9 aces (5 kills or more). How George envied the airmen. They had it so much better then the PBI - Poor Bloody Infantry.

Each day saw the men in Lozinghen up early and into the adjoining fields for a full day of activity.  A typical day started with the bugler rousting the men from their billets at 7 am and at the breakfast table by 8 am. This was followed with physical training by 9 am and at 10 am with a company inspection.

Training carried on intensively when a unit was out of the line. Not only was this necessary because there was a high turnover of men in any given unit, but the tactics and technologies of the war developed very rapidly. The training syllabus and the organizational structure for delivering it were developed extensively during the war. Whole new training schools developed to which men would be sent for specialist training.
It was company drill at 10:30 followed by platoon inspection at 11. The afternoon time was filled with bayonet fighting, bombing, Lewis Gun Inspection, and then to finish off a typical day was 3:30 to 4 pm foot rubs.

Behind the lines, training focused on the prevailing conditions of trench warfare, and on the Allied position of taking the offensive. Units enjoying a period at rest could often tell immediately when so-called 'assault training' began that they were due for inclusion in an offensive. Among the innovations was detailed attack practice in large and small formations. Company B was training daily on a field where tape lines represented the German trench system on Vimy Ridge.  The Pioneers would rehearse until they knew exactly what they were expected to do during the Spring Offensive.

The company commander did not make life any too pleasant. The Captain lectured on cleanliness . At the front, in the bitter cold winter of 1917, George shaved in the cold water and his face would turn blue for hours. In rest area like Auchel, water was accessible from the battalion water cart located by the headquarters billet. The men had access to an open wash-house with wooden benches and galvanized iron bowls to help with clean up before morning inspections. This made shaving away days of stubble a more pleasant chore as men had time to boil the water.

The Captain took insufferable pride in his and the men’s uniforms and equipment. Men spent hours cleaning rifles. They now had time to chip away the mud from their kit and make minor repairs to clothing.  Boots needed to be polished despite having to walk through mud on the way to inspection.

The Company major insisted uniforms be groomed. George’s leather was polished and his equipment and insignia gleamed in contrast with the seedy, mud stained uniform usually found at the front.  The Major insisted that the men’s attention to detail resulted in higher morale among the enlisted. This only increased grousing among the section men.

After morning cleanliness, the men assembled on the parade ground for inspection. The second in command Captain presided over inspection most times. Enlisted soldiers hated this daily ritual while in the reserve areas.  
Inspections were sometimes done for show. The men found this exercise a degrading experience. George and his fellow privates would be herded into a field. They often waited for hours for some Sam Browne (Senior Officer) to appear. As the men stood at attention George looked straight in front and the steps came closer and closer. The officer and his entourage went down the line. The brass hats would pass by in their immaculate turned out uniform barely recognizing the assembled soldiers.

The battalions’ stay in these rear areas allowed the men time to unwind when not practicing war. Even just after four weeks at the front, George welcomed the opportunity to get a more thorough wash. The men looked forward to the showers that were available in the rear areas. These facilities were crude even by the standards of the day. However, the experience was glorious in the summer, but wintertime was a different matter.

Private Kirkham was led to a building where nailed over the door was a large sign which read “Divisional Baths.” One such bath was located in Auchel.

The men piled their rifles into stacks next to the door and then proceeded into the shed. As George entered the bath, he could hear a wheezy old engine pumping water. The floor was covered with muddy slime. The wind whistled through the old building.

 
The platoon was greeted by a  Sergeant with a yellow band around his left arm on which was SP - Sanitary Police - in black letters.  He took charge, ordering Private Kirkham to take off his equipment, unroll his puttees, unlace boots and then strip. Louse-infested shirts and underwear were tossed in a pile as the men entered.  Then, starting from the right of the line, the SP divided them into groups of fifteen.

 
Huddled in with the naked masses, George moved into the showers. The building accommodated huge vats of water. There was a tiny trickle of water from the overhead pipes. George slipped about on the greasy surface; blocks of ice were gradually developing as the water washed over them. The men generally received a minute or two of water, a break to apply a little soap, and then a few more minutes to rinse. 

 
In the words of one veteran after a shower, a man might feel almost human again. Lieutenant William Grey remarked that a shower was nothing short of an “indescribable pleasure. You will understand that after, say, twelve days of filth and slush, of feces and slime, when your clothes are coated with a sticky veneer, which percolates through in spots, and that before meals you use a knife to scrape the ooze from between your fingers, a shower is a glorified affair.”

George collected clothes, which were handed out to the wet men as they passed through the rear of the shower house. The clothing was steam disinfected in hopes of killing the hidden lice. Much grousing took place as no attempt was made to measure the men to the clothes, leaving soldiers to trade and sort their kit out among themselves. Within a few hours the men were lousy again from billets that were crawling with lice.
George attended pay parade generally every week, which was particularly welcomed when he was in the reserve areas.  Private George Kirkham received one dollar a day, and ten cents for his overseas duty in France.  On pay parade day, men were lined up outside the paymaster’s office and paid in alphabetical order. The sergeant would call out, “All the A’s,” then “all the B’s,” and eventually “K’s”. As George’s turn came he presented his little brown pay book; an entry was made and it was stamped. George collected his pay. With the new crisp notes in his hand, he backed away and saluted.

These army wages were paid less deductions for lost equipment, money kept in the “bank” or money sent home to their families. Married men assigned most of their pay to dependents. George sent home half his pay each month to his mother.  This still left $15 burning a hole in his pocket.  George’s pay was converted to francs.

Flush with money, thousands of men looked to find other distractions.  Most rushed off to spend their newfound fortune in the villages that dotted the rear areas. Soldiers were known to spend their money with wild abandon and the civilian population looked for ways to separate a soldier from his money.  

In the towns and villages that lie a few miles behind the front the area bustled with cash businesses.French shopkeepers realized they could make a living from the ‘friendly invaders.’ The soldiers were able to buy newspapers, fancy goods, gifts, postcards, and foodstuffs in the many Auchel shops. Soldiers could get haircuts, dental treatment, and have photographs taken, usually captioned ‘Somewhere in France.’

The Lozinghen-Auchel area provided a variety of shops, restaurants and social opportunities. One cafe in particular, located in the central area of Auchel, was called Cosy Corners. This was a favorite haunt for the officers from the aerodome.

Cafes and restaurants like Cosy Corners were often referred to as estaminets. An estaminets was the main occupation for civilians in the villages that dotted the rear areas. Estaminets were small businesses that were established near the front lines and reserve areas.  They were favourite meeting places for soldiers.

With the gutting of the local economy, these restaurants often were the few sources of steady income. Amidst the destruction of war, they could be found in half ruined houses, shelters scrounged out of scrap materials, or army Nissen huts re-claimed by civilian. These cafes often had dirt or sawdust floors. They usually had rough lumber furniture and were lit by kerosene lamps. Better quality estaminets were located in farms, farm outbuildings, and the front rooms of homes. At other times they might be front room parlors with tables with proper sitting rooms.

Estaminets operated as a mix of bar, pub restaurant and cafe for troops pulled off the line. They were places where the men could feast, soothe their nerves, and sing bawdy songs. These cafes were frequently rough and tumble establishments of dubious quality.

 
If a soldier was lucky there would be a French mademoiselle to wait on him. The ‘madame’  was often aided by her attractive daughters. The boys would flirt with the barmaids. This allowed the boys to practice their French which usually amounted to madam, cafe, comprenez, oui and a few other words. The language difficulty was no obstacle for the average French shopkeeper who could always speak sufficient broken English to make a purchase possible.

George spent much of his newfound cash on more palatable food and a drink found in the estaminets as opposed to the army company kitchens. Once George got over the sometimes shocking sanitary standards of these makeshift restaurants, he was all too happy to consume what was offered.

The most popular meal was steak, eggs and chips. As one soldier explained,”The great attraction for this place was that one could buy a grand meal of eggs (any number, no scarcity) and French fried potatoes, cleanly cooked before his eyes, and real coffee, with lots of sugar. It seemed quite funny, as sugar was just like gold dust in England.” This meal cost about 1 to 2 Francs or 50 cents. The order was usually three to six eggs per meal and some men were known to eat 20 eggs a day. The Canadians learned to speak enough French to ask for “les oofs” (a bastardized version of “oeufs”), and the French could speak enough English to offer “chips.”

Soldiers washed the meals down with drink. George ordered a hot drink like coffee or tea. The coffee was the best, and every soldier who had been in France had pleasant memories of those little bowls of coffee and slices of French bread.

Soldiers were always looking for something a little stronger like sweetened wine or watered-down beer. A favorite drink was a watery weak ‘vin blanc’ which was flat and sour. The troops referred to it as ‘Plonk’. The red and white wine could be bought cheaply - 1 franc a bottle. The other wines, grenadine and citron were very sweet.  Beer was available for 10 centimes per glass. The section members found it very weak and barely passable, but it did quench a thirst.

 
Estaminets became a soldiers’ casino.  It was not uncommon to see crown and anchor boards and playing cards used for gambling. Money was the preferred commodity of exchange, but cigarettes, food and alcohol often made agreeable substitutes. Almost all game activity involved some sort of betting.

The Canadians seemed to get along with other Allied troops in the rest area despite the natural competition between men of different nationalities.  However, Australians and Canadians never really saw eye to eye. They just didn’t get along. They would have been glad to have the other on the flank in battle, but back of the line, they were antagonistic to one another.

Soldiers had numerous encounters with the Aussies in these rear areas and estaminets. Frequently, when they met each other, there was trouble, even if some diplomat tried to smooth things over. The evening, more likely than not, would bring a disturbance to the quiet of a Madame’s respectable estaminet.  Shared evenings, more often than not, would cause a fight.

 
Estaminets were not the only social opportunities for the men. To keep morale up, the Canadian Corp provided other distractions for soldiers. The Young Men’s Christian Association was an organization that provided many services for the fighting men. This independent organization had its own personnel and attached themselves to various CEF units. They could be found at any camp in England, providing services in London or Etaples. At the front, the YMCA was often found in the reserve rest camps. The YMCA tent provided the sole form of recreation for two or sometimes more battalions.

These huts and tents followed closely behind moving troops and many of them were located within enemy artillery range. Here in the Auchel area, the men had a choice of several YMCA huts to visit.

A typical YMCA centre with its red triangle sign was a common meeting place where socializing was always free. Here George could read a book or newspaper, attend a church parade, get stationery and supplies for writing home, and enjoy an occasional theatrical performance or boxing match. Tea and coffee were always free.

The YMCA canteen also allowed men the opportunity to supplement their food rations. Here George could get potatoes, sliced bully beef, and hot rolls for just a franc!  Canned salmon, margarine, tinned fruit, condensed milk, prepared cocoa, coffee or tea, tinned tomatoes, sausages, beans and biscuits were on sale when available. The first thing men thought of after they received their pay was heading to the Y to get some chocolate.

George could buy cheap cigarettes from the YMCA. Tobacco figured prominently in a soldier’s life and became a habit that many soldiers picked up during their army life.  Soldiers were great cigarette smokers and the craving for cigarettes with many men was irresistible. It would soothe the jagged nerves For many soldiers in the trenches it was almost their whole existence.

Soldiers smoked under all conditions, except when unconscious or when patrolling No Man’s Land at night. Men would die with a cigarette between their lips - the last favour they had requested on earth.

If the soldier was in pain, he smoked for comfort. When he received good news, he smoked for joy. If the news was bad, he smoked. When he was ill- he smoked. Good news or bad, sick or well, he always smoked. Without a fag many a soldier would soon go to pieces.  It was said the cigarettes were “the fuel” of the British and by default, the Canadian Army.

George received between twenty and forty cigarettes each Sunday. To supplement the weekly ration, George could get fifty cigarettes at the YMCA for a franc. Many soldiers routinely smoked fifty cigarettes a day. A puff on Woodbines, Red Hussars, Army Club, Crayola and Bee-wings, or the preferred Virginias calmed a soldier hands. 

 
Stretcher-bearers carried fags for the wounded men. When a stretcher-bearer arrives along side of a wounded man, the following conversation usually took place - Stretcher-bearer, “Want a fag? Where are you hit?” A wounded man replied, “Yes. In the leg?”

 
If George didn’t smoke before the war, he certainly did after. A substitute for smoking was chewing tobacco. Many soldiers chewed especially in the front line areas where smoking was prohibited.

The Salvation Army canteens were also located in the rear areas. They usually served free soup and stew with an absolute minimum of preaching. These kitchens could also be found dangerously close to the front lines.

There were always distractions provided for the men when behind the lines. Music concerts were always available as battalion bands preformed including the band members of the pioneers. The main form of entertainment could be found watching various musical, comedy and drama groups that toured the Western Front.

At the beginning of the war, troops in England were entertained by professional and amateur performers who offered their services freely, under the sponsorship of the YMCA, the Salvation Army, the Red Cross, and the Knights of Columbus. As time went by, hiring and taking care of these performers became too costly.

In 1916 this resulted in the organization of “Concert Parties.”  These groups were organized by the different Canadian units. They included  The Canadian Scottish Concert Party of the 16th Battalion; the Whizz Bangs of the Canadian Artillery; the Rouge et Noir of the First Division; the See Toos of the 2nd Canadian Division; the Dumbells of the Third Division; the Maple Leafs of the Fourth Division; the 13th Canadian Field Ambulance Concert Party; the Little Black Devils of the Winnipeg Rifles; the Y Emmas of the YMCA; the Woodpeckers of the 126th Company of the Canadian Forestry to name a few of the more prominent groups.

These troupes performed throughout the Vimy battlefield in makeshift theatres, open fields and at YMCA locations. During his time out of the front lines in February, George had the opportunity to see various theatre performances. At Auchel there were several makeshift theatres that the men could visit.

From the outset the performers had to win over their audience who had been living in tough battlefield conditions for months. These shows consisted of comedy sketches, songs, and dance numbers, all performed by the amateur soldier-singers. Many skits included cross- dressing performances.

 The troupes would have to keep the fare light and happy, so the music they chose was a mix of popular ballads, hits, and comic songs. They wrote humorous skits on everyday events in the soldiers' lives, poking fun at military discipline and the hardships of trench warfare. The characters on stage were often anti-heroes who dodged their soldering responsibilities, engaged in crooked acts, and scoffed at authority. The orderly room, sick parade, muddy trenches, and the Commanding Officer's headquarters were all fair game - no subject was immune.

There were many outlets for soldiers to relieve the stress of constant danger and death. As George strolled through the streets in the towns around Auchel, there was another shock awaiting him - brothels. By 1917, there were at least 137 such establishments spread across 35 towns.
He had first noticed these houses of prostitution on his march through LeHavre. These establishments were the legendary maisons de tolérance, or legalized brothels that dotted the towns of northern France. These brothels housed professional prostitutes who worked under the discipline of a madam and were subject to regular medical inspections.

The French army saw brothels as necessary and they were legal in France. Although illegal in England, the British army tolerated the prostitutes, because as a foreign army, they respected the laws and social customs of France. When in Rome or in this case, France.

As one soldier noted, “There was a great crowd of fellows, four or five deep and about 30 yards in length, waiting just like a crowd waiting for a football match in Blighty. It was half an hour before opening time, so we had to see the opening ceremony. At about five minutes to six, the red lamp was lit (blue lamp for officer establishments). To the minute, at six the door was opened. Then commenced the crush to get in.”
An interested soldier would negotiate a price. The soldier paid the bartender 2 francs to have a lady accompany him to the private rooms.
Outside these settings, vast numbers of amateur prostitutes also plied their trade in streets, hotels, cafes, and bars. It’s not known precisely how many British and Canadian soldiers indulged.

Certainly, there were negative consequences, so soldiers had to be educated or otherwise treated for venereal diseases. The rate of venereal disease among Canadian troops was almost 6 times higher than that of the British troops, and was 1 in every 9 men.

The time spent in the rest camps at Auchel training behind the lines was disappointingly short for the 2nd Pioneers. yet, it offered a welcome chance to escape from the trenches and gun lines. The men relied on that escape to face the challenges of serving as a soldier in the First World War. That challenge was not about fighting in a major offensive like the upcoming Vimy battle, but the more commonplace trials of surviving in body and mind on a daily basis. It was a challenge that George had to meet daily, and overcome if he was not to become yet another name on the long list of casualties.

                                   . . . . Return to the Front . . . .

The Pioneers returned from their battle rehearsal in mid-February. George’s operation area had now been changed from Souchez and the Zouave Valley south towards Arras. This brought them into the area just below and south of the present day Vimy monument. His billet area was now located in the bombed-out village of Neuville St. Vaast, which was always a target for the German artillery. “Rum Jars” exploding on the surface would put the candles out and bring down a shower of chalky earth to the men hiding in their billets.

St. Vaast was a typical farming village before the war and now was destroyed. Dead trees stood starkly in the deserted town. Few buildings were standing, and none had been untouched by artillery. Parts of building walls were still supported by the open fireplaces and chimneys.  Stones and bricks from the buildings had been used to build roads in the area. The church steeple looked ready to fall at any time. With sardonic humour, someone had posted a sign reading, ‘This WAS Neuville St. Vaast.’

In the nearby cemetery, every monument had been knocked down by shelling; All the graves and tombstones had been blown and churned up. Not a tombstone was left standing, and all the vaults had been smashed open. The wood had been scrounged from the cemetery. Coffins made excellent firewood. Dud shells were scattered about and the place was simply littered with all bits of equipment left throughout the grounds.
A gun pit was dug in the cemetery. “In one corner of the cemetery was an emergent head with long flaxen tresses, and from the walls pairs of feet and thigh bones protruded. The ghoulish surroundings heightened the boys’ sense of humour. On arrival the artillerymen stroked the flaxen tresses and hung their tin lids on pulled out thigh bones.”  

It was here during February and March 1917 that B Company of the Second Pioneers found shelter and dugouts to hide away from the German artillery.

George was shunted into one of the many cellars found throughout St Vaast. It was weird to go down and suddenly enter a quiet area. George sat on his pack and stared around. Rats ran into holes as he lit candles, and then the rats boldly came back and stared at him. There were timbers holding shreds of wire that had once been bunks.

It was a cold and wet smelling place. The area reeked with odours of stale perspiration and the sour, saline smell of clothing. There was not enough water to permit frequent washing which added to the smells in the confined dugout.

George explored the area. He saw signs, “Keep low. Use trench in daytime.” A path led around the ruins of the village allowing covered access to numerous dugouts and cellars. George went down one entrance and looked around. It had splendid bunks fitted with hooks for equipment and rifles, and was heated by braziers.

He and a group of friends went along the trench until they came to a YMCA canteen. He had some money, so he bought plenty of tinned goods and chocolate and went back to his dugout. It would be a feast tonight!

Later in March, George’s billet area shifted to the St. Eloi area.  Many of the Canadian units had their headquarters near the village. The 2nd Pioneers HQ had recently moved from Fosse 10 to this new location.

Company B moved to Dumbell Camp, a miserable swamp in a woods near Villers Au Bois. The camp had wooden huts and nisson tents organized in rows and streets. The nisson tents were spaced throughout the wooded area hiding them from airplane observation and long distance shelling. Standing about the camp were the transport and water wagons. The wagons were just bringing in the days’s supplies with much yelling and urging of mules.

At tea time the field kitchens would be sending up clouds of smoke. Soldiers and military equipment in piles could be seen in every direction around the tents. It was from this camp that the men would march to the front to complete their assigned tasks for the day. This resulting hard march to the work areas added to the men’s fatigue.

One day a sergeant stuck his head into the tent and told George and his section mates they did not have to go out that night. George could remember rejoicing at home when he learned that school was canceled, but he didn’t think such news was as welcomed as it was here at the front.

At Camp Dumbell, George saw the latest army equipment, the tank. The tank was still in its infancy, both as a mechanical device and a tactical asset. There were only seventy in France in early 1917 and they were unreliable and had thin armour plating. The practice was not to use them in mass, but to spread their efforts out in pairs over the whole front. Six tanks had been assigned to be used in the operational area of the 2nd Division. They had very little influence during the Vimy battle breaking down and becoming stuck in No Man’s Land.

 
The same day that they returned to the front in February, George was about to witness another Canadian trench raid. On February 13 the CEF 10th Brigade carried out an operation against the 5th Bavarian Reserve Division. Each of the four battalions (44th, 46th, 47th and 50th) provided a company, two hundred strong, and the 10th Field Company and the 67th Pioneer Battalion between them furnished another seventy more men.

A trench raid this big was seen and heard all along the Canadian front. As usual, the artillery barrage for George was spectacular when viewed from the relative safety of his dugout. The raiders inflicted an estimated 160 casualties, including the capture of more than 50 prisoners, and destroyed dugouts, barbed wire and mine shafts; their own losses totaled approximately 150.

Private Kirkham had no illusions about his importance to the war machine as he watched the men go into battle during the trench raid. A private was there for one reason - to follow orders. They were lowest in the pecking order. The men often felt they were treated the same as horses and other livestock, with whom they sometimes shared their billets in a barn. As more than one soldier observed, horses were “treated better than the men because they were harder to replace.”

However, George noted that even the horses were suffering during this cold winter spell of 1917. They suffered heavy casualties from exposure. The weather irritated the animals’ kidneys and livers, and there were not enough veterinary personnel available to treat all the afflicted animals.  
Carcasses lay for days just off the road in the fields were the animals had dropped in their tracks. Horses were rarely buried - there was nobody to do the job. It was enough of a job to bury the the soldiers, never mind the horses. George thought to himself; they didn’t deserve to die this way.

Horses had been used in warfare for thousands of years, and the First World War was no exception. The Canadian Army had 50,000 horses and mules during the Vimy offensive. Conditions for the beasts were terrible at best. Just like the men who fought and toiled beside them, horses and mules were subject to the same perils during war: gas attacks, direct fire, artillery, thick mud, and hunger. Their hairy bodies and slack girth of the mules were clotted with grey globs of mud, as though swallows had started to build a nest under them. Hundreds had to be mercy killed as they were worked to death.

Both mules and horses were used to carry not only men, but heavy munitions and supplies up to the front line areas. The 2nd Pioneers, like every unit, had a horse detachment that were necessary to move their kit, supplies and Pioneer equipment. The horses were kept in the rear areas in horse lines and were brought forward to the various sub units that required their services. A battalion typically had 20 horses.

Thousands of horses and mules by today’s standards were mistreated horribly. “Our wretched, emaciated, starving horses died under the lash as we were forced by swearing, raving provost marshals, (Military Police in their red covered caps brassards and M.F.P. arm bands) to flog them into carrying heavy loads of shells to our guns.”

The weather that winter made for harsh conditions, not only for the men, but horses as well. “The conditions were pitiful for our horses and mules. Tied in long horse lines for the most part, they died in hundreds, 600 in our division, from exposure. Horses can stand severe cold, but not when their feet are wet and they have no shelter from the wind. Mules are tougher.” (MacIntyre) To a farmer like George who was use to treating horses humanely, this was a sight not to be forgotten easily.

During February and March of 1917 a major shift in the 2nd Pioneer’s duties required George to move forward and work in the tunnels and boves (large pillared underground chambers) that were numerous in the Vimy area. Around Arras, the Canadians occupied these boves for rest and protection from the always present artillery barrages.

In the plains immediately west of Vimy ridge and south of the Lorette Spur there are at least eight of these cave complexes that were used by soldiers. Several, such as those at Carency, La Targette and Neuville St. Vaast, were initially occupied by the Germans and were the scene of bitter fighting in the 1915 Battles of Artois as the French drove the Germans back against the heights of Vimy Ridge. In Neuville St Vaast the caves were interconnected and in turn linked to the cellars of houses in the village. It is said that a man could enter the boves in Arras and move through this network of caves and underground passages arriving at the front some ten kilometres away.

B company Pioneers, including George, were detailed in early March to build shelters and beds in the Aux Reitz Caves found just behind his billet area of Neuville St Vaast. These caves afforded some of the best cover for Canadian troops.  Many Canadian troopers chiseled their name into the soft walls and to this day the trooper "art" can be found on the caves and tunnels used by the soldiers. The Aux Reitz Caves can still be visited today by appointment.

Nowhere on the Western Front was mining and tunneling more active than on Vimy Ridge. Mining took place under No Man’s Land every night. Excavating under an enemy position dates back to medieval times when miners would dig tunnels under castle walls and set off explosions. They hoped that the walls would collapse, and in the ensuing confusion, allow troops to enter the castle. Fast forward to World War 1 and the same principle was to be adapted to the Western Front. In the First World War, thousands of mines were exploded under enemy trenches by the various armies, and more than 200 mines were blown in the Vimy area. Today, in Vimy Park, these massive craters are still evident.

 
The British took over the Vimy Sector from the French in 1916. They were joined by the Canadian tunnelers in fall of 1916. The tunneling units were occupied in offensive and defensive mining involving the placing and maintaining of mines under enemy lines, as well as other underground works such as the construction of deep dugouts for troop accommodation, digging saps, cable trenches and underground chambers for signals and medical services.

One main purpose of the tunneling unit (tunnelers were often referred to as “Clay Kickers”) was to excavate tunnels. Engineers, tunnelers and pioneers were tasked to build subways. Tunnelers dug twelve elaborate and deep ‘subways,’ totaling more than five kilometers in length.
The subways allowed troops to enter a subway in the reserve trenches and pass underground to exits in the front line trenches. The maze of tunnels was one of the most remarkable engineering feats of the war. The extensive underground network would reduce casualties amongst the advancing infantry, returning wounded, and enable supplies to be brought to the forward trenches under less hazardous conditions. The subways allowed assault troops to move to their jumping-off points in the upcoming Vimy assault.

With twenty feet of chalk overhead they were safe from all but the heaviest shells. The subways were also dug in a straight line, unlike the meandering trenches above. Walking distances for George and the rest of the Pioneers could be cut by almost a third when using these tunnels.
 

The subways had piped water, and most were lit by electricity provided by generators. Chambers for brigade and battalion headquarters, ammunition stores, communications centers and dressing stations were cut into the walls of the subways. At Zero Hour the Canadians would push out to attack, right onto the battlefield.

B Company helped with the digging and clearing of the Pylones, Grange and Goodman tunnels during mid-March. Working on the tunnels was hard work. The Pioneers worked 24 hours
a day in shifts.

Each day the men filled sandbags with the chalk subsoil that the miners were digging out of the tunnels.  Private Kirkham carried bags of chalk up the stairs. The sandbags were piled at the mouth of the tunnel, and then men waited for darkness.

At night, the pioneers disposed of the chalky tunnel soil. Working through the night, B Company men made sure to camouflage their work. They made sure the Germans couldn’t see, even from air surveillance, any of the chalk-coloured earth that the tunnelers had excavated from underground that day. It wouldn’t do to have a ring of chalk around a tunnel entrance to give away its position.

Each Pioneer, in turn, would grab a 40 pound bags. George’s section pulled the sandbags out of the trenches and quickly dumped them into nearby shell holes. That sounds simple, but the tunnel entrances were a short distance behind the front line. This required the men to work out in the open many times in view of German infantry.

 
Any movement would draw fire. The Pioneers would freeze when an enemy flare went up. Although the enemy couldn’t see him, the carrier was the target for any stray burst of machine gun fire or the odd trench mortar. George learned to hit the ground when he heard a burst of machine gun fire coming his way. It was an eerie job and hard work too. As a private, you were given a dirty job and you did it.

The 172nd Tunneling Company of the British Royal Engineers dug the Grange Subway, during the winter of 1916-1917. It is located just south of the Vimy Ridge Memorial. The 2nd Pioneer Battalion were tasked with helping build this tunnel.

The Grange Tunnel was one of the longest of the subways, running about one kilometer back from the front. The tunnel is thirty-three feet underground. The chalk in this area is porous; three days after it rains on the surface, it rains in the tunnel. George and his section worked on the tunnel at the end of March. George was responsible for building some of the support structures for the tunnel and constructing some of the side rooms. A section of the Grange Tunnel can be visited today as part of a visit to the Vimy Battlefield park.

                                . . . . Dangers At the Front . . . .

During the war a new and deadly weapon was developed to break the stalemate at the front.  Gas attacks had been first used on the Western Front against the French, British, and Canadians at Passchendaele near the Belgium city of Ypres in 1915. If not for the Canadians, the front might have broken that day. The Canadians had held. From then on gas attacks could be expected anytime and was used frequently. It is estimated that Commonwealth and British forces suffered 188,000 casualties directly related to chemical weapons.

Gas was usually targeted on the frontline trenches, however, gas was known to travel with dire result up to fifteen miles behind the lines. Later as gas was delivered by artillery shell, gas could be expected anywhere on the battlefield.

Gas alarms could be found in all trenches and rear area. These alarms were bells or metal rods banged together followed by shouts of “Gas!” After the wind had dispersed the gas, the R.A.M.C got busy with their chemical sprayers, spraying out the dugouts and low parts of the trenches to dissipate any fumes of the German gas which might have been lurking in low spots.

Every soldier would train for gas attacks. George had received his training when he had arrived in France at Etaples. This was one session that all soldiers took seriously. It was a matter of life and death.

George carried a gas mask with him wherever he went as part of his basic equipment. It was one part of their equipment that was seldom mislaid. The quartermaster had few calls for replacement unless they became defective.

     
While on the front, George witnessed many uses of gas by both the Canadians and Germans. The Canadians launched a major gas attack in the area that George was assigned as recorded by Private Maurice Bracewell on March 1, 1917. “A big raid into the German lines by two battalions on a Brigade front was planned. The "raid" was to be combined with a gas attack in which chlorine gas was to be used. Preparations went all along the front line trenches held by the 11th Canadian Infantry Brigade of which our own battalion, the 102nd North British Columbians were a part. Cylinders of chlorine gas were placed in groups of three along the firing steps of the front line trench. The gas was to be fed over the parapet into No Man's Land through short lengths of hose that were attached to each cylinder. A steady, gentle wind blowing directly into enemy lines was necessary to ensure that the gas would reach its target effectively. Too strong a wind would disintegrate it and blow it away.

The battalions chosen were the 54th Kootenay and the 75th Toronto Battalions. It was known as the March 1st Gas Raid.

When the time planned for the raid arrived, wind conditions were unfavourable, so it was postponed for three days. At the end of the time the weather was still unfavourable, so a further delay of two days was made. When the third time set arrived, the weather was terrible. The wind was blowing very strongly right into our own lines! The Army ruled however that the attack must go as planned, irrespective of what happened. The colonels of the attacking battalions were reported as protesting the ruling most vehemently, but the ‘Army Brass’ was adamant in their stand. Colonel Kimball of the 54th Infantry Battalion in deliberate defiance of orders to the contrary, went "over the top" with his men and shared their fate! His body was later found in the barbed-wire.

The gas was turned on prior to the start of the artillery barrage, and the men went over the top as ordered with their gas masks covering their faces. The German staff knew all about the impending attack and was sitting waiting for it. Most of the attacking battalion were cut down as soon as they started out. The enemy had artillery and machine guns concentrated on that piece of frontage. Our own lines got all the gas. The front trenches were saturated with it. Colonel Kimball’s conduct was the essence of valour, but unfortunately that is not the type that wins official citations. Two battalions went over the top that night into their own gas clouds.”

As George looked on from his dugout, it would have been hard to see any purpose in this slaughter that was ordered by their own commanders. Artillery and flares mixed with the gas left a dismal impression on anyone that watched that night. Of the two battalions that went over the top 683 Canadians became casualties. That is a 43% casualty rate. These were experienced troopers expected to participate in one of the most important Canadian battles at Vimy Ridge. This  only exemplifies the stupidity of the command process in this particular operation. No wonder ordinary soldiers like George groused and cursed the officers who had no idea about life on the front. It was easy to issue orders from the comfort of a chateau.

 
It could be a small world, even on the Western Front with thousands of troops in such a confined area. Fred Little from McKellar was a member of the Kootenay Battalion. Although Fred was not a member of the 162nd, George knew Fred from back home.  George had no idea as he watched the raid that his friend was killed participating in the March 1st raid. He was one of the 683 that did not make it back to the safety of his own trenches. Fred is buried in the a cemetery just outside of Villers-au-Bois.  His name is one of those you will find on the McKellar cenotaph.
Back home in McKellar, Fred Little’s name appeared in the local paper as killed in action, and memorial services were held in the McKellar church. It wasn’t the first such ceremony and there were many to come yet. It was hard on the families involved. There were no burials because their were no bodies.  Families had to mourn their children knowing they were buried in foreign soil, if they were lucky as in Fred’s case - or simply missing and presumed dead. 

                                                                                                                                                     
There were other distractions than trench raids and dodging artillery fire on the front lines. George had never seen a plane until he had arrived for training in Niagara. Here at the front they were everyday sightings.

In April 1917 the air war on the Arras Front was referred to as Bloody April. This was a particularly trying month for the Royal Flying Corp during which it lost 151 aircraft and over 300 air crewmen, mostly in the area of Arras - which included the Vimy Ridge sector.

The RFC enjoyed a numerical advantage in aircraft over the German Army Air Service; however, RFC machines at the time were generally slower and less maneuverable than the newer generation of German fighters. During “Bloody April.” the life expectancy of a newly arrived RFC pilot was just seventeen days.

George would see the German triplane Folkers and the British Sopwith Camels duking it out during the daily duels.  Like spectators at a baseball game, the men would cheer for their pilots.

More often than not, the action in these daily dogfights took place high above the trenches, but there were many times when the planes chased each other just over the trenches. Several times George was strafed by low-flying airplanes. A plane would fly in at a couple hundred feet or less shooting up trenches before returning to base. George, like other soldiers, would return fire although they never hit these intruders.

In the rear areas the archies, antiaircraft guns would attempt to engage German aircraft. Aircraft darted through and around the puffs of white smoke. The archies rarely succeeded in bringing down German airplanes. When the shelling happened overhead, the shells, or bits of them would drop around the front lines.

Towards the end of 1916 the famous Red Baron, Richthofen, had painted his machine red, a colour later adopted by his entire squadron. The Flying Circus, as they were called, prowled the Vimy front line areas looking for kills. The Red Baron was spotted on many occasions over the lines. This was the same time that the Canadian ace Billy Bishop (72 kills) flew his first mission on March 25, 1917.

Besides fixed wing aircraft, “All along the front in this area were many observation balloons.” It was possible to make out the shape of the fighting line by the way the blimps were situated: ours on one side, the Huns on the other, suspended in the air a mile or so behind the actual firing lines. These balloons were tethered to heavy motor vehicles on the ground, and the job of the observer was a hazardous one. They would be sent up by winch above the Canadian lines. The balloons were valuable targets among German fighter units.

   
“Observation balloons do great work in spotting the positions of the enemy guns. They stay up all day. At present, I can see eleven of ours. And I can see German balloons. Through their glasses, the observer can see ten miles on any side of him. They are very often attacked by enemy planes. I saw a German plane sail over about two months ago. The pilot set five of our balloons on fire within five minutes. Just flew from one to another, passing each by 25 yards and in about 10 seconds, you’d see it in a blaze. The observers jumped in their parachutes, except for the first one, who was too unexpectedly taken. The airman shot the observer of the third balloon in mid air!”(anon)