72nd Seaforth Highlanders of Canada - Electric Scotland

"
SEAFORTH HIGHLANDERS OF CANADA
for a moment from the menace of our patrols, his was a
sorry plight.
On August 5th, 1917, a patrol consisting of one officer
and a non-commissioned officer actually entered the
enemy s front line by daylight and proceeded some
300 yards along the trench until stopped by an enemy
post. The patrol then withdrew to the point of entrance
and worked down the enemy front line in the opposite
direction until it was stopped by the fire of another enemy
post.. The patrol, then under a cross-fire which was em
barrassing, to say the least, withdrew to their own lines,
having obtained first-hand information about the actual
state of the enemy front line and the posts it contained.
It was at this time that ammonal tubes were first used
by scouts to destroy wire in preparation
for a raid. Two
gaps were blown in the enemy s wire which was very
thick among the ruins of houses in order to furnish points
of entrance for a raiding party. One of these gaps was
filled by the Hun the night after it was blown, and in
consequence, on August 10th, 1917, a patrol under Lieut.
G. Clark, proceeded on the following night to re-blow it.
All went well until the moment to connect the fuse had
arrived, when suddenly our patrol was rushed by a Ger
man patrol who left their lines on a whistle signal being
given. Cpl. F. W. Spooner, in charge of that part of the
patrol detailed as a covering party, and his men, opened a
savage fire into the enemy and Lieut. Clark, working
furiously, connected the fuse, and turned the Nobel
lighter."
Like a flash the white-hot spark leaped through
the instantaneous fuse, and 20 pounds of ammonal, dis
integrated with an ear-shattering roar in the very faces
of the stubbornly-advancing Boche patrol. Our patrol, its
task accomplished, then skillfully withdrew to their own
lines without a casualty.
On August 14th, 1917, one officer and a non-commissioned
officer, while on a daylight patrol, entered the enemy s
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