The 4th Canadian Mounted Rifles - ElectricCanadian.com

1DURING THE LAST GERMAN OFFENSIVE 91out of quiet portionsof the line with an occasional raidand very few casualties. From the records they wereapparently oblivious of the steady march of seriousevents going on to the south and north of them; theonly mention in the War Diary of any momentousoccurrence during this period was an entry on March 21st,of the German offensive that there werethe first day"rumours of a great enemy offensive to the south.The lack of information in the Diary, at this time,regarding other than very personal details smacks ofthat curious British trait of refusing to take seriouslythe first indications of adverse circumstances.The following summary of events of great momenthappening on all Fronts will explain the external situation which had an indirect bearing on the history ofthe Battalion. There was practically a stalemate onthe Western Front during the winter of 1917. This wasnot the case on other Fronts; in November the Austria nswere pressing the Italians on the Piave, Russia hadcompletely collapsed and definitely suspended hostilitiesat the beginning of December; at the same time Roumaniahad agreed to an armistice. Britain was the only AlliedPower having any success and that was in Palestine;Jerusalem was taken on December 10th. This was theonly bright spot until the Italians stiffened and held.February was uneventful.In the meantime the Germans had mustered 192Divisions and gathered all their forces for a final blowagainst the British and French. On March 21st, 1918,they struck at the Third and Fifth Armies, but chieflyat the latter which joined the French on the rightof the British Line and where the enemy hoped to drivea wedge and separate the two Armies. In ideal, foggyweather they penetrated to considerable depth on theFifth Army front. On this day the Third CanadianDivision was just south of Lens on the Mericourt-Avionsector and only heard the distant shelling. A week laterthe Germans attacked astride the Scarpe between theThird and First Armies both of which had CanadianDivisions under their commands but which were not