The 4th Canadian Mounted Rifles - ElectricCanadian.com

102 4TH CANADIAN MOUNTED RIFLESWD le Battalion and worked on the construction of newsupport trenches. The shelling and registering hadincreased and an attack was expected.April 5, When the Battalion went into the line from the 5thto the llth, they left a quota of officers and men at theTransport lines as a precautionary measure, so that, in caseApril 12,of a sudden bombardment and an attack as at SanctuaryWood, the unit would not be wiped out. This was inaccordance with the Allied plan. This was really thelast tour the Unit made in the trenches on this front.The good weather broke; it rained heavily and thetrenches were in a very bad state, becoming knee-deepwith mud. The Canadian Corps already on March 28thhad elongated its line to relieve Divisions of the First andThird Armies and again on April llth the whole CanadianCorps readjusted its front. The 8th Brigade moved tothe Hill 70 sector. The Battalion was relieved andreached its billets at 3.00 a.m. on the 12th; but the menwere up again at 10.00 a.m. making preparations to move.They marched to Territorial Siding on the Arras-BethuneRoad and entrained on the narrow-gauge railway.After an uninterrupted journey on this miniature line,they detrained at 1.00 a.m. on the 13th at Aix Nouletteand marched through Bully Grenay to Les Brebis wherethey arrived at 4.00 p.m.On the previous visit to Les Brebis they had beenastonished to find many civilians so near the Front.Now these people were being evacuated by orders ofthe French Government. M. Clemenceau had beenat Les Brebis the day before and personally issuedthe proclamation that all the residents were to leave atonce. Here the Battalion witnessed one of those sadsights, common enough in 1914 on the retreat fromThe exodus had startedMons, but rare since that time.at 5.00 a.m. on April 2nd. All during the day sombre-facedwomen and old men struggled with the packing andloading of their effects. Nearly seven thousand people,without the help of their strong men who were in thefighting-line elsewhere, were carrying bundles of bedding,dishes, kitchen utensils and garden tools. Women pushed