The 4th Canadian Mounted Rifles - ElectricCanadian.com

""14 4TH CANADIAN MOUNTED RIFLESexplosives crashed on the pave or fell in the town ofYpres. The night was made more unreal by the flaresand Verey lights which seemed to surround the mysterious darkness. During the days in the front line, themen s lives were menaced by bombs and grenades.Dodging minnenwerfers and repairing their damage occupied many hours on duty.After four days, in which four men were killed and fivewounded, the Battalion was relieved by the 5th C. M. R.,and moved to "Belgian Chateau" in Brigade Reserve,where they remained until the 28th, returning and doingApril 6,another tour both in the front line and Brigade Reserve,;until April 6th, when they went back to B Camp.After a week of rest in Divisional Reserve the Battaliontook over from the 52nd Battalion in the right sub-sectorof the same area. The next three weeks were equallydivided between the front line, local support and Divisional Reserve.The Brigades of the Third Division were shifted todifferent parts of this Sector, probably to familiarize7th the 4thMay 4, them with the area, consequently on May1916C. M. R. went into new trenches, the most northerlythey had yet occupied. They were again in front ofZillebeke and in Sanctuary Wood, but looking up towardStirling Castle. On their left was the Gap and "Appendix" and the village of Hooge and the Ypres-Menin Road,dividing the Third Canadian Division from the Guards Division. The water-logged soil did not permit of deep dugouts in this low undulating country. The trenches werebuilt up above the surrounding ground and even then inmany places the men crouched in water up to their knees.The weather was cold and wet and except for the welcome braziers, improvised from oil-drums, life wouldhave been unbearable. Toward the end of the monththe temperature suddenly became warmer, and the men,instead of being chilled to the marrow and grovelling inslime, were now sweltering in the brilliant sunshine. Theweather probably more than any other thing, affected thespirits and outlook of the men; good weather enormouslydiminished their discomforts, though floods of sunshine