The 4th Canadian Mounted Rifles - ElectricCanadian.com

;3SANCTUARY WOOD 23marked the skeletons of former homes and shops of this.ancient town.For several nights large working parties of 500 men ormore went to the trenches. One of these parties withLieut. R. Innes-Taylor in charge was digging a fresh sapin "No-Man s-Land under the direction of a C.E.officer when a flare dropped with parabolic grace behind,outlining the men sufficiently for the Germans to distinguish the party against the inky blackness. BombsJuly1916and rifle grenades heralded their discovery and beforethey could get to cover one man was killed and twowounded.On July 23rd the new Battalion for the first time took July 23,over part of the front line, relieving the 5th C. M. R. inSanctuary Wood on the old battle line of June 2nd. Thetenancy of the Germans had been short. They hadmoved their guns forward preparatory to exploiting theirtemporary success but were driven out by the counterattacks of the First Division and after two weeks ofthe most bitter fighting in mud and rain the Canadianswere again in possession of their old front line.The Irish Guards who entered this sector on June 18th,1916, occupied the recaptured trenches from the MeninRoad south into the north end of Sanctuary Wood. Mr.Rudyard Kipling describes,* their right line for nearlyhalf a mile, was absolutely unrecognizable save in a fewisolated spots. The shredded ground was full of buriediron and timber which made digging difficult, and, inspite of a lot of cleaning up by predecessors, dead Canadians lay in every corner. It ran through what hadbeen a wood and was now a dreary collection of charred andsplintered stakes, to the top of which, blown there byshells, hung tatters of khaki uniform and equipment.There was no trace of any communication trenches.To the 4th C. M. R. this shattered wood was indeed asanctuary.In the early hours of the 24th the enemy threw severalrifle grenades into one of the saps, killing Lieut. F. P. H.Layton and one man and wounding severely Lieut. C. K.*In his book, The Irish Guards in the Great War.