The 4th Canadian Mounted Rifles - ElectricCanadian.com

THE SOMME 35attack. They advanced at a steady walk in SePtextendedorder with bayonets fixed and rifles at the trail, followingunder the bursts of high-explosives into the smoke anddin of the bombardment. It was a rare, magnificentand inspiring sight. A flushed, corpulent Sergeant ofthe attacking troops, who had lost direction, boundedinto the trench occupied by the 4th C. M. R. thinkinghe had reached his objective. After mopping his brow,adjusting his hat and "tin"cursing his luck, he rejoinedhis comrades.That evening the Battalion was relieved by theLancashire Fusiliers. The Battalion had reason to beproud of its part in this historic battle for Courcelette.It was due to their coolness and steadiness that theywere able to march for two hours through heavy fire totheir assembly point and be in a position in less than fourhours after receiving orders. They accomplished insoldierly fashion their difficult task as pivot troops forthe larger flanking movement. Even after their objective had been reached they carried on the work of consolidating under heavy rifle and machine gun fire andwere not checked by the trench-mortar bombardmentwhich assailed them from Mouquet Farm.They completed a long communication trench with the help of apioneer battalion and when relief came Colonel Gordonwas able to hand over a finished system of defensibletrenches. Their booty was big; fifty men, includingthree officers, were taken prisoner and two machine gunswere captured.The severity of the struggle was evident from the casualties; two officers and thirty-two men killed and fourofficers and fifty-two wounded.The Battalion returned to Albert on the 17th, rested sept. 17,until the morning of the 19th and then marched back to 1916Warloy where it was billeted for a day. The men werein high spirits. Their first adventure on the Somme hadbeen a great success; they had many mental andmaterial souvenirs. On the following day they cleanedand cleared billets, marching back toward the front toBouzincourt. They had a week in this little village of