The 4th Canadian Mounted Rifles - ElectricCanadian.com

VIMY RIDGE 45conveniences that modern engineering could provide;electric light, water-supply, light-railway, dressing-stations and telephonic communications.On October 24th the 4th C. M. R. relieved a LondonRegiment of one of the newest Imperial Divisions in frontof Ecurie, which was almost on the extreme right of theCorps Front and adjacent to that maze of interlockingtrenches and old craters known to the French as "TheLabyrinth" and which ranked in their early war-annalswith our "Bird Cage"at Ypres. When the men enteredthe communication trenches at Anzin, the front was sothatpeaceful after the Somme, it was difficult to realizethe enemy was close at hand. The last day of the monthsaw the Battalion, for the first time, in the front linetrenches on the Vimy Front. By the code phrase "Rumissued at 11.00"they reported the completion of therelief. The month of November passed; seven men Novwounded were the total casualties, a fact indicative of the 1916quietness of this sector. On the 29th, the night beforeleaving the line, a sentry group under Corporal Butters:of DCompany captured two German prisoners whowere handed over to the A. P. M. On the 30th theBrigade was drawn up for a review by the Corps Commander, Lieut. -General Sir Julian Byng who presentedhonours to fifteen officers, non-commissioned officers andmen of the Battalion, for their work at the Somme.Each time when relieved they returned to Etrun, nearMarceuil, where, in a large shed converted into an armynatatorium, were several enormous wine-vats filled withwarm water which soon cleansed the Battalion.Freshclothing was another luxury. When in rest billets themen kept up their training in musketry, bombing andsniping, and kept fit by route-marching.They continued the Brigade routine of four days inthe trenches and four days in billets, and December Dec -passed more or less as the previous month. The weatherbecame more uncertain; heavy rains did considerabledamage to the trenches. The communication trencheswere conspicuously French in their construction, manywere strongly revetted and still bore their Gallic names.