The 4th Canadian Mounted Rifles - ElectricCanadian.com

"""VIMY RIDGE 49and nailed up a sign: Come on over and we will treat youThis time he was not so fortunate; he wasright.crawling through the enemy s wire when mortallywounded. Corporal Martin and Private F. Brazeau, withgreat difficulty, succeeded in dragging him out of theentanglement. Lieutenant Gregory Clark, who was onduty in the front trenches, went out to assist theothers who were then trying to place Richards ona duck-board. Finally, Lieutenant T. W. E. Dixonarrived with a stretcher party and carried him inbut unfortunately this gallant officer died the nextmorning in the Field Ambulance. Two days later,General Byng sent this message to the Brigade: "Pleaseconvey to all ranks of the 8th Canadian Infantry Brigadeour great appreciation of their repeatedly successful raids.The Battalion arrived in rest billets in Villers-au-Boisfor the attack April i,on April 1st and made final preparationson Vimy Ridge; practising over imaginary trenches andhaving a thorough inspection of kit and equipment. Onthe night of 5th/6th, the men went again into the sameline, relieving one company of the 52nd Battalion andone company of the 60th Battalion. Headquarters werelocated in Goodman Tunnel. The trenches had becomeworse, some were partially filled with water; large working parties, however, soon drained and repaired thejumping off places. On the night of the 6/7th, twoparties under Lieutenants F. A. Herman and H. Bennett;successfully cut the wire in front of P line and thefollowing night, beneath a searching moon, parties from"A"Company, under Lieutenants T. W. E. Dixon andG. T. Aitkens cut a line through the wire between thecraters, Albany, Devon and Vernon. Lieutenant Aitkenshad been slightly wounded on the previous day butpluckily returned to duty to participate in the big showwhere, at its outset, he was wounded again.Toward the end of 1916, the Battle of the Somme wasstill in progress but the possibility of a break-through wasdoubtful. General Joffre proposed a simultaneous attackby both armies on a wide front. The British were toattack from Vimy to Bapaume and the French from the