72nd Seaforth Highlanders of Canada - waughfamily.ca

SEAFORTH HIGHLANDERS OF CANADAfamiliar Chateau de la Haie. For a short period martialmusic held the place of sterner martial measures. Thepipe band took its part in a grand performance of themassed pipes and drums of the Canadian Corps at whichF. M. Sir Douglas Haig was present. Once more the familiar airs of the northland and of Canada resoundedamong the old trees of the Chateau, alternately recallingthe past and inspiring for the future It is noted in theBattalion diary that the 72nd again won the championwas theship of the Corps in the tug of war, and that thisfirst time that the Battalion met the 29th in that competition, the result being a decided win for the 72nd. OnJune 21th a Brigade practice for the attack on La Coulottewas inspected by the Corps Commander. A joint churchparade with the 85th Battalion was also held, at whichvarious decorations were presented. June 25th saw theChateau de la Haie under a new aspect, the occasion beingthat of the First Army Horse Show, H. R. H. the Duke ofConnaught being present.A review of the situation at this time shows that forover two months, the Canadians, after thrusting the German from his tenacious hold on Vimy Ridge, had lain moreor less dormant before the menace of the enemy s carefullyprepared defences from the Souchez on the north to Oppyon the south. Dormant, however, is a word which must behere taken in a comparative sense . The tactics which hadbeen decided upon by the higher command still held thefield the limited objective, progress by slow and calculated stages a steady grinding attrition. During the twomonths, fighting of a local but fierce character had goneon along the entire front. At first the struggle for theblood-soaked ruins of Oppy on the south continued forsome time, while during the month of May the left of theCanadian line had flung itself time after time in minoroperations against the calcined rubble-heap of the electricgenerating station and its adjacent trenches on the Hiron-60