72nd Seaforth Highlanders of Canada - waughfamily.ca

SEAFOBTH HIGHLANDERS OF CANADAroborated the almanac. The transport lines had been busyfor some time hauling brick and stone to prepare winterstandings for the horses. Occupying the trenches and reliefs from the same were mixed with notable footballgames. The operations of the war were comparatively uneventful but they were there. The 15th and 16th of September were marked by artillery activities on the part ofthe enemy. Much work was accomplished on the front linesystem of trenches which was put into excellent shape.It was at about this period that the termination came ofthe dominating reign of the bomb as a rival to musketry.During the summer the British authorities had been emphasizing the superiority of the rifle and bayonet over thehand grenade, because they found that the latter had cometo occupy a factitious position. Men went into battle ladenwith it even as late as Vimy. A significant yarn on thesubject is that of a soldier who followed a solitary German for half a mile at a distance of 300 yards trying toget up to him to bomb him, forgetting altogether that hehad a rifle with which he could shoot him!On September 23rd the Battalion took part in a BrigadeChurch Parade and march past before the Brigade Commander who on this occasion presented several decorations.On the 24th practice work began, for a proposed attack onSallumines Hill with a view to forcing the evacuation ofLens by the enemy, and during this rest period all ranksstudied a relief model of the area to be covered. The officers and N. C. O. s went over the tapes laid out nearBerthonval Wood, and on the following days the Battalioncarried out the practices over these representative limits.The Medicals won the final in the football championshipof the 4th Division. Also on September 29th, when theCorps Championship Sports were held at Villers-au-Bois,the Battalion tug of war team met that of the 29th Battalion, which it had previously defeated for the ArmyChampionship. The pull was a very long one, and at one74