72nd Seaforth Highlanders of Canada - waughfamily.ca

SEAFORTH HIGHLANDERS OF CANADAin the rear of the 3rd before the attack and itpeaceful surroundingswas in theof a wheatfield that the 72nd founditself awaiting zero hour. As may be imagined, in an attack on such a huge scale the importance of each unitkeeping perfect direction is a primary essential. To ensure this the Battalion was led by the Scout Officer, Lieut.H. C. Whittaker, with two patrols of eight men each andtwo signallers equipped with visual signalling apparatus.While the work of this officer and his scouts will be morefully dealt with later, let it here be remarked that duringthe whole advance Lieut. Whittaker, by means of map andcompass, kept perfect direction over some fifteen miles ofabsolutely strange country and exposed, by virtue of hisworking in front of the Battalion, to particularly intensefire the whole time.As the first streaks of dawn became visible through thefog that had crept up during the night, the atmospherebecame charged with an almost electrical tension. The big"hush-hush" attack was straining at the leash.Crash !Almost as one gun the artillery from the SommeThe attack hadto below Montdidier took up the barrage.commenced. The 72nd was assembled in the midst of abattery of 9.2 howitzers the noise mlay be better im>andagined than described. The flashes of the guns showed thetanks crawling through the fog. As far as could be determined through the heavy mist, the country seemed alivewith them. At about 6:30 a.m. the Battalion commencedthe advance, following the 3rd Division. The stream ofprisoners coming back seemed to denote that all was goingwell, and at 8 :30 a.m., after moving for two hours througha heavy fog, the Battalion arrived at its jumping-off point,south of Demuin on the Luce River. Three hours laterthe 4th Canadian Division took up the advance, and sweptthrough the 3rd Division on the "Green Line" in its finaldrive for the old Amiens defense line five miles beyond.As the sun at length broke through the fog on the morn-114