72nd Seaforth Highlanders of Canada - waughfamily.ca

SEAFORTH HIGHLANDERS OF CANADABrigade rehearsed a proposed attack on Pys, a villagenestling at the foot of Bapaume Ridge. This attack, whichwas to be of a very comprehensive character, involving alarge number of troops, was later countermanded, owingto certain tactical developments on the flanks. A largeworking party was sent to Aveluy, a railhead north ofAlbert, for the purpose of loading trucks. It was duringthis working party that the men had their first experienceof long-range shelling, one or two casualties being incurred.With the taking of Desire trench by the 38th Canadian Infantry Battalion, the 72nd was once more pushedforward to fulfil that most difficult of tasks, to hold andproperly consolidate a freshly-occupied position. To complicate matters, reports on the situation, as is almost inevitable in such a case, conflicted. Only after the moststrenuous reconnaissances on the part of the officers andN. C. O. s was the Battalion able to get anywhere at all.As usual, mud and rain terribly hampered movement, andat length, after nine solid hours of trudging, halting andmoving on again, through one of the darkest of nights,the Battalion arrived at Desire trench. It sounds a simplematter to go from one point to another, even in the dark,but to take a Battalion, at night, over recently-capturedground where all landmarks have been obliterated, andover country which no one is sure of, is a task of immensedifficulty. Of course, the Battalion was furnished withguides, but as has been sagely remarked, there are onlytwo kinds of guides those who do not know the way andsay so at once, and those who are equally ignorant butleave you to find it out! Unfortunately the only guidesthe Battalion had on that night were of the latter description. And so it happened, that after a night of sliding,stumbling and wading through the worst kind of bogsin all degrees of consistency or the lack of it, the 72ndarrived at Desire trench and settled down to a six-day30