Walter Draycott’s Great War Chronicle
North Vancouver Museum & Archives
– frost
Enemy shell us vigorously with 7.7 cc shells for 3 hours. No damage except to disturb graves. I make investigation of his shells & find location of his battery. Make sketch & plan & submit same to Artillery thru’ our Intell. Officer. He sends the 1st 1916 Shell over, previously they have been 1915. They’re made @ Strassburg.
– frost
Up the front line with Pte. Collins. Much shelling. See an enemy sentry on sentry – go. On our return we visit the caves. In evening the enemy shell our quarter with 5.9’. Hell on our left. Intense bombardment.
* In the days leading up to the historic battle [Vimy], Canadian troops were housed in a series of underground caverns and tunnels to keep the build up of troops secret from the Germans, said Rory Cory, senior curator for the Military Museums. Boredom reigned, leading some to begin doodling or carving images into the cave walls. (www.canada.com)
Up the line alone. Enemy shelling vigorously & then our 9.2’s open up & silence him. Ground very hard with recent frosts. Ice a foot thick. 4 inches of snow on the ground.
– snowing, miserable
Enemy aeroplane falls over line in flames. Attacked by our airmen.
The RCRs carry out a successful raid & got 5 prisoners (one with an Iron Cross). Our casualties two slightly wounded. Several German dugouts were bombed & inmates killed.
*RCR ~ Royal Canadian Regiment
*The Iron Cross (in German ‘Eiserne Kreuz’) was reinstituted during the Franco-Prussian War of 1870-71 and again by Kaiser Wilhelm II on 5 August 1914 for use during the First World War. The medal was awarded to recognise acts of heroism, bravery and leadership. In spite of its evident prestige it was a widely issued medal: almost six million were awarded during wartime, although by far the majority of these (5,500,000) were awarded to the lowest of three classes of the medal, the Iron Cross (Second Class). (www.firstworldwar.com)
To church in Officers Mess @ 9:30.
In morning & afternoon I go up to front line for a tour of inspection. Enemy shell heavily. I had to turn back.
cold & frosty
The snow is still with us. Busy all day with maps. An order comes out for Box Respirators & steel helmets to be worn continuously – must be expecting something.
Enemy very active & we also.
Sniper Loptson “Military Medal” is before the general for a commission in the 49th Br.
We have chestnuts as part of our rations.
*The Military Medal is awarded to Warrant Officers, non-commissioned officers and men for individual or associated acts of bravery on the recommendation of a Commander-in-Chief in the field. (www.veterans.gc.ca)
Snow falls during night to a depth of 4 inches. Continues to snow during day.
A party of men are at work endeavouring to find an underground tunnel used by the monks & Huguenots.
Enemy shell heavily in morning & again in evening.
*The Huguenots were French Protestants who, due to religious persecution, were forced to flee France to other countries in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Some remained, practicing their faith in secret. (www.huguenot.netnation.com)
Brigadier General MacDonnel calls me in to receive a cheque for £5.0.0 in recognition for valuable services rendered. Sorry he could not give me any promotion as Army rules do not permit it, being only attached to Bde.
*Pierre Berton described Macdonell in the book “Vimy”: Macdonell was known as a front-line soldier; indeed, (28 year old intelligence officer Hal) Wallis was to say he spent as much time at the front with his brigadier as he had in his days as a private. Not for nothing did the men of the 7th call Macdonell “Fighting Mac” and sometimes “Batty Mac” because of his eccentricities under fire. Everybody knew the story of how he’d gone so far into No Man’s Land that a sniper put a bullet in his arm. Instead of ducking, Batty Mac had stood up swearing, shaking his unwounded arm angrily at the sniper, who immediately put another bullet in his good arm. And everybody also knew that Macdonell, at the Somme, had insisted on walking among the wounded after the attack on the Regina Trench, unmindful of the enemy shells, to salute the corpses of the Black Watch. A sentimental Scot who sometimes swore in Gaelic in moments of great pressure, Macdonell stopped at every corpse and said “I salute you, my brave Highlander,” until Wallis managed to pull him to safety.(Berton, Pierre: Vimy).
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