44 THE YPRES TIMES By Captain Harry W. Hiltz, 25th (Nova Scotia) Battalion. TO select an engagement of the Canadian Corps in the Ypres Salient as representative of the many struggles in which it participated is a difficult task. One will never forget the gallant stand of the grand old 1st Division in the Second Battle of Ypres, and the hardships endured by the valiant 2nd Division at Saint Eloi in April, 1916. Keeping these in mind, I still think that the Battle of Sanctuary Wood, which opened on June 1st, as an enemy triumph and closed on June 13th as a Canadian victory, is one of the best pages in the Battle Book of Canada. The fighting since March, 1916, had been moving steadily northward, and northward with it moved the Canadian Corps. The Corps had now grown to the strength of. three divisions The 2nd Division had joined the first near Kemmel in September, 1915, and these two divisions had been joined by the third in the early months of 1916. And so, with trench raids in the vicinity of Messines and Wytschaete, through the battle of Saint Eloi, they came at last to the actions at Sanctuary Wood and Hooge. These actions were fought south-east of Ypres. If one could stand on some high point within the circle of the walls of the city one would have an excellent view of the field of battle, with the possible exception of the most extreme outer edge. The Menin Road, which is the Glory Road of so many Canadian and Imperial battalions, drives for a mile over the flats and then ascends for a like distance to the village) of Hooge. The ridge, with the exception of one main gap, curves south-west and runs to Mount Sorrel. It represents a bowl of which the city of Ypres is the central depression. Standing in this position the observer can cast his eye along the ridge and look across a mile of meadows crossed by green hedges, the northern part covered only by a few scattered and riven trees, until the eye comes to Zouave Wood, which runs up to the greatest of the gaps. This gap separates Hooge from the remainder of the Mount' Sorrel system, and through it the enemy can look down on the British positions on the plain. A bit farther south the slopes are covered with the greater expanse of Sanctuary Wood, at one time so dense as to be almost impassable to the Guards in October, 1914, and now sadly thinned by shell-fire and crowned by the low mounds of Hill 61 and Hill 62. Called by the enemy Doppelhohe, or double-heights, beyond is Mount Sorrel, and here the British line breaks sharply back to the west and the railway at Hill 60. Between Sanctuary Wood and Mount Sorrel is Observatory Ridge, a long tongue of higher ground, bare and barren, running due west into the British positions at Zallebeke village and lake. This was the position occupied by the Canadian 3rd Division on June 1st, 1916. It was by no means a pleasant prospect; white, scarred, headless trees, churned earth, rusted wire, and scattered useless equipment lay as a backdrop for the ceaseless growl of the guns which seemed to come from every point of the horizon. The Battle of Sanctuary Wood and Hooge cannot be successfully portrayed without minute detail. Three divisions took part in the engagement, the 3rd being first engaged, later the 1st, while the 2nd were at Saint Eloi, and were not drawn into the conflict until at a later stage of the battle. Therefore, to trace in detail the movement of these three divisions would take more time and space than is at my disposal.

HISTORISCHE KRANTEN

The Ypres Times (1921-1936) | 1932 | | pagina 14