4 – Sequence of events

The troops arrived at their assembly points in the early hours of August 8. Zero hour was fixed at 4:20. Thirty minutes before, the German artillery carried out a bombing raid on the front line resulting in the first casualties of the fighting. This led the Canadians to believe that the surprise attack had failed, but the German fire stopped before the allied fire had even started. That morning, there was a thick mist, which rendered their objectives and the German lines non-visible to the troops. Visibility was only a few meters and it was difficult to move, forcing them to rely on compasses to keep the direction of the attack. The Allied bombardments caused the fog to thicken as well as creating a deafening racket.

 

 

4.1 - Fighting South of Marcelcave

 

South of the 4th brigade's combat zone, The 18th Battalion was in liaison with the 14th Battalion of the 3rd Canadian Infantry Brigade which was fighting further south in Hangard and Morgemont woods and which was to capture the villages of Aubercourt then Ignaucourt. Working closely with the tanks and under an effective barrage, the 18th Battalion reached its objective south of  Marcelcave at 07:45. Having neutralized the German artillery batteries, the battalion established it’s line of defence on the ground around the quarries. D company remained in reserve near the current road linking Marcelcave to Ignaucourt. The advance of the battalion was impeded by  strong enemy opposition marked by “nests” of enemy machine gun. Captain T.H.O. Rayward was highly noticed during the fighting. This  officer from Melbourne, Australia joined the Canadian Expeditionary Force in October 1914. The advance of the 18th Battalion  cost him approximately 30 men with 120  injured. More than half of the victims of that day were buried in Crucifix Corner Cemetery at Villers -Bretonneux.

 

 

4.2 - Fighting leading to the capture of Marcelcave

The 19th Battalion fought  in liaison with the Australian Corps (26th Australian Brigade) to the north,  on the other side of the railway line, and to the south with the Canadian 18th Battalion. The 19th Battalion attacked under a barrage of artillery and machine gun fire. Shortly after leaving the trenches, the battalion was held up several times on it’s left flank by enemy machine-gun posts. During one of the clashes, Lieutenant J.L. Burton was killed while attempting to neutralize the enemy strong-hold. Replacing him, Corporal (acting Sargeant) R.C. Hollidge managed to capture the machine gun killing six servants, and turned it against the Germans soldiers who were retreating, making many casualities in the enemy ranks. The 21st Battalion, which closely followed the 18th Battalion, took a detour to the north to attack Marcelcave. Lieutenants A.G Bell, 19th Batallion, and Currie of the 21st Batallion tore into to the village with their men. Corporal R.C. Hollidge entered the area with a machine gun on his arm, firing into the shelter trenches and cellars. The village  quickly fell to the  Canadians who took about 250 prisoners including a senior officer and his team who were in the castle. A medical aid station had been installed in the village by the Germans – the equipment seized included the medical surplies. The German 4.1 cm guns with their munitions were immediately handed over to  the artillery. At the rear of the fighting for Marcelcave, the headquarters of the 21st Battalion moved along to follow the progress, as was usual.  At around 05:30, it moved to a position situated at the wood named ‘Cave’ This small wooded area,

now obsolete, was roughly between 200 and 300 m west of Marcelcave. While approaching this wood, the battalion headquarters came under enemy machine-gun fire. Col. Elmer Watson Jones, Commander of the battalion was mortally wounded in the midst of  a wheat field by a bullet that pierced his right lung. It was 7:30 in the morning. The loss of this officer, one of the ‘originals’ (i.e. one of the first) of the unit was bitterly regretted. His body was carried by four German prisoners and buried the next day in the small British cemetery at Longueau. The 19th and 21st Battalions continued to advance by about 800 meters after the capture of Marcelcave and established their lines of defense facing Pierret Wood. By 07:00 in the morning, the second wave of attack led by the 5th Brigade was able to take over and continue towards Wiencourt L’Equipée. The 20th Battalion remained in reserve west of Marcelcave. At midnight, the brigade’s rear support unit  reached the village allowing the distribution of hot meals to all the soldiers. That day, all three battalions lost approximately thirty men each. Most were buried in  Crucifix Corner Cemetery and in the Military Cemetery of Villers-Bretonneux. Those who died of their wounds were burried in the British Cemetery at Crouy-Saint-Pierre, west of Amiens. Behind the 4th brigade, the second wave of the 5th Canadian Infantry Brigade followed so as to lead the fighting after having taken Marcelcave. Lieutenant-Colonel Louis Thomas, Commander of the French Canadian 22nd Battalion, the only French-speaking battalion, recounts in his war diary:

 - At 5 o’clock we left our Assembly position and followed the attack beyond 4th Brigade a couple of miles [3 km] behind. The battalion advanced in artillery formation, two front companies, one road column. I ran the companies very close to one another in order to ensure agood liaison as the smoke was so dense that you couldn’t see more than twenty feet (6 m) ahead. We were heading in the direction of Marcelcave where the attack of our brigade would start. At 6: 00 we went across the first Gerry lines where we saw the first enemy casualties. We walked very slowly coming under fire 124 times from German machine gunners that the attacking troops had neglected along the way. We send out small parties of  men to get rid of them as we went along. At 8:30, we were east of Marcelcave where we passed above the 4th Brigade troops . Our brigade was now on the attack, there was only the 24th Bataillon in front of us. At the approach of the small Pierret wood, we came under violent machine gun fire which resulted in the loss of several of our men including my "batman" [ordonnance] Gariépy, hit by a bullet in the head, killed by my side. (According to the circumstances of the death (Library archives Canada, Private Lorenzo Gariépy died August 9, 1918, during the advance between Caix and Méharicourt. His resting place is not known.  He is therefore commemorated at Vimy Memorial) At 9:30, we crossed  Pierret Wood communicating with and close to the 24th Battalion ahead of us. The 26th Battalion attacking to the right was momentarily stopped by machine gun fire; we helped it to overthrow these obstacles, and continued the advance. Pierret  Wood was filled with German long-range canons which we captured  along with several teams of horses before the enemy could retreive them. We found the horses harnessed to pieces of canons. At 10 o’clock our C company was in the village of Wiencourt L’Equipée. (translation of excerpt from “War Journal (1915-1919) - Thomas-Louis Tremblay”, pages 284-285) text edited by Marcelle Cinq-mars, Athena Editions.)