August 8
1st Canadian Division situation summary for 8 August 1918, relaying a G.H.Q. report through Fourth Army
August 12: with his filing mark
1st Canadian Division situation summary for 12 August 1918, with Robertson's pencil filing mark “1st B.T.S. C.E.” across the top
August 13–14
Typed situation report for 13 and 14 August 1918, distributed to the 1st, 2nd and 3rd Battalions and the Bridging and Transport Section, Canadian Engineers
August 15: with the unit's registry stamp
1st Brigade Canadian Engineers forwarding a 15 August 1918 divisional message, stamped with the 1st Bridging and Transport Section registry stamp
August 16
Situation summary distributed to the four Canadian Engineer units of the 1st Canadian Division, 16 August 1918
The warning order, August 18
Very Secret warning order, 1st Brigade Canadian Engineers, 18 August 1918, warning the Canadian Corps to prepare to withdraw from the line
Click to enlarge
Canadian Engineers · 8–18 August 1918

The Situation Reports from Amiens

Summer 1918: the move to Amiens

By the second week of August 1918 the Battle of Amiens had run its course. The great advance of the 8th had carried the Canadian Corps eight miles in a day; a week later it was grinding forward yard by yard through the old, cratered Somme battlefield of 1916, against wire that had stood for two years and a stiffening German defence. The Corps' last actions in the battle were the attacks on Parvillers, Damery and Fouquescourt, 13–17 August, before it was pulled out of the line to move north again for the next offensive at Arras.

Robertson kept a run of the 1st Canadian Division's daily situation summaries through these days: the divisional and brigade paper that came down to units, telling each one where the line stood and what the neighbours were doing. Most of the sheets are addressed to all four engineer units of the division after the May reorganisation: the three Engineer Battalions and the Bridging and Transport Section, his own command. One carries his pencil filing mark, “1st B.T.S. C.E.,” across the top; another the Section's rubber registry stamp. His diary keeps the same days from the inside, and they are quiet ones for him: the Section is out of the fighting, camped back at Aubercourt and then in the wood, its battalions “down training on trestles” and “training on Pontoons,” while he is “busy on the War Diary since organization” and nursing “a cold + a touch of dysentry.”

The fullest single sheet is the one for the 13th and 14th: a quiet night, a German raiding party of about a hundred beaten off, four prisoners of the 79th Reserve Division taken near Fouquescourt, and the right-hand division's new line traced out map-square by map-square. The others run lighter: a G.H.Q. summary relayed down on the opening day, the Corps stalled east of Fouquescourt on the 12th, the 3rd Division's costly push into Damery on the 15th, and, on the 16th, a captured German pioneer's statement that his side meant “to retire starting night 19th and 20th” from the Roye salient.

The last sheet in the run is not a situation report but a warning order, marked Very Secret and issued by the 1st Brigade C.E. on 18 August: the Canadian Corps “has been warned to be prepared to be withdrawn from the Line at short notice, probably commencing … on the night August 19/20th.” Units were to keep it quiet, salve all captured material first, and observe “the same precautions as regards ‘SECRECY’ as were observed in the move from the First to the Fourth Army”: the move south that had brought them to Amiens a fortnight before, now to be run in reverse. Robertson's diary, 19 August: “Warning order for move. Leave warrant arrived.” The Corps went back north to the Arras front, where it attacked astride the Scarpe on 26 August and broke the Drocourt–Quéant Line the following week.

Transcription
Most sheets are addressed: 1st Battalion, C.E. / 2nd Battalion, C.E. / 3rd Battalion, C.E. / 1st B. & T.S., C.E. Short extracts follow; the sheet for the 13th–14th is given in full.
August 8 (1st Canadian Division, “To All Concerned”). — Following from Fourth Army, received 2.35 p.m.: “Following from G.H.Q. … Four prisoners taken by us last night South of NEUVILLE VITASSE … French have made progress N. of REIMS to outskirts of LANEUVILLETTE and W. of REIMS towards MUIZON … On MONTDIDIER front French hold HILL 97 W. of MONTDIDIER … French are on Western outskirts of MORISEL.” — (Sd.) W. B. Webb, Major, G.S., for Lieut-Colonel, G.S., 1st Canadian Division.
August 12 (1st Canadian Division, “To all concerned”). — Following from Cdn. Corps timed 9.35 p.m.: “Situation quiet … Southern Division advanced line this afternoon [grid refs] … Patrols advanced through old trench system south west from Fouquescourt … Touch gained with Australians … Our 6-in. guns shelled bridges across SOMME VOYENNES to St. CHRIST … FOUQUESCOURT heavily shelled late afternoon.” Followed by the 1st Australian Division evening report: “Situation quiet … Contact gained with enemy this afternoon in MADAM WOOD … HARBONNIERES–LIHONS Road shelled 2 p.m.” — (Sd.) P. G. Wright, Lt., I/C for Lt.-Col., G.S., 1st Canadian Division.
August 13th. — Following is VERE situation report not repeated previously:— Begins. Quiet night. Hostile artillery normal. Four prisoners 262 I.R., 79 Res. Div. captured E. FOUQUESCOURT. Enemy party estimated 100 strong attempted an attack against new line vicinity L.17.d.55.80, repulsed and line remains intact. Right Division improved position and new line reported R.9.b.8.7. along old line N.E. to R.4.c.3.5., thence to R.4.c.3.7., R.4.a.9.0., R.4.a.7.8., R.4.a.90.95, L.34.d.1.3., L.34.c.2.4., L.28.c.1.5., L.25.a.8.6., L.17.d.6.0., L.18.c.2.0., L.18.a.9.9., with posts at R.4.a.9.9., R.4.b.2.1. and R.4.b.4.7. Ends.
[The grid references are a faint carbon and several figures are uncertain.]
August 14th. — Following from Canadian Corps:— 8 a.m. Situation now quiet. Marked increase in Heavy Artillery late yesterday. Area shoots put down repeatedly on support areas of right Divn. Continuous shelling of left of left Divn. during night. M.G. defences at PARVILLERS active during night.
August 15 (1st Brigade C.E., forwarding a divisional message timed 11.45 a.m.). — “Following from 3rd Canadian Division … GONA reports its left Company had three bombing encounters … details of action of patrols … 1 officer and 10 other ranks [of] GONA … Captain ABBOTT, M.C., who joined party and covered its withdrawal was later killed … Other patrols of GONA which tried to push into the town met with similar opposition … Enemy tried to rush post in SCHMIDT Trench but was repulsed.” — (Sd.) Lieut.-Col., Bde. Major, 1st Bde. C.E.
August 16 (to the four C.E. units). — Following from Division: “Prisoner Pioneer Bn. captured ST. MARD W. of ROYE states he had been employed on laying mines on roads … and intention is to retire starting night 19th and 20th to a general line NESLE – AVRICOURT …” — “French attacked this afternoon 15th and gained all its objectives including BOIS FONDU and BOIS DE BRAQUEMONT … about 80 prisoners captured belonging to 263rd R.I.R. … 79th Res. Divn.” Followed by a 121st Division light-signals order relayed from 4th Army.
August 18 — Warning Order, Very Secret (1st Brigade C.E.). — Addressed to the three Engineer Battalions and the 1st B. & T.S. “In accordance with 1st Canadian Division G.3-90/1. The Canadian Corps has been warned to be prepared to be withdrawn from the Line at short notice, probably commencing from the Right on the night August 19/20th, 1918. Prior to the relief, activity in the forward area will be confined to that required for the proper defence of the front Line. Units will keep this information as quiet as possible, but will make all arrangements for quick move. ACKNOWLEDGE.” And, below: “Every effort will be made by all units to salve all captured material forthwith … The same precautions as regards ‘SECRECY’ as were observed in the move from the First to the Fourth Army will hold good for this move.” — (Sd.) Lieut.-Col., Bde. Major, 1st Brigade, C.E. — “JPM/PC. 18-8-18.”
The diary, 8 August 1918: the battle begins →The diary, 19 August 1918: “Warning order for move” →“Roads, Bridges and Tracks”: the engineer plan for the same battle →

The originals are in the Treherne family collection: a consecutive run of sheets for 8–18 August 1918, kept by Robertson as second-in-command of the Bridging and Transport Section (one carries his pencil filing mark, one the Section's registry stamp). Paper of this kind (daily situation summaries and warning orders passed from division and brigade down to units) is held openly at Library and Archives Canada in the war diaries of the formations concerned. None of the sheets carries a year; it is fixed by the distribution to the “1st, 2nd and 3rd Battalion, C.E.,” a structure that existed only after the May 1918 reorganisation of the Canadian Engineers, and by the place names (Fouquescourt, Parvillers, Damery) which place it at the close of the Battle of Amiens.