Vimy Ridge, April 1917
On April 9, 1917, all four Canadian divisions attacked Vimy Ridge together for the first time. Robertson, an engineer, was not among the infantry who went over, and he was not with the sections of his company sent forward with them either: he had only just rejoined after being shot through the neck six weeks earlier. This path follows the month as he wrote it, from the build-up to the days after.
- 1. April 2, 1917
“The whole country back of Mt. St. Eloi is getting to look like the brickfields only more-so.”
He rejoins the 3rd Field Company after hospital and a spell at the base at Le Havre, arriving at the wrong station at 5.30 in the morning in heavy snow. The brickfields near Albert were where his company camped on the Somme.
Read the full entry → - 2. April 8, 1917
“Am beginning to realize that I haven't got much of the stuff that heroes are made of in my composition.”
The day before the attack. A shell interrupts lunch with a direct hit that nearly finishes a man named Gillespie, and he “got the wind up & made for the open country.” In the same entry he hopes O’Leary and Anderson, who went up that night, come through.
Read the full entry → - 3. April 9, 1917
“Wonderful sight – from SOUCHEZ to s. of ARRAS.”
He is up at 4.30 and goes out in front of Bois-de-Bray with two others to watch the attack start at 5.30. The entry opens with the day’s results as reported and ends with a list of names: wounded, and “Coxon killed.”
Read the full entry → - 4. April 10, 1917
“11,000 prisoners - 103 guns 163 M.G.S. – 60 T.M.s”
The day after, the diary copies out the figures from G.H.Q.’s situation report. He goes up that afternoon to view the countryside.
Read the full entry → - 5. April 11, 1917
“Explored a few Bosche dugouts”
Two days after the attack he goes up as far as Nine Elms with a fellow officer, looking through captured German dugouts, in heavy snow. His O.C. then sends him back to take McKinnon’s place on the wagon lines.
Read the full entry → - 6. April 15, 1917
“Barometer low & spirits the same.”
Rain all day, and no rum for the men. He is sleeping under a wagon cover with two other officers, with no material yet for a bivvy.
Read the full entry → - 7. April 21, 1917
“Could have cried when he said the left flank wire had to be run out again.”
A night job out in front of the lines: running guide wires across a no man’s land about 1,500 yards wide to the assembly position in front of the German wire. He is not back until 4.30 in the morning, and the left flank has to be done again.
Read the full entry → - 8. April 25, 1917
“Being sent where the rest of the crocks go.”
His O.C. posts him to a “bomb proof job” at divisional headquarters, as assistant to Wilkes under the C.R.E., the division’s senior engineer officer. He says he is not sorry, though he hates to leave the company.
Read the full entry → - 9. April 28–29, 1917 In the diary, April 28
“Nothing known of Joe Edwards”
In the diary, April 29“Joe's body was found last night.”
Joe Edwards had been in for a visit on April 5. On April 28 the 2nd Brigade attacks Arleux, and that night there is no word of him. On April 30 the diary says he was buried at Écoivres and “nearly every one was there.”
In early May he moves to Gouy-Servins as second in command.