The German grand offensive, which was to land him at the gates of Paris, had commenced, and in consequence the “staff” were showing very distinct signs of nervousness—commonly called “wind up.”
The First, Second and Fourth Canadian Divisions had been, or were being withdrawn from the line to be in readiness for action wherever they might most be needed, and the Third Division was left to defend Vimy Ridge as best it could, with nothing behind it except its own artillery and a couple of labour battalions employed in agricultural work, which had lately become a feature of modern warfare. During the day the Brigadier paid a visit to Battalion Headquarters, and, amongst other things, suggested that we might carry out some kind of raid in order to get identification, and by this means discover the enemy plans.
At 6 p.m. a meeting of the Company Commanders was called, and within the hour it was arranged to send out a battle patrol of one officer and twenty-five O.R’s. from each Company, to work independently on given frontages. It was also arranged that whichever patrol was successful in capturing a prisoner, would send up a red flare immediately. The operation was scheduled to commence at 11 p.m., without artillery or machine gun support.
At 9 p.m. a message was received from the Divisional Commander stating that identification on our front might be necessary, and at 10 p.m. the Corps Commander wired in saying that it was necessary, so that, all things considered, our preparations were probably well timed.
“D” Company patrol, under Captain Baird, was the first to start the quarry, for shortly after setting out it ran into a strong German patrol on its way over to our lines. With the battle cry “Come on Toronto,” Captain Baird, followed by his patrol, rushed on the Germans before they had time to move and a regular scrimmage took place, during which Captain Baird lost the use of his right arm, due to the displacement of one of the muscles. He was in the act of capturing the German patrol leader when his right arm collapsed and his revolver dropped from his hand. The German officer immediately seized him round the neck and was giving him a rough time when one of our party shot the German dead. In the meantime the remainder of our patrol had succeeded in capturing two prisoners and put the rest to flight.
Red flares were immediately sent up and all parties returned to our lines in high spirits, having obtained the “necessary identification” asked for by the Corps only two hours previously, although this achievement was greatly dimmed by the loss of two officers killed (Lt. J. A. Gibson and Lt. R. W. Soper).
It was during this tour that we received the following special order of the day from Field-Marshal Sir Douglas Haig:
To All Ranks of the British Army in France and Flanders:
“We are again at a crisis in the War. The enemy has collected on this front every available Division and is aiming at the destruction of the British Army. We have already inflicted on the enemy in the course of the last two days, very heavy loss, and the French are sending troops as quickly as possible to our support. I feel that everyone in the Army, fully realizing how much depends on the exertion and steadfastness of each one of us, will do his utmost to prevent the enemy from attaining his object.”
And this did not add any particular comfort to our feelings.