Year: 1917

Happy New Year!

Things change quickly for Sargent Dixon in early 1917. On January 4th he is moved to the 3rd Reserve Battalion of the Canadian Expeditionary Force. Then, a week and a day later, on January 12th he is transferred again. This time to the 1st Canadian Infantry Battalion. This made sense as the 1st Canadian Infantry Battalion consisted of men from Western Ontario. Therefore we assume that Robert will be reunited with many of the men of the 33rd Battalion he originally trained with. That is if they are still alive. Sargent Dixon takes a boat across the English Channel to Northern France. Then a short train ride down to a place named Dieval. . It is here in Dieval where he meets the men of the 1st Canadian Infantry Battalion. In this transition to an operational battalion Sargent Dixon loses his Sargent title and reverts to being a Private. This is not because he has done anything wrong. It is simply standard procedure. He was a Sargent in a training battalion and that doesn’t cut much weight in the battle worn 1st Infantry Battalion. We can now follow the movements of Private Dixon and the 1st Canadian Infantry Battalion by reading the War Diaries as shown below. The one below shows us what the men were up to at the time Private Dixon first joined them.

The Battalion has moved north to Dieval and is undergoing training . One gets the impression that they are getting ready for something big. Private Dixon will have to be a quick study. And what do you know? A few days after Private Dixon joins them – January 16th to be exact – the big guy – the top gun -the ultimate leader of the CEF ( Canadian Expeditionary Force) himself – Commander General Currie – drops by to inspect the troops. He is satisfied with what he sees.. Yes something big is in the works.

When Robert first arrived in Dieval the weather was cool and damp with some rain – but that is about to change significantly – the weather is getting colder – on January 17^th there is a snow storm that lasts a couple of days. Only appropriate that the Canadian troops get a “Snow Day” in France – some time off to do their housework before recommencing training.  On January 20^th they commence their march to the front lines.  They march from Dieval  four hours ( about 15 kilometers) to Verdrel where they spend the night in billets.  The next day they are on the march again to the Bouvigny Huts. While there they encounter the enemy – German planes are very active and as a result they can not perform any training.  On the 24^th they are at the front line in the trenches at Souchez.   They are relieving the 4^th Battalion that evening.  Right away they are met with intense enemy bombardment  that lasts an hour. Two men are injured.  Then another casualty as a man is sniped.

Welcome to the Western Front Private Dixon.

If you haven’t guessed already, the Battalion is in the area of Vimy Ridge . And in early February they conduct some raids on Vimy Ridge. These do not appear to be serious raids but raids intended to gather information for something more significant to come later. That is not to say the fighting was not serious or life threatening. It is just that the two sides, as was often the case along the Western Front appear, to be in a stalemate. Each side trading heavy artillery fire and heavy bombardment across No Mans Land from their respective trenches. The 1st Canadian Infantry Battalion spends a week on the front line in the Souchez and other nearby trenches before being relieved by the 4th Canadian Infantry Battalion. The men then have a week off behind the lines at Bouvigny Huts. Then the two Battalions trade place again. This pattern carries on to the end of February. The War Diaries provide a very sanitized version of war. For example they use phrases to describe the activity for a day or a week such as “Situation Quiet” That doesn’t mean nothing is happening – it just means nothing unusual is happening. And for example on February 22nd the diary reads that the enemy conducted heavy bombardment and we retaliated with heavy artillery of our own. The diary then concludes, “No Damage Done” Well that may be true – if you don’t count the man who was killed that night.

The War Diaries do not tell us what Private Dixon is doing specifically. We have no idea what his role is. They only tell us where he was on a daily basis. And, as mentioned earlier, they don’t tell us about the conditions he is now experiencing in the field. We will come back to those gruesome details in a future post. For now we will get back to the war. Something unusual happens in early March. Just two days after relieving the 4th Battalion the 1st Battalion themselves are relieved by an Irish Battalion. Then the Battalion spends the next few days on the march in cold snowy weather. First from Bouvigny Huts to Hesdigneul, then on to Lapugnoy, the next day to Ruitz and one more day onto Estree Cauchy. What is going on? Why all this marching in March? And how is that right leg holding out Private Dixon? Are the troops needed somewhere urgently? Well it turns out they are. The Canadian Prime Minister Robert Borden is there to inspect the troops- to motivate them – to better understand the war – as he has a tough decision to make about conscription back home. And of course there is the photo-op in the snowy field.

We assume Private Dixon is present. With the politicians out of the way the Battalion returns to some serious training in rapid deployment, Lewis guns, rifle grenadier training , special situations training , bombers training – everyone is is training-for something. The weather is improving, the snow is melting. Reorganization is happening. Recruits form the reserve battalion are being brought in. Yes something big is coming. And unbeknownst to Robert Dixon something very important is happening in Wimbledon England. His future daughter in law Mildred Stacey is born that March.

At the beginning of April we find the 1st Canadian Infantry Battalion at Maison Blanche an underground chalk quarry where they sheltered before the attack on Vimy Ridge. On their first tour of the front lines that month they are involved in a number of activities. Some preliminary raids and forays that were more intelligence gathering in nature. Captain Spencer was killed in one such raid into the German trenches. Then Lt Massey is hit by a sniper on another attempted foray. Eventually the Canadians do find a way into the German trenches by doing a day time raid. Lt Hutchinson finds a way through to the German trenches where he kills 6 Germans and then makes it back to the Canadian side. Lt Cuddy is also able to locate the enemy trenches and then fend off a German counter attack. The battalion is then relieved., but they only get a couple of days of rest before they are called to the assembly area at Brunehaut Farm an Ariane Dump. For the first time all the Canadian Division will fight together as one unit. Some claim this event to be the birth of the nation of Canada. The Battle of Vimy Ridge is about to begin. The Battalion advances to attack at 5:30 am on April 9, 1917. Over the next few days the Canadians advance and successfully take Vimy Ridge. Yes the attack is successful, but it comes with a huge price. The numbers for Private Dixon’s battalion are 50 men killed, 26 missing and 159 wounded. For the Canadian divisions in total the losses are staggering – 3,598 Canadian men killed and another 7,000 wounded . After the dust settles the survivors like Private Dixon find themselves in what were once the German trenches . And there is plenty of work to do consolidate the gains made. The Battalion provides over 500 men to “working groups.” This would be hard work to clean out the German trenches, repair them, dig new trenches, new tunnels, place defensive barb wire, all while under enemy fire. And one can only imagine the working conditions, the mud, the stray barbed wire, the lice, the rats and the dead bodies and the parts of dead bodies everywhere.

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