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193 The 3rd Canadian Division Forgotten Victory GEOFFREY HAYES Several hundred metres south of the Grange tunnel in the Vimy Ridge memorial park stands a white stone cross. Marked on the roadway by a humble signpost and hidden by the years, it is a silent and nearly forgotten testament to the men of 3rd Canadian Division who fought nearby. Major-General Louis Lipsett’s division fought two battles at Vimy Ridge. The first, the division’s initial advance, succeeded through careful planning, rehearsal and the intricate timings and overwhelming force of the division’s artillery. The division’s second battle is too often forgotten, but the Canadians’ fragile hold against German counterattacks left the outcome uncertain through most of 9 April 1917. That the division prevailed suggests a battlefield where details mattered. Supplies mattered, as did the carrying parties that hauled them forward. Picks and shovels mattered. So did leadership. Will Bird was a private reinforcing Montreal’s 42nd Battalion, the Royal Highlanders of Canada, when he first saw Vimy Ridge early in 1917. He was billeted in the village of Neuville St. Vaast, which shellfire had “reduced…to rubble. Soldiers occupied the cellars. We were divided into groups and eleven of us were shunted into a cellar, in which were timbers holding shreds of wires. They had been bunks once. Rats ran into holes as we lit candles and then came boldly back and stared at us. It was a cold and wet-smelling place. Bird heeded signs that warned, “Keep low. Use trench in daytime.” Soon assigned to a working party, he helped build the vast labyrinth of trench works, saps and dugouts that crossed the ridge. Beneath the 11 194 GEOFFREY HAYES light of a flare, Bird first saw no-man’s-land. He recalled the scene years later: “Jumbled earth and debris. Jagged wreckage: it looked as if a gigantic upheaval had destroyed the entire surface and left only a festering wound. Everything was shapeless, ugly and distorted.”1 Will Bird joined 3rd Canadian Division when it was just over a year old. Formed in France at Christmas 1915 under Major-General Malcolm Mercer, the division was hit hard at its first sustained action defending the most easterly part of the Ypres salient near Mount Sorrel in June 1916. One of its infantry battalions, 4th Canadian Mounted Rifles (4 CMR) suffered eighty-nine percent casualties in the gunfire that also killed Mercer.2 Louis Lipsett, a British professional officer who had served in Western Canada before the war, took over the division and fought it at the Somme in September. At the time of Vimy Ridge, Lipsett was the only British regular officer leading a Canadian division. Bird shared a forward observation post one night for several hours with Lipsett. For someone who seldom spoke well of senior commanders, Bird was impressed.3 Lipsett’s brigade and battalion commanders also made an impression. Brigadier-generals F.W. Hill, A.C. Macdonell and James Elmsley were all professional officers. Both Macdonell and Elmsley were veterans of South Africa, where Elmsley was twice wounded.4 Of the three, Macdonell (“Batty Mac”) held the widest reputation. His fondness for the front lines and his generous notes of praise won him a loyal following among the battalion commanders in 7th Brigade. In Lieutenant-Colonel C.H. Hill, who commanded the Royal Canadian Regiment (RCR) at Vimy Ridge, Macdonell likely found a kindred spirit for Hill had taken over the RCR in April 1916 from Macdonell’s cousin. Agar Adamson, who was fifty-one-years-old when he led the Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry (PPCLI) onto Vimy Ridge, admitted to his wife early in 1916 that Macdonell “seems to know his job and is most considerate.” The war diary of the 42nd Battalion also spoke well of Macdonell.5 In early 1917 that battalion was commanded by a thirty- five-year-old banker from Ingersoll, Ontario, Major Stanley Counter Norsworthy.6 Edmonton’s 49th Battalion was also under new leadership at Vimy Ridge when former Edmonton mayor William Griesbach took over 1 Canadian Infantry Brigade in February. He left the 49th to R.H. Palmer, a battalion original who brought the unit home at war’s end.7 Macdonell asked a great deal of these men at Vimy Ridge. The impact of Mount Sorrel was especially important to 8th Brigade’s commanders, for Brigadier-General Elmsley and three of his four battalion...

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