The contest is now closed - a civvy won it - in brief - on 2 Jun 1916 Cdns lost 1300 troops.... more or less permanently at Sanctuary Wood
BATTLE OF MOUNTSORREL from http://www.mountsorrel.org.uk/history.html
1916 Near Ypres - Belgium
(Information collected by Frederick G. Butherway,
with the assistance of Neville and Peggy Clarke)
The 4th Leicestershire - the sister Battalion to the 1/5th (County) Territorial Battalion of the Leicestershire Regiment, was the Leicester City Battalion, the 1/4th. Both Battalions were part of the 138th Infantry Brigade, along with the 4th
and 5th Lincolnshires.
The two Leicestershire battalions had other links. When the 46th Division first went to the front, Major R.E. Martin was second-in-command of the 5th Battalion, but on the 22nd May 1915 he took command of the 4th The battalion historian described him as â Å“A big man, but a thin man; he never looked very well and probably never felt very well; he wore spectacles and a big fair moustache and spoke in a high-pitched highbrow English, but he knew how to dig dug-outs. He understood the bonding of sandbags, he procured timber from unlikely places and corrugated iron and tarred felt as if by sleight of hand. He thought of everything and everybody except possibly himself; he never appeared to be put out; he expected much and his expectations were generally realised. He was the best all-round soldier in the battalion, and the battalion knew it and only got annoyed with him when he exposed himself to danger unnecessarily, which was one of his habits.â ?
Mount Sorrel Hill got its name when Major Martin established his headquarters there (him being a Director of the Mountsorrel Granite Company before the war). The Hill was the main observation point for that area of the battlefields and also over Sanctuary Wood.
In early 1916 the 4th Battalion lost the hill to the Germans in a gas attack and the remaining men were withdrawn from the front. The Canadians then moved in - hence the Battle of Mount Sorrel, and this is a Canadian Battle Honour as marked on their memorials around Canada. i.e. Kingston (their equivalent to Sandhurst) and in the Memorial Chapel in the Ottawa Parliament Building.
THE BATTLE OF MOUNT SORREL
'The first Canadian deliberately-planned attack in any force resulted in an unqualified success' - British Official History.
In June 1916, the 3rd Canadian Division, as the 2nd Division had done at St.Eloi two months before, fought its first battle. The other divisions of the Corps took part before the fight was over.
The 3rd Division began its life on Christmas Day, 1915, under Major-General M.S. Mercer whose brigades - the 7th,8th and 9th - were commanded by Brigadier- Generals Macdonell, Williams and Hill. As yet the Division had no artillery of its own. Until July 1916, it was provided by the Indian 3rd (Lahore) Division.
The 7th Brigade consisted of Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry (a veteran battalion, having a year's distinguished service with the British), the Royal Canadian Regiment (fresh from Bermuda and with only a months experience on the Western Front), and the 42nd (RHC) and 49th (Edmonton) Battalions (which had undergone a tour of non-operational duty but had not yet been tried in battle).
The 1st, 2nd, 4th and 5th Battalions, Canadian Mounted Rifles, made up the 8th Brigade. These units had been formed by converting to infantry the six CMR regiments, which had crossed to France in September and October 1915.
The 9th Brigade did not join the Division until February 1916. Its units were the 43rd, 52nd, 58th and 60th Battalions (all new arrivals in France) from Winnipeg, Port Arthur, the Niagara area and Montreal.
The beginning of June found the Canadian Corps, still in Ypres Salient, holding an arc of front that stretched from St Eloi on the right to, on the left, the village of Hooge. The 2nd Division held the St Eloi sector. In the centre the 1st Division faced Hill 60. On the left, where the line projected most sharply into enemy territory, the 3rd Division held the only part of the Ypres ridge that still remained in Allied hands. The high ground in this sector included Mount Sorrel, Hill 61 and Hill 62, before falling away through Sanctuary Wood, across an open valley known as 'the Gap', to the village of Hooge on the Menin Road. Hills 61 and 62 were also known as 'Tor Top'. From Hill 62 a spur named Observatory Ridge thrust west between Armagh Wood (on the southern flank of the spur) and Sanctuary Wood, while to the north of the spur, farther back, was Maple Copse.
Opposite the 3rd Division, the 26th and 27th German Infantry Divisions of the 13th Wurttemberg Corps had rehearsed the seizure of the high ground for the past six weeks. Possession of it might compel a withdrawal from the Salient; and it would help delay preparations for the Somme offensive, which the Germans knew to be impending.
The second half of May had been unusually tranquil. In June, however, the unnatural calm was broken by an intermittent bombardment from the direction of enemy-held Hill 60. This died at nightfall, allaying suspicions that it might be a prelude to attack; but it was no more than a temporary lull ordered to avoid interference with gapping parties which that night breached the Canadian wire.
TORNADO OF FIRE
Early on the morning of 2nd June, the enemy bombardment burst out again with redoubled fury, falling on the 7th Canadian Infantry Brigade and, more heavily, on the 8th (CMR) Brigade. Hardest hit of all was the 4th CMR in front of Armagh Wood, when only 76 men came through unscathed. Spouting earth and flame pulsed through the shell-torn stumps of Armagh Wood, Sanctuary Wood and Maple Copse. Black shrapnel bursts enveloped Mount Sorrel, Tor Top and Observatory Ridge, and for four hours this violent tornado of fire ravaged the Canadian positions, hurling into the air 'tree trunks, weapons and equipment...and, occasionally, human bodies'. General Mercer and Brigadier-General Williams, who were in the 4th Canadian Mounted Rifles area when the fire came down, both became casualties -Mercer killed, and Williams, who was wounded, taken prisoner when the German infantry at last came forward.
This the enemy did in the Mount Sorrel sector, after exploding four mines just short of the Canadian positions, at about 1pm. Trenches had been wrecked and whole garrisons annihilated even before the mines were sprung; the
Germans could not be held. Four waves of the grey-clad enemy came leisurely forward - confident that their artillery
had wiped out resistance - in the bright sunshine of early afternoon. Small bands of survivors from the 1st and
4th CMR - but these were few - fought with bombs and bayonets; machine-guns of the Patricias and the 5th CMR
Battalion, on the flanks, raked the enemy lines, but only on the right was the enemy temporarily held.
There, a company of Patricias, which had escaped the worst of the bombardment, held out in Sanctuary Wood for eighteen hours, while two companies of Patricias to the rear held the Germans from the support line until it had been reinforced. When the Germans at last advanced it was over, leaving many dead. The battalion had 150 killed alone, including the Commanding Officer, Lieutenant-Colonel H.C.Buller, former Military Secretary to HRH the Duke of Connaught, Governor-General of Canada.
To the east and Southeast sides of Maple Copse, German thrusts were checked by the accurate shooting of the 5th CMR holding strongpoints behind the 1st and 4th CMR Battalions, but a section of the 5th Battery, CFA, was overrun. All the gunners were killed or wounded and the 2 eighteen-pounders fell into German hands but were recovered in the later fighting.
Late that afternoon the Germans halted, digging in 600-700 yards west of their former line. They had captured Mount Sorrel, Hill 61, Hill 62 and most of Armagh and Sanctuary Woods. Machine guns of the 10th Battalion and the Canadian Motor Machine Gun Brigade sealed off the enemy encroachment. Sir Julian Byng, who had succeeded General Alderson as Corps Commander after the April battle at St Eloi, ordered all the lost ground to be recovered that night
BYNG'S BATTLE PLAN
The 3rd Division had suffered heavily; therefore Byng placed two brigades of the 1st Division at its disposal. The 2nd Brigade would operate against Mount Sorrel and the 3rd against Hills 61 and 62. But the attacks, carried out by the 7th, 14th, 15th and 49th Battalions, were improvised and uneven, and in any case did not go in until daylight on 3rd June. Though they achieved some success, they failed in their ultimate objectives. The 49th Battalion captured, and held, some trenches near the old German line. The main result was the closing of a gap between Square Wood (a western appendage of Armagh Wood) across Observatory Ridge to Maple Copse.
The enemy made the next move on 6th June. He exploded four mines directly under the 6th Brigade (brought up from the 2nd Divisions reserve) at Hooge and then wrested the forward trenches from the dazed troops of the 28th (Saskatchewan) Battalion on whom the blow had fallen. The 31st Battalion, on the right, kept the Germans out of the support line. Thus the enemy had merely gained a few yards, and the forward trenches were left in his possession.
Byng was still determined to drive the enemy from the lost high ground: he nominated the 1st Division which, on 8th June, withdrew from the line to rest and prepare. Again the 2nd Brigade (Brigadier-General Lipsett) would attack Mount Sorrel and the 3rd Brigade (Brigadier-General Tuxford) the hills, but this time there was a thorough plan. Both the attacking formations were to be composite brigades made up of the stronger battalions. Lipsett had the 1st, 3rd, 7th and 8th Battalions; Tuxford commanded the 2nd, 4th, 13th and 16th Battalions. In addition, the 58th Battalion (9th Brigade) plus a company of the 52nd would assault on the left. The 5th, 10th, 14th and 15th Battalions formed a reserve brigade under Brigadier-General Garnet Hughes.
HEAVY ARTILLERY SUPPORT
The attacking battalions carefully rehearsed their co-ordinated roles, and every day reconnaissance parties reported on the enemy defences for comparison with aerial photographs of his trenches. Above all, though the ground would have to be recovered by the Canadians' own efforts (a brigade of British infantry only was provided to assist, but this remained in reserve), Byng had arranged for powerful artillery support. Altogether 218 pieces were at the Canadian Corps' disposal (including 116 eighteen-pounders, heavy guns and howitzers), representing the Canadian Corps Heavy Artillery; the 1st and 2nd Divisional Artilleries; the Lahore Divisional Artillery, the British 5th, 10th, 11th Heavy Artillery Groups, 3rd Divisional Artillery, 51st Howitzer Battery and 89th Siege Battery and the South African 71st and 72nd Howitzer Batteries. In addition, the Heavy Artillery of the British 5th and 14th Corps, on the flanks, would co-operate.
The operation was timed for 1.30am on 13th June. Thus there was time for the proper planning of a 'set-piece' attack. Between the 9th and 12th June, four intense bombardments hurled steel on the German positions for periods of short duration to delude the enemy into expecting an immediate assault; when none materialised the real one, it was hoped, would be thought to be merely another feint.
For ten hours on the 12th June the German positions between Hill 60 and Sanctuary Wood were pounded heavily, and still there was no infantry attack. A half-hour's shelling in the late evening followed, under cover of which the well- rehearsed infantry moved forward to their jumping off positions - many of them out in No-Man's Land - where the men waited in damp and clammy clothes for their time to come. For the last forty-five minutes before zero hour the heavies poured down a final torrent of shells and then the infantry sprang forward to attack.
It was a pitch-black night with wind and rain. Even so, smoke-shells were fired to conceal the flashes of small-arms weapons from the watchful German machine-gunners on Hill 60.
There was little uncertainty, despite the darkness, and the battalions that had been chosen to attack (the 3rd, 16th, 13th and 58th) moved steadily forward through the mud in four long waves. Brigadier-General Brustall, the CRA of the Corps, had predicted that his guns would permit the infantry to reach the objectives 'with slung rifles'. He was nearly right.
Some machine-gunners had escaped destruction; isolated pockets of Germans still survived. The fighting was bitter here. But the majority of the Wurttembergers, taken by surprise and badly shaken by the accurate artillery fire, either fell back to their old front-line or gave themselves up to the fresh Canadians. Prisoners came stumbling back en route to ruined Zillebeke, which stood by its stagnant, triangular lake not far from Ypres behind the lines. These men 'were in small groups', an eye-witness (Captain, later Colonel, W.W. Murray) wrote, 'and were obviously suffering also from exposure, for during the past few days the artillery supporting the attack had been considerably reinforced, and their barrages were devastating'.
THE BATTLE IS WON
In an hour the battle was over. The 3rd Battalion swept onto Mount Sorrel; the 16th cleared Armagh Wood; the 13th advanced along Observatory Ridge to occupy the twin eminences, Hills 61 and 62; and the attached 58th Battalion reached the former line through Sanctuary Wood.
What had once been a system of trenches had been obliterated by the overwhelming gun-fire. This was not the Somme, where the Germans, in deep dug outs, remained relatively immune from shells. The Canadians consolidated the soggy ground on what was thought to have been the old forward line.
'The first Canadian, deliberately-planned attack in any force', reports the British Official History, 'had resulted in an unqualified success'. It had been due to allowing time for careful planning, resolute infantry, and strong artillery support on a narrow front.
The weather remained wet and raw; throughout the 13th a steady rain cleared to a light drizzle and then began again. The forward troops, completely exposed to the depressing weather, held trenches deep in mud. In the aftermath of the attack the men lived on cold food without a chance of rest; heavy German artillery fire lashed and flayed the new-won line.
COUNTER-ATTACKS FAIL
Early on 14th June the inevitable counter-attacks took place. There were two of them, both directed on Mount Sorrel, but each one failed. Thereafter the sector settled down into the surly stalemate of static warfare, with the Germans dug in between one and two hundred yards away.
The Canadian line held firm, and continued to do so throughout the summer when the Canadian Corps left the Ypres Salient for the fighting on the Somme.
