Alma Russell Letters
Letters of British Columbia men on active service with Canadian and British Expeditionary Forces, 1914-1918. Learn more.
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us to our final objective which was slightly over the ridge and where we dugour trench and put in a strong point.
My orders were "as soon as I had cleaned up my objective and got all the Huns out of their dugouts and cellar s, to send back word to “C” company who would send up a platoon to guard the farm in case of a surprise attack; and then I had to take up my Company into the final objective and assist “A” Company to form our advanced garrison," which I did. At about nine o’clock or so, when we were very busy digging our trench, a Hun aeroplane flew over us rather low, and immediately flew back and informed their artillery, and consequently we were shelled badly all day and most part of the night as the Huns took advantage of the dark to get their guns away before they lost time.
The next day (10th) the Huns tried to get troops up, but our artillery played havoc with them. At 3.45 p.m. we received orders to send out patrols to find out if a trench below the Ridge was strongly manned, and if it had much barbed wire in front of it, etc., etc., and in fact to gather as much information as possible; so at about 4 o’clock Lt. Spinks took a patrol out of about 25 men to the right, Lt. Gardner a similar party to the left, and I took a similar patrol through the centre. After proceeding a few hundred yards, and just as we got to the outskirts of La Folie Wood, the Huns opened up with a violent outburst of machine gun fire. I was in advance of my patrol about 15 or 20 yards, with the Lewis gunner just behind me, when I saw a few huns running from one trench to another. I immediately sat down and tried to get the machine gun in action.
BC Archives, MS-1901 Box 1 File 6 / RUSSELL, Alma M., 1873 - 1964. Victoria; librarian. / Selected letter from Lieutenant Gordon Patrick Heinekey, 1917.