After Vimy Ridge

[Guest jiminhastings]

My uncle was killed, apparently by shellfire, in the vicinity of Vimy Ridge. This happened 22 June, 1917, more than two months after the ridge had been captured. He was with the 38 Battalion Canadian Expeditionary Forces.

So far, I've been unable to trace what actions might have been happening at the time, or where the respective lines were.

Questions I'd like to answer include:

1. Whether there are field diaries, etc. that might describe daily activities of the Battalion

2. What was the site of his actual death.

3. Were the Canadians entrenched on the ridge facing German positions out on the plains toward Lens, or were the Canadians occupying positions out on the plains.

A more general question involves how to determine the activities of military units between the times of major battles, which are generally well documented.

Jim

[jhill]

Hi!

Fortunately, many of the unit War Diaries are available on the National Archives web site at: http://www.archives.ca/02/02015202_e.html

If you look at the entries for "38th Battalion", you will find a day by day narrative of where the 38th was and roughly what they were doing. I just took a quick peek, and they were in reserve on 22 June 1917, but there is still lots of information. The activities going on at the time are what Nicholson's History of the C.E.F. 1914-1918 calls "Raids Along the Souchez, May-June 1917".

Incidently, the diarist of the 38th was much more wordy than the norm (these Ottawa people are such windbags, eh?). You might also look at the Diary of the 12th Brigade, of which the 38th Battalion was part. The Brigade Diary includes as appendices some maps of the area of operations.

[Guest jiminhastings]

Thanks, James, that was exactly the kind of information I was looking for!

Even though the search engine on the archives site only spit out one record despite an hour of plugging in search terms and variations. And up popped the diary for the wrong battalion! I assume the site must be down. It couldn't really be that disfunctional, could it? I wish they'd just provide and index page. I'll try later.

Thanks again,

Jim