Letters From the Front

Dated: May 14, 1917

A dispatch from the front

Stewart Lyon writes from the Canadian Army Headquarters in France, May 14.

For the Canadian infantry this is a period of comparative quiet, except on that part of the front upon which the enemy is expending his shells and poison gas with the utmost prodigality, considering his needs elsewhere. This shelling is the enemy's substitute for annoyance by the infantry patrols and raids, which usually result to the disadvantage of our foe, because our men are more quick to take cover and employ ruses during these encounters.

One of the most useful young officers disappeared the other day while out scouting. He is believed to have been captured. The heavy artillery is still the most active branch of the service. Aided by airmen spotting far and near over the enemy's lines, some of the big guns are firing upon points well to the east of Douai. Spotting is not a very healthy occupation so far to the east of our lines, and fighting planes which protect artillery observer's have many fights against great odds. I heard of an encounter over Douai in which two of our triplanes encountered 15 of the enemy's craft. After destroying one and crippling several others, the two intrepid returned unhurt. The Canadians are earning a reputation among the enemy as souvenir hunters. A German officer, recently captured, who knows the Dominion and its people well, said to a Canadian officer in whose charge he ultimately found himself: “We Germans fight as men and because we have to. You Canadians appear to be in the war for fun and souvenirs”. But is not for fun or souvenirs our men fight. No Frenchman could have told with more pathos for what they are struggling than did a young Canadian officer who I encountered near la Folie farm, on Vimy Ridge two days ago. He told how the owner of the farm, a grizzled veteran, wearing the Croix de Guerre, had been granted furlough in order that, for the first time in almost 3 years, he might set foot on the land that to him had been home. And this is what he found, said the Canadian, indicating the craters and the shell holes that have made la Folie perhaps the most desolate piece of land on the face of the earth. I can tell you he was stunned. The reality was far worse than anything he had imagined. Incidents such as that of the homecoming of the owner of La Folie farm burn through the war deeply into the consciousness of Canadians.