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934 Selena <i THE 1917 BATTLE OF VIMY RIDGE RECALLED BY 83- YEAR-OLD CITY MAN. They Trudged Through Mud Toward Enemy Lines By JOHN LEBLANC Jr. of The Times Staff Even in the pre-dawn gloom it was clear what the day held in store. The debacle of the German army's almost impregnable military front at Vimy Ridge was about to begin 50 years ago April 9. Thousands of rugged Cana- dian soldiers were about to gain world-wide credit and bring un- precedented prestige to the British Commonwealth by win- ning back vital terrain France had lost to the Boche in Oc- tober, 1914. With almost unimaginable high morale, the four divisions of the Canadian armed corps were uniting as a team in a spring assault along a_ 7,000- yard front just inside France from the German border. Never before had the divisions been welded together in a plan designed to crack the ridge -- a high-point in First World War history. ADVANCE They entrenched themselves under, in or next to anything protective; bomb shell cavities, dugouts, tunnels and open chan- nels on the war-torn front. It was 5 a.m. In a matter of 30 minutes they were to cooly step into the open and trudge through mud and rain toward the Germans. The battle was to cost 3,598 Canadian lives; more than 7,000 others were wounded. They had marched on a ridge that the Germans wisely picked as a natural barricade with the help of large fortifications along its crest and sides. The prelude to the battle was a thunderous bombardment by heavy artillery, while a fleet of aircraft moved overhead direct- ing the fire of the guns and driving off enemy aircraft. By the time fixed for the con- frontation at the end of the first © week in April, hardly a square foot of land remained on the ridge that was not torn by shell- ca. fire. One of the fighting forces in the middle of it all was the 15th Canadian Battalion (Toronto) and its approximate 1,000 in- < & ; ail . 2 ois i DONALD LOSEE READS DIARY DESCRIBING VIMY RIDGE BATTLE . » » Comrades Were Shot Down On Either Side Of Him gun fire. But they were not to be stopped and in a half hour, German front-line points were beginning to fall. As fighting progressed the Germans were ready and eager to surrender. For a number of days their food supply had been cut off by the intense artillery fire. "We reached Fritzie supports when another boy and I came across a dugout containing two Boches,"' he notes in the soiled diary. "We called for them to come up. They came up... both badly wounded. The boy with me raised his rifle to shoot them down, but I knock- ed it from him and we started a scrap right there on the spot, while the two Fritzies were wondering what was coming off next." In an interview this week Mr. Losee said that later he and the young soldier laughed about the incident. GRATEFUL His diary goes on to say the two Germans "did look grate- ful to me for saving their lives. I guess I could have got any- thing they possessed, I waved them back through our lines and they did not lose any time going either. After we reached our objectives then another runner with myself went back and collected souvenirs from a few dugouts. We got plenty of them but on going back Fritzie got busy with his artillery." "We got so tired dodging into shell holes every few minutes that we ditched our souvenirs as we would rather have a whole skin. "The boys behaved in fine Style in going over. Just as our barrage started every man lit up a cigarette and walked to-| wards Fritzie's lines as cool as if he was on parade. We lost the finest lot of officers we ever had and it will be hard to find their equal. "We were in the line for 23 days after the 9th before we were relieved. We first went into trenches, called the blue line then. From there we went into Farbus Woods and were bil- leted in some gun pits of | Fritzie's . . . a very dirty spot That creeping barrage of ours gy certainly demoralized the Ger- mans." VERBAL MESSAGE His job was to run messages # back and fourth from the front to the company headquarters (number four) of the 15th bat |talion. Headquarters were set | back about one-quarter of a mile |. when the battle started. But as it progressed the span between the front and headquarters widened. "Sometimes when an officer didn't have time to write out a message he would give me a speech . . . telling me what to say." Mr. Losee, who spends most of his time puttering in his front and backyard gardens, leaned forward in his armchair when asked what impression the war left him: "I kind of liked it. I'd do it again." He turns 84 April 11, but de- spite a chronic bronchitis condi- tion the war left him, he is relatively robust for his age. The government gives him $23 a month which covers treatment for persistent coughing. And he gets a civilian pension. COMMEMORATION At Arras, France, on Sunday the department of veterans' af- fairs will commemorate the 50th anniversary of the battle as a part of Canada's centennial pro- gram. Surviving members of Canadian battalions will gather at the Vimy Memorial, unveiled in 1936. Representing Ontario Regiment in Oshawa will be Legionnaire William L. Pierson, now president of the 116th bat- talion. In Oshawa, Royal Canadian Legion, Branch 43 plans a smaller observance at the Me- morial Park Cenotaph. Military units, veterans and servicemen will take part. And without a doubt, the world over will pause and remember April 9 how Canadians like Don- ald Losee moved out of the trenches and shell holes to march on Vimy Ridge. DONALD LOSEE IN 1917 « « « On Leave In France fantrymen. The battalion was originally the volunteer 48th Highlanders. RIFLE FAILED With it was private Donald Ma Losee of 148 Oshawa Blvd. Now 83, he was a courier of messages during the war and kept a diary when he wasn't on the run. In it he says he faced an odd plight. His rifle failed April 9; then two runners and a major were shot down on either side of him as the invasion began. Remarkably, Losee emerged unscratched in that one. But later he was to encounter his only ill-fate in the war, ex- posure to a gas attack. As he recovered in an English hospi- tal he began to scrawl his diary account of Vimy Ridge's action the way he saw it. "At 5 am. on April 9... Found us lying in some craters in front of Fritzie lines waiting to go over. Eddie Chalmers (a runner) and I had a busy time running from the craters with messages from Major (he left the name out) to the company's battalion headquarters, crawl- ing on our hands anc knees the best part of the way. 'My rifle was getting so clog- ged up with mud that I found it impossible to use. At 5:30, the zero hour, our artillery started the 'creeping barrage which would be hard to equal. We just kept behind our barrage. Just as we got within 50 yards or so, groin. Another. runner on the left of me got it in the arm. And the major got hit in the arm and leg but I got through without a scratch." Chalmers later died in hos- \pital. |Eddie Chalmers got hit in the eae lost four of our officers. |. .. for Fritzie (having then ur losses were very heavy. fallen back) kept shelling us SEA OF MUD | quite a bit all the time. In these : aie pens | un pits were some old guns Pigs ge tha Milage falling | Fritzie used that dated as far} ae distance to the hill (oeee » 1870. It was surprising; top varied from 1,200 yards to Aaah vere ee ee Ss. s The Oshawa Crnes OSHAWA, ONTARIO, FRIDAY, APRIL 7, 1967 protection of the barrage of i shellfire from behind they were li igloo eg a: Court Policy Changes "Mr.Sam'HonoraryColonel subjected to heavy machine pany Head rter's d (or that time with the excep- ti ° | mile along the line. As the Ca-| "From Farbus we went into nadians advanced under the|the newly - won front line and| Ccnool, necrea;wi1or»n. ion. . .. : | There Mr. Losee discontinues his account. He explains that e bed te while in hospital getting over the gas-attack he ran out of room Permanent Rank Granied in his notebook and couldn't find Denied By Magistrate City Magistrate D. B. Dodds says he is not a "crusader" cracking - down on _ persons charged with liquor offences and under-age drinking. "The basic policy of our court with respect to fines and other deterents for liquor offenders remains the same and has for the past four to five years," he said. The magistrate was referring to 'crusader' and "cracking- down" allegations. made re- cently by a Toronto newspaper. "All we have done,"' said the magistrate, "is to make the fines peremptory (payable at once) rather than allowing time to pay the fines. Many other communities, including Toronto, have been doing that for years." The law provudes for fines of up to $500 or up to six months Expo Performance Times Listed For Area Groups Seven groups from Oshawa and area will enjoy Expo '67 as observers and participants. The McLaughlin Collegiate and Vocational Institute orches- tra will appear on the after- noon of June 26 and 27 while their counterparts at Donevan Collegiate will perform May 15 and 16, again in the afternoon. St. Andrew's' Senior School choir, Ajax, will perform on the morning of June 9. Centennial Singers from Ux- bridge will perform on_ the morning of June 1 and the afternoon of June 2. The Whitby Junior -Brassito change. Band will be in action two days later in the morning and the afternoon. Salvation Army, Oshawa, Cit- izens Songsters are scheduled for the afternoon of May 20 with a second performance the following evening. Final Oshawa contingent will be the Oshawa Choral Society appearing in the afternoon and evening of July 28 and 29. The program for the Band- shell festival of amateur en- tertainment, as at March 1, was released by Expo publicity officials this week. They said performance times are subject More Than 1,000 City Cubs _ Entering Pinewood Derby Give a small boy a block of wood, four nails, four wheels and a few scraps of metal and what do you have but a work- ing scale model racing car. More than 1,000 Oshawa cubs have taken. these bare mate- rials and entered the Pine- wood Derby which is in its sec- ond year of annual competition in the city. FRAUD WRECKS IMAGE WINNIPEG (CP)--The_ busi- ness community is getting a bad name because dishonesty is coming increasingly to public attention, says R. C. Frazee of Winnipeg,. a bank manager. Honesty does not get noticed because "common-place, every- day people and events don't make news." He says he won-} ders if history is completing a cycle and going back to the| days when the businessman The derby started last Mon- day and will run four days .a week until May 28. But the real starting point is somewhere in the United States as Oshawa cubs borrowed the ideas from the Boy Scouts of America. Oshawa has extended _ the field of competition this year to make provisions for a final to be held June 4 between Osh- awa, Whitby and Bowmanville Cubs with the possibility of a United States team entering the competition. Three winners in the speed category are sent on to the next race as are three con- course winners with the result being 96 entries in each cate- gory competing for Oshawa dis- trict at Civic Auditorium in June. | All races prior to the final will be held at the First Osh- awa Scout Hall at the corner of was viewed with scorn by so-;Gibbons and Buena Vista ciety, streets, offenses, including drinking un- der age charges. "It is unfortunate that people sometimes have to go to jail for liquor offenses,' said Magis- trate Dodds, '"'but when people become problems to themselves and to the public, 20 days in jail may be the necessary shock that will aid in their rehabilitation." "After all," said the magis- trate, "minor consuming may lead to other more serious charges. If a minor who has been drinking is seen driving by a policeman and signalled to stop, he could panic and there is no end to the trouble he could find himself in." "Generally, the parents pay the fines, but the best deterent is the very real possibility of a |few days in jail, as minors, jaware of the law and its penal- \ties, they know they should not) jties, know they should not be be drinking," said Magistrate Dodds. | Police Report Two Break - Ins age case were reported to Osh- awa police last night. The office of Dr. D. R. Cow- man and Dr. R. S. Irwin at 178 Simcoe St. N., was broken into and ransaked with $20 and $50 taken. David Jackson of 230 Nipigon St., reported his car 'broken into and a $70 portable car radio stolen plus $6.70 in damage. David Brennan also of 230 Nipigon told police that the in- terior of his car had been ruined through the pouring of contact cement on the dash-board, front seats and windshield causing un- determined damage. Nine On Strike Watched By 100 TORONTO (CP) -- The Tor- onto District Labor Council Thursday asked the Metropoli- tan Toronto police commission |why it has had numerous police- |men on duty at the Canadian {Coleman Co. plant in suburban Etobicoke, where 230 employees have been on strike for about six months. The council said the use of 100 policemen at the Coleman plant on March 31 to watch nine in jail or both for some liquor Col. R. S. McLaughlin has {been granted the permanent rank of honorary colonel for his 47 years service to the On- jtario Regiment. The department of national defence, in a press release to- day, says Col. McLaughlin is the fifth Canadian to receive the Permanent honorary rank since 1936. The rank was granted by Paul Hellyer, minister of national defence. Col. McLaughlin, chairman} of the board of General Motors of Canada, retired recently as honorary colonel of the regi- ment. He was appointed honorary colonel of the regiment in 1920, two years after he had merged his highly successful McLaugh- lin Motor Car Company with GM. He was appointed honorary colonel of the Oshawa armored unit in 1934. "Mr. Sam," as he is affec- tionately known in the city, has always retained a keen interest 450 Donate Blood Clinic: Four hundred and fifty pints of blood were collected by the Red Cross at a blood clinic held at St. Gregory's Auditorium Wednesday. The goal was 500 pints. "We thought the hockey game would result in poor turn- H sanat out," said Robert Stroud, chair- i ae gale <iealng man of the blood donor clinic, Road "but we were most satisfied with the results." The next clinic to be held at St.. Gregory's will be on May} 4, from 1.30 p.m. to 4.30 p.m. Two break-ins and one dam land 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. Labor Preparing Brief For Inquiry In a brief being prepared for the Rand Commission inquiry into Ontario labor disputes, the [Oshawa and District Labor Council plans to make a major attack on the use of ex parte in- junctions. Clifford Pilkey, ODLC presi- dent, said today the submission should be in the hands of the commission by the end of April. Authorized earlier this year by the ODLC membership, the brief will question the privilege of strikebound companies get- ting high-court rulings that limit picketing. : BUMPS TO VICTORY ATIKOKAN, Ont. (CP) -- A! good kick in the pants helped! Harold Norland, 11, of Emo,! Ont., win his motor toboggan} race at the international snow-| mobile rally here. The boy's| vehicle got bogged down in the | second half of the race but was) hit from the rear by another) competitor and jerked free to} strikers is misuse of the taxpay- ers money. | Henry Weisbach, a member of the council's executive, said the company is responsible for dis- turbances at the plant because it brought in strikebreakers, win the race. | PAYING FOR INCOME | Shareholders in Italian com- |panies who live outside Italy jare taxed a flat 30 per cent of |their dividends, need in the Ontario regiment and was instrumental in the found- ing and equipping of the regi- mental band. COLLISION A car-truck collision in the city last night resulted in $3,000 damage to the 1967 model car-- and $10 to the truck. Gerald E. Andrews, 835 Oxford St., suf- fered a sore knee, when the car he was driving collided with a tractor-trailer driven by Law- rence C. Farrell, 400 Grenfell a scrap of paper to go on. RUNNER POEM couriers when they weren't on the run. 'When the wires are broken And the pigeons won't fly And shrapnel and whizz bangs Are bursting on high. When Hell's on earth And earth's in the sky Who's the guy that will Get through or die. Today, Mr. Losee looks back on it all and recalls Vimy Ridge as a "very long front full of shell holes, craters and mud." As a young bugler, sporting a handlebar mustache, he was with the volunteer 48th High- landers in Toronto in pre-war days and took great honor in the pledge of the kilted corps -- "Dileas Gubrath," Scotland For- ever. His mind kept going back to the ridge as he sat in his bun- galow home reflecting on the war. 'It was kind of sloped up. It must have been fairly high." You coulddook down the battle- ront and never see the end either way. "Everything was upsidedown. Consideration should be given In another pocket-size book he|to setting up a permanent liai- recorded free verse written by|/son body to stimulate co-ordin- municipal ation between vince's select committee onjrecreation departments last youth. fall. Mr. Brewster agrees with aj He quotes the minister as point the committee made for/having siad then: : an open-school policy to ensure authorities on education and/that education for leisure "Co-operation between school isjauthorities and recreation au recreation, Oshawa's recreation|just as important as academic|needs to be continuous so that director said today. "At some level should come together so th where facilities are created (or are available) it should be de- cided how they could be totally utilized," Wendell Brewster, city recreation department di- rector, told The Times. His comment came in con- nection with a 408-page report tabled in the Ontario Legisla- ture yesterday by the prov- the bodies FIND OWN BOOKS EDMONTON (CP) Mac- Donald High School students, whose new library had wall-to- wall carpeting and empty shelves, decided to collect books for a Centennial project and acquired 2,000 volumes, mostly fiction, within a month. Now they are collecting money for reference books to round out training. |the most dynamic program of "Our youths today must learn|recreation and continuing edu- at|to live in the world before aca- -|zens, All publicly-owned build- demic training has its full im pact," Mr. Brewster said. lent, but level." a citizens' committee the chairmanship of Stewart Alger that presented more than 15. briefs to the select commit- tee late in 1965 should be re- convened to review the com- mission's report and study how its recommendations could be applied in Oshawa. CLOSE ALLIANCE Mr. Brewster said education minister William Davis advo- cated a closer alliance between municipal education and recre- ation bodies at a Toronto con- the collection. ference for representatives of | | Three members of the On- tario Regiment display one of the unit's which will be retired soon A new representative flag will be presented to the regi- Mr. Brewster said he thinks under jeation is: available to the citi- jings must be used for program "A lot of the report is excel- development." it still needs much more study at the community | |HEARING | The Oshawa recreation come |mittee made the point of co-operation from education lofficials when it presented @ |brief to the 13-man select com |mittee which held a one-day hearing at city hall Nov. 15, |1965. | The local department also jadvocated that the department jof education set up degree |courses in recreation at "'our universities' and encourage specialized training of youth workers to augment the staffs of municipal recreation depaft ments. First Ship Arrives At Harbor A fresh water coal runner the Ferndale became the first vessel to arrive in Oshawa harbor this season as it steants ed into port at 5:30 a.m. today with a 8,100-ton cargo from Rochester, New York. The ship, of British Registry, is also the first foreign arrival, Captain Maurice Adams, 5l, from Port Colborne, Ont., was presented with a silver-tipped |walking cane by Wilfred Gill- berry, Oshawa harbor manager. The presentation commemore ated the arrival of the first ship in the sailing season. The Ferndale, weighing 7,068 tons, is 525 feet long and first tasted the high seas in 1912. It has been converted to a self- REGIMENT'S OLD COLORS DISPLAYED AT ARMORIES unloader. The vessel was eX- pected to leave port about 3 p.m. MACHINE SAVES TIME REGINA (CP)--A new, auto- matic, blood chemistry .ma- chine performs. 12 separate ment in Ottawa July 5 by replace infantry colors of ceremony is: now set for |tests on a thimble-sized cup of Her Majesty Queen Eliza- the First World War. The Sept. 24. Major 'William |blood serum in two minutes, beth at a one-hour ceremony presentation by Her Majesty Clarke, CD, top right, dis- |The analyses used to take a two flags on Parliament Hill. The new will delay the regiment's plays the old colors to Sgt. |technician half a day. There "guidon'" -- a single swal- proposed Trooping the L. O. Bryant, left and Cpl. jare three such machines in low-tailed flag common only Guidon which was originally C. H. Linkletter. Canada--in Edmonton, Victoria to armored regiments--will set for June in Oshawa. The --Oshawa Times Photo 'and Regina.