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Updated: May 6, 2025
It refers to 25th September 1915: 'The brigade formed up in the trench in the following order from left to right, 1st Gordons, 4th Gordons, 2nd Royals, one company Royal Scots Fusiliers. Each battalion received separate point of attack, namely, Bellevarde Farm, Hooge Château, Redoubt, Sandbag Castle. Artillery bombardment 3.50-4.20 A.M. General attack then launched.
After the Germans began to use their deadly gas in the spring of 1915 they again took possession of Hooge, and used the Menin road for a forward movement which threatened what was left of Ypres. The Duke of Württemberg was in command of that part of the line opposed to the British, and his forces extended from near Pilkem in the north to near Hill 60 in the south, in the form of a crescent.
The First and Third Brigades or the First Division were swept back and the First Coldstream Guards were wiped out as a unit. The whole division was driven back from Gheluvelt to the woods between Veldhoek and Hooge. The allied headquarters at Hooge were shelled. General Lomas was wounded and six or the staff officers were killed.
At 2.30 a.m. the Battalion moved into the support trenches, twenty minutes before the bombardment commenced. At 4.15 a.m. the 3rd Division assaulted, and their apparent success which could be seen from the rear was greeted with much enthusiasm by the men. About two hours later a message was received from a commanding officer in Zouave Wood that he was about to attack north-east of Hooge.
The prophets were right, and at dawn on the 30th July the enemy, anxious to recapture Hooge, attacked the 14th Division who were holding the village, preceding the attack with streams of liquid fire, under which the garrison either succumbed or were driven out.
The balls of light rose into the velvety darkness and a moment later suffused the sky with a white glare which faded away tremulously after half a minute. Against the first vivid brightness of it the lines of trees along the roads to Hooge were silhouetted as black as ink, and the fields between Ypres and the trenches were flooded with a milky luminance.
It was the second of June, 1916, and the Germans had launched their great surprise attack against the Canadians at Hooge. It was the beginning of what has been called the Third Battle of Ypres, but will probably be recorded in history as the Battle of Sanctuary Wood.
At last he crawled near our trench and heard the boys talking, and he came in; it was two days after when I saw him five days before he had been a happy, daredevil sort of a boy now he looked like a corpse with living eyes of coal. He never got over it, and after the Battle of Hooge was invalided home, a complete wreck.
There was hardly a house in the village without several shell holes in the roof. Terrible tragedies had been enacted here. The gardens had a full crop of black and white crosses. Colonel Meighen had a very swell house, the windows looking south towards Hooge and Hill 60. He came over and welcomed me to St. Julien and showed me his trench diary and plans of the trenches.
The British on their side had advanced 1500 yards over heavily fortified or wooded ground, and their new line lay along Pilkem, Saint-Julien, Frezenberg, Hooge, Sanctuary Wood, Hollebeke and Basse-Ville.
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