The 50th Battalion left Canada in October 1915 and arrived in England on November 4, 1915. Upon arrival the battalion travelled to Bramshott, a massive training facility located on the Salisbury Plains. It was at Bramshott in May 1916 that the 50th Battalion joined the 44th (Winnipeg) Battalion, the 46th (South Saskatchewan) Battalion, and 47th (New Westminster, Victoria and Vancouver) Battalion to form the 10th Canadian Infantry Brigade.

The 10th Brigade also included the 10th Trench Mortar Battery. The 10th, 11th, and 12th Infantry Brigades, along with a regiment of Pioneers (engineers), the 67th (Western Scot) Pioneer Battalion, formed the 4th Canadian Division, which was identified by a green, rectangle-shaped patch.

The 10th Canadian Brigade left England on August 10, 1916 and arrived at Havre, France the next day. Two days later, the 50th boarded a train — 20 men to a cattle car — bound for Belgium. They arrived there on August 13, 1916 and began training with bayonets, grenades and gas helmets until they were sent into the trenches a week later.

The 50th Canadian Infantry Battalion had arrived in a region of Belgium Flanders known as the Ypres Salient, a semi-circle of territory held by the Allies that jutted deep into the German-lines.

Major Lester Webster, a career soldier with 19 years experience, peered over the parapet to get his first look at the hellish conditions of that blasted stretch of land known as no man’s land, and within moments, a German artillery shell exploded in front of the trench killing Maj. Webster, making him the 50th Battalion’s first death of the First World War.

Signaller Victor Wheeler, one of those few men who served with the 50th from the outset of the war to its end, wrote in his memoir No Man’s Land that the 50th’s first experience in the trenches was “difficult and dangerous... We found flesh and blood no match for enemy shells.”

Maj. Webster was killed on August 19, 1916, and in the following three years of war, the 50th Battalion came to share a nickname—the Suicide Battalion—with the 46th (South Saskatchewan) Canadian Infantry Battalion. Of the roughly 5,000 soldiers who served with the 50th Battalion during the war, there were 4,000 casualties, 900 of whom were killed.

The 50th first experienced that horror of the First World War, poison gas, late in the evening of September 2, 1916. At 11 p.m. signaller Victor Wheeler, received a Morse code message warning of a chlorine gas attack.

“The staccato dot-and-dash letters, G–A–S, beat a macabre dance tune to my eardrums. I seemed unable to arouse myself from a gripping lethargy. I could not come to my senses; my mind refused to function; and my cramped, cold body was powerless to respond,” he wrote.

“I got control of my dazed senses in the few vital seconds before the rolling sulphurous-smelling poison gas fouled the sky and scourged that narrow splinter of groaning earth that separated brave men on both sides. I signalled headquarters, then snatched the earphones off my throbbing head, crawled to the dugout entrance, and yelled to my Runners to race down the line and warn the Commanding Officer that enemy chlorine gas cylinders had been opened up on us; that the deadly vapour clouds were already creeping across No Man’s Land toward us from the direction of our right flank; and to pass the word along the line to everybody to put on his gas mask and Stand-to.”

As the 50th Battalion began to gain experience in trench warfare, the battalion became known as Mason’s Man-Eaters after the battalion’s commanding officer Lt.-Col. E.G. Mason and for its growing reputation as a fighting unit. It was, however, a nickname that Victor Wheeler wrote was “dearly earned” at the cost of many casualties having been “badly mauled” on the battlefields.

The 50th left the Ypres Salient behind on September 20, 1916 when the 4th Division left Belgium for the blood-soaked battlefields of the Somme river valley in France. To keep the movement of such a large number of soldiers secret, the 4th Division moved at night under the cover of a massive artillery barrage.

“As far as the eye could see, and the ear hear, fire and brimstone and merciless thunder burst from our hundreds of heavies of all calibres. The black sky was completely aflame, everywhere splashed and guttered with shellfire, like monstrous torches from hell. Mother earth groaned and trembled under the onslaught but her wails and convulsions were drowned out by the shrieking projectiles of destruction,” wrote Wheeler.

With soaking 50-lb packs on their backs, the soldiers marched from Ypres to St. Omer, France, where they boarded cattle cars to finish their journey to the Somme by train where they moved to attack the village of Courcelette, which Victor Wheeler described as Hell’s hometown. The Somme Offensive had begun July 1, 1916 with almost 60,000 British casualties on the first day of the attack. By the time the Canadian Corps arrived in mid-September the Somme was a desolate landscape of muddy, broken ground pockmarked with craters; criss-crossed with trenches and barbed wire; and covered with the dead from both sides.

The Canadian Corps had been tasked with capturing Regina Trench, a German stronghold on the Somme battlefield, in October, but it took the Canadians four attempts to take this trench, finally succeeding on November 10, 1916 at a cost of 24,000 casualties. The 50th Battalion, who had been held in reserve, went on the offensive on November 18 at dawn accompanied by an artillery barrage. Two companies of the 50th, some 500 men, leapt over the top of Regina Trench and moved across no man’s land meeting “bitter resistance” from the German defenders, according to the 50th’s official war diary.

“We advanced about two hundred yards and assaulted a small trench taking about sixty prisoners. We then withdrew to that portion of trench still in enemy’s hands taking... about fifty more prisoners. We immediately began to consolidate just over the crest of a hill directly in rear of this trench but owing to heavy casualties through being exposed and enfilade machine gun fire we were forced to return to Regina Trench”. This attack alone cost the battalion 14 soldiers, one officer killed; three officers and 82 soldiers missing and believed dead and 91 wounded.

The 50th Battalion left the Somme for Vimy Ridge, located to the northeast of the Somme, where the battalion spent most of November and December 1916 held in reserve. And as Wheeler relates, the men of the 50th were happy to leave the Somme. “The horrible conditions on our sector of the Somme, after several weeks of continuous downpour and oppressive shelling turned the once green earth into a mammoth cesspool into which were oozing ever more wretched corpses,” wrote Wheeler.

The 50th spent Christmas 1916 at Vimy Ridge before moving briefly back to the frontline December 26 but otherwise saw limited action until February 1917 when the battalion began raiding German trenches. Raids were a regular part of life for infantry battalions such as the 50th. They were used to gather intelligence, destroy fortifications, demoralize enemy troops, capture prisoners and identify enemy regiments.

On one such raid, on February 3, 1917 near the village of Souchez, the battalion set out along a 250-yard long section of German trench to capture enemy soldiers, cause casualties and damage their defences. The raid, which lasted 20 minutes, was a success; the 50th Battalion war diary shows the 50th captured seven prisoners, killed or wounded 100 soldiers and destroyed an extensive portion of the German trench, including 24 dugouts, eight sniper posts, five machine gun emplacements, two listening posts that jutted out into no man’s land, two trench junctions and a mine shaft. In exchange, the 50th suffered two deaths and 37 wounded.

On March 1, 1917, however, the 50th played a different role during a massive brigade-level raid that involved elements of the 10th, 11th and 12th Brigades tasked with raiding German trenches in the Souchez region as part of the preparations for the upcoming attack on Vimy Ridge. The soldiers of the 50th hauled gas canisters on their backs that they installed along the brigade’s front. While the 50th was not involved in the assault portion of this raid, Lt.-Col. Mason received a letter of appreciation from the Brigadier-General commanding the 10th Infantry Brigade recognizing the 50th’s work preparing the gas attack.

With preparations and training complete, all four divisions of the Canadian Corps formed up on April 9 to attack Vimy Ridge, seven-kilometres long and heavily fortified. The Canadian attack on Vimy Ridge (April 9–12) was part of the much larger Battle of Arras that was launched as a diversion to distract the Germans as the French attacked to the south in Champagne. Seizing Vimy would protect British battalions attacking the German lines to the south of the ridge.

The 50th moved to the support line shortly before midnight where the 10th Brigade waited in support of the 11th and 12th Brigades. The 10th Brigade had been tasked with seizing Hill 120 (also known as the Pimple), the western-most and second highest position along Vimy Ridge. But as the 11th Brigade had been beaten bloody and unable to take its final objectives, the 12th Brigade couldn’t complete its objectives until the Hill 145, the highest point on Vimy, was secure. As a result, the uncommitted battalions of the 10th Brigade—the 44th and the 50th—were sent in to take Hill 145.

With the 44th on the right and the 50th on the left, the two battalions charged up the western slope of the ridge following a heavy artillery barrage. Even though the ranks of both battalions were quickly decimated the 44th and the 50th fought to the crest of the ridge.

During this fight, on April 10, Private John George Pattison singlehandedly killed the crew of a machine gun emplacement that had stopped the advance and inflicted numerous casualties. Using shell holes for cover, Pattison reached the machine gun nest. He lobbed in a few grenades before rushing in and bayonetting the entire crew.

Pattison was awarded the Victoria Cross for his actions; one of four VCs awarded during the Battle of Vimy Ridge. By the end of the day April 10, 62 men of the 50th had been killed, 135 were wounded and 31 were missing. As part of their gains that day, the soldiers of the 50th captured 150 German soldiers.

“More importantly, the 50th Battalion had captured the bitter contested Hill 145, the most prized of the twin crowns atop Vimy Ridge. Although the price paid for it was very high, it was now securely and permanently in Canadian hands”, wrote Wheeler.

“The sight of our decimated ranks, after the capture of Hill 145, almost tore the hearts out of us as we, who were still standing, looked around for our buddies and brothers – and saw them not.” Runner Bob Forrest spoke with tears in his eyes, “I was the only one of eighteen from Okotoks, Alberta to come out alive.”

The 50th pulled back April 11 and reorganized into two companies with orders to assault Hill 120—the 50th’s original objective—in a “blinding snowstorm” and waist-deep mud. The Pimple was heavily fortified and defended but the 10th Brigade had the advantage with the spring snowstorm at its back. The final push to take the last vestige of Vimy Ridge began on April 12 at 5 a.m. accompanied by an artillery bombardment of explosive and gas shells.

But owing to the storm and the deep mud, the men of the 50th, the 44th and the 46th moved slowly; however, the storm and the bombardment allowed the Canadians to reach the Pimple without being decimated, and they quickly overwhelmed the German defences, killing many German soldiers with bombs and bayonets. By 5:45 a.m., the Pimple, and all of Vimy Ridge, was in Canadian hands. Hill 120 was 82 feet lower than Hill 145 but Wheeler described it as the master key as it overlooked the Souchez Valley and the Lorette Spur that would “lock up the house of Vimy Ridge.”

The 50th’s war diarist wrote, “The enemy put in a good fight, but thanks to the snowstorm they could not see our men more than 20 or 30 yards away... Casualties were very, very light on account of snowstorm.”

Only one officer and three soldiers from the 50th were killed with 40 men confirmed wounded. With the end of the Battle of Vimy Ridge, the 50th returned to Camp Vancouver where “every man of the 50th Battalion, still in our bloody, muddy clothes for warmth, flopped and relapsed into a soft sleep of youth, nothing else mattered. We had reached the pinnacle,” wrote Wheeler.

While successful, 3,598 Canadians were killed during the attack on Vimy Ridge and another 7,000 were wounded.

The Allies continued to push against the German defences throughout April in an effort to build a defensive line that ran from Vimy roughly six kilometres northeast to Lens. Their goal was to capture another section of the Hindenburg Line and push back the German forces with the hopes that would take the pressure off the French at Aisne to the south.

The 50th played a significant role in the next phase of Canadian operations during June 1917 when the 4th Canadian Division was ordered to capture German positions along the Vimy-Lens line. The positions assigned to the 10th Brigade included the hamlet of La Coulotte, which lay midway between Vimy and Lens, along with a nearby brewery and the Central Electric Generating Station, both of which served as German strongholds. The 50th was assigned to capture the power station, located north of La Coulotte.

On June 3, 1917 following an artillery barrage using gas shells, the 10th Brigade attacked at midnight under heavy fire from the German defenders. The 44th attacked La Coulotte and the brewery while the 15 officers and 435 other ranks of the 50th moved on the power station.

Unlike Vimy Ridge and the October 1917 Battle of Passchendaele, which featured the mud so typical of the First World War, the June 2-3 attack on La Coulotte and the power station was over hard, dusty ground. The 50th’s war diary reports that the attack moved ahead in “ good order and met with opposition the whole way.” The enemy began firing upon the 50th’s support lines, leaving the assaulting troops alone. The 50th stormed Callous Trench and then moved on to the power station. “B”, “C” and “D” Companies reached their objectives but heavy fighting forced “C” Company to withdraw, falling back to join “B” Company at the support line.

The 44th Battalion had captured the brewery by 5:20 a.m. but a strong counterattack soon forced its soldiers back to their start line. Even though the 50th captured the power station later that morning, heavy enemy fire, an imminent counterattack and enemy aircraft directing troops and artillery fire on the battalion’s right flank made for a tenuous situation.

“As soon as it became light the troops were subjected to heavy sniping from the front, from the brewery on the right and Hill 65 on our left front, a ridge which dominated our position and had always given trouble. Moreover, the enemy artillery that got our line and were making direct hits,” the battalion’s diarist wrote.

The battalion attempted to hold its position at the power station but a push to bomb the German trenches failed, delayed reinforcements and increasing casualties—about 75 per cent of the attacking soldiers—forced the 50th to prepare for a retreat. And then at 6:45 .p.m the counterattacks began.

“After a short but intense bombardment the enemy attacked all our positions simultaneously, using bombs chiefly, our men holding them until our supply of grenades was exhausted when they jumped out of the trenches and with their wounded, withdrew overland to our old front line, suffering very few further casualties considering the amount of MG (machine gun) fire brought to bear on them. What was left of the Battalion was then organized into two companies and our old positions reinforced,” according to the 50th’s war diary.

The Battalion later owed its failure to the hard ground, which made it impossible to dig in, enemy observation from Hill 65 on the 50th’s left flank, its inability to hold Candle trench that could have been used to move up reinforcements and the withdrawal of the 44th Battalion, which left the 50th’s right flank open.

In all, following 18 hours of fighting, the 50th suffered 201 casualties with 39 killed, 135 wounded and 33 missing; of those, three officers were killed, six were wounded and one was missing. Private John George Pattison, who won the Victoria Cross for his bravery at Vimy Ridge, was killed by shellfire while manning an advance post beyond the captured power station. Pattison’s gun crew were killed as well.

“The number of enemy killed and wounded, in addition to the fifty-four prisoners we captured, was very heavy. The blood soaked human wreckage lay scattered around the now demolished and half-submerged Generating Station as if cast up by the flooding river,” wrote Wheeler.

The battle for the Lens electric generating station was costly, Wheeler added, but a “truly glorious” display of courage and bravery of the 50th’s soldiers, such as Pattison and Signaller Frederick Daglish, who captured 19 German prisoners while searching a hidden tunnel to see if it would serve as a secure place for a communications centre.

After the brutal fighting at Lens, the 10th Brigade, including the 50th Battalion, pulled back from the front line for some much deserved rest. For the entire month of July 1917, as the British gained little ground in their push towards Passchendaele, the soldiers of the 50th rested, trained and attended lectures and drill practice. They even got in a football and a baseball game.

While the men of the 50th may not have been all that great on the football field or baseball diamond, its members brought home top honours in Corps Rifle Shoot Competitions held in August 1917, during celebrations held to mark the 50th’s anniversary of arriving in France in 1916.

After a month-and-a-half break from combat, the 50th relieved the 54th Canadian Battalion at Zouave Valley on August 17 and moved into the front-line trenches the following day to relieve the 18th Canadian Battalion along the Lens-Bethune Road. With their old friends the 46th Battalion on their left, and the 27th on the right, “B” Company moved into the trenches with “A” Company in support and “C” and “D” Cos. in reserve. And, now that they were back at the front line, the casualties began to mount. Seven soldiers were wounded as the 50th moved into position August 18.

At 3:30 a.m. August 19, German artillery bombarded the lines until 5 a.m. In return, the 50th’s diarist wrote, “our artillery replied vigorously.” Two men were killed and eight wounded in the bombardment. Later that day, the 50th received orders to take the German-held Aloof Trench and then push on towards its objective.

The 50th Battalion attacked Aloof Trench three times over a two-day period in attempt to seize it, but they were beaten back with heavy casualties during the first two attempts. The Calgary soldiers finally succeeded on August 25, 1917 at 2 a.m., attacking under a screen or mortar bombs and rifle grenades and support from the heavy artillery.

The barrage of bombs, grenades and shells lifted from Aloof Trench at 2 a.m. and the 50th soldiers attacked only to find the enemy had fled. The soldiers bombed the dugout entrances to seal them shut and by 4 a.m., on the third attempt and many casualties, the 50th had finally taken Aloof Trench along with their final objective.

By 11 p.m. that night, they were relieved by the 87th Canadian Battalion and a group of weary soldiers moved into divisional reserve. The attack on Aloof Trench and the Green Line had a serious outcome for the 50th with 370 casualties in all including three officers and 54 soldiers killed and 33 missing.

Following the attack on Aloof Trench, the 50th fell into a relatively quiet routine of training, inspections, work parties and reconnaissance throughout September and October, 1917. The Canadian Corps moved from France to Belgium Flanders in the Ypres-Passchendaele Sector, the same location where the German Imperial Army had first used gas on the Allied troops, where the Canadian Corps relieved the II Anzac Corps during the Second Battle of Passchendaele. On October 22, the soldiers of the 50th moved into an area known as Levi Cottage and immediately set out to improve and repair the damaged trenches but heavy rain and sodden ground meant the trenches kept caving in on the soldiers as they worked.

Shortly after their arrival at the front, the Germans welcomed the 50th and the other battalions of the CEF with a gas attack. “We immediately put on our gas respirators, but the explosions made it most difficulty to keep the mouthpieces between our teeth, and in many instances respirators were blown completely off our faces,” wrote Wheeler.

“The enemy’s torrent of shells, trench mortars, minenwerfers (light mortar), machine gun and rifle fire, with torrential accompaniment from the storm clouds, failed to drench our determination to replay the Hun for the mauling he gave us one year ago. Fight we must, and fight we did, both becoming inundated in the mud without regard for any Queensbury Rules.”

“Attacker and defender fought bravely and fiercely and Mother Earth groaned as if in labour. Mud and weeping skies joined in the wretched cacophony of burning shells, screaming bullets, shattering shrapnel, and the tortuous cries of the wounded and dying. Rain pelted our steel hats like water-balls sloshing against a ship’s portholes. Men were crazed, some driven stark insane. Unmitigated hell reigned.”

Two of the 50th’s companies (“C” and “D”) were assigned to support the 46th Battalion While “A” and “B” Companies remained in the support trench, a position the 50th had held since moving into the line. At 5:40 a.m. on October 26th, the CEF attacked. The enemy responded with heavy shelling. At 9:40 a.m. “D” Company moved forward to join the 46th Battalion’s support line, while a company from the 47th Battalion reinforced the 50th. “D” Company, minus one platoon, joined the 46th when it attacked, only to be driven back. The 46th’s withdrawal, however, was stopped by three lieutenants from the 50th and an officer with the 46th, who remained at their posts even as other troops pulled back.

The 50th was relieved October 28, allowing its soldiers to move to relative safety away from the front lines. By the end of the Third Battle of Ypres, which included Passchendaele, on Nov. 10, 1917, the 50th had suffered 184 casualties, this number included six members of the battalion’s brass band wounded by German shell fire while leading the battalion past what remained of the Cloth Hall, Ypres’s ancient trading hall.

Passchendaele marked the end of fighting and front line action for the 50th Battalion for 1917. The battalion moved from the Ypres Salient to Bruay, France, where its members spent the first half of December training, attending lectures, participating in tactical exercises and learning new techniques in map reading and interpreting aerial photographs. The 50th moved to Vancouver Camp December 20 and on December 23, won the Divisional Shoot.

The members of the battalion spent Christmas 1917 at Vancouver Camp. On Christmas Eve, they sang Christmas carols and decorated their huts, and in the morning, they attended a Christmas service and then in the evening a concert and Christmas dinner. Four days later, their respite came to an end. The soldiers of the 50th Battalion returned to the front line in the Lens-Arras Sector where they spent New Year’s Eve rebuilding the trenches in the face of a strong, cold wind, but the battalion suffered no casualties that evening.

The relative peace and quiet the 50th experienced in the last month of 1917 ended on the first day of 1918; Lance Corporal H. Hett held off a German attack on a B-Company post and Henry Norwest earned his first kill of 1918. A train derailment on January 2 left one member of the 50th Battalion with a broken leg.

The weather cleared January 3, 1918 and the battalion spent a quiet day under sunny skies. The hard work had paid off as the trenches were now in excellent condition. The 46th relieved the 50th January 4, and the 50th moved back to the support trenches. The 50th continued sending working parties into the trenches. Despite their excellent condition, trenches needed constant upkeep as a change in the weather and thawing ground could undo much of the work. By January 11, the 50th's diarist wrote that the ground was thawing rapidly and that “mud knee deep in places and going very bad.”

This work continued until January 22 when German raiders, in three parties, attacked “B” Company at 4:45 a.m. taking advantage of what the war diary refers to as extreme darkness. One of the raiding parties was driven off with Mills bombs and revolver fire. Another party, however, slipped through the barbed wire defenses and attacked a sentry post held by three soldiers of the 50th. One soldier was killed, one went missing and the third man managed to reach another post. The soldiers in this post counter-attacked the raiders, driving them off.

Aware of the raid, the 50th's Lewis guns opened fire on no man's land as German flares shot up in the dark sky and an artillery barrage hit the 50th's line. One of the 50th's soldiers was killed and two others wounded. “Everything indicates the intention of the enemy to raid on a fairly large scale, which, but for the gallantry of Lieut. MacDonald in 'taking on' a party considerably stronger than his own, broke up what was apparently a well organised raid,” the battalion's war diarist wrote.

The 50th spent the rest of January in Corps Reserve and the first part of February 1918 rotating in and out of the support and front line trenches. Aside from two gas attacks, the only other notable event the 50th diarist recorded were the 12 kills the battalion snipers made between February 18–19, 1918.

Much like the first two months of 1918, March and April were largely quiet for the 50th. The battalion moved to Canada Camp on March 18 where the Calgary officers and NCOs learned how to work with the newly acquired tanks. During a move to Ottawa Camp, several cars in the train carrying the battalion derailed killing two men and injuring 19 others.

By April 11, the battalion was back in the front line and sending strong patrols of 10 to 15 men through no man's land to gather intelligence, capture prisoners and identify the opposing German battalions.

These nightly patrols continued right up into mid-April when the 50th once more settled into a routine of frequent moves coupled with rotations in and out of the support and front lines and moving back into reserve through the rest of April, May, June and July leading into August and the beginning of what would become known as Canada's Hundred Days.

For the next 100 days, beginning with the August 8 attack near Amiens during the Battle of Amiens, Canada was at the forefront of the British and Allied attacks serving as shock troops. When a line needed to be broken, the Canadian Corps was called into action.

This large-scale offensive began with the goal to close the way to Paris and it ended with the November 11, 1918 armistice. It was in this context—along with the failed offensive the Germans launched in the spring of 1918 and the arrival of the Americans at the Western Front in the summer—that the 10th Brigade and its battalions, including of course, the 50th, along with the rest of the Canadian Corps, moved into the line August 8 at the start of the Hundred Days.

The 50th Battalion spent a quiet night with the only sound that of the tanks rumbling forward towards the start lines. The kitchens provided the battalion's soldiers with hot tea before they moved off to their start line. Kickoff arrived at 4:20 a.m. with a heavy artillery barrage that pounded the German. Observation and fighter places appeared overhead. Canada's Hundred Days had begun. The 50th, along with the rest of the 10th Brigade, was held in reserve as the 1st and 3rd Divisions attacked. It was in this position that the men of the 50th watched the cavalry charge while the horse artillery charged in, set up their guns and began firing.

“Wave upon wave of cavalry brigades were racing forward, stirrups jangling, the ground trembling beneath their thundering hoofs. The flying hoofs of thousands of galloping steeds was piercing the skyline,” Victor Wheeler wrote. “The riders advanced, leaning forward, arms outstretched, with spears couched and swords drawn, levelled at the Charge!, extended always a few inches beyond the charges' noses, and flashing in the slanting rays of the sun.

“Hands holding swords were then allowed to swing back and the forward momentum pulled the sword free as the trooper swept past his victim, whipping, slashing, hacking, cleaving, severing others on either side, his horse rearing and pivoting like a whirlwind, nostrils steaming and snorting, hoofs pawing the standing and trampling the fallen.”

Wet, rainy weather provided poor visibility, which worked to the benefit of the attacking Canadians. During the day, they moved openly without fear as the pilots and observers in enemy planes could not see through the gloom. The Allies attacked effectively through that dreary day, taking all of its objectives. Remarkably, the 50th suffered no casualties on the opening day of Canada's Hundred Days.

That would change, however, when the 10th Brigade, supporting the tanks, attacked on the morning of August 10. The 10th Brigade was to attack at 8 am, but it did not cross the start line until two hours later when the tanks finally arrived.

“The tanks, Mark IVs and Whippets, suddenly appeared on the scene from their wooded lair at Zero Hour. As they chugged forward, some very slowly, with deafening clangour, punctuated by the incessant percussive explosions from a thousand cannons, they looked like miniature steel castles descended from their rocks, suddenly come to life as they scurried hither and yon over the widening battlefield,” Wheeler wrote.

As the infantry and the tanks advanced an enemy barrage caused numerous casualties among the attackers. And as the 50th reached the position of the 46th Canadian Battalion and continued to advance past it, heavy machine guns in the village of Fouquescourt opened fire. Until the battalion on the 50th's right cleared its front, the 50th could advance no further, and the casualties continued to mount, including three company commanders, one of whom was killed.

The tanks, meanwhile, were pulled away from the 50th and sent to help the 44th Battalion take Fouquescourt. That evening, along with the 47th Battalion, the 50th—assigned to clear up any pockets of resistance the leading battalions missed during the advance—climbed from the trenches and despite heavy machine gun, rifle and artillery fire, advanced nearly two kilometres.

“Due to the rapid pace of the advance, that gained momentum by the hour, there were many concealed strongpoints that had been overlooked, not completely cleared out, or knowing passed by the mobile cavalry units, tanks, mechanized gun forces, infantry fighters. Our job was to liquidate these camouflaged pockets of resistance that were fighting a rearguard accuracy, picking off our men with deadly accuracy,” wrote Wheeler.

Gone were the days of wallowing in trenches. These fast pushes deep into enemy-held territory became the norm during Canada's Hundred Days. In the first three days of the Hundred Days, the Canadian Corps had gained 20 kilometres.

“This advance was made with the greatest dash and reflects untold credit on the Offices and NCOs for their gallantry and coolness and the admirable behaviour of all ranks,” the 50th Battalion war diary states. But these open maneuvers, while successful, came with high casualties. The 50th, from August 8 to August 11, saw 12 officers and 240 soldiers killed and wounded, most of which occurred on August 10 with three officers killed, seven wounded and 29 men killed, 159 wounded and 20 who had gone missing. It was, according to Wheeler, the highest losses in the 10th Brigade for that day.

The 50th got a short reprieve between August 12 and August 16 when the battalion was moved into a support role. Before returning to the front line at Fouquescourt Crucifix Corner, a German sniper shot and killed the 50th's top sniper Henry Norwest. The other 50th Battalion snipers immediately retaliated, killing four German soldiers. Canadian artillery, by order of Sir Arthur Currie, the Canadian Corps commander, pounded the forest, known as Dead Wood, where it was believed other snipers were hiding.

Days after Norwest had been killed, the Canadians moved from Amiens to Arras, near the Belgium border, where they were assigned to break the Hindenburg Line. The attack began September 2 at 5 a.m. with an unusually large artillery barrage. “Promptly on the second every gun for miles on either side opened fire and furnished the heaviest and most effective barrage ever experienced by our troops,” the 50th's diarist wrote. The 50th charged behind the barrage, storming machine gun posts that had torn up the Seaforth Highlanders and kept moving, so quickly that they had to stop 500 yards from German lines to wait for the barrage to lift and move forward.

“When the barrage lifted out men were into the trench and at work with bayonet and bombs, and only a minute or so elapsed before every Hun was accounted for, hundreds of them surrendered and were sent back to Battalion Headquarters together with their wounded and any of our own casualties. Some of their Machine Gun crews fought well but all those found in the dugouts showed a willingness to surrender,” the 50th's war diary states.

And the 50th didn't stop there; as soon as the barrage lifted the soldiers were on the move once more taking the support trenches just as quickly and efficiently, capturing their final objective along the Drocourt-Quéant Line as the barrage lifted for the last time. “D” Company, which led the attack for the 50th, captured 400 prisoners and dozens of machine guns in the final push. The battalion's diarist attributed “D” Company's success to Lt. Slade “who seemed to be every where at once, encouraging and directing his men and urging them to even greater efforts. Twice he personally charged and captured Machine Gun Posts, once with a handful of men to assist, the second time only with his batman.”

Charles Davis, meanwhile, despite being seriously injured after being kicked by a horse shortly before the attack began, attacked a German strong point by himself, capturing 50 prisoners. By the end of this first attack on the Hindenburg Line, the 50th alone had captured over 1,000 prisoners and 90 machine guns. The battalion paid for its success with 31 soldiers killed and 183 wounded, surprisingly most of these casualties came during a German artillery bombardment that followed the end of the attack.

A part of the 50th's success, and the high numbers of prisoners it and the other battalions in the Canadian Corps captured, was a result of poor morale among the German soldiers and a heightened skill among the Canadian Corps; the 50th diarist described that by saying, “The fighting spirit of our Officers and men however, has reached such a pitch that no enemy resistance however strong could stop their progress, and innumerable instances of unusual bravery and leadership were witnessed.”

At Quarry Wood, a member of the 50th Battalion named Richard Bloor, raced ahead of his platoon during an attack and despite “considerable rifle fire... drove the enemy into their dugouts and held them there until help arrived when 146 prisoners were secured including a complete Battalion headquarters.”

The rest of the attacks in September and October were much the same as what occurred during the first part of the Hundred Days: fast, efficient thrusts deep into enemy held-territory, each time leading to ever-weakening German defenses.

At the beginning of November, the 50th Battalion moved into position at La Fontenelle with the beginning of the Battle of Valenciennes. Zero hour arrived on November 1 at 5:15 a.m. with an artillery barrage of high-explosive and gas shells, and acting in support of the 47th Battalion, the 50th advanced towards Valenciennes—the last German-held city in France to be liberated—where it stopped at edge of the city as the 46th and 47th battalions entered and captured the city.

The 50th Battalion, meanwhile, was tasked with occupying Valenciennes as the 2nd and 3rd Divisions of the Canadian Corps moved on the Belgian city of Mons, where the British first encountered the German Army in 1914 and was forced from the city. Given its symbolism, the Canadians were ordered to capture Mons despite the impending armistice.

When the armistice came later that morning, with Mons in Canadian hands, Victor Wheeler wrote in No Man's Land, “the only outward and visible effect on the troops was one of depressing languor. We were tired and inexplicably drained of purpose and spirit... lassitude and dullness smothered our emotions... who could be expected to feel the joy and exhilaration of peace when the familiar faces of our comrades... were missing.”

As the Canadian Corps was chosen to serve as part of the Army of Occupation in Germany, the 50th Battalion began the move November 14 travelling by foot through France and into Belgium where the battalion remained for three months. Finally, on April 15, 1919, the 50th Battalion left Belgium, marching away as a band played the battalion's regimental march The Hundred Pipers.

The 50th returned to England in late April and a month later, on May 29, 1919, boarded the S.S. Empress at Liverpool in northern England, bound for Canada. Newfoundland came into view at 7 p.m. June 2, and two days later, the 50th reached Quebec. A week later brought the soldiers of the 50th Battalion into Calgary where a victory banquet was held at the Palliser Hotel.

The 50th (Calgary) Canadian Infantry Battalion of the Canadian Expeditionary Force was disbanded August 30, 1920, but it is perpetuated by the King's Own Calgary Regiment, formerly the 14th Canadian Army Tank Regiment. The name of the First World War battalion is also perpetuated in the King's Own Calgary Regimental (50CEF/14CTR) Association.

Battle honours for the 50th Battalion are as follows:

Along with its battle honors, the 50th battalion has also been commemorated with a water fountain dedicated to the battalion erected in 1930 at Memorial Park Library in downtown Calgary and by the naming of Pattison Bridge, located on Macleod Trail South and named after John George Pattison, the battalion's sole Victoria Cross winner.