{"id":10704,"date":"2015-02-18T06:00:02","date_gmt":"2015-02-18T11:00:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.royalmontrealregiment.com\/?p=10704"},"modified":"2015-02-18T06:00:02","modified_gmt":"2015-02-18T11:00:02","slug":"rmr-marching-towards-the-front-in-1915","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rmrmuseum.com\/fr\/rmr-marching-towards-the-front-in-1915\/","title":{"rendered":"RMR Marching towards the Front in 1915"},"content":{"rendered":"

Thursday, February 18, 1915<\/em><\/p>\n

Hazebrouk<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Battalion War Diarist wrote for this day: \u201cArrived Hazebrouck 6 a.m.\u00a0 Detrained quickly and in good order. Picked up advance party under Lieut. Frost, and left by road for Fl\u00eatre, passing 3rd<\/sup> Bde. H.Q. in \u201cThe House of the Spy\u201d in Caestre.\u00a0 Pav\u00e9 roads very trying for the men, accustomed to soft English roads, but no stragglers.\u00a0 Arrived Fl\u00eatre about mid-day.\u00a0 At last halt before reaching Fl\u00eatre, H.R.H. Prince Arthur of Connaught rode along the column.\u00a0 On reaching Fl\u00eatre men were billeted in houses in village and surrounding farms.\u00a0 Battn. H.Q. in Chateau de Wendigen. On the march to Fl\u00eatre all ranks (Men) interested in hearing sound of distant artillery for first time<\/em>.\u201d [1]<\/p>\n

\"18<\/a>THIS DAY IN RMR HISTORY:\u00a0The Battalion history elaborates:\u00a0 \u201cTwo features of the march are mentioned in many diaries and letters dealing with the time.\u00a0 On the march the Battalion suffered its first experience of the famous pav\u00e9 roads of France.\u00a0 The word \u201csuffered\u201d is used advisedly, for the pav\u00e9 blistered heels and toes to such an extent that many men were limping badly before the Battalion reached its destination.\u00a0 No complaints were recorded, however, as during the march, a low muttering, rumbling sound drifted back from some point far ahead.\u00a0 Unmistakeably, it was the thunder of distant guns.\u00a0 Hearts leaped, and a shiver of excitement ran through the ranks.\u00a0 Who could complain of a blistered heel when guns were firing but a few miles over the horizon?\u201d\u00a0\u00a0 [3]<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cHazebrouck (Dutch<\/a>: Hazebroek<\/em>) is a commune<\/a> in the Nord<\/a> department<\/a> in northern France<\/a>. Hazebrouck in Flanders<\/a> was a small market town before it became an important railway junction in the 1860s. West Flemish<\/a> was the usual popular language used in the town until 1880. At that time French was taught at school by mandate of the French government in an effort to “Frenchify” the people of the Nord-Pas-de-Calais and to extinguish their Flemish roots. The development of the railways linked Hazebrouck to Lille<\/a> to Calais<\/a> and Dunkirk<\/a>.\u201d\u00a0 \u00a0[4]<\/a><\/p>\n

Fl\u00eatre is situated in the Nord (Nord-Pas-de-Calais region) in the north-east of France at 32 km from Lille, the department capital, and is 212 km from Paris.\u00a0 Bertenacre Military Cemetery, a British military cemetery with casualties from both world wars, is located three kilometers north of Fl\u00eatre.<\/p>\n

[1]\u00a0\u00a0 War Diary, 14th<\/sup> Canadian Battalion, The Royal Montreal Regiment<\/em>, Feb 18, 1915.\u00a0 Library and Archives Canada, Ottawa,\u00a0http:\/\/data2.collectionscanada.ca\/e\/e044\/e001089694.jpg<\/a><\/pre>\n
[2]\u00a0\u00a0 https:\/\/www.google.ca\/maps\/@50.7947353,2.5915709,11z<\/a><\/pre>\n
[3]\u00a0\u00a0 R.C. Featherstonhaugh, The Royal Montreal Regiment 14th<\/sup> Battalion C.E.F. 1914-1925<\/em>, Montreal, The Gazette, Printing Co., Ltd., 1927, pg. 27.<\/pre>\n
[4]\u00a0\u00a0 Wikipedia contributors, \"Hazebrouck,\" Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia,<\/em> http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/w\/index.php?title=Hazebrouck&oldid=610083268<\/a> (accessed November 5, 2014).<\/pre>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Thursday, February 18, 1915 Hazebrouk The Battalion War Diarist wrote for this day: \u201cArrived Hazebrouck 6 a.m.\u00a0 Detrained quickly and in good order. Picked up advance party under Lieut. Frost,<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10704","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-this-day-in-rmr-history"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rmrmuseum.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10704","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rmrmuseum.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rmrmuseum.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rmrmuseum.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rmrmuseum.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10704"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/rmrmuseum.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10704\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rmrmuseum.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10704"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rmrmuseum.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10704"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rmrmuseum.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10704"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}