C M EPSF file: Page a4.eps Y K Width: 13.04" Height: 24.12" Bounding box: [0.0 0.0 939.0 1737.0] Scale factor: 100% C M Y K a4 winnipegfreepress.com A4 VIMY RIDGE: THE 90TH ANNIVERSARY WINNIPEG FREE PRESS, MONDAY, APRIL 9, 2007 SUBMITTED PHOTO After decades of being used as a grazing spot for cattle, the extensive trenches of the former Camp Hughes in southwestern Manitoba are slowly eroding away. Distant war marks prairie site Manitoba fields bear remnants of trenches where soldiers trained for European conflict By Kevin Rollason like the ones in Europe, were built on a rise in the land, forcing the troops to launch their assault uphill. N a little known spot in southern “There are 10,000 metres of trenches Manitoba, prairie boys learned that are relatively intact, from six I how to storm out of trenches to inches deep to six feet deep,” he said. attack the German troops they would “Ten kilometres of trenches have be facing in a few short months dur- been surveyed by us.” ing the First World War. Not too far away from these trench- They learned what it was going to be es was an area with pits dug out where like to live in a trench before the one the troops would be trained on how to they would live in facing Vimy Ridge. throw live grenades. How to throw hand grenades. How to Training at the camp was put on hold accurately shoot at an enemy closer during the last two years of the war than any that had ever been faced in because of a drop in volunteers, which history. caused the federal government to put Everything that was set up at Camp in place conscription. Hughes, located south of the Trans- The militia began training there Canada Highway about 10 kilometres again annually during the 1920s before west of Carberry and about 130 kilo- the camp was dismantled and moved to metres west of Winnipeg, was set up to the new Camp Shilo as part of a look and feel real, to be as accurate to depression-era work project. The base the real thing as they could, from the was moved because while Camp Hugh- trenches that were all built to scale, es was on the Canadian Pacific Rail both in depth and width, to the rifle line, troops were forced to march range which was only 400 yards wide, around a swamp to get to it. Camp the maximum distance away the Ger- Shilo was on the Canadian National man troops were in their trenches. Rail line with no swamp. But the training troops also watched William Galbraith, who now works movies in their down time. Used a for the federal government, but a few bank. Swam in a heated pool. years ago did his master’s thesis on They even used toilets, albeit a large Camp Hughes, said graduates from metallic pail known as a latrine bucket Camp Hughes went on to play vital — one for every 10 men. SUBMITTED PHOTO roles at not only Vimy Ridge, but the Battle of the Somme and Passchen- While the site is now grassed over, The trenches as they appeared in the old days, when they were used to train troops for the First World War. has trees where some of the trenches daele. were, and has eroded because of cattle use to make sand castles on the beach. was in 1916, after the war in Europe shooting range at Camp Hughes ended Galbraith said battle-hardened and the effects of decades of snow and Bruce Tascona, the society’s presi- had developed into a stalemate with up being preserved from being over- trench veterans were brought back rain, echoes of what it was can still be dent, said four years before the First both sides hunkered down in trenches run by Second World War training from Europe to help construct the seen. And in some cases, rise from the World War broke out the military for months, measuring advances in because the next war is always fought trench training system at Camp Hugh- soil itself. decided it needed a place in Western centimetres instead of metres or kilo- differently: Shooting an enemy 400 es. In a glass case tucked away upstairs Canada for its artillery, cavalry and metres, that they began digging yards away made no sense when fac- “The entire trench system was set up at the Royal Canadian Legion’s Nor- infantry militia troops to train. trenches at the camp in Manitoba. ing a Nazi army with fast-moving with support trenches and communica- wood and St. Boniface Branch, some More than 1,400 militia soldiers Tascona said trench war-hardened Blitzkrieg tactics, including massive tion trenches and jump-off trenches,” artifacts released from the ground at trained at the camp — then called veterans were brought to Camp Hugh- air support followed by troops. he said. Camp Hughes and found by the Mili- Camp Sewell — the first summer. They es to develop the trench system and The trenches constructed at Camp “It’s still a moving experience when tary History Society of Manitoba are continued to train there until the war teach trainee soldiers the new style of Hughes were fashioned to the same you walk through the trenches today.” now on display. broke out, a Canadian army was fighting. depth and width as the ones in which But Galbraith said even in some The artifacts range from everyday formed, and the camp was expanded. “During the Boer War, soldiers were the soldiers would see action in areas where nature is taking over, it personal items, like a metal mess cup, Camp Sewell’s name was changed in trained to accurately shoot a target at Europe. They were constructed to the actually helps show evidence of the bowl, plate and spoons, and nickel-plat- 1915 to Camp Hughes, to recognize 1,000 yards,” he said. size needed to take 1,000 soldiers. circular white bell tents where the ed orthotics for somebody’s shoes and Major General Sam Hughes, the feder- “This war was different. You only The troops were able to see how they troops were housed when they trained boots, to an 18-pounder cannon shell al government’s Minister of Militia and had to qualify at 400 yards because, would march through the trenches, at the camp. and a training hand grenade. There are Defence. Almost 11,000 troops trained with the trenches, you didn’t need to serve as sentries or in listening posts, “You can see where the tents were also a couple of metres of barbed wire there in 1915, with more than 27,000 shoot any further.” even graduating to a full frontal because the junipers grow in circles as well as numerous rifle shells. the next year. Coincidentally, unlike many other assault across no-man’s-land to the where they were set up.” And, yes, they also have the latrine Tascona said while troops had First World War-era training camps enemy’s trenches. bucket, far larger than one children trained at the camp for a few years, it around the world, areas like the short Tascona said the enemy’s trenches, ➲ [email protected] Before and after Dugouts used to train troops as they appeared at the time (left) and today, overgrown. Camp boasted only heated pool west of Winnipeg. Right, the pool as it appears today. History crumbling into dust, says heritage group By Kevin Rollason there, the land went back to the provin- trenches,” Bruce Tascona said recently. But Dickson said during at least 50 cial government which for decades has “... We’re letting cattle on it. It’s fragile years that the site has been leased for leased it out for cattle farming, even out there because there’s only half an cattle, they have also helped preserve A Manitoba spot helped bring about though it was listed as a provincial her- inch of topsoil and under that, sand. the site, their grazing preventing bush- what many say was the birth of our itage site in 1993. Cultural, Heritage and Tourism Min- es and trees from taking over. nation, but grazing cattle are slowly For decades, the cattle have done what ister Eric Robinson said last week he Dickson said the province is waiting destroying the province’s physical link cattle do — foraging for food, rubbing plans to have his officials talk to both for the history society to put together a to the Battle of Vimy Ridge — the Cana- their bodies and hooves the farmer and the his- plan, including their plans for the site dian army’s greatest victory. on the ground and, in torical group to see if and where they would get their funding. On about 400 acres of land near and some cases, even dying, they can come up with William Galbraith, a Winnipegger who the present-day Canadian Armed Forces their bones left something that will did his master’s thesis on Camp Hughes base at Camp Shilo, Canadian First bleached by the sun. please all sides. a few years ago and whose great-uncle World War troops built several kilome- A local historical ‘If we lose this, Gary Dickson, man- trained there before being shipped with tres of trenches so they could train for group wants to change ager of the provincial his fellow soldiers to fight in Europe and trench warfare to break through the that and protect for we will never heritage registry in die there, said he hopes that after many years-long stalemate in battlefield future generations our get it back’ Manitoba’s Cultural, decades the cattle will be moved off the Europe.