The FReeper Foxhole Remembers Pte Leo Kelly - Vimy Ridge (Apr-1917)

The Capture of Vimy Ridge

At 5.30 on the morning of April 9, 1917, Easter Monday, the creeping artillery barrage began to move steadily towards the Germans. Behind it advanced 20,000 soldiers of the first attacking wave of the four Canadian divisions, a score of battalions in line abreast, leading the assault in a driving north-west wind that swept the mangled countryside with sleet and snow. Guided by paint-marked stakes, the leading infantry companies crossed the devastation of No Man's Land, picking their way through shell-holes and shattered trenches. They were heavily laden. Each soldier carried at least 32 kilograms of equipment, plus, some say, a similar weight of the all-pervasive mud on uniform and equipment. This burden made climbing in and out of the numerous trenches and craters particularly difficult.

There was some hand-to-hand fighting, but the greatest resistance, and heavy Canadian losses, came from the strongly-emplaced machine-guns in the German intermediate line. Overcoming this resistance, three of the four divisions captured their part of the Ridge by midday, right on schedule. In the final stage, the 2nd Canadian Division was assisted by the British 13th Brigade, which fell under its command for the operation.

The 4th Canadian Division's principal objective was Hill 145, the highest and most important feature of the whole Ridge. Once taken, its summit would give the Canadians a commanding view of German rearward defences in the Douai Plain as well as those remaining on the Ridge itself.

Because of its importance, the Germans had fortified Hill 145 with well-wired trenches and a series of deep dug-outs beneath its rear slope. The brigades of the 4th Division were hampered by fire from the Pimple, the other prominent height, which inflicted costly losses on the advancing waves of infantry. Renewed attacks were mounted using troops that were originally scheduled to attack the Pimple. Finally, in the afternoon of April 10, a fresh assault by a relieving brigade cleared the summit of Hill 145 and thus placed the whole of Vimy Ridge in Canadian hands. Two days later, units of the 10th Canadian Brigade successfully stormed the Pimple. By that time, the enemy had accepted the loss of Vimy Ridge as permanent and had pulled back more than three kilometres.

Vimy Ridge marked the only significant success of the Allied spring offensive of 1917. But though they had won a great tactical victory, the Canadians were unable to exploit their success quickly with a breakthrough, mainly because their artillery had bogged down and was unable to move up with them through the muddy, shell-torn ground. Instead, some Canadian artillerymen took over captured German guns which they had earlier been trained to fire.

The Canadian achievement in capturing Vimy Ridge owed its success to sound and meticulous planning and thorough preparation, all of which was aimed at minimizing casualties. But it was the splendid fighting qualities and devotion to duty of Canadian officers and soldiers on the battlefield that were decisive. Most of them citizen-soldiers, they performed like professionals.

Canadians attacked German machine-guns, the greatest obstacles to their advance, with great courage. They saved many comrades' lives as a result. Four won the Victoria Cross for their bravery in such dangerous exploits. Of these, three were earned on the opening day of the battle.

General Sir Arthur Currie (1875-1933) became brigadier-general in the battle of St. Julien in 1915, and in 1917 was given charge of the whole Canadian Corps through the final victory sweep of 1918.

Private William Milne of the 16th Battalion won the VC when he crawled up to a German machine-gun that had been firing on the advancing Canadians, bombed its crew and captured the gun. Later, he stalked a second machine-gun, killing its crew and capturing it, but was himself killed shortly thereafter. The whereabouts of Private Milne's grave is unknown.

Lance-Sergeant Ellis Sifton of the 18th Battalion charged a machine-gun post single-handed, leaping into the trench where it was concealed and killing its crew. Soon after, he was met by a small party of Germans who were advancing through the trench. He managed to hold them off until his comrades arrived, but then one of his victims, gasping a last breath of life, fired upon him.

During the fight for Hill 145, Captain Thain MacDowell of the 38th Battalion entered an enemy dug-out, where he tricked 77 Prussian Guards into surrendering and captured two machine-guns by pretending he had a large force behind him. His large force consisted of two soldiers. MacDowell had earned the Distinguished Service Order on the Somme.

On April 10, Private John Pattison of the 50th Battalion jumped from shell-hole to shell-hole until, 30 metres from an enemy machine-gun, he was in range to bomb its crew. He then rushed forward to bayonet the remaining five gunners. Pattison was killed two months later.

Of the four Vimy VCs, only Captain MacDowell survived the War.

At Vimy, the Canadian Corps had captured more ground, more prisoners and more guns than any previous British offensive in two-and-a-half years of war. It was one of the most complete and decisive engagements of the Great War and the greatest Allied victory up to that time. The Canadians had demonstrated they were one of the outstanding formations on the Western Front and masters of offensive warfare.

Though the victory at Vimy came swiftly, it did not come without cost. There were 3,598 dead out of 10,602 Canadian casualties. Battalions in the first waves of the assault suffered grievously. No level of casualties could ever be called "acceptable", but those at Vimy were lower than the terrible norm of many major assaults on the Western Front. They were also far lighter than those of any previous offensive at the Ridge. Earlier French, British and German struggles there had cost at least 200,000 casualties. Care in planning by the Corps Commander, Sir Julian Byng, and his right-hand man, Arthur Currie, kept Canadian casualties down.

The Canadian success at Vimy marked a profound turning-point for the Allies. A year-and-a-half later, the Great War was over. The Canadian record, crowned by the achievements at Vimy, won for Canada a separate signature on the Versailles Peace Treaty ending the War. Back home, the victory at Vimy, won by troops from every part of the country, helped unite many Canadians in pride at the courage of their citizen-soldiers, and established a feeling of real nationhood.

Brigadier-General Alexander Ross had commanded the 28th (North-West) Battalion at Vimy. Later, as president of the Canadian Legion, he proposed the first veterans' post-war pilgrimage to the new Vimy Memorial in 1936. He said of the battle:

"It was Canada from the Atlantic to the Pacific on parade. I thought then ... that in those few minutes I witnessed the birth of a nation."

Vimy Ridge a Watershed in Canada's History

The horrors of the First World War have dwindled in the mists of time, reduced to little more than a few faded sepia photographs, or Great-Grandpa's tarnished medals long-forgotten in a drawer.

There are few contemporary reminders of a conflict that shook the world, shattered the foundations of an international order that had lasted almost a century and drew a dark and bloodstained curtain between eras.

It was a war that changed Canada in this century from a meek colony to a nation insistent on its dignity and its own place in the peace.

The official Canadian history says of the soldiers:

"They fought as Canadians and those who returned brought back with them a pride of nationhood that they had not known before."

But today as we approach the last Remembrance Day before the year 2000, the war is a long-ago shadow.

The 60,000 Canadian war dead lie, for the most part, in neatly groomed cemeteries far from home in France and Belgium.

Survivors have dwindled to a handful of centenarians

The war memorials raised in the post-war years were dragooned, a generation later, into doubling as monuments to the Second World War and, still later, for Korea.

Even the ubiquitous, blood-red poppies of November are as much a symbol of tradition as of remembrance.

Yet on a gently sloping hillside in northwestern France stands a soaring white monument marking one of Canada's greatest military triumphs, a victory which many say helped turn a colony into a nation. The great spires of the monument are set in a plot of land granted to Canada by France in 1922, their shadows stretching along a shallow escarpment known as Vimy Ridge.

In the spring of 1917, the First World War was 21/2 years old. The casualty lists on both sides ran into the millions. Europe was split by a meandering line of trenches that ran non-stop from the Swiss border to the North Sea.

In those trenches, hundreds of thousands of Canadians, Britons, Belgians, Frenchmen, Australians and Germans lived cold, wet lives of misery punctuated by moments of wrenching terror.

Horror had become commonplace. Slaughter had become mundane.

In battle after battle, thousands died for gains measured in yards. On the Somme, on July 1, 1916, the British army suffered the single worst day in its long and pugnacious history, losing 60,000 men killed, wounded and missing. Most were gone in the first hours of a massive frontal attack that saw men climb out of the trenches and march, shoulder-to-shoulder, into the sights of chattering machine-guns which cut them down like standing hay.

By the time the battle petered out more than four months later, the total casualties on both sides amounted to an estimated 1.3 million, including 24,000 Canadians.

The problem was that trench lines were practically impenetrable by the technology and tactics of the time. There were no tanks to cross the trenches, no man-portable radios to co-ordinate attacks, no artillery suitable for cutting barbed wire and smashing strong points and no way to move artillery across the battlefield except by horse and manpower.

Trenches were studded with machine-guns ready to sweep the open ground between the lines and chop attacking forces to pieces. Artillery behind the lines was pre-sighted to drop bombardments on the advancing enemy.

Barbed wire slowed attacks to a crawl, or channelled them into killing grounds under the machine-gun muzzles. Men were chopped up by bullets, shredded by exploding shells, suffocated by gas, incinerated by flame throwers, smothered by caved-in trenches.

The wire wasn't the barbed wire that Farmer Jones strings around the pasture. This was heavy stuff with barbs as long and thick as a man's thumb. It was coiled in tangles as high as a house, forests of wire that could catch a soldier up and hang him out helpless before the machine-guns.

In the trenches, soldiers lived lives of filth and misery. "It was like living in a ditch summer and winter," one veteran recalled years later.

Crude dugouts hacked into the trench sides provided sleeping niches for exhausted men. In wet weather, they lived knee-deep in liquid mud. In some places, the dead of previous battles were built into the parapets themselves, slowly rotting away before the eyes of their former comrades.

Disease was rampant. Fleas and lice infected men with a variety of low-grade fevers, collectively known as trench fever. Constant immersion in cold water left men with trench foot, a condition that could lead to amputation.

A monotonous diet of corned beef, hard biscuit, bland jam and sweetened tea made men susceptible to boils and other skin conditions.

One of the few pleasures available was the tot of overproof rum, although some commanders reserved this for the moments before an attack. One officer even banned rum, offering his disgruntled men hot pea soup as a much-maligned substitute.

The very soil of Flanders was dangerous. Fertilized with manure for generations, it harboured germs that could easily contaminate wounds and cause gas gangrene, a ghastly and often-fatal peril in the pre-antiseptic era.

The sticky mud of Flanders was a constant drain on the strength of the soldiers. A military greatcoat caked with mud could weigh 50 kilograms. When men hacked off the skirts of their overcoats to cut the weight, they could find themselves charged with destroying government property.

On top of all these mundane threats was the enemy. While some sectors were quiet, with both sides taking a live-and-let-live attitude, many commanders were determined to make the enemy's life as hellish as possible.

Snipers watched for an unwary head poking over the parapet. Artillery, ranging from rifle-launched grenades to 10-kilo field shells to blockbusters rained down on both sides of the lines, often in random barrages.

The soldiers identified the various calibres. There were high-velocity whiz-bangs and coal boxes that burst in a deep black cloud. The Jack Johnson, a particularly big shell, bore the name of a heavyweight boxing champ of the day.

Each week along the Western Front, even when there were no major battles raging, hundreds of men were killed and wounded in what was known by the callous phrase, "normal wastage."

In 1917, the British and French brass, mesmerized by a charismatic French commander, Gen. Robert-Georges Nivelle, bought his plan for a mighty knockout blow to end the war. The Allied armies would slice across a German-held bulge in the front and then run riot across the rear areas.

Between the French and British areas lay Vimy Ridge. Although it rose barely 150 metres above sea level, it dominated the lowlands in front of it.

It was a fortress, studded with concrete pillboxes, deep dugouts and trenches. It was festooned with barbed wire and guns were aimed in interlocking patterns across the long slope. Previous attacks by the British and the French had cost 190,000 casualties, without budging the Germans from their ridge.

Field Marshal Sir Douglas Haig decided that he couldn't leave this thorn in the flank of his spring offensive. He told the Canadian Corps to take it.

Canada had managed to keep its four divisions together through the war, despite British attempts to break up the formations and feed the men into British divisions as reinforcements. The decision to keep the Canadians together proved to be a wise one in terms of maintaining morale and esprit de corps.

"It is impossible to overrate the advantages which accrued to the Canadian Corps from the close and constant association of all four divisions with the others," Australian Gen. Sir John Monash wrote after the war. "This was the prime factor in achieving the brilliant conquest of Vimy Ridge."

The Canadians were commanded by British Gen. Julian Byng, later a Governor General. By all accounts, they liked this unassuming, professional soldier.

He was no stickler for dress (he was once reprimanded by the King for wearing old, worn uniforms) and was easygoing about such things as salutes.

"He carries his hand in his pocket and returns a salute by lifting his hand as far as the pocket will allow," one Canadian wrote of Byng in a letter home.

The men called themselves "the Byng Boys" after a popular musical hall review of the day.

Byng was no slacker, though, when it came to fighting. He and his chief Canadian lieutenant, Major-Gen. Arthur Currie (later Gen. Sir Arthur Currie), stressed planning and preparation.

They insisted that every soldier know where he was going and what landmarks to aim for. Men rehearsed their attacks using rear area fields laid out like their objectives.

The concept of attacking in waves disappeared and was replaced with rushes by small platoons. The platoons included light machine-guns and men laden with hand grenades. They were trained to move around strong points and attack from the flank or rear.

Byng was also a stickler for artillery and he had an expert gunner in Andy McNaughton, a McGill University professor who brought science to bear on the art of war.

McNaughton used every available piece of technology to locate enemy guns and smash them. Flash spotters along the line pinpointed the firing of German guns and phoned in bearings, which were plotted to locate the artillery. Primitive oscilloscopes and microphones were used to detect the sound of enemy guns and map their locations.

McNaughton developed a way to measure wear and tear on cannon barrels, which helped keep them accurate.

"You Canadians take all the fun out of war," one British officer commented.

Almost 1,000 guns were aimed at the ridge. Canadians used machine-guns as a sort of light artillery, firing storms of bullets to harass roads in the German rear, prevent supply deliveries and generally keep the enemy heads down.

Engineers, known as sappers, performed prodigious feats.

The official history says they built 40 kilometres of roads, and 30 kilometres of light railway, laid 70 kilometres of water pipe and over 150 kilometres of signal wire. They dug seven kilometres of tunnels from safe rear areas to the front lines to keep troops safely under cover until the last moments. One of the tunnels could hide 1,000 men.

When preparations were complete, on April 2, the artillery opened up with a bombardment that one soldier described as sweeping "over our heads like water from a hose, thousands and thousands a day."

Surviving Germans would describe this barrage of more than a million shells, 50,000 tonnes of explosives as "the week of suffering."

Their trenches collapsed. Supply parties couldn't come forward. Soldiers lived on cold rations. Eighty per cent of their artillery was knocked out. The guns pounded for seven days, then slackened off.

At 4 a.m. on Easter Monday, April 9, the Canadians moved into the jump-off areas, each man fortified by a shot of rum and a hot meal. At 5:30 a.m., 983 guns opened up, along with 150 machine-guns.

With a wind driving snow and sleet at their backs and into the faces of the Germans, the Canadian infantry moved up the ridge, clambering over shell craters, torn wire entanglements and vast pools of sticky mud churned up by the bombardment.

They swarmed up the slope, bombing the Germans out of their dugouts with grenades, sending prisoners stumbling down behind them. Training and rehearsals paid off. As officers fell, sergeants took over. When they were hit, corporals and privates went on.

Four Canadians would win the Victoria Cross, the highest award for valour, on the ridge. Only one survived the war.

By April 12, the Germans had abandoned the ridge, falling back to the plain behind. They held only one bump at the north end, known as the Pimple. Brig.-Gen. Edward Hilliam, a former Alberta rancher, led his 10th brigade against the stronghold and, in an hour, threw the Prussian Guard Grenadiers out. He signed his report, "Lord Pimple."

The overall Allied offensive was a failure, but Vimy glowed as a triumph amid tragedy.

Historians say that the seeds of Canadian nationhood were planted at Vimy, watered with the blood of 10,000 dead and wounded.

The war would drag on for another 20 months and thousands more Canadians would die. But when the survivors returned home, they and their countrymen would consider that Canada's right to be a nation had been bought and paid for.

In blood.

JOHN WARD

Additional Sources:

www.vac-acc.gc.ca
www.canoe.ca
www.lrfhs.net
www.canadafirst.net
www.kingandempire.com
www.canadianheritage.org
www.firstworldwar.com
www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk
www.tceplus.com
www.aftermathww1.com
www2.actden.com

On This Day In History

Birthdates which occurred on April 09:
1598 Johann Crüger German organist/composer/music theorist
1611 Giacomo Maria Predieri composer
1627 Johann Kaspar Kerll composer
1634 Albertine Agnes princess of Orange-Nassau
1649 James Scott Duke of Monmouth, bastard son of English king Charles II
1716 Johann Georg Zechner composer
1717 Georg Matthias Monn composer
1754 Antonio Frantisek Becvarovsky composer
1754 Pieter Paulus Dutch lawyer/CEO (National Convention)
1757 Wojciech Boguslawski composer
1785 Sibrand Acker Stratingh Dutch physician/chemist (electric car 1835)
1794 Theobald Böhm flautist/composer
1798 Giuditta Pasta [Negri] soprano
1802 Elias Lönrot folklorist
1806 Isambard Kingdom Brunel designer of 1st transatlantic steamer
1806 Louis count of Barrthyányi premier of Hungary
1812 Randolph Barnes Marcy Brevet Major General (Union Army), died in 1887
1821 Charles-Pierre Baudelaire France, symbolist poet (Flowers of Evil)
1826 Thomas Hewson Neill Brevet Major General (Union volunteers), died in 1885
1830 Eadweard Muybridge England, pioneered study of motion, photography
1835 Leopold II King of Belgians (1865-1909)
1847 Sir Francesco Paolo Tosti composer
1847 Francis William Davenport composer
1848 F A MacKinnon cricketer (later the 35th Mackinnon of Mackinnon)
1848 Helena Lange German feminist
1850 Herman Zumpe composer
1851 C E Arthur Wichmann German/Dutch geologist (Netherlands Indies)
1854 Seaborn M Denson composer
1855 Gyula Reviczky Hungarian author/poet
1861 Charles Holroyd painter/etcher
1865 Charles Proteus Steinmetz Germany, experiment with AC electricity
1865 Erich Ludendorff General (Germany)
1871 Arthur Fickenscher composer
1872 Léon Blum statesman
1872 Léon Blum French premier (People's front government)
1874 Julius Bittner Austrian composer (Little Violet)
1879 Gerald Festus Kelly artist
1883 Renzo Bossi composer
1884 Franco Vittadini composer
1888 Sol Hurok theatrical impresario
1888 Florence Smith Price US composer (Wanamaker Prize 1932)
1889 Efrem Zimbalist Rostov-on-Don Russia, composer/concert violinist
1891 John Gobau Flemish/Dutch actor (Electricity, Hostage Rights)
1894 Ernest Kanitz composer
1895 Mance Lipscomb Navasota TX, blues musician (Texas Sharecropper)
1895 Michel Simon [Francois], Geneva Switzerland
1895 Rudolf Kattnigg composer
1898 Earl (Curly) Lambeau NFL coach (Green Bay Packers)
1898 Paul Robeson Philadelphia PA, singer (Old Man River)/actor/football player
1898 Julius Patzak Austrian tenor singer
19-- Christopher Durham actor (Ryan's Hope)
19-- Vincent Bufano New York NY, actor (Turtle-Flatbush, Rick-Eischied)
1900 Allen Jenkins Staten Island NY, actor (Hey Jeannie, Top Cop, Girl Habit)
1902 Frantisek Suchy composer [or April 21, 1891]
1903 Ward Bond Benkelman NE, actor (Quiet Man, Fort Apache, Seth-Wagon Train)
1903 Willem Pée Belgian linguist
1904 Lyle Latell Elma IA, actor (Not of the Earth, Sky Dragon)
1905 J William Fulbright (Senator-Democrat-AR)
1906 Antal Dorati Budapest Hungary, conductor (Dresden Opera 1928-29)
1906 Todd Naylor "Hugh" Gaitskell MP (Labour Party)
1908 Fred Lohse composer
1908 Victor Vasarely Hungarian/French painter/author (Op Art)
1909 Domenico Enrici Apostolic Nuncio
1909 Robert Murray Halpmann dancer
1909 Ivan Ivonovich Dzerzhinsky composer
1909 Robert Helpmann Mount Gambier Australia, actor (Second Time Lucky)
1910 Abraham A Ribicoff (Senator-Democrat-CT)
1910 Sharon Lynn Weatherford TX, actress (Way Out West, Big Broadcast)
1911 Lord Deramore architect
1911 Albert Remy Sevres France, actor (Grand Prix, Gigot, Train)
1914 Richard Young CEO (Boosey & Hawkes)
1917 Vincent O'Brien racehorse trainer
1917 Johannes Bobrowski writer
1918 Jörn Utzon Danish architect (Sydney Opera House)
1919 John Presper Eckert co-inventor (1st electronic computer-ENIAC)
1920 Art Van Damme Norway MI, jazz accordionist (Chicago Jazz)
1920 David Walker Professor of Law (Glasgow University)
1920 Alexander Moulton English bicycle designer (folding bicycle)
1920 F Don Miller Racine WI, Boxing coach (Olympics-1956)
1921 Frankie Thomas New York NY, actor (Tom Corbett Space Cadet)
1922 Gerald Moverley Roman Catholic bishop (Hallam)
1922 Michael Palliser head of British diplomatic service
1922 Carl Amery writer
1923 Bruno Kiefer composer
1924 Harald Heilmann composer
1925 Tom Jackson British union leader (Post Office)
1925 Michael Richardson vice CEO (N M Rotschild)
1926 Graham Hills principal (Strathclyde University, England)
1926 Lord Fitt MP (Belfast Ireland)
1926 Michael Ogden QC
1926 Harris Wofford (Senator-Republican-PA)
1926 Hugh [Marston] Hefner Chicago IL, magazine publisher (Playboy)
1928 Brian Cubbon British senior civil servant
1928 Floyd D Spence (Representative-Republican-SC, 1971- )
1928 Tom Lehrer parody/folk singer (That Was The Week That Was)
1929 Harvey Lichtenstein president (Brooklyn Academy of Music)
1931 Bill Gilbert Washington DC, sports author (They Also Served, The Big E)
1931 Martin Rogers director (Farmington Institute for Christian Studies)
1932 Carl Perkins Jackson TN, singer/songwriter (Blue Suede Shoes)
1932 Jim Fowler Albany GA, naturalist (Wild Kingdom)
1932 Paul Krassner comic strip cartoonist (MAD Magazine)/founder (Yippies)
1932 Peter Moores director (Littlewoods)
1932 Vladimir Aleksandrovich Degtyaryov cosmonaut
1933 Richard Rose Professor of Public Policy (Strathclyde University)
1933 Gian Maria Volontè [John Welles] Milan Italy, actor (Fistful of Dollars)
1933 Jacques Molicard translator/navigator
1933 Jean-Paul Belmondo Paris France, actor (Casino Royale, Magnifique)
1935 Avery Schreiber Chicago IL, comedian (My Mother the Car)
1935 Aulis Sallinen composer
1936 Michael Somare British foreign affairs minister (Paupa & New Guinea)
1936 Jerzy Maksymiuk composer
1937 Valerie Singleton British broadcaster
1937 Barrington J[ohn] Bayley UK, sci-fi author (Collision Course)
1939 Michael Learned Washington DC, actress (Olivia-The Waltons, Nurse)
1940 Vasily Dmiotriyevich Shcheglov Russian cosmonaut
1941 Hannah Gordon actress (Oh Alfie)
1942 Brandon De Wilde Brooklyn NY, actor (Jamie, Wild in the Sky)
1942 Earl F Hillard (Representative-Democrat-AL)
1942 Galina A Kulakova USSR, nordic skier (Olympics-3 golds-1972, holds 9 world titles)
1943 Terry Knight rock vocalist (Gloria, Terry Knight & the Pack)
1944 Gene Parsons Los Angeles CA, rock drummer (Byrds, Gene Clark Group)
1945 Gus Hardin [Carol Ann Blankenship], Tulsa OK, country singer
1946 Les Gray vocalist (Mud-The Cat Crept In)
1946 Philip Wright rocker (Paper Lace)
1946 Alan [Philip Eric] Knott Belvedere Kent England, great English cricket wicketkeeper (1967-81)
1948 Chico Ryan Arlington MA, rock vocalist (Sha Na Na)
1949 Steve Gadd jazz drummer (Triplet Hop, Complex Jazz)
1950 Nathan Cook Philadelphia PA, actor (Milton-White Shadow, Billy-Hotel)
1950 Ehtesham-ud-din cricketer (Pakistani pace bowler in 5 Tests 1980-82)
1950 Kenneth D Cockrell Austin TX, astronaut (STS 56, 69, 80)
1952 Magnar Am composer
1953 Hal Ketchum Greenwich NY, country singer (Small Town Saturday Night)
1954 Dennis Quaid Houston TX, actor (Big Easy, Dreamscape, Right Stuff)
1957 Ednita Nazario Ponce Puerto Rico, Spanish singer
1957 Sevériano Ballesteros Spain, golfer (British Open 1979, 84, 88)
1958 Tony Sibson boxer
1959 Dave Innis Bartlesville OK, country singer (Restless Heart-Wheels)
1961 Mark Kelly Dublin Ireland, rock keyboardist (Marillion-Real to Reel)
1961 Kirk McCaskill Kapuskasing Ontario Canada, pitcher (Chicago White Sox)
1962 Freddie Joe Nunn NFL defensive end (Indianapolis Colts)
1962 Jeff Turner NBA forward (Vancouver Grizzlies)
1964 Shane Robinson Adelaide SA, Australasia golfer
1965 Paulina Porizkova Prostejov Czechoslovakia, model/Sports Illustrated swimsuit covergirl
1965 Hal Morris Fort Rucker AL, infielder (Cincinnati Reds)
1965 Helen Alfredsson Goteborg Sweden, LPGA golfer (1993 Dinah Shore)
1965 Paolo Cane Itaty, tennis star
1966 Cynthia Nixon New York NY, actress (Addams Family Values, Pelican Brief)
1966 Oliver Barnett NFL defensive end (San Francisco 49ers)
1967 Graeme Lloyd Australia, pitcher (New York Yankees, Milwaukee Brewers)
1968 Janne Ojanen Tampere Finland, hockey forward (Team Finland)
1968 Terry Brands Omaha NE, 125½ lbs/57 kg freestyle wrestler/identical twin of Tom (Olympics-96)
1968 Tom Brands Omaha NE, 136½ lbs/62 kg freestyle wrestler/identical twin of Terry (Olympics-gold-96)
1969 Amy Feng Tianjin China, US table tennis player (Olympics-96)
1969 Karl Krikken cricketer (Derbyshire 1989-, wicketkeeper)
1969 Timothy Young Philadelphia PA, rower (Olympics-silver-1996)
1970 Chuck Bradley CFL/WLAF tackle (British Columbia Lions, Barcelona Dragons)
1970 Neal Caloia Torrance CA, free pistol (Olympics-1996)
1970 Olaf Kolzig Johannesburg SAF, NHL goalie (Team Germany, Washington)
1971 Wang Yang youngest Olympic record breaker at age 17 (Olympics-1988)
1971 Anthony Redmon NFL guard (Arizona Cardinals)
1971 Austin Peck Hawaii, actor (Austin Reed-Days of Our Lives)
1971 Derwin Gray NFL center (Indianapolis Colts)
1971 James Hundon wide receiver (Cincinnati Bengals)
1971 Mujaahid Maynard Brooklyn NY, 105½ lbs/48 kg greco-roman wrestler (Olympics-96)
1972 Brian DeMarco NFL tackle (Jacksonville Jaguars)
1972 Craig Jones Australian rower (Olympics-96)
1972 Jeff Wilkins kicker (St Louis Rams)
1972 Jeffrey van As soccer player (MVV)
1972 Karen Clark Calgary Alberta, synchronized swimmer (Olympics-silver-96)
1974 Ben Bordelon tackle (San Diego Chargers)
1974 Kevin Mathis cornerback (Dallas Cowboys)
1974 Sharon Pelletier Madawaska ME, Miss Maine-America (1996)
1979 Keshia Knight Pulliam Newark NJ, actress (Rudy-Crosby)
1980 Kristin Lee Bethesda MD, rhythmic gymnast (US team-96)
1990 Marston Glenn Hefner son of Hugh Hefner & Kimberley Conrad

Deaths which occurred on April 09:
0715 Constantine I Greek/Syrian Pope (708-15), dies
1024 Benedict VIII [Theophylactus van Tusculum] Pope (1012-24), dies
1483 Edward IV King of England (1461-70, 71-83) dies at 38
1492 Lorenzo de' Medici Florentine statesman, dies
1553 François Rabelais French author (Gargantua/Pantagruel), dies at 49
1557 Michael Agricola Finnish theologist/church reformer/bishop, dies
1626 Francis Bacon Viscount St Albans, statesman, dies
1681 Alfonso Marsh composer, dies at 54
1747 Simon Fraser 12th baron Lovat Jacobite, last man beheaded in England
1747 Lord Lovat English jacobiet, dies
1754 Christian von Wolff German philosopher, dies at 75
1761 William Law theologian, dies
1765 Maria Louise van Hessen-Kassel princess of Orange-Nassau, dies at 77
1793 Ernestus Weinrauch composer, dies at 62
1804 Jacques Necker financier/statesman, dies
1806 Willem V Batavus prince of Orange-Nassau, dies at 58
1807 John Opie England, painter/illustrator; Shakespeare gallery, dies at 45
1821 Felix Maximo Lopez composer, dies at 78
1850 William Prout physician/chemist, dies
1851 Antoine-Charles Glachant composer, dies at 80
1852 John Howard Payne actor/playwright (Fair Warning), dies
1862 George W Johnson US planter/Confederate (Governor-KY), dies at about 50
1865 Thomas Alfred Smyth Irish/US Union General-Major, dies at 32
1879 Ernst Friedrich Richter composer, dies at 70
1882 Dante Gabriel Rossetti poet/pre-Raphaelite painter, dies at 53
1882 Jules Quicherat French historian/archaeologist (Mélanges), dies at 66
1886 Joseph V von Scheffel German writer (Ekkehard), dies at 60
1893 Disma Fumagalli composer, dies at 66
1904 Isabella II Queen of Spain (1833-68), dies at 73
1909 Charles Conder artist, dies
1916 Vicente Goicoechea Errasti composer, dies at 62
1917 Edward Thomas poet, killed in WWI
1923 Mauritius H Binger director/producer (Living Ladder), dies
1931 Paul Antonin Vidal composer, dies at 67
1933 Sigfrid Karg-Elert composer, dies at 55
1939 Emilio Serrano y Ruiz composer, dies at 89
1940 Mrs Patrick Campbell English actress (Outcast Lady, Riptide), dies
1944 Boleslaw Wallek-Walewski composer, dies at 59
1945 Dietrich Bonhoeffer German theologist/antifascist, hanged
1945 Hans Oster German Major-General/spy, "July 20th plot", hanged
1945 Hans von Dohnanyi "July 20th plotter", hanged
1945 Theodor Haecker German cultural philosopher (Mensch?), dies at 65
1945 Wilhelm Canaris Admiral/headed Germany Abwehr, hanged
1947 Konrad Friedrich Noetel composer, dies at 43
1948 Jorge Elecier Gaitán Colombian politician, murdered
1951 Sadiq Hidajat Persian writer (Hadji Aga), dies
1951 Vilhelm F K Bjerknes Norwegian/US physicist/meteorology, dies at 89
1954 Philip Greeley Clapp composer, dies at 65
1959 Frank Lloyd Wright US architect (Guggenheim Museum, New York), dies at 89
1961 Zog I [Ahmed Zogu] King of Albania (1925-39), dies at 65
1962 Juan Belmonte famed bullfighter, dies at 70
1966 Sutan Sjahrir premier of Indonesia (1945-47), dies at 57
1976 Akio Yashiro composer, dies at 46
1976 Phil Ochs singer (Draft Dodger Rag), commits suicide at 35
1979 Staats Cotsworth dies at 71
1980 Kathleen Burke dies
1982 Wilfrid Pelletier symphony conductor (Voice of Firestone), dies at 85
1982 Robert H G Havemann German chemist/dissident, dies
1984 Basil Henry Blackwell British publisher, dies
1986 Jean Mogin Belgian poet, dies at 64
1988 Brook Benton singer (Just a Matter of Time), dies of meningitis at 56
1988 Dave Prater rocker (Sam & Dave), dies in a car crash at 50
1991 Maurice Binder title designer (James Bond Movies), dies at 73
1992 Gale McGee Senator (Wyoming, 1959-77), dies at 77
1992 Ruth Hammond dies in her sleep at 96
1993 Wouter Perquin journalist/Dutch MP (KVP), dies at 74
1994 Cornelis N "Cor" van Dis Jr Dutch MP (1971-94), dies at 71
1994 Keith Watson British comic strip artist (Dan Dare), dies at 59
1994 Marcel Ichac French alpinist/director (Karakoram), dies at 87
1994 Raouf Khayrat Egyptian General-Major, murdered
1995 James Bullock colliery manager, dies at 92
1996 James William Rouse US builder (shopping malls), dies at 81
1996 Maisie Fitter editor/conservationist, dies at 83
1996 Richard Thomas Condon author, dies at 81
1996 Sandy Becker NYC Kiddie TV Show host (Sandy Becker Show), dies at 74
1997 Helene Hanff author (84 Charing Cross Road), dies at 80
1998 Tammy Wynette [Virginia Wynette Pugh] country singer (Stand By Your Man), dies from a blot clot at 55

Reported: MISSING in ACTION

1965 FEGAN RONALD J. BROCKPORT NY.
CRASH AT SEA AFTER COMBAT

1965 MURPHY TERENCE M. NEW YORK NY.
CRASH AT SEA AFTER COMBAT

1967 SCHWORER RONALD P. LAS VEGAS NV.

1968 LAWSON KARL W. TERRE HAUTE IN.

1970 BUSHNELL BRIAN L. TUALITON OR.
"DOWN AT SEA, NO SURV OBS"

1970 HORCHAR ANDREW A. INDIANA PA.
"DOWN AT SEA, NO SURV OBS"

1970 KNIGHT LARRY C. WILBURTON OK.
"DOWN AT SEA, NO SURV OBS"

1970 PFAFFMANN CHARLES B. KILLINGSWORTH CT.
"DOWN AT SEA, NO SURV OBS"

POW / MIA Data & Bios supplied by the
P.O.W. NETWORK. Skidmore, MO. USA.

On this day...
0715 Constantine ends his reign as Catholic Pope
1241 Battle of Liegnitz - Mongol armies defeat Poles & Germans
1388 Battle of Näfels; Glarius Swiss defeat Habsburg (Austrian) army
1454 Milan/Venice signs peace of Lodi
1474 Breisach land guardian Peter von Hagenbach throws out Walloon/Italians
1483 Edward I (12) succeeds Edward IV as king of England
1538 Danish king Christian III enters Schmalkaldische Union
1555 Marcello Cervini elected Pope Marcellus II
1609 Spain & Netherlands sign 12 Year Resistant Pact
1621 Spain & Netherlands 12 Year Resistant Pact ends
1667 1st public art exhibition (Palais Royal, Paris France)
1682 Robert La Salle claims lower Mississippi (Louisiana) for France
1691 French troops occupy Mons
1770 Captain James Cook discovers Botany Bay (Australia)
1783 Tippu Sahib drives out English from Bednore India
1808 Mayor Wolters offers French king Louis Napoleon townhall as a palace
1814 Elias Canneman (L) resigns as minister of Finance
1816 African Methodist Episcopal Church organizes (Philadelphia PA)
1829 Danzig (Gdansk) dike break flood kills 1,200
1831 Robert Jenkins loses an ear, starts war between Britain & Spain
1833 1st tax-supported public library (Peterborough NH)
1838 National Galley opens in London
1864 Battle of Pleasant Hill LA, 2870 casualities
1865 Federals capture Fort Blakely AL
1865 Robert E Lee & 26,765 troops, surrender to US Grant at Appomattox
1866 Civil Rights Bill passes over President Andrew Johnson's veto
1869 Hudson Bay Company cedes its territory to Canada
1870 American Anti-Slavery Society dissolves
1872 Samuel R Percy patents dried milk
1878 1st Lady Lucy Hayes begins egg rolling contest on White House lawn
1894 1st performance of Anton Bruckner's 5th Symphony in B in Graz
1906 Intercalated Games opens in Athens - special Olympic gathering that helped get the Olympic movement back on track
1912 1st exhibition baseball game at Fenway Park (Red Sox vs Harvard)
1912 Titanic leaves Queenstown Ireland for New York
1913 Brooklyn Dodgers' Ebbets Field opens, Phillies win 1-0
1914 1st full color film shown "The World, The Flesh & the Devil" (London)
1914 Tampico incident - US ship crew arrested in México
1917 Battle of Arras begins
1917 Vimy Ridge France stormed by Canadian troops
1918 Latvia proclaims independence from Russia
1923 Sean O'Casey's "Shadow of a Gunman", premieres in Dublin
1925 Babe Ruth rushed to hospital
1927 Italy & US anarchists Sacco & Vanzetti given death sentences
1928 Mae West's NYC debut in a daring new play "Diamond Lil"
1928 Eugene O'Neill's "Lazarus Laughed", premieres in Pasadena
1928 Top-Oss soccer team forms in Oss
1928 Turkey passes separation of church & state
1931 Chicago's Cy Wentworth beats Montréal Canadiens at 13:50 of the 6th period
1932 Stanley Cup Toronto Maple Leafs sweep New York Rangers in 3 games
1935 Stanley Cup Montréal Maroons sweep Toronto Maple Leafs in 3 games
1939 Marian Anderson sings before 75,000 at Lincoln Memorial
1940 German cruiser Blücher torpedoed/capsizes in Oslofjord, 1,000 die
1940 Germany invades Norway & Denmark during WWII (Denmark surrenders)
1941 PGA establishes Golf Hall of Fame
1942 Battle of Bataan-US-Filipino forces overwhelmed by Japanese at Bataan
1944 Pope Pius XII publishes encyclical Orientals Ecclesiae
1945 Liberty ship at Bari Italy carrying aerial bombs explodes, kills 360
1945 NFL requires players to wear long stockings
1945 Battleship Admiral Scheer sinks British aircraft carrier
1946 Stanley Cup Montréal Canadiens beat Boston Bruins, 4 games to 1
1947 Atomic Energy Commission is formed
1947 Baseball suspends Brooklyn Dodger Leo Durocher for 1 year
1947 Tornadoes striking West Texas & Oklahoma kill 169, injuring 1,300
1949 UN International Court of Justice held Albania responsible for incidents in Corfu Channel & awards Britain damages
1950 Bob Hope's 1st TV appearance
1950 14th Golf Masters Championship Jimmy Demaret wins, shooting a 283
1950 4th Tony Awards Cocktail Party & South Pacific win
1952 Popular uprising in Bolivia
1953 "TV Guide" publishes 1st issue
1953 Jomo Kenyatta sentenced to 7 years in Kenya
1954 WECT TV channel 6 in Wilmington NC (NBC/CBS) begins broadcasting
1955 US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site
1957 Suez Canal cleared for all shipping
1957 Howard Hanson's "Song of Democracy", premieres in Washington DC
1959 Baltimore Orioles pull their 2nd triple play (3-6-3 vs Washington Senators)
1959 Bill Sharman hits an NBA record 56 consecutive foul shot
1959 NASA names 1st 7 astronauts for Project Mercury
1959 13th NBA Championship Boston Celtics sweep Minnesota Lakers in 4 games; this is Celtics' 8th consecutive title
1960 14th NBA Championship Boston Celtics beat St Louis Hawks, 4 games to 3; this is Celtics' 9th consecutive title
1960 South African premier Verwoerd wounded in battle
1962 Arnold Palmer wins his 3rd Masters golf tournament
1962 JFK throws out 1st ball at Washington DC's new Stadium
1962 26th Golf Masters Championship Arnold Palmer wins, shooting a 280
1962 34th Academy Awards - "West Side Story", Sophia Loren & Max Schell win
1963 Sir Winston Churchill proclaimed honorary U.S. citizen in White House ceremony
1965 1st game at Astrodome, Houston beats Yankees 2-1 in exhibition as Mickey Mantle hits 1st indoor homerun
1965 Beatles "Ticket to Ride" is released in UK
1965 India & Pakistan engage in border fight
1966 Anaheim Stadium for the California Angels opens
1966 Sophia Loren marries married Carlo Ponti in Paris France
1967 1st Boeing 737 rolls out
1967 Shortwave broadcaster Radio New York Worldwide's transmitter burns down
1967 "At the Drop of Another Hat" closes at Booth NYC after 105 performances
1967 31st Golf Masters Championship Gay Brewer Jr wins, shooting a 280
1968 Minnesota's Wayne Connelly is 1st to score on a Stanley Cup penalty shot
1968 Ralph Abernathy elected to head Southern Christian Leadership Conference
1968 German Democratic Republic adopts constitution
1968 Martin Luther King Jr, buried in Atlanta GA
1969 1st flight of Concorde 002 (Filton-Bristol)
1969 Chicago Cubs' Billy Williams hits 4 consecutive doubles beat Philadelphis Phillies 11-3
1970 Paul McCartney announces official split of the Beatles
1971 Ringo releases "It Don't Come Easy" in UK
1972 "Sugar" opens at Majestic Theater NYC for 506 performances
1972 36th Golf Masters Championship Jack Nicklaus wins, shooting a 286
1972 Glenn Turner (259) & Terry Jarvis make 387 opening cricket stand vs West Indies
1972 USSR & Iraq sign friendship treaty
1973 Otto Kerner, former Governor of Illinois, convicted for his role in an illegal racetrack scheme
1973 37th Golf Masters Championship Tommy Aaron wins, shooting a 283
1973 Netherlands recognizes North Vietnam
1974 San Diegp Padres owner Ray Kroc, addresses fans "Ladies & gentlemen, I suffer with you I've never seen such stupid baseball playing in my life"
1976 US & Russia agree on the size of nuclear tests for peaceful use
1977 Communist party legally allowed in Spain after 40 years
1978 Denver's David Thompson scores 73 points & San Antonio's George Gervin scores 63 points in seperate NBA games (33 in 1 quarter)
1978 42nd Golf Masters Championship Gary Player wins, shooting a 277
1978 Brewers sweep Orioles 11-3, 16-3, & 13-5 (each with a grand slam)
1979 Longest doubles ping-pong match of 101 hours, begins
1979 51st Academy Awards - "Deer Hunter", Jon Voight & Jane Fonda win
1980 Kings tie NHL record with 2 shorthanded playoff goals in a period vs Islanders
1980 Soyuz 35 carries 2 cosmonauts to Salyut 6
1980 Belgium's Marten's government resigns
1981 US sub George Washington rams Japanese freighter Nisso Maru
1981 Los Angeles Dodgers Fernando Valenzuela's 1st start, beats Astros 2-0
1982 Los Angeles Lakers block 21 Denver shots setting NBA regulation game record
1983 6th Space Shuttle Mission-Challenger 1 returns to Earth
1983 Washington Capitals 2-New York Islanders 6 -Patrick Semis-Denis Potvin fails on penalty shot
1984 56th Academy Awards - "Terms of Endearment", Robert Duvall & Shirley Maclaine win
1985 White Sox pitcher Tom Seaver starts a record 15th opening day game
1986 "Dallas" announces it will revive the killed Bobby Ewing character
1987 For 3rd time, Wayne Gretzky, scores 7 goals in a Stanley Cup game
1987 Wayne Gretzky passes Jean Beliveau as all time playoff scoring champion
1988 Devils 3-0 over Islanders-Devils lead 2-1 in 1st round
1988 US imposes economic sanctions on Panamá
1988 "Les Miserables", opens at Umeda-Koma Theatre, Osaka
1989 Mike Tyson strikes a parking attendant when asked to move his car
1989 Scott Hoch chokes on 18 inch putt & loses Masters golf tournament
1989 53rd Golf Masters Championship Nick Faldo wins, shooting a 283
1989 Patti Rizzo wins LPGA Red Robin Kyocera Inamori Golf Classic
1989 Rickey Henderson steals his 800th career base in New York's 4-3 loss to Cleveland
1989 Washington DC march supporting 1973 Roe vs Wade decision (allow abortions)
1990 "Capital News" starring Lloyd Bridges premieres on ABC-TV
1990 Don Mattingly signs a $19.7 million 5-year contract with the Yankees
1990 New York Islanders beat New York Rangers 4-3 in double overtime-Rangers lead 2-1
1990 World's largest bunny hop at Radio City Music Hall (NYC)
1991 Georgia SSR votes to secede from the USSR
1991 Release of Microsoft MS-DOS 5.0
1992 "Redwood Curtain" opens at Nederlander theater on Broadway
1992 John Major, (Conservative Party) elected Prime Minister of England
1992 Noriega convicted on 8 of 10 drug & racketeering charges
1992 Record 18 golfers shoot in the 60s in Masters round 1 (old record 12)
1992 Florida drops rape charges against New York Mets Gooden, Boston & Coleman
1992 US Federal court finds Panamanian dictator Manuel Noriega guilty of drugs
1992 William O Studeman, becomes deputy director of CIA
1993 Colorado Rockies 1st home game & 1st victory, 11-4 over Montréal Expos
1994 BPAA US Open by Justin Hromek
1994 Singer Wayne Newton (52) weds attorney Kathleen McCrone (30)
1994 STS-59 (Endeavour) launches into orbit
1995 "Translations" closes at Plymouth Theater NYC after 25 performances
1995 59th Golf Masters Championship Ben Crenshaw wins, shooting a 274
1997 Cleveland Indians closer Jose Mesa found guilty of rape
1997 Major League Soccer announces Miami & Chicago expansion
1997 NFL announces it will give $3 million to CFL & possible "World Classic Bowl"
2000 64th Golf Masters Championship Vijay Singh wins with 10-under-par 278

Holidays
Note: Some Holidays are only applicable on a given "day of the week"

Bolivia : National Day (1952)
Latvia : Independence Day (1918)
Tunisia : Martyrs' Day
US, England : Churchill Day (1963)
Philippines : Bataan Day (1942)

Religious Observances
Christian : Feast of St Gaucherius
Christian : Feast of St Hugh of Rouen
Christian : Feast of St Mary Cleophas
Christian : Feast of St Uramar
Christian : Feast of St Waldetrudis of Waudru
Anglican : Commemoration of William Law, priest
Lutheran : Commemoration of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, teacher

Religious History
1813 Birth of Jane Borthwick, Scottish writer. Together with her sister Sarah, Jane translated many foreign hymns into English, including "My Jesus, As Thou Wilt" and "Be Still, My Soul."
1816 The African Methodist Episcopal Church was organized at a general convention in Philadelphia. The following day, Richard Allen, 56, was elected the new denomination's first bishop.
1828 Pioneer U.S. Baptist missionary George Dana Boardman, 27, first arrived in Tavoy, Burma, where he afterward established an extensive educational work among the Karen people.
1909 In Pentecostal history, the first group outbreak of the charismatic gift of tongues occurred in Los Angeles under the leadership of black evangelist William J. Seymour, 38. It marked the beginning of the three-year-long "Azusa Street Revival."
1944 Pius XII issued the encyclical "Orientalis ecclesiae decus," which sought to foster closer relations between Catholic, Eastern Orthodox and Uniat churches.

Thought for the day :
" Beauty seldom recommends one woman to another. "

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