98th Anniversary Update - Vimy Ridge and the Victory Cannon Campaign

It was 98 years ago today, (April 9, 1917)  that the Canadian Expeditionary Force (CEF) fought the Battle of Vimy Ridge. It was the first time the Canadian Corp fought together as a single unit and achieved the first Allied Victory of the War. It was also the day the 27th Battalion captured the K14 10.5cm Cannon that sits in Hopewell Cape Square, which the people of Albert County won in the 1919 Victory Loans Competition for raising the greatest percentage over their target anywhere in New Brunswick. The County raised almost 3 times their goal of $110,000.00 with a realized sum of $317,000.00 (6.92 million in today's dollars). 

So today while we pause and remember the sacrifices of the Canadians on that day almost 100 years ago, it's fitting to give an update on our own campaign to restore their captured trophy. The Victory Cannon Campaign has raised $4704.40 to date of a goal of $15000.00, we are within arms reach of 1/3 of our goal. So please donate. CLICK TO DONATE

The cannon wheels are in the process of being restored, our Wheelwright Mike Hartigan has been kind enough to send some photos of his progress. 

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Old spokes on new oak blanks, this is where we set the pattern for all the other spokes. One of the hubs and some felloe sockets are in the background.

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Roughing out a spoke on the bandsaw removing excess wood.

Marking out the rough cuts for the cheeks on the hub end of the spoke.

Rough cut spokes laid out in front of their intended new home.

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Practice spoke blank mounted on the lathe.

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Rough turned spoke ready for finishing.  Each of the 24 required spokes will be individually shaped by hand using a spoke shave.

Cracking the stud nuts on the hub.  Some of them are really on there! 

Now that's a story worth saving!

The Victory Cannon Campaign is raising funds to restore the two captured World War One cannons that sit in Hopewell Cape. These cannons were captured by Canadians during the Great War, and were awarded to the people of Albert County. You can donate online to the Victory Cannon Campaign here, and best of all you'll be sent a tax receipt!  Click Here to Donate!

Location, Location Location - Location is Everything!

How many times have you heard the adage "Location, Location Location - Location is Everything!" well in terms of Real Estate it couldn't be truer, but it's also true in the telling of history. Take for example the captured German 10.5cm K14 Cannon located in the square in Hopewell Cape, not only do we know what battle it was captured in, and who captured it, but we know the exact location on the battlefield where it was captured, and can visit that location today via the web. 

We have to thank the men of the 27th Battalion for keeping such detailed records of their accomplishments on that snowy day in April almost 100 years ago. From their Battalion diaries, in the Intelligence Summary we see the cannon with the serial number 590 was captured at B8.a6.7.1/2 on the Thelus N.E. 1/10000 map. (The map is shown in the photo gallery). Once we find the spot on the map, we can then correlate it to a modern map via Google Earth, and can almost pinpoint it's location today. 

If we look at the large map we can see the road still has the same curve, the forest is still there on the right, and the left. The basic flora and topography of the map in 1917 is the same today.  Then we zoom in to road level we can see that where a tool of mass destruction stood in 1917, a child's playground now stands.  It's amazing that we know so much about an event that happened almost 100 years ago. 

Now that's a story worth saving!

The Victory Cannon Campaign is raising funds to restore the two captured World War One cannons situated in the square in Hopewell Cape. These cannons were captured by Canadians during the Great War, and were awarded to the people of Albert County. You can donate online to the Victory Cannon Campaign here, and best of all you'll be sent a tax receipt!  Click Here to Donate!

Prepare to be Be-dazzled - Part 3 Dazzle Camouflage

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PABLO PICASSO (1881-1973)
'Factory, Horta de Ebbo', 1909 (oil on canvas)

The cannons in Hopewell Cape were not always painted the drab grey they are now, but in multi-coloured geometric shapes in bright greens, browns and even orange. This was to counter the Optical Range Finder which could pin-point the location of a ship or cannon with deadly accuracy. The purpose of the multi-coloured shapes and designs was to confuse the operator of the Range finder so they could not accurately line up the ship or cannon in the range finder. 

So where did the idea for this come from? Surprisingly the world of art, and in particular the movement called Cubism. The idea behind cubism is to take a shape that exists in the world as we perceive it naturally, break it up into different constituent pieces, and then reconstruct it in a way that appears almost alien to the human eye, mainly by painting those pieces from several different points of view simultaneously. Pablo Picasso is the most famous Cubism painter, and you can see his Factory painting to the right. 

It was the French (and soon afterward the Germans and British) who realized that some of the same aesthetic principles behind cubism could be put to use breaking up the otherwise easily distinguishable shapes of distant objects. Painting potential targets in ways designed to break down their form makes it difficult for adversaries to line those images up properly, particularly at longer distances where atmospheric effects, battlefield smoke, surrounding terrain and other factors can make even an undisguised target difficult enough to fixate accurately.

In other words, dazzle camouflage was intended so that  you could never be quite sure just what you're looking at, especially when you view it through an optical range-finder. If you can't line up what you're looking at you can't determine the range and location of the piece, so you can't hit it accurately from a distance. 

The museum plans on restoring the two German cannons to their as captured condition painted in the original dazzle camouflage. You will definitely notice them as you're driving by. 

Now that's a story worth exploring!

The Victory Cannon Campaign is raising funds to restore two captured World War One cannons situated in the square in Hopewell Cape. These cannons were captured by Canadians during the Great War, and were awarded to the people of Albert County. You can donate online to the Victory Cannon Campaign here, and you'll be sent a tax receipt!  Click Here to Donate!

Prepare to be Be-Dazzled Part 2 - The Optical Range finder

The Cannons in Hopewell Cape used to be painted in Dazzle Camouflage to disrupt the Optical (Coincidence) Range Finder. Which was developed by an American in 1890. The range finder is basically a pair of binoculars, with the eyepieces normal distance apart, but the objective lenses spaced very far apart. Such that when you look through the device at, say, a German Battleship, you see an image that looks like the one to the right.

Note that the very top of the mast is off by just a tad--the images from the two objective lenses do not quite match up. The range-finder operator then adjusts the knobs on the range-finder until the mast lines up exactly. See figure to the right. 

By some very basic trigonometric principles you can then calculate the distance to the target to a very high degree of precision. Note that in order to use the device properly, the operator needs to have a good idea of what, exactly, he is looking at so he can match up the images properly.

Once the Americans came up with this, every major power at the turn of the 20th c. invested in it even further, and all the major powers used range-finders to guide their naval guns and field artillery. Next week we'll introduce the invention of dazzle camouflage. 

Now that's a story worth exploring!

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The Victory Cannon Campaign is raising funds to restore the two captured World War One cannons situated in the square in Hopewell Cape. These cannons were captured by Canadians during the Great War, and were awarded to the people of Albert County. You can donate online to the Victory Cannon Campaign here, and best of all you'll be sent a tax receipt!  Click Here to Donate!

A Walk with the Men - The Secret War Diaries of the 26th Battalion

The majority of the men who joined the Canadian Expeditionary Force (CEF) from Albert County joined the 26th Battalion, The New Brunswick Battalion.

The famed "Fighting 26th" participated in all of the major battles in which the Canadian Corps was involved: Mount Sorrel; Somme 1916, 1918; Flers-de Courcelette; Thiepval; Ancre Heights; Arras 1917, 1918; Vimy 1917; Arleux; Scarpe 1917, 1918; Hill 70; Ypres 1917; Passchendaele; Amiens; Hindenburg Line; Canal du Nord; Cambrai 1918; Pursuit to Mons. The battalion was disbanded on 30 August 1920. The 26th is continued today by the Royal New Brunswick Regiment.

You can follow the battalion from its birth in Saint John to the final disbanding in 1920 by reading its Secret War Diaries. They begin in November 1914 and end in May 1919 and give a fascinating glimpse into the life of the battalion at war. 

1914/11/02-1917/07/3

1917/08/01-1918/06/30 

1918/07/01-1919/05/10  

Now that's a story worth exploring!

The Victory Cannon Campaign is raising funds to restore the two captured World War One cannons situated in the square in Hopewell Cape. These cannons were captured by Canadians during the Great War, and were awarded to the people of Albert County. You can donate online to the Victory Cannon Campaign here, and best of all you'll be sent a tax receipt!  Click Here to Donate!

Did You See the Whiz Bang in Hopewell Cape?

That's right, smack dab in downtown Hopewell Cape, a real live Whiz Bang and you can see it today. If you don't know what a Whiz Bang is, or have never seen one before then you're in luck, because we have a live one. 

The term "whiz-bang" was used widely by Allied (most often British and Commonwealth) servicemen to describe any form of German field artillery shells, however the 'whiz bang' was originally attributed to the noise made by shells from German 77mm field guns. The guns that fired the shells were subsequently called Whiz Bang guns. (The smaller cannon in Hopewell Cape is a 77mm FK96 or a Whiz Bang!)  In all cases however the name was derived from the fact that shells fired from light or field artillery travelled faster than the speed of sound.

Thus soldiers heard the typical "whizz" noise of a travelling shell before the "bang" issued by the gun itself.  Whiz bangs were consequently much feared since the net result was that defending infantrymen were given virtually no warning of incoming high-velocity artillery fire as they were from enemy howitzers.

Now that's a story worth saving!

The Victory Cannon Campaign is raising funds to restore the two captured World War One cannons situated in the square in Hopewell Cape. These cannons were captured by Canadians during the Great War, and were awarded to the people of Albert County. You can donate online to the Victory Cannon Campaign here, and best of all you'll be sent a tax receipt!  Click Here to Donate!

Do Opposites Attract? A Tale of Two Cannons.

Last week we were happy to announce that the Victory Cannon Campaign sits just shy of $5000.00 and 1/3 of the total needed, and we talked about how the large 110 mm cannon arrived in Hopewell Cape. This week we're going to tell the tale of the smaller 77mm FK96 field cannon.   

Now the information we have on the two cannons couldn't be more opposite, with the 110mm K14 we know almost everything you could wish to know about the capture and history of the cannon. However, it's counterpart the 77mm FK96 field cannon we know almost nothing. In the records on captured war trophies from the Great War there is nothing recorded on a 77mm cannon with the serial number 784, it is recorded in the War Trophies Allocations Record from 1920, but no mention of where or when it was captured is listed. 

What we do know is why this cannon sits in the square in Hopewell Cape. The 77mm FK96 was awarded to the people of Albert County in recognition of the number of men from Albert County who volunteered to fight. Albert County has the distinction of being the county with the most people per capita joining the CEF in all of Canada. A remarkable achievement and a testament to the bravery of the men from AC!

Now that's a story worth saving!

The Victory Cannon Campaign is raising funds to restore the two captured World War One cannons situated in the square in Hopewell Cape. These cannons were captured by Canadians during the Great War, and were awarded to the people of Albert County. You can donate online to the Victory Cannon Campaign here, and best of all you'll be sent a tax receipt!  Click Here to Donate!

Drum Roll Please... Victory Cannon Campaign nearing 1/3 of it's Target

The Victory Cannon Campaign ended the year on a very high note, adding over $1500 in December. The Victory Cannon Campaign now sits at $4649.70  just shy of the 1/3 mark of the $15000.00 needed to restore the cannons. 

The Victory Cannon Campaign is raising funds to restore the two captured World War One cannons situated in the square in Hopewell Cape. These cannons were captured by Canadians at the famous Battle of Vimy Ridge, and were awarded to the people of Albert County.

The larger of the two cannons, the mighty 110mm K14, is probably one of the most important War Trophies in existence in Canada. The K14 was captured by the 27th Battalion on April 9, 1917, during the attack at Farbus, near Vimy Ridge. Through the War Diaries of the 27th Battalion you can read about the exciting capture of the cannon, from Bandman Patty Smith playing the regimental march on his piccolo throughout the attack, to the last final 50 yard charge to over-whelm the cannon firing point-blank muzzle rounds. The detail of the capture is so accurate that we can pinpoint the location of the gun today on Google Earth with the exact coordinates given in 1917. It's an astounding story of courage and bravery. 

Now as amazing story as that is, it gets better, with how the K14 cannon got to Hopewell Cape. As the War came to a close in 1918, the government still had the enormous costs of repatriating and settling the men who fought, so they ran a final Victory Loan Campaign. The 1919 Victory Loans Committee created goals for each area of the country to meet to raise the monies necessary. They also created a number of incentives to encourage people to meet these goals, one such incentive was the awarding of a War Trophy to the area that raised the most money over their set target. One prize was to be awarded to each province. The Victory Loans Committee set a goal of $110000.00 for Albert County, which is a sizable sum for 1919. (This would be equivalent to $2.2 million today (According to Bank of Canada Inflation index)). Albert County not only raised the set goal but surpassed it by $207000.00 for a final total of $317000.00. (In today's dollars $6.5 million) This was with a population less than 10000 people! The people of Albert County surpassed their set goal by the largest percentage of any area in the province, and were award the War Trophy, the 110 mm K14 cannon! What a testament for the people of Albert County!

That's not all though! It turns out that the K14 cannon is extremely rare, in fact there are only 7 left in the entire world!

Now that's a story worth saving!

You can donate online to the Victory Cannon Campaign here, and best of all you'll be sent a tax receipt!  Click Here to Donate!

A Window on the Great War - Training, December 5, 1914 Saint John, New Brunswick

One Hundred years ago, Hugh C. Wright from Shepody, Albert County, NB was busy training with the 26th New Brunswick battalion in Saint John. He was only 19 years old. This was his second letter home and was written December 5 & 6, 1914.  

Hugh was one of the hundreds of Albert County men who volunteered for the Canadian Expeditionary Force (CEF), the majority joining the New Brunswick 26th Battalion. It was because of their sacrifices that Albert County was awarded the 77mm field cannon which sits in the square in Hopewell Cape. The museum is in process of restoring this cannon to help preserve their stories.  If you have not done so, please donate to the Victory Cannon Campaign. You can donate online here. 

(Notes from the letter: Clarke was Hugh's brother who was working at a bank in St.John,  he joined the 26th Battalion on Oct 19, 1915 and went overseas. Colonel McAvity was commanding officer of the 62nd Fusiliers Regiment, McAvity organized the 26th Battalion from New Brunswick in spring 1915. The 26th deployed to France in 1915 as part of the 5th Infantry Brigade in the 2nd Division. On May 29 1916, Lieutenant Colonel A. E. G. McKenzie took over the 26th and McAvity returned home that summer.)

With many thanks to Hugh Wright's great niece, Dawne McLean who kindly submitted the letter.

“Saturday, December 5, 1914
St. John Armory, St. John, NB

Dear Father,

I received your letter a few nights ago and was very glad to hear from you. This is Saturday night but I didn’t feel like going out as we did some pretty stiff marching today. We left here a little after two o’clock and got back at five and did about 10 miles. So you see we went quite a distance and I was nearly played out when we got in. Colonel McAvity and Captain Brown were on horseback and we followed them all the way. Yesterday we marched out to Rockwood Park in the forenoon and away round to Carleton in the afternoon and across the ferry last night. Tonight the muscles in my legs are so sore I can hardly walk. I have just had a good shower bath and changed my clothes as one week is enough to wear these heavy woollen underwear. Most of the men have a terrible cold and me in the bargain. We get colds by laying down on the damp ground shooting.
I must stop writing now and clean my boots for church tomorrow. I will finish the letter Sunday pm.

Sunday, December 6
We marched to church this morning and heard the Chaplin of the Second Contingent preach. This afternoon Clarke said he was coming down but has not showed up yet. Today right after dinner a large box of cake came to our room for some boys from McAdam, sent by the women from there. So we had a good feed of cake.
Must close as I can’t think of anything more. Will write again as soon as I can.

Hugh”

A Window on the Great War: 100 Year Old First Letter Home

One Hundred years ago, Hugh C. Wright from Shepody, Albert County, NB arrived by train in St. John on Saturday, Nov. 22 and signed up to join the 26th Battalion on the same day. He was only 19 years old. His first letter was written to his father Monday, November 24, 1914. After training in St. John for 8 months the 26th Battalion left for England on June 13, 1915 on board the ship “Caledonia”.  

Hugh was one of the hundreds of Albert County men who volunteered for the Canadian Expeditionary Force (CEF), the majority joining the New Brunswick 26th Battalion. It was because of their sacrifices that Albert County was awarded the 77mm field cannon which sits in the square in Hopewell Cape. The museum is in process of restoring this cannon to help preserve their stories.  If you have not done so, please donate to the Victory Cannon Campaign. You can donate online here. 

(Notes from the letter: Harvey was Hugh's oldest brother who was responsible for the farm at home. Clarke was another brother who was working at a bank in St.John,  he joined the 26th Battalion on Oct 19, 1915 and went overseas. Albert Steeves was killed overseas.)

With many thanks to Hugh Wright's great niece, Dawne McLean who kindly submitted the letter.

“St. John Armory, 5th Company

November 24th, 1914

Dear Father,

I got here Saturday night at 5:30pm. Clarke was at the station, but I had to come up to the Armory with some soldiers that they sent down to meet us. They took us into a restaurant to get our supper.

Danahy and I fell in with a couple of men from Chatham and one fellow is a Boer War veteran and is Sergeant of our Company. So I am all right.

We haven’t been over stocked with grub till today at noon. They got things straightened out and we had a good dinner of boiled meat and potatoes, parsnips and carrots. They have bread there three times a day and tea and jam and beans for breakfast and bread and jam for supper.

I fell in with Albert Steeves, Jud’s boy on Sunday and I tell you was he ever glad to find someone from his own hometown.

Howe Stevens is here some place but I haven’t spoken to him yet, but am going to hunt him up. There are a lot of very nice fellows here and our officers are all nice.

Albert and I got a pass out last night and went to the theatre. We met Clarke and he went with us. A soldier can walk right in and doesn’t have to pay a cent. I am going to get a safety razor and a fountain pen right away.

The buglers are getting ready to blow the fall in call and I must get ready for the afternoon’s work. I will try to write again in a few days. Send my mail to 5th Company, 26th Battalion, St. John Armory, St. John, NB

Hugh

P.S. I would write you more but I want to write a letter to Harvey. ”

Pardon Me, Have you seen my Machine Guns?

In addition to the Great War Cannons in front of the museum in Hopewell Cape, Albert County was awarded a number of other war trophies in 1919 in commemoration of the outstanding service of "the boys" from Albert County.

In fact, the records show that Albert County was awarded, in addition to the cannons, a Trench Mortar and 2 Machine Guns. The Village of Hillsborough was also awarded a Trench Mortar and 2 Machine Guns. In all, Albert County was awarded 2 cannons, 2 trench mortars and 4 machine guns. To put this in perspective Saint John, which was the largest city in New Brunswick, was awarded 2 cannons and 16 machine guns, and no trench mortars. 

All that remains of these awarded War trophies are the two cannons in Hopewell Cape. What happened to the 4 machine guns and the 2 Trench Mortars? We don't know. Our speculation is that they were melted down in the scrap metal drives of the Second World War, but we can't say for certain. If anyone has any information on what happened to the mortars and machine guns, please send it along. 

The fact that these trophies in commemoration of our men in service have disappeared without a trace, makes it extra poignant for us to preserve the ones that remain.  Please help us to restore the Victory Cannons by donating to the Victory Cannon Campaign. You can do so by Clicking here. 

PS A DONATION WOULD MAKE AN EXCELLENT CHRISTMAS GIFT FOR THOSE HARD TO BUY FOR, and we give TAX RECEIPTS! 

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Where have the Wheels Gone?

If you are driving through Hopewell Cape these days, and look at the cannons in front of the museum, you will see that they look rather naked without their wheels. The wheels have started their journey of rejuvenation, and have made the trip to Jordan Bay, Nova Scotia, to the workshop of Mike Hartigan, the Wheelwright by the Sea. 

How does someone become a master wheelwright in the 21st century? Mike's story is as interesting as any in our museum. 

Mike grew up in Point Edward, Cape Breton Island, and moved to Alberta in 1962, he graduated from the Alberta College of Art, majoring in illustration, in 1973 and worked at various jobs for several years, including carnival worker, truck driver, ceramic kiln operator, and custom RV builder.

Then Mike started a full-time career as a woodworker and subsequently owned and operated The Village Woodsmith as a custom cabinet & furniture manufacturer, and later reconfigured the Company to manufacture wholesale wood mouldings and parts for the furniture & cabinet industries. The company motto was, “If it’s made of wood, we can make it”

Over the years Mike maintained an avid interest in history, old architecture and horse drawn vehicles, and other things. As a result the Village Woodsmith often took on unusual one of a kind projects, some of which were, two 13’ presentation models of a new space age dirigible design, the reproduction of historically accurate props for movie productions, and historically accurate reproductions of mouldings needed to rebuild the Lodge in Yellowstone Park after it burned down, to name a few.

In the year 2000, Mike took a course on wheel making offered by the Western Development Museum in Saskatoon. Intrigued by what he had learned, he repeated the course in 2001. In 2002 the museum asked Mike to become a junior instructor for the course, taking over from another instructor who retired. Mike taught wheel making & repair for the next three years.

During this time Mike established the “Lost Arts Workshop,” as a side business to the Village Woodsmith. From then till now all unusual projects, including wheel making have been produced under this banner, and there have been many. They include the building of over five hundred new wheels for various interests, reproductions of historic wagons & carriages and the supply of new lumber & parts for wagons & wheels to Museums. Again as much for the movie industry, these credits include Spielberg Productions, Smallville, and much work for John Scott Productions, horse master of the recent, “Lord of the Rings” trilogy. Mike and the Lost Arts Workshop became noted for consistent attention to historic detail and the supply of quality work & materials on time and at affordable prices.

In 2012, Mike and his life and business partner Brenda, decided to semi retire, so closed the Village Woodsmith, with the intention of continuing the activities of the Lost Arts Workshop. On September 16, 2012, Mike, Brenda, their household and equipment arrived in Jordan Bay on the South Shore of Nova Scotia, taking over an abandoned house rotting away on an acre of land with the intent of becoming the ”Wheelwrights by the Sea”. After two years, the house is repaired and cosy, the new workshop is up, and the Lost Arts Work Shop is back at work.

Today, whether it is a new set of working wheels, or an accurate reproduction of a steam engine, you can get it at the Lost Arts Workshop. All you need is the information to describe it, a budget of some sorts to pay for it, and the desire to have it!  He can help you with the rest.

The wheel restoration is just one part of the Victory Cannon Campaign Restoration project, we are almost 1/4 of the way to our goal of $15000.00. Please DONATE! (You can donate online - click here)