W.O.H. Dodds - Report after the attack on Vimy Ridge
Creators: name: :Unav
Publisher: name: University of Victoria Libraries
Year: 2022
Subjects: subject: Battle of Vimy Ridge (France : 1917)
valueUri: http://id.worldcat.org/fast/1167023
subject: World War (1914-1918)
valueUri: http://id.worldcat.org/fast/1180746
subject: Military campaigns
valueUri: http://id.worldcat.org/fast/1710190

description: A report from the Counter Battery Office, Canadian Corps Artillery written after the initial attack on Vimy Ridge between April and June of 1917. It contains general notes on areas such as the principles of action and the general nature of operations; Reports on daily operations, intelligence and hostile activities; Flow of information on, for example, balloons and aeroplanes; records of hostile batteries, such as confirmed or un-comfirmed positions; general fire policy, outlining destruction, neutralization etc.; and counter battery instructions and dispositions for "Z" Day. Report contains several appendices, including 2 maps of the Willerval area indicating "zone calls" and positions during the battle on Vimy Ridge. Contributor: L.P. Napier, Lieut. Biography: BRIGADIER GENERAL W. O. H. DODDS, C.M.G., D.S.O. was born on 3 July 1867 in Yarmouth, Nova Scotia, and died in Montreal on 25 August 1934, at 67 years of age. He was manager of the Montreal Agency of the Mutual Life Insurance Company of New York, and much involved in and a keen supporter of sports and athletics in that city. Prior to the Great War BGen. Dodds had been a militia officer, a Major in the Artillery (3rd Montreal Battery) although his military career began in the 5th Royal Highlanders. He also served in the Canadian Grenadier Guards and the Royal Montreal Regiment. In 1914 he joined the Canadian Expeditionary Force and became Officer Commanding the 1st Battery, Canadian Field Artillery, at Valcartier Camp and shortly thereafter was promoted to Lieut. Colonel. For a time he was Adjutant of the 1st Brigade, C.F.A., commanded by LCol. E. W. B. Morrison. Sailed with the First Contingent, C.E.F., for England in October 1914. He succeeded LCol. Morrison as Commanding Officer of the 1st Bde., C.F.A., and served in France with the 1st Cdn. Division. LCol. Dodds, later in 1915, commanded the 5th Bde., C.F.A., on Salisbury Plain and in France with the 2nd Cdn. Div. Returned to England in September 1916 to command the 8th Cdn. Training Bde. and almost immediately, in October 1916, was appointed C.R.A. (Commanding or Commander Royal Artillery) 4th Cdn. Div., with the rank of Brigadier General. On 29 March 1917 the 4th Cdn. Div. Artillery became the 5th Cdn. Div. Artillery following the reorganization of the artillery of the Canadian Corps. The 5th Cdn. Div. Arty. went to France in the late summer of 1917 and thereafter fought in all major offensives as Corps Troops. BGen. Dodds later served in Germany as part of the Occupation Forces, and for a short time, as Military Governor of the city of Bonn. Despite efforts to return to the insurance business, it was June 1919 before BGen. Dodds returned to Montreal to continue his civilian career. In New York he was among the first few foreigners to be appointed to an Honourary Life Membership and a Companion of the Military Order of the Society of American Wars, New York Branch. Later he became Honourary Colonel of the Royal Montreal Regiment and, in 1929, Honourary Colonel Commandant, Canadian Artillery.