World War I A – B

Ralph Louis Ackerman was born in Sarnia on November 16, 1891, the son of Wilbert Albert and Jane
Elizabeth (nee Malcolm, born June 1859 in Hamilton, Scotland) Ackerman. Wilbert and Jane were married on
October 14, 1885 in Norwood, near Peterborough, Ontario. To support his family, Wilbert worked for the Grand
Trunk Railroad, first as a railway brakeman and later a conductor. The Ackerman’s had four children together:
Florence Annetta (born March 22, 1888); Clarence Franklin (born September 24, 1890); Ralph (1891); and George
A. (born in 1908). The older children grew up in Point Edward, but the family moved later to 390 Russell Street,
Sarnia.

Ralph’s sister Florence Annetta married Albert Ernest Chambers (from Cobalt, Ontario) on March 31, 1909
in Sarnia. Two years later, Albert (a barber) and Annetta Chambers were residing at 132 College Street (they later
moved to 146 Mitton Street). Albert and Annetta would have a son, Harold Wilbert Chambers, born October 28,
1911, a nephew for Ralph Ackerman. Harold Wilbert Chambers would go on to graduate from Sarnia Collegiate, and
enter the military, becoming a Captain in the Royal Canadian Army Pay Corps (RCAPC).
Little is known about Ralph’s early life, but his family dynamic changed drastically when his mother Jane
passed away on August 19, 1912 in Sarnia at the age of 53. Ralph was 20 at the time, but his youngest sibling,
George, was only four years old when their mother passed away. Years later, widowed father Wilbert remarried a
widow, Mary Evelyn McLean, in Sarnia on August 29, 1916.

Ralph’s life also changed dramatically when, at age 23, he enlisted in the Canadian Over-Seas Expeditionary
Force on August 16, 1915 in Sarnia. Joining the 34th Battalion, he stood five feet eight-and-one-half inches tall, had
blue eyes and red hair, was single, and recorded his trade or calling as switchman (railway). He listed his father who
was living at 390 Russell Street as his next-of-kin.

Ralph Ackerman embarked overseas on October 23, 1915 with the 34th Battalion aboard S.S. California and
arrived in England on November 1, 1915. He trained at various English camps that included Aldershot, Bramshott,
and Shorncliffe, and on February 3, 1916 at Bramshott, Ralph became a member of the 23rd Reserve Battalion.
Just over three months later, on May 25, 1916, he was transferred to the Canadian Army Infantry, British
Columbia Regiment, 7th Battalion. The next day, he arrived in France with the 7th Battalion and twelve days later,
on June 7, 1916, he was in the field. During his time in France, Ralph wrote a number of letters home. The following
are portions of a few of them:

To his sister Mrs. Albert Ernest Chambers (Florence Annetta), living on North Mitton Street, on July 10th, 1916:

Somewhere in France

Dear Sister,Just a line or two to let you know that I am well and hoping this letter finds you the same. We are having lovely weather over here now and the roads are pretty dry. I had a letter from Dad just before we went into the trenches the last time. I met Andy McIntosh and a bunch of the 70th boys the other day. They had not been in the trenches, but expected to go in soon. It has a fellow a little scared the first time in, but you soon get used to it and don’t pay any attention to all the bullets whistling and zipping round you. I have certainly seen some interesting sights since being over here, and if I get back safe and sound will tell you all about it…. Say, don’t send me any tobacco, for we get all we can use issued to us. We get it in the trenches just the same as when we are out. We also have our mail delivered to the trenches. I suppose it is pretty quiet around town now. I have certainly met a lot of fellows from home here. I met Charlie Warren the other night. He was in the hospital with fever the same time as myself…. I have got a big bunch of German souvenirs. I would like you to see them. There are lots of them to be had,but I don’t bother with them much. I suppose Harold is growing like a weed. There is hardly any need of money over here. We get fifteen francs every two weeks, and we don’t even have to buy tobacco with it. Well Sis, I guess I have told you all the news for this time so will sign off.

From your loving brother, Ralph

Ralph wrote Florence two letters in August 1916 from “Somewhere in France”. Portion of these letters read as follows:

Dear Sister,

Just a line or two to let you know that I am well and hoping that this letter finds you the same. I received your letter today and am answering it right back… The trenches are nice and dry and I have been on “listening post” every time I have been in the trenches. It is a pretty good job, and exciting at times. You have to go out in “No Man’s Land” and lay and listen and watch for “Fritz.” You have lots of bullets and rifle grenades flying around, but you soon get used to them. I was out one night and I had a fellow with me who was not on it before with me. It was certainly a lively experience for the beginner. We spotted three “Fritzs” working on their wire entanglements. They were about fifty yards from me. You could see them quite plain, but were a little too far away to toss a bomb at, and our scouts were out patrolling. I didn’t dare take a chance at bagging them. I was out another night when the trenches were only 40 yards apart. I was out pretty close to them on this occasion. You could hear them talking in their trenches quite plain… Fritz has a shell they call a sausage. They are about three feet long, and are awful high explosives. You can see them coming through the air and can generally get out of the way of them. They make an awful noise when they explode. But we have just as good, and a lot better explosives than he has though, and canal ways give him twice the amount he serves us…

In his second letter, Ralph, in his matter-of-fact way, gives more details about the dangers of life on the front lines.

Dear Sister,

We have been having nice weather over here. It has been pretty dry. The farmers are all busy cutting their crops. It seems funny to see them cutting grain just a few miles from the firing line… It is pretty near three months now since I landed here. It doesn’t seem that long, but I have had some warm times in that period, and I suppose, will have warmer yet before it is through. We had a mine sprung on our line just recently, a big one too. I thought Fritz was going to send a bunch of our boys up in the air, but we came out lucky. A mine is a tunnel dug under the ground. They generally dig right under the trench and fill it up with high explosives. When it goes off, you would think it was an earthquake the way it shakes the ground. The one he sprung on us was thirty feet deep. I was just a
little way from it… We have lots of straw to lay on, and lots of lice and rats for company. The latter are pretty thick.

Ralph

At his Russell Street home, Wilbert heard from his son, still “somewhere in France”, in January 1917.

Dear Dad,

It is a beautiful spring day here today, but I suppose you have lots of snow at home. We have been having pretty good weather lately, but pretty cold. We sure had some Christmas dinner. We were pretty lucky this year. This is a list of the few things we had for Christmas, so you can imagine if we enjoyed it or not: roast beef, roast pork, mince pie, fried potatoes, cabbage, water cress, nuts, apples, oranges and a lot more stuff… We had a pretty good time before the day was over. Christmas only comes once a year, and we sure made it a merry one. There are about 40 of us in the bombers and we got our own dinner up. Our officer helped us out a lot. He is an awful nice fellow… Say Dad, I could write a book about France now and what I have seen. I’ve witnessed some sights that some people would give thousands of dollars to see. I have had the pleasure of seeing some nice air duels, only one time, our pilot came out second best, being forced to land in our lines, but the pilot himself was not hurt. Another time an enemy airplane started to fall after a battle with one of our aviators, and his gasoline tank exploded and he came down in one big flame. The pilot was burned so bad that you could not recognize him. He fell within a few feet of where we
were stationed. In an attack one day in which I participated, we were accompanied by two tanks. It was a great sight to see them go after Fritz.

PS. Believe me dad, if I am spared to come home, I will have lots to tell you. Ralph

Ralph’s letters may have minimized the dangers all around him, but they were very real as he soon discovered. On September 27, 1916, he was admitted to No. 5 Canadian Field Ambulance for shell shock. He would be out of the front-line action for two weeks before rejoining his unit on October 11, 1916. In late January 1917, he was admitted to No. 23 Casualty Clearing Station due to impetigo, a highly infectious skin disease caused by bacteria. He was transported to No. 20 General Hospital in Camiers on February 1, 1917 where he was again diagnosed with impetigo, and then six days later was moved to No. 26 General Hospital in Etaples for further treatment of skin disease. On February 13, 1917, he was discharged to Base Details Camp at Etaples, diagnosed with impetigo.

Private Ackerman rejoined his unit on March 1, 1917, but he wasn’t with them for long. On April 10, 1917, he was admitted to No. 8 Station Hospital at Wimereaux as a result of a “gun shot wound to the scalp, slight”. The next day he was moved to No. 1 Convalescent Depot in Boulogne. Three days later, on April 14, 1917, he was discharged to Base Details Camp at Boulogne. Two weeks later, on April 28, 1917, he rejoined his unit in the field.

In mid-August, 1917, the 7th Battalion was in the vicinity of Lens, and would take part in the second-largest Canadian military undertaking up to that point in the war, second only to Vimy. The Attack on Hill 70 and Lens in France (August 15-25, 1917) was the first major battle orchestrated by Canadian commander Lieutenant-General Arthur Currie and the first time German forces used flame-throwers and mustard gas against the Canadians. It later
became known as “Canada’s forgotten battle of the First World War”.

The German-held Hill 70 overlooked the ruined, but heavily fortified city of Lens. The Hill had been in German hands since 1914, and was well-protected by a maze of deep trenches and dugouts, deep mines, coiled barbed wire, and was bristling with German machine-gun strongpoints. The Germans knew an attack was coming.

On August 15 near Loos, the attack began at 4:25 a.m. with Canadians surging forward into No Man’s Land behind a creeping barrage. They pushed up the Hill through a shell-torn landscape into the face of enemy fire. The first objective was captured with fairly light casualties, but enemy fire became heavier as the battalions advanced, with very heavy machine-gun fire and active sniping troops. In less than two hours of fierce fighting, the Canadians were able to capture many of their objectives, including the high ground.

The 7th Battalion, like the others, advanced shell hole to shell hole toward their final objective, but were outflanked by the enemy and enfiladed from the right. The unit withdrew to the intermediate objective and consolidated. It was on August 15, 1917, that Private Ralph Ackerman was reported “missing in action” while
fighting on the first day of the Attack on Hill 70, France.

Over the course of the next four days and nights, the Germans launched 21 determined counterattacks, that included firing between 15,000-20,000 mustard gas shells on Canadian positions on August 18. Their attempts to recapture the Hill failed.

With the victory at Hill 70, the corps commanders decided to push into the city of Lens, launching attacks on August 21 and 23. The Canadians were overextended and inexperienced in urban combat, while the Germans held all the observational and positional advantages. The Canadians had successfully captured Hill 70 but were unable to take the city of Lens. The 10-day battle came at a cost of approximately 9,100 Canadians listed as killed, wounded or
missing.

On September 2nd, 1917, his father Wilbert in Sarnia received the following telegram about his son from the Officer in charge of records: SINCERELY REGRET TO INFORM YOU 602916, PTE. RANDOLPH LOUIS ACKERMAN, INFANTRY, OFFICIALLY REPORTED MISSING AUGUST 15TH, 1917. WILL SEND FURTHER PARTICULARS WHEN RECEIVED.

It was not until late-March 1918, that Private Ralph Ackerman of the 7th Battalion was officially recorded as killed in action (previously reported missing) on August 15, 1917. The Circumstances of Death Register records him as; Date of Casualty: 15-8-17. Previously reported Missing, now reported Killed in Action. Casualty occurred at Hill 70.

Twenty-five-year-old Ralph Ackerman has no known grave. He is memorialized on the Vimy Memorial, Pas de Calais, France. On the Sarnia cenotaph, his name is inscribed as, Ackerman, R.H.

Source: The Sarnia War Remembrance Project by Tom Slater
Editors: Tom St. Amand and Lou Giancarlo