THE SAMBRE-OISE CANAL AT ORS (4)

Another view of the Lock

This recent photograph looking north was taken from the canal bank at Ors about 200 yards south of the lock. (Note the road bridge across the lock.) This is the place on the towpath where on 4^th November 1918, men of the 206^th Field Company Royal Engineers successfully built and launched a floating bridge (made of petrol tins) across the canal. As mentioned elsewhere, this enabled men of the 1^st Bn. Dorsetshire Regt. to cross over to the opposite bank and there form a bridgehead (right hand side of photo.). They were quickly followed by the other battalions in the Brigade which led to the ultimate capture of all the German defensive positions along this section of the canal. This action was the last which the 2^nd Manchesters were to carry out before the Armistice. From August 1914 from Mons and Le Cateau to the end of hostilities, the battalion had lost 44 officers and 1121 Other Ranks dead, more than any of the other 26 battalions of the Regiment which served overseas in the Great War. Wilfred Owen was one of them.

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