Canadian Expeditionary Force Study Group

The war diaries show that the 116th Battalion replace the 60th Battalion during the Spring Offensive in 1917.  It appears that both battalions were at Vimy in April 1917.  The 60th is not recorded after April 30, 1917. 

Nicholson reports on the 116th Infantry Battalion on the following pages (see the Matrix Nicholson Transcriptions).  It would appear from these entries that the 116th was an active unit after taking over from the 60th Battalion in the Spring 1917 offensive.  It kept up this role right through to the Armistice in November 1918.

Mons Memorial Plaque, courtesy of Chris Harley, Great War Forum
(click on image for larger scale)

Behind the Front February 1917 pg. 225 - the 116th sent to France to replace the 60th
Hill 70 August 1917 pg. 285 - lead unit on the attack at Hill 70
Amiens August 1918 pg. 399 - serious casualties at Hamon Wood
Parvillers August 1918 pg. 418 - the village secured by the R.C.R. and 116th
Artillery Hill and Jigsaw Wood August 1918 pg. 430-431
Canal de l'Escaut August 1918 pg. 449-450
On to Cambrai in October 1918 pg. 453

We have provided here an extract of the text from Nicholson as it relates to the 116th Battalion's efforts at Hill 70 in August 1917:

The assault was delivered at 1:00 a.m. on 23 July by the 116th Battalion (of the 9th Infantry Brigade). In spite of a gas attack launched by the enemy just as our troops were forming up, the operation, adequately supported by the divisional artillery, was completely successful. The 116th quickly took the trench that formed its first objective, killing many Germans. In solid hand-to-hand fighting the attacking companies gained the railway embankment and blew up a number of dug-outs and a tunnel. After thirty-five minutes the main body returned to its original position as planned, leaving outposts who subsequently came under a heavy counter-attack and had to be withdrawn. The Canadian battalion, whose own casualties numbered 74, brought back 53 prisoners from the 36th Reserve Division, one of a number of formations that had been transferred from the Eastern Front earlier in the summer.

A year later the 116th suffered serious casualties at Hamon Wood:

By half-past seven the 9th Brigade had reached the Green Line. The 116th Battalion, suffering fairly heavy casualties, had captured Hamon Wood, between the Luce and the Roye road; and on the divisional left the 58th Battalion, working closely with its tanks, had fought its way into the village of Demuin on the south bank of the river.^* The battalion then pressed on to occupy Courcelles, just before the Green Line

From Library and Archives Canada:

Please refer to 9th Infantry Brigade war diary at this time!

9th Infantry Brigade

From the Great War Forum (see post) a rare find of the 116th Infantry Battalion War Diary located on the Ontario Regiment Museum web site here:

116th Battalion War Diary