20th/21st May 1940 - DLI movements BEFORE Arras

[phylo_roadking]

As part of a discussion elsewhere about Arras, I've come across an interesting divergence in the secondary sources on the battle of Arras and the Durham Light Infantry's role in the battle...

Nicholas Harman's account of events has the 6th and 8th battalions, DLI bivouacing overnight at Vimy Ridge prior to marching forward to the start line for the battle next morning....and arriving late!

However, another source has them being transported to Vimy Ridge on the morning of the 21st, and marching to the sart line from there etc., etc....

There is also various diferences between the transport available to those two battalions of the DLI in 50th Division. Although rostered as "motorised infantry", they spent a LOT of their time in France previously sans trucks. These were normally to be provided by the RASC, rather than them having organic transport of their own.....and certainly they had no transport on the 18th and 19th of May, when they had to make a pair of route marches.

Harmans also says they didn't have ENOUGH trucks on the night of the 20th/21st...

So here's my question. Does anyone know WHAT time the FIRST elements of the two battalions arrived at Vimy Ridge (under the Canadian War Memorial, apparently)....and did those TWO FULL BATTALIONS require SEVERAL lifts to assemble fully at Vimy???

They began encamped at Annay, just outside Lens - some ten miles as the crow flies from Vimy Ridge. That's at least a 40-minute road trip at convoy speed from Vimy. Plus embussing/debussing time, that's a round trip of at least an hour and a half from Annay to Vimy and back again.

I know what time they started their march to the start line on the 21st....so can reckon back from there. What I DO need to know - if the information exists in the two battalions' war diaries....is HOW MANY TRIPS were needed by what trucks were made available to them - to get them all forward to Vimy???