The Seaforths were involved in some of the bloodiest battles of the war including Ypres, the Somme, and Vimy Ridge. In the final battle for Vimy Ridge, Lieutenant D.O. Vicars and Private McWhinney (later Lieutenant McWhinney, DCM) with Corporal "Hat" Matthews took, unaided, 400 yards of the German Support Line, nearly the entire battalion front. Later in the battle, the commanding officer, Lieutenant Colonel J.A. Clark, DSO, with one junior officer, two runners and a Lewis gun crew, pushed up a mile in advance of the battalion where they met Brigadier McBrien and two senior officers armed only with revolvers, and promptly attacked a party of 50 enemy soldiers, driving them off. During the attack on Elev Spur, the retreating enemy were in such disarray the Sergeant W. Brown, MM, stepped into a poker game, which he broke up with his rifle. It is a special tribute that the German communiqué referred to the Seaforths as "specially picked assault troops."