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THE CANADIANS
IN FRANCE

1915-1918

A GALLOPER AT
YPRES

And Some Subsequent Adventures

By Major and Brevet Lieut. -Colonel
P. R. Butler, D.S.O., The Royal Irish.
With a Frontispiece in colour by Lady
Butler. Cloth 15/- net.

In the glorious, but obscure work of the
immortal Seventh Division in Flanders,
Captain Butler (as he then was) held a
position which enabled him to combine
in an unusual degree a close and a more
distant view of the fighting. The result
is a vivid and thrilling, if necessarily
harrowing, account. The author, after
being wounded at First Ypres (when
galloping for a very famous general),
returned later on to serve as a Company
Officer with his regiment in the Second
Battle of Ypres, and in other parts of the
line. The later chapters of the book
deal with this phase.

T. FISHER UNWIN LTD., LONDON

THE CANADIANS

IN FRANCE

1915-1918

Captain HARWOOD STEELE, M.C.

AUTHOR OF " CLEARED FOR ACTION," " SONGS OF THE NAVY "

WITH 8 SKETCH MAPS

T. FISHER UNWIN LTD
LONDON: ADELPHI TERRACE

First published in 1920

{All rights resej'vedi

AUTHOR'S NOTE

In the record which follows, the reader will find a detailed —
though entirely unofficial — history of the Canadian Army Corps,
that great force of four divisions and " Corps Troops " which
won for the Dominion the praise of the world as the mother
of warrior sons.

Certain points in connection with the work require explana-
tion. I have dealt solely with the operations of the Corps in
the presence of the enemy. Events not actually connected
with the operations have been omitted, except when of peculiar
importance or essential to the proper understanding of the
narrative. As a result, non-combatant units and those not
normally concerned with the all-important work of killing
Germans may appear to suffer. I have given these credit for
their performances in certain places. The reader must look
upon these troops as the invisible parts of the machine, as
necessary to its efficiency as the fighting men and without
which the entire mechanism would break down.

It has not been possible to mention all persons who earned
the right to have their individual achievements set down in
history. If this were done, the book would be merely a
directory. But many hundreds of gallant officers and men
receive their due.

Care has been taken in defining the identity of units. All
troops referred to are Canadians and infantry unless otherwise
stated. The term " Imperial " has been used to indicate troops
recruited in the British Isles, except in the case of units of the
Tank Corps and Royal Air Force, which were all raised in the
United Kingdom and so need no such distinction. Readers
who desire to ascertain the areas from which various Canadian
battalions, etc., were drawn are referred to the Appendix.

Technicalities have been avoided as far as possible.

The majority of the events dealt with were enacted under
my own observation.

I wish to acknowledge the assistance of Captain C. Donnelly,
Canadian Engineers, and Messrs. A. W. Ellis and A. L. Smith
late Royal Engineers, in the preparation of the maps.

H. S.
London, 1919.

Digitized by the Internet Archive

in 2008 with funding from

IVIicrosoft Corporation

http://www.archive.org/details/canadiansinfrancOOstee

CONTENTS

author's note

CHAPTER

I. INTO THE TRENCHES

II. THE SECOND BATTLE OF YPRES

III. FESTUBERT AND GIVENCHY .

IV. THE CANADIAN ARMY CORPS
V. ST. ELOI ....

VI. SANCTUARY WOOD AND HOOGE

VII. THE SOMME

VIII. IN ARTOIS

IX. THE TAKING OF VIMY RIDGE

X. LENS AND HILL 70

XI. PASSCHENDAELE

XII. THE WINTER OF 1917-18

XIII. AMIENS ....

XIV. CAMBRAI

XV. MONS — AND VICTORY ! .
APPENDIX
INDEX ....

PAGE

. 5
. 11
. 14

. 27
. 36
. 43
. 52
. 65
. 88
. 98
. 115
. 154
. 182
. 203
. 247
. 322
. 339
. 347

LIST OF MAPS

BRITISH FRONT — LENS TO ARRAS
April 191T-AprU 1918

BATTLE OP AMIENS .....
Canadian Operations, August 8, 1918

BATTLE OP AMIENS .....
Canadian Operations, August 9-17, 1918

CAMBRAI ......

Canadian Operations east of Arras, August 26-31, 1918

THE DROCOURT-QUEANT LINE

Canadian Operations, September 2-3, 1918

CAMBRAI ......

Canadian Operations, September 27 to October 11, 1918

FROM CAMBRAI TO VALENCIENNES .

Successive Stages of Canadian Advance, October 12-31, 1918

FROM VALENCIENNES TO MONS

Successive Stages of Canadian Advance, November 1-11, 1918

PAGE

10

. 215
. 236
. 251
. 275
. 291
. 325
. 330

BEITISH FBONT — LENS TO AEBAS.
April 1917-April 1918.

10

The Canadians in France

CHAPTER I

INTO THE TRENCHES

On February 7, 1915, the First Canadian Division, the pioneer
of Canada's fighting troops, began to leave SaHsbury Plain,
where it had been training during the winter, for the front.

The composition of the division was as under :

First Canadian Infantry Brigade, Brigadier-General M. S.
Mercer, consisting of the First Battalion, Lieut. -Col. F. W. Hill ;
Second Battalion, Lieut.-Col. D. Watson ; Third Battalion,
Lieut. -Col. R. Rennie, M.V.O., and Fourth Battalion, Lieut.-
Col. R. H. Labatt. Second Canadian Infantry Brigade, Brigadier-
General A. W. Currie, which was composed of the Fifth Battalion,
Lieut.-Col. G. S. Tuxford ; Seventh Battahon, Lieut.-Col. W.
Hart-McHarg ; Eighth Battalion, Lieut.-Col. L. J. Lipsett ;
Tenth Battalion, Lieut.-Col. R. L. Boyle. The Third Canadian
Infantry Brigade, Brigadier- General R. E. W. Turner, V.C, D.S.O.,
consisting of the Thirteenth Battalion, Lieut.-Col. F. O. W.
Loomis ; Fourteenth Battalion, Lieut.-Col. F. S. Meighen ;
Fifteenth Battalion, Lieut.-Col. J. A. Currie, and Sixteenth
Battalion, Lieut.-Col. R. G. E. Leckie.

The artillery, commanded by Brigadier-General H. E.
Burstall, consisted of the First Brigade, Canadian Field Artillery,
Lieut.-Col. E. W. B. Morrison, D.S.O. ; the Second Brigade,
Canadian Field Artillery, Lieut.-Col. J. J. Creelman ; the Third
Brigade, Canadian Field Artillery, Lieut.-Col. J. H. Mitchell, and
the Divisional Ammunition Column, Lieut.-Col. J. J. Penhale.

The remainder of the division consisted of three Field Com-
panies of Canadian Engineers (the First, Second and Third)
and the usual administrative units. The Divisional Mounted
Troops were a special squadron of the Nineteenth (Alberta)
Dragoons, Lieut.-Col. F. C. Jamieson.

Such was the division which, under the command of Lieut,-

11

12 THE CANADIANS IN FRANCE

General E. A. H. Alderson, C.B., a distinguished officer of the
Regular Army, was to strike Canada's first blows in France.

The division disembarked at St. Nazaire, a French sea-port
town on the west coast, near the mouth of the Loire. The
journey from England was made in heavy gales, but was otherwise
uneventful. The whole division was on French soil in five or
six days, and February 17th found it marching into billets
near Hazebrouck, a small town not thirty miles south-west
of the stricken and fateful city of Ypres. The Canadians
remained in these billets for a week, awaiting orders to enter
the firing-line.

On the 20th they were inspected by the Commander-in-
Chief, Field-Marshal Sir John French. Three days later they
marched to Armentieres. Here they received a royal welcome
from the British troops, the survivors of the first immortal Seven
Divisions.

For some twelve days the division was billeted in Armen-
tieres and the neighbouring country, and it was here they received
their baptism of fire. One company of each battalion at a time
was taken into the trenches of the Imperial regiments near
Sailly, and they received their first experiences of unvarnished
war with the coolness and indifference which was so evident in
the ranks of the Regular Army.

The fighting experienced by the division at this time was of
the unvarying hanging-on description continued during the
first winter of the war. From day to day troops went into the
rain-soaked trenches and endured with the calm fortitude of
the Imperial men. The enemy systematically shelled their
trenches and billets, and occasionally lives were lost. Whether
in trenches or billets the officers and men did their duty, proving
in a few days their ability to look after themselves.

On March 2nd, seven days after their inspection by Sir John
French, the right to stand shoulder to shoulder with England
was granted them, and the Canadians took over from British
troops trenches to the south of Armentieres. These trenches
were flanked right and left by the Fifth (Imperial) Division.

The Canadians passed day after day in this position, following
the monotonous routine of the Allied troops. Each of the
three brigades stationed two battalions at a time in the front
line, the other two battalions of the brigade being in billets in
rear. Each battalion lived four days in the firing-line, holding
their ground through the fitful fighting of their tour. At the
end of the fourth day they went back to rest in billets covered
with mud, heavy-eyed and weary, while a fresh battalion of their
own brigade took their places.

On March 10th the effort at Neuve Chapelle was made.
The Canadians were eager to take part, but their hour had

INTO THE TRENCHES 13

not yet struck. They rendered some assistance by supporting
artillery and small-arm fire.

For two weeks following Neuve Chapellc the Canadians
remained where they were. They were then relieved by the
Eighth (Imperial) Division, and on March 25th began to march
to Estaires. Here they were billeted for some ten days, which
were spent in reorganization. On April 5th marching orders
were again received and they moved to Cassel, about fifteen miles
north-west of Estaires. Their objective was far from Estaires, and
indicated that they would soon be fighting in another district.

A week after their arrival in Cassel found them on the road
to Ypres.

Situated less than thirty miles from Calais, connected with
it by roads and a railway admirably suited for the rapid advance
of hostile troops, Ypres stood as the key to that city. It was,
previous to the war, a town of some nineteen thousand inhabi-
tants, and one of the wealthiest and most important in Belgium.
Its history dates back to the thirteenth century, when two hundred
thousand people dwelt there. From the earliest times it was
famous for its cloth manufactories.

On April 11th, the day of the first Canadian entry into Ypres,
though the troops anticipated severe fighting, they did not
realize that a very few days later they would be engaged
in one of the greatest and most terrible battles ever fought by
British arms.

The next morning found the stage being set. And here a
description of the portion of the stage occupied by Canada is
necessary. The trenches which the Canadians were to take
over from the French lay to the left of the British Army. The
line was part of a salient — the Ypres Salient — and ran roughly
north-west and south-east of Ypres about four odd miles from
the town. Covering a front of about three thousand five hun-
dred yards, its left rested upon the Ypres-Poelcapelle Road, its
right immediately north of the Ypres-Roulers Railway. Here
and there villages and cottages unharried by the devastating
artillery were used as battalion and brigade or other head-
quarters by either side. Chief among these were St. Julien,
Fortuin, St. Jean and Wieltje, on the British side, and Poel-
capelle in the territory of the enemy.

For six days after they had occupied their new positions
the Canadians found everything quiet and normal. Then, on
the night of April 21st, the enemy opened a heavy artillery
bombardment upon Ypres, killing numbers of billeted troops
and non-combatants. From that day until they were forced out
of range years after, their artillery attack of the city never ceased.

With the roar of the German guns heralding its entry, April
22nd dawned.

CHAPTER II

THE SECOND BATTLE OF YPRES

April 1915

At 4.30 p.m. on April 22nd the First Canadian Infantry Brigade,
Brigadier-General M. S. Mercer, was in reserve near and in the
city of Ypres. The Second Canadian Infantry Brigade, Brigadier-
General A. W. Currie, was in action, holding the right of the
Canadian line. The Third Canadian Infantry Brigade, Brigadier-
General R. E. W. Turner, V.C, D.S.O., occupied the left sector.
The three brigades of Canadian Field Artillery supported the
infantry.

This was the distribution of the division when, at the hour
named, the German Army launched a tremendous assault upon
the whole left of the Allied line in a great effort to break through
to Calais and the conflict knoAvn to history as the Second Battle
of Ypres began.

The day was sunny and peaceful, the afternoon drawing to
a close, when, so suddenly that it took every man in the trenches
completely by surprise, a light, misty cloud rose slowly from the
German position and, blown by a favourable Avind, rolled towards
the right flank of the French. The troops posted there suddenly
found themselves treacherously overwhelmed by choking clouds
of poison gas, an instrument of war as devilishly effective as it
was unexpected. Totally unprepared for such an attack, the
native troops, who feared nothing which they understood, broke,
and, mad with agony, reeling and tearing in frenzy at their
throats, staggered down the road to Ypres. As they went the
enemy's artillery burst into an eruption of fire, and many thou-
sands of men hurled themselves into the gap and swept over
the totally unprotected flank of the Canadian division.

Along the whole front held by the Dominion, shell after shell
burst, and the assault, unequalled by any previously launched
since war began, was simultaneously delivered at every point
within range of the gas cloud. The pitiful little body of Canadians
saw it coming. They saw that they were outnumbered beyond
hope of resistance, and so, because they saw it and knew the

14

THE SECOND BATTLE OF YPRES 15

awful consequences of a retreat, resolved to resist to the end.
They saw the French pouring in masses from their left, leaving
the flank utterly exposed to the advancing thousands, which
approached with appalling rapidity. Yet there was no panic,
though the men of the Third Brigade were gasping and sinking
in the edge of the gas zone and the myriad bayonets were closing
around them.

The guns behind the trenches, the moment the attack began,
opened fire upon the enemy, who were visible from the Observation
Posts as clouds of grey and blazing steel, moving down upon the
crashing trenches. These guns began hurling shrapnel into
the oncoming troops. The batteries of the Third Artillery Brigade
also took the mobs of men advancing into the French trenches
by surprise and poured a storm of shells into their gathering
crowds. Supported by this aid, the infantry hung on with grim
courage and for the moment held up the swaying thousands on
the very threshold of victory.

It was at once decided by the brigadier of the Third Infantry
Brigade that he could not possibly hold the original line, as it
then stood, a continued resistance in that position being certain
to end in the complete outflanking of the division. It was
therefore decided to move the brigade, fighting all the way,
until the line should form an angle with its apex resting on
the original left extremity of the division and its new arm covering
the Ypres-Poelcapelle Road. This meant that the force would
not only be holding its old line of trenches but would also be
strung out for over a mile southward. An effort was then to
be made to reunite with the French at the new left flank of the
Canadians and to hold the zigzag line thus formed, which would
represent the high-water mark of the German advance, should
the attempt to beat them back be successful.

While the men in the trenches, under a wilting tempest of
shrapnel, high explosive and rifle fire, clung fiercely to their
ground, help was being rushed up as fast as possible. The
first signs of anything amiss coming to the men in reserve were
the faint smell of chlorine in the air and a greenish tinge in the
distant sky. Then, without warning, the Ypres Road became
swarmed with troops stumbling in the wildest confusion from
the abandoned line. They came in mixed mobs of Europeans,
Algerians and Turcos, officers and men reeling in one writhing
crowd, rending their clothes, coughing and vomiting blood, and
falling by the road as they came. Staff officers rushed out to
stop them, but the line, like tortured spirits released from Hades,
continued to rush past in appalling numbers. Behind them,
just in rear of the whistling shrapnel from their own guns, followed
hundreds of German infantry, butchering the stragglers, until

16 THE CANADIANS IN FRANCE

the proximity of the town compelled them to retire. And it was
into this unknown Hades, the signs of which were before their
eyes, that the reserves were rushed.

By the time dusk had set in the battalions were marching.
The First Battalion, Lieut. -Col. F. W. Hill, was quickly assembled
and sent up to the aid of the left flank. The Second Battalion,
Lieut. -Col. D. Watson, in company with the Third Battalion,
Lieut.-Col. R. Rennie, M.V.O., began to move towards Wieltje
to the support of the Third Infantry Brigade at about half-
past eight in the evening. The Fourth Battalion, Lieut.-Col.
A. P. Birchall, accompanied the First Battalion in its march
to the assistance of the left flank. The two battalions of the
Second Infantry Brigade in reserve when the assault was
delivered were the Seventh and Tenth. The Seventh Battalion,
Lieut.-Col. W. Hart-McHarg, was ordered to support the Third
Infantry Brigade, which was in the greatest danger, and the
Tenth Battalion, Lieut.-Col. R. L. Boyle, received instructions
to move from Wieltje into the reserve trenches. The battalions
of the Third Brigade which had been resting were the Fourteenth
and Sixteenth. The Fourteenth Battalion, Lieut.-Col. F. S.
Meighen, was near the G.H.Q. line of defences before Wieltje.
The Sixteenth Battalion, Lieut.-Col. R. G. E. Leckie, in Ypres,
crossed the Canal and held it whilst the broken French troops
fell back through them.

In the meantime, with indomitable gallantry, the men ahead
were holding on. The enemy were rolling forward in overwhelming
numbers, their artillery and machine guns lashing the line.
The Canadians fought until they were literally blown out of
their trenches and, stubbornly struggling, replied with a continual
tornado of bullets that withered the clamouring waves of their
opponents.

The Third Brigade now began to take up its new dispositions.
In this movement they were given the support of the Third
Artillery Brigade, which was actually forced by rifle fire to retire
upon St. Jean during the evening, so far had the enemy advanced.
They were also greatly assisted by that Imperial battery of
4*7 guns stationed in rear of the wood near St. Julien. These
guns were perforce abandoned, but their loss was of no importance,
even in those days when British guns were few.

The enemy was now in complete possession of a wedge of
country extending from the left of the original Canadian line
to the new right of the French line, the apex resting on the
south side of the small wood in which the battery stood. Great
forces in solid formation were holding this ground. The move-
ment of the Third Brigade still left their left flank unprotected,
as the junction with the French had not yet been renewed, and

THE SECOND BATTLE OF YPRES 17

it seemed that the tremendous weight of the German attack
must eventually crumple up their line on itself and annihilate
the division. It was, then, decided to hurl a hasty counter-
attack against the overpowering army that was swiftly surrounding
the desperate battalions.

The only available battalions were the Tenth Battalion,
which had been ordered, as before stated, to move into reserve
trenches at Wieltje, and the Sixteenth Battalion, holding the
Canal. The Sixteenth Battalion was at once lined up and,
having received instructions, marched by a roundabout route
to St. Julien. In silence and with bayonets fixed they set off
through the darkness.

At St. Julien they met the Tenth Battalion, which had
marched from Wieltje and was waiting for them. They were
formed into line, the Sixteenth on the left and the Tenth on
the right. They kept stolid silence, and presently the word
came to advance.

So, as majestically as if advancing in review order, the
battalions moved unhesitatingly forward. When within a few
score yards of the position the marching troojjs were greeted
for a moment by the scattered shots of the retreating outposts
of the enemy, which had possibly heard the tread of many feet
or seen the flicker of the feeble moon upon a bayonet. This
was the signal for the attack. The Canadians lay down and
removed their packs. Then at midnight with a roar they rushed
forward, and the wood suddenly burst into fire.

In brigade headquarters, to rear, they thought that no man
could live in the furious storm that poured into the charging
battalions. The wood seemed one mass of scorching flame. The
men fell everywhere. Lieut.-Col. R. L. Boyle and Major MacLaren,
of the Tenth Battalion, were soon mortally wounded. Captain
John Geddes, of the Sixteenth Battalion, also collapsed mortally
wounded, and the men of his command saw him waving them on
and splendidly struggling on hands and knees to reach the enemy
before he gave up his life. Captain Godson-Godson, the Adjutant,
was dangerously hit at the same time, while gallantly directing
the advance of the battalion.

And so the attackers pressed irresistibly on. The Huns
cringed as the Canadians, without firing a shot, reached their
position. The assault swarmed over the parapet and cleared
the trenches with the bayonet. Machine guns were abandoned,
and in a few moments the wood was cleared except for isolated
little groups that fought in unbroken silence. Soon every German
in the position was dead, and the remnants of the two battalions
entrenched themselves in the northern edge of the wood, the
position won.

2

18 THE CANADIANS IN FRANCE

Major Ormond now took command of the Tenth Battalion,
in succession to Lieut.-Col. Boyle. He, too, was wounded shortly
afterwards, whereupon the command devolved upon Major
Guthrie, an officer attached to the battalion, who led it thence-
forth with great skill.

The position now held by the Canadians in the wood was
several hundred yards in advance of the line of the Third Brigade
upon the right, and was not in touch with any troops upon either
flank. This meant that the battalions were in great danger of
being cut off. Lieut.-Col. Leckie therefore caused a retirement
to be made to the south side of the wood, where the men
dug in and where touch was gained with the Third Brigade
before dawn.

By the success of the attack upon the wood the weight upon
the left flank was much lessened, and it gave a footing to the
troops which were to strengthen the line along the Ypres-Poel-
capelle Road. Throughout the Canadian line the men were
still indomitably retaining their positions. While the charge was
being carried out, the reserve battalions were rapidly coming up.
The First and Fourth Battalions had taken up a position in line
facing north about two thousand yards north of Ypres, the left
upon the eastern bank of the Canal, and were there rapidly
digging in. Their presence there was a precautionary measure,
as the exact whereabouts of the French troops was unknown.
In the location adopted by these battalions they stood as a barrier
to any thrust upon Ypres or the Canal and as a flank guard to
that struggling line of Canadians to the east.

Meanwhile, also, the Second Battalion had secured touch
with the Tenth Battalion on its left and the Third Brigade on
its right, helping to strengthen the staggering defences. The
Third Battalion was in reserve close behind them. The Seventh
Battalion was also by that time in the breach, fighting on the
left of the Thirteenth Battalion and endeavouring to get in
touch with the Second Battalion and complete the thin fence
of steel that shut the Germans back.

By this time, also, the first of the Imperial troops to come
to the support of the Canadians had appeared upon the scene.
This was a mixed force of battalions, or portions of battalions,
which had just been engaged at Hill 60 and elsewhere, and which,
at the commencement of the German gas attack, had been
enjoying a well-earned rest in billets in rear. They were hastily
gathered together, anyhow and by any means, and i^laced under
the command of Colonel Geddes, of the Second Buffs, for the
purpose of the existing situation. They became known as
Geddes' Detachment, and they did grand work at a critical time.

These troops, arriving towards midnight, were directed to

THE SECOND BATTLE OF YPRES 19

fill the gap between the left of the Sixteenth Battalion and the
right of the First and Fourth Battalions further to the west, and
thus to close the last break in the Canadian line.

The grey, heavy-winged dawn at last came slowly over the
far-flung Canadian line and found a gaunt, haggard little handful
of men still making an incredible stand in the path of enormous
forces of the Kaiser's best. From the right of the line to the
left were the Fifth, Eighth, Fifteenth, Thirteenth, Seventh;
Third, Second, Tenth, Sixteenth, Fourteenth, Fourth and First
Battalions, men of whom it could be truly said that they never
knew they were beaten.

The German wedge, when the morning broke, was still
jammed firmly in the gap it had forced. There was one break
in the wedge, however, which they knew to their cost was im-
possible to close. This was caused by the wood near St. Julien,
which the Tenth and Sixteenth Battalions had taken the night
before. A few attempts to retake the position had been beaten
back with such heavy losses that the enemy were well content
to keep out of it and run their line about the further border.

The Germans had made a fatal mistake after their initial
success of the previous afternoon. They had halted for a time
to consolidate, thus giving us breathing space when lack of it
would have meant the end. Throughout the night, nevertheless,
they had made continuous, though isolated, efforts to exploit
the advantage they had gained and to enlarge the entrance they
had forced, but the obstinate resistance of the Canadians had
hitherto checked them. The possession of the wood for the time
had relieved the situation. The German attacks, however,
were constantly increasing in frequency and power, and were
again threatening to crush in the left flank, where Geddes had
not yet arrived, and destroy the division. In order to stop
this and finally to arrest the advance at this point as well as to
re-establish touch with the French, it was decided vigorously to
counter-attack the enemy's trenches. The First and Fourth
Battalions, in their position immediately east of the Canal, and
Geddes' Detachment, marching rapidly forward, were ordered
to advance in a north-easterly direction and take the position
to the left of the troops in the trenches and west of the wood.

The enemy here was holding a very strong position, well
wired, on a long slope, facing south-west and about one thousand
yards in front of the two Canadian battalions. The Fourth
Battalion, closely supported by the First Battalion, was ordered
to advance with its right on the Ypres-Pilekem Road, while
Geddes kept pace with it on the right. The French, an indefinite
way off to the north, were attacking at the same time.

It was easy to see the terrible casualties such an attack would

20 THE CANADIANS IN FRANCE

demand. They also saw the consequences if the fierce charges
of the enemy were not broken and junction made with the
French. The fate of the whole force rested in their hands that
morning, as the fate of the whole Empire hung upon the valour
of the division. So, in order to save that division, when, at
6.30 a.m., the advance began, they unhesitatingly rushed into
destruction.

Under cover of the most violent fire that our scanty array
of guns and small arms could muster, the advance was thrust
through a terrible bombardment of German artillery and in the
face of an ever-increasing and terrific infantry and machine
gun fire. Man upon man died, until the attack seemed to sink
away, but the rest pushed on. Lieut.-Col. A. P. Birchall, a shining
example of the British Regular officer, gallantly led his men
and fell dead before their eyes. Fired by his actions and those
of the other valorous leaders, the troops rushed forward, up
to the very muzzles of the raving machine guns holding, the
most advanced positions. There was a short struggle in the
outlying trenches, where the goring bayonets filled them with
dead. The last German fled ; the fire of the Canadian and English
guns lifted to destroy the survivors and the remains of the
assaulting regiments halted.

The advance had won to a line roughly one thousand yards
in front of the jumping-off position. Further than this no
progress could be made, for in the machine gun fire from the
more northerly German troops no man could live. But Geddes'
Detachment had gained touch with the Canadians on his right
near the wood, and at 9.30 a.m. that morning the First and
Fourth Battalions dug in, the First in support of the Fourth.
Both battalions, with their left now four hundred yards east
of the Ypres-Pilckem Road, gained touch with the French and at
last closed that awful gap that had yawned five miles wide the
night before.

The price paid for this triumph was very great, but those
who fell had not given their lives in vain. They had saved
the division.

The gain was indeed of immense value. It had effectively ex-
tended the Canadian line from the left of the Fourteenth Battalion
to a point far west of that flank. The division's trenches were
now roughly in the shape of an S. From the original right of
the Canadians, which was still rigidly held by the Second Brigade,
the line ran north-west along the entire front held by the division
before the battle. From this point it curved south and ran along
the Ypres-Poelcapelle Road, to tend thence in a generally western
direction to the place of junction with the French. Thus it
may be seen that the Canadians, helped by Geddes' Detachment,

THE SECOND BATTLE OF YPRES 21

were actually holding a line over three times longer than that
first given to them.

It was from this time that Fortune for a time began to favour
the splendid efforts of the Allies. In spite of violent attacks
undertaken by huge hordes of the enemy, the trenches were
retained. The French, in concert with the British, that morning
had begun a series of heavy assaults upon the German line.
These attacks succeeded in that a footing was gained all along
the wedge and communication established. The result was
that the evening found the enemy's wedge entirely hemmed in
with an immovable chain of flame and steel through which they
could not break, despite the eternal hammering of their raging
masses of men. The Canadians were now being strongly rein-
forced by Imperial troops, the first of which had arrived in time
to assist the counter-attack of the First and Fourth Battalions.
Moreover, fresh men were continually coming to the assistance
of the French, and the new line, though sadly distant from the
old, grew every hour stronger.

The attempt to get forward and further contract the German
spearhead was resumed by the Canadians in the afternoon,
when the Thirteenth (Imperial) Brigade, moving with its line
astride the Ypres-Pilckem Road, co-operated with the First
and Fourth Battalions, who emerged from the trenches won
that morning and again attacked. The advance was made
with magnificent vigour and in perfect order at 4.25 p.m., in the
face of appalling fire. After enduring agonies, the remains of
these fine troops at 5.45 p.m. reached a line about seven hundred
yards in advance of their foremost starting-point and running
east and west from the Canal to a farm two thousand yards
beyond it. The farm and the trenches on this line were taken
after a desperate struggle and the shattered regiments con-
solidated.

While this advance was being carried out the slow clouds of
poison gas, carrjdng death within them, were drifting down
once again upon the devoted survivors of the Third Brigade,
The Germans rained shells upon the remains of their trenches
at the same time, and then twice followed up with bomb and
bayonet. The Third Brigade were still unbeaten, however,
and, gassed, bleeding and exhausted though they were, drove
back both attacks with great loss.

On the day the events of which have just been described,
the first Victoria Cross was gained by Lance-Corporal Frederick
Fisher, of the Thirteenth Battalion. He went forward with
the machine gun of which he was in charge and most gallantly
assisted in covering the retreat of the Tenth Battery, C.F.A.,
Major W. B, M. King, losing four men of his gun team. Later,

22 THE CANADIANS IN FRANCE

after obtaining four more men, he went forward again to the
firing-line and covered the advance of supports. This courageous
hero was the first of three Canadians, among the hundreds in that
battle who gave unrecognized proof of their gallantry, to earn
the distinction.

Major King had waited for the enemy to reach a position
only two hundred yards away before opening fire with great
effect over open sights. With Fisher's assistance he got his
guns away in dashing style and suffered little for his audacity.

With the battle at the stage described, the second terrible
night closed down upon battalions worn with fighting but still
retaining their ground with unshaken courage.

At about 4.30 a.m. on April 24th, following the dastardly
course they had already adoj^ted, the enemy let loose a fresh
emission of gas, this time upon the trenches of both the Second
and Third Brigades.

Immediately after the fresh emjoloyment of gas the Germans
attacked the Canadians while they were yet staggering from the
effects of the vile assault, delivering their strongest blows upon
the weakest part of the front. The point selected was the angle
of the line where it turned from the original left of the division
to cover the Ypres-Poelcapelle Road. A constant hammering of
this section must eventually result in its collapse upon itself
and an opening through which fresh throngs could pour to
complete the defeat of the Allies.

The sorely tried Third Brigade received the full force of these
assaults. For a short time they fought with terrible fury, broken
and mingled together though they were, but unbroken in courage
and determination. The enemy with his overpowering masses
overran the left of the Second Brigade and most of the Third
Brigade, and the survivors, unable to remain longer in that place
of vaporous death, were forced to give way.

It was at about this time that Lieut. -Col. W. Hart-McHarg,
the commander of the Seventh Battalion, was mortally wounded.
Major V. W. Odium, assisted by Captain Gibson, Lieut. Mathewson
and Sergeant Dryden, brought him in with great gallantry.
Major Odium then took command of the battalion.

To meet the desperate situation that had arisen, General
Alderson at once withdrew the Tenth and Sixteenth Battalions
from their positions near the wood and sent them to the assis-
tance of the Second Brigade. When they arrived, however, the
situation had crystallized and they were not used. At the same
time one company of the Seventh Battalion, also part of the
Fifth Battalion, was sent forward. By 7.30 a.m. it was clear
that the remnants of the right of the Third Brigade had been
driven almost upon St. Julien. The Imperial troops in that

THE SECOND RATTLE OF YPRES 23

village were at once ordered to attaek and restore the line, but
already all these troops were in the firing-line and fighting
desperately in scattered groups.

The Eighth Battalion, in a most gallant counter-attaek, had
now regained all its trenches, and rapidly threw out a line, with
the aid of part of the Seventh Battalion and other troops, towards
a point about one thousand yards north of St. Julien, in order
to regain touch with and cover the Third Brigade. The enemy
was attacking everywhere with great force, and toAvards noon
the pressure upon the Second Brigade became almost unbearable.

Two battalions of the Yorkshire and Durham (Imperial)
Brigade, from the vicinity of Wieltje, had been placed at tho
disposal of the Third Brigade with which to restore the situation.
At 1 p.m., however, as the enemy was gathering new masses
north of St. Julien, these battalions were instead ordered to
assist in staying the line. At the same time the First Battalion
was moved from its position on the left of Geddes' Detachment
to Wieltje, as the situation at St. Julien was becoming desperate.
At 3 p.m. still further assistance was lent, this time to the Second
Brigade, by the Eighth Middlesex, two companies of the Eighty-
fifth (Imperial) Brigade and two battalions from the Twenty-
seventh (Imperial) Division. The latter — the Suffolks and the
Twelfth London Regiment — advanced in a north-easterly direc-
tion towards the line of the Second Brigade, heavily fired at
from near St. Julien and from in front, and after a magnificent
advance with many casualties, were held up in rear of the Second
Brigade, where they dug themselves in.

Thus was the worn-out battle-front of the Canadian division
stayed.

The artillery, throughout that long and terrible day, though
hampered by a failing supply of ammunition, strained every
nerve to help the infantry, but their assistance was of little avail.
The enemy's guns all day maintained a murderous fire. This
our gunners had to contend with also. The First Artillery Brigade
was gallantly supporting the line where Canadians and French
joined hands. The Second Artillery Brigade, in the course
of the day, was actually firing to front and rear at once as the
Germans crushed in the salient. The Third Artillery Brigade,
which had been compelled to retire on St. Jean .the night before,
was pounding the ceaseless tide which crashed about the devoted
survivors, of the Second Infantry Brigade and its supports.
Through the entire battle the artillery fought nobly, but never
more valorously than upon April 24th.

When the evening closed down once more upon the weary
but unconquerable troops, the retirement of the Third Brigade
was almost completed. The battalions had now swung round

24 THE CANADIANS IN FRANCE

with the regiments to the left as a pivot until the right of the
Hne was almost upon St. Julien. The whole of the country
vacated was now alive with the Kaiser's infantry, which had
completely outflanked the Second Brigade, but could not surround
them, owing to spirited supporting fire.

The second of the Victoria Crosses awarded for deeds per-
formed in the battle was earned during the fighting when one
of the Second Brigade, Colour-Sergeant Frederick William Hall,
Eighth Battalion, carried in two of his men who had been hit
while entering a trench from an exposed position. When another
man, who was lying wounded some fifteen yards from the trenches,
called for help, Colour-Sergeant Hall endeavoured to reach
him in the face of a very heavy enfilade fire which was being
poured in by the enemy. The first attempt failed, and Corporal
Payne and Private Rogerson, who attempted to give assistance,
were both wounded. Colour-Sergeant Hall then tried again,
and in doing so was shot dead.

Again another night passed and brought little relief to the
exhausted men slowly dying in the firing-line. During the night
General Currie further strengthened his feeble left, flung out
towards the Third Brigade, with the remains of the Seventh
and Tenth Battalions. He also relieved two decimated companies
of the Eighth Battalion with two companies of Durham Light
Infantry which were at his disposal, and sent the relieved troops
to the south side of the Gravenstafel Ridge. Thus far no touch
had been gained with the Third Brigade, and a perilous gap
still yawned on the left of the Second Brigade.

At 5.30 a.m., in a last endeavour to save St. Julien and render
support to the Third Brigade, which was still being ferociously
bombarded and endlessly pressed, the Tenth (Imperial) Brigade
made a counter-attack in a northerly direction from a line some
five hundred yards south of the village. It was pressed forward
after an artillery bombardment with great fire and courage,
and actually won, in the teeth of terrific opposition, to the southern
outskirts of St. Julien. It almost rescued the undaunted groups
of the Third Brigade still fighting in the ruins, though now com-
pletely surrounded. Eventually it was forced to fall back,
roughly, to its starting-point. It had done gloriously. Though
it had not driven the enemy off, it had arrested their advance.

St. Julien, however, had fallen, and from it very heavy
machine gun fire was being poured on the much enduring survivors
of the Seventh and Tenth Battalions, who, assisted by the Suffolks,
Londons and Northumberland Fusiliers, were still clinging to
the line north-east of the village. At 5.15 p.m. the Second
Brigade was at last compelled to fall back. All but its immediate
right, which held on marvellously until 3.40 a.m. on April 26th,

THE SECOND BATTLE OF YPRES 25

were forced to retire to Wieltje. This brigade had done truly-
wonderful work. Without its strong stand the wheeling move-
ment and subsequent retreat of the Third Brigade would have
been impossible.

The Eighth Battalion, Lieut. -Col. L. J. Lipsett, under the
inspiration of their heroic leader, who exposed himself recklessly
throughout, had resisted the enemy until their trenches were
crumbling ruins, their companies surrounded, enfiladed and
reduced to half-crazed little groups of men mechanically fighting.

But the end of that horror was at hand. During the night
the Third Brigade were withdrawn to immediately north-east of
Ypres and the First Brigade to the Canal just north of the city.
The Twenty-eighth (Lnperial) Division became responsible for
the front between Fortuin and the left of the Second Brigade.
On the following night, that of April 26th, the Second Brigade
went into reserve east of Fortuin, and on the night of April 27th,
out of the field where it had suffered and endured so much, to
bivouacs west of the Canal.

But their share — the share of the Canadians— in that homeric
conflict was not over even then. On the night of April 28th the
First Brigade was entirely employed on digging new trenches
east of the Canal. On the night of April 29th, the Third Brigade
was sent into support of the French immediately east of the Canal
and the Fifth and Tenth Battalions of the Second Brigade were
placed on the western bank, guarding the bridges.

On May 2nd, long after these worn-out men would normally
have been in rest billets, the First Brigade was moved forward
to support the Twelfth (Imperial) Brigade, which was heavily
gassed upon that day. By 11 p.m. the same night, fortunately,
the danger had passed and they were back in billets. On May
3rd they moved to Bailleul, followed by the Third and Second
Brigades respectively on the 4th and 5th. Thus the Canadians,
who took their artillery out with them on this last move, left
the field of their glory and sacrifice after such an ordeal as few
troops in the world have ever survived.

Before closing this narrative the winning of a third Victoria
Cross during the retirement of the Third Brigade near St. Julien
must be mentioned. Captain Francis Alexander Caron Scrimger,
C.A.M.C, Medical Officer, Fourteenth Battalion, was in command
of an aid post. He courageously superintended the removal
of wounded, himself carrying out Captain H. F. MacDonald, of
the Third Brigade staff, who had been dangerously wounded.
Captain Scrimger did not, like the other heroes, die in perform-
ing his valiant deed.

Mention must also be made again of the many Imperial
troops who assisted the Canadians after the first blow fell. These

26 THE CANADIANS IN FRANCE

were the Second and Third Cavalry Brigades, the Tenth, Twelfth,
Thirteenth and Yorkshire and Durham Brigades, the 1/lst
Northumberland Brigade, and, last but not least, Geddes' make-
shift command, the gallant leader of which was killed by a shell
on April 28th.

All these troops did splendidly.

It is idle to discuss the pros and cons, the tactics displayed
by this side or that in the terrible battle in which the Canadians
had their first real taste of naked war. It is incredible, in the
light of later events of the war, that the enemy, with all his vast
superiority in men and material, should have accomplished
virtually nothing but the infliction of casualties which did not
exceed his own. It is even more incredible that the British
troops, Canadian and Imperial alike, ludicrously small in numbers
for the task they were called upon to perform, should yet have
held the line and retrieved the Allied arms from almost irreparable
disaster.

Taking the battle broadly, it was very well handled and skil-
fully fought. It must be remembered that practically the whole
of the British Army was stemming a great assault at the same
time as Canada was holding the gates of Ypres. The jDromptitude
and the strength with which reinforcements were provided was
therefore most remarkable.

Nevertheless, the very fact that the whole of the British
line was desperately engaged adds greater glory to the isolated
effort of the Canadians, raw troops left for many hours upon
their own resources. The glory of the achievement of closing
the gap is Canada's, and hers alone. The world was saved by
the men of the First Division.

The toll was great. The Canadians lost nearly two hundred
and fifty officers and six thousand men. The First Brigade
alone lost sixty-four officers and the Second Brigade one thousand
seven hundred and seventy men.

But they had won a great victory, they had worked a miracle.
God had steeled their hearts and given them strength. And
they had done something which was to endure till the end — they
had written the fear of Canada into the heart of Germany, so
that they had delivered towards her defeat a blow greater even
than they knew.

CHAPTER III

FESTUBERT AND GIVENCHY

May- June 1915

The terrible fighting at Ypres, wherein the Canadians won their
spurs, did not cease when the shrunken division was withdrawn.
On the contrary, it proceeded to develop into a most longdrawn
and desperate defensive battle.

It soon became apparent that some diversion must be created
to relieve the pressure upon Plumer's Force. An tittaek was
therefore delivered by the First Army, to the south of Ypres,
in the district between Richebourg and La Bassee, with the
object of drawing off some of the overpowering German Army
that was pounding relentlessly against the Yser line and also
of pinning the enemy's troops already opposite the First Army
to that sector, so that they might not be used in the North.

The Canadians, after a short period of recuperation in Bailleul,
were ordered South to take part in these operations.

On the night of May 14th the Canadians moved to Buenes
and the vicinity. On May 17th they moved again, the Divisional
Headquarters establishing itself at Locon. And upon that day
the infantry began the moves which were to place them in the
firing-line.

The Canadian Artillery had relieved the artillery of the
Fourth (Imperial) Division between May 6th and 10th, but
proceeded to support their own infantry when the latter became
engaged.

First to enter the trenches at Festubert were the Third Brigade,
which entered the reserve trenches at Le Touret on May 17th,
relieving a brigade of the Seventh (Imperial) Division there.
On the following day this brigade struck Canada's first blow in
her latest battle-field.

The attack was made at 5.15 p.m. on a frontage of about
five hundred yards in a north-easterly direction from Festubert.
The Fourteenth Battalion, Lieut. -Col. F. S. Meighen, and the
Sixteenth Battalion, Lieut. -Col. R. G. E. Leekie, delivered the
attack, the latter on the right. It was finely pressed in the face

27

28 THE CANADIANS IN FRANCE

of considerable fire, and the position reached was rapidly con-
solidated.

It was originally intended that the attack should be resumed
during the night, to include a small orchard some distance in
advance of the new line, but this was ultimately postponed to
allow time for proper preparation.

On May 18th the Second Brigade took over from the Seventh
(Imperial) Division trenches in reserve south of the Third
Brigade.

The Second Brigade moved up from the reserve trenches
on May 19th to relieve the Twenty-first Brigade of the Seventh
(Imperial) Division, and had finished the relief by 11 p.m.
that night.

The postponed attack on the Orchard was delivered with
great fire by the Sixteenth Battalion on the night of May 20th.
All known strong points on the front of the Canadians had been
steadily bombarded throughout the day. At 7.45 p.m. the
artillery fire ceased. Instantly, two companies of the Sixteenth,
led by Major Peck, Captain Rae and Captain Morison, climbed
out of their trenches and with a wild shout rushed for the Orchard.

A terrific machine gun fire struck the troops as they advanced.
They suffered heavily, but were over the intervening ground in
an instant.

The Orchard was bounded by a thick hedge and a ditch con-
taining five feet of water. There were only one or two gaps in
the hedge through which a man might pass. The attackers
plunged into the ditch neck-deep, crawled out beyond, and one
by one made their way through the gaps in the hedge. Through-
out the Germans fired furiously, directing their machine guns
upon the passages through which the Highlanders were struggling.
The toll paid at those entrances of death was heavy, and they
were continually blocked by dead bodies. The living came on,
nevertheless, dragging the dead away, marshalled their red and
dripping strength in the long grass beyond the hedge, and then
advanced and cleared the Orchard with a rush. The enemy
did not wait for them. They did not like the look in the eyes
of the Canadians or the glimmer of their naked steel.

The Sixteenth hastily dug in along the northern and eastern
sides of the Orchard, the Fifteenth Battalion, Lieut. -Col. W. B,
Marshall, prolonging its flank to our former line. One company
of the Sixteenth Battalion had advanced south of the Orchard,
not entering that position, and captured about two hundred
yards of trench running south-west from the Orchard. It was
on the right of this company that the Fifteenth Battalion had
advanced and prolonged the line.

While this fighting had been going on, the Second Brigade

FESTUBERT AND GIVENCHY 29

to the south attacked at the same time a redoubt a short distance
in front of their line. The attack was repulsed. A party of
the Tenth Battalion advanced with great determination, but
were met by concentrated rifle and machine gun fire, in which
the leaders were shot down.

At 8.30 p.m. on May 21st, after an artillery bombardment,
the Second Infantry Brigade again attacked the redoubt — known
as K5 — which had repulsed them the night before. Assisted
by the grenade company of the First Brigade, two companies
of the Tenth Battalion debouched through two egresses in the
British parapet and rushed for the objective.

They were met with a terrific fire. In this fire the company
of the Tenth Battalion attacking on the left was at once checked
with heavy casualties and made no progress. The company
attacking on the right met with greater success. After clearing
the nearest trenches on their immediate front, this company
seized and consolidated four hundred yards of the main communi-
cation trench leading up to K5 from the British side. A block
was built in the most advanced portion of the communication
trench.

At dawn the German artillery began to take full advantage
of the targets offered by the men holding this beaten down and
ruined line. All the courage, endurance and resolution of the
Canadians were required to enable them successfully to withstand
this long ordeal. Numerous casualties occurred, but the position
was held.

It became necessary to abandon the southern or more advanced
end of the trench during the day, as this was being raked by
shrapnel and small-arm fire and was quite untenable. With
darkness the Forty-Seventh (Imperial) Division and a portion
of the Canadian Cavalry Brigade took over this trench from the
Tenth Battalion, which then withdrew.

During the day's bombardment the men were much encouraged
by the fine example of Major E. J. Ashton, who, though twice
wounded, refused to leave them until completely exhausted.

The Canadian Cavalry Brigade was under the command of
Brigadier-General Seely, and was composed of three regiments
of cavalry. Lord Strathcona's Horse (Royal Canadians), Lieut. -
Col. A. C. Macdonell, D.S.O., the Royal Canadian Dragoons,
Lieut.-Col. C. M. Nelles, and the Second King Edward's Horse,
Lieut. -Col. V. S. Sandeman.

The brigade had only landed in the theatre of war a short
time before. They came as infantry, during the emergency which
then existed and demanded the presence at the front of every
man who could fire a rifle.

A portion of the Second Brigade was relieved by the First

80 THE CANADIANS IN FRANCE

Brigade while the Canadian Cavalry Brigade was relieving the
remainder. The First Brigade at the same time relieved the
whole of the Third Brigade. The relief was complete at 1.15 a.m.
on the morning of the 23rd, and the Second and Third Brigades
withdrew.

Mention must be made of the very fine display of dogged
determination made by the Eighth Battalion, Lieut. -Col. L. J.
Lipsett, during all the fighting which has just been described.
This battalion was on the right of the Third Brigade and the
left of the Tenth Battalion. Sandwiched between these two
units, which were continuously attacking, the Eighth Battalion,
though only holding the line, came in for a great deal of the
hard knocks with which the enemy retaliated. It sustained a
continuous and merciless bombardment, losing Captains McMeans
and Passmore, killed, also Lieut. Smith-Rewse, killed, and Lieuts.
Weames and Denison, wounded. Captain J. M. Prower was
also wounded but remained at duty.

The Eighth Battalion held on throughout. Captain McMeans
set a particularly fine example. During the heaviest stages of
the shelling he sat on the parados of the trench, with cool dis-
regard of his exposed position, and encouraged his men with
calming words. This conduct had such a beneficial effect that
it still inspired the men long after all the officers, including himself,
and a large number of the N.C.O.'s of his company had been
killed or wounded.

At 2.45 a.m. on May 24th, a final assault was made
upon K5.

After a thorough reconnaissance of the ground over which
the attackers were to pass, Lieut. R. Murdie, with two platoons
of the Fifth Battalion, placed a number of light bridges over
several deep ditches, some containing barbed wire, which
constituted formidable obstacles between our line and the
objective.

The bridging party carried our their work in bright moon-
light and under heavy fire. This fire prevented them from laying
the bridges over which the men attacking on either flank were
to pass. The bridges for the use of the centre were successfully
placed.

This alone might have proved fatal to the success of the
attack. But other obstacles now appeared. It was found im-
possible to direct the artillery bombardment which was to precede
the assault, as all the artillery telephone wires had been cut by
the bombardment. This bombardment, as a result, did not take
place. In addition, the communication trenches were so bad
that the attackers were seriously delayed in their advance to
the assembly positions.

FESTUBERT AND GIVENCHY 81

In spite of all these misfortunes, the Second Brigade took
and captured K5 with great dash.

Over the parapet went two companies of the Fifth Battalion
and a company of the Seventh Battalion as working party,
under the supreme command of Major N. S. Edgar, of the former
unit. They were greeted with a most intense fire, some of the
men falling as they rose above the sand-bags, so rapidly did
the enemy open fire. At the ditches the men in the centre got
across safely. The others found no bridges. They sprang
over or fell into the water, which was four feet deep or more.
Some died in the water — hit and drowned. The rest dragged
themselves out, holding their rifles high, and dashed on after
their more fortunate comrades. Nowhere was there any hesi-
tation.

The Germans fled as they approached, not daring to face
the bayonet, and some of them were shot in flight.

At 3.15 a.m. the clearing of K5 was completed and the
position M^as won. Knowing well the temper of their enemies
and their determination to get K5, the Germans had mined their
trenches with the intention of blowing them up if we captured
them. A mine which demolished a machine gun was the only
one they succeeded in discharging. Corporal E. H. Hester had
cut the wiring of the remainder.

Consolidation now began. The enemy opened a terrible
bombardment. Officers and men were killed with appalling
swiftness. Captain Anderson, totally blinded bj' a shell, refused
to leave his men, as he was the only officer " fit " to command
his trench. Captain Meikle also refused, though wounded, and
later paid for his gallantry with his life. Captains McGee and
Innes-Hopkins, of the Fifth Battalion, were killed at about the
same time, the latter endeavouring to reach Lieut. Mundell,
who was fatally wounded and died in hospital. Lieut. Mundell
cheered on his men as he lay dying in the trench. Meanwhile
shell after shell was storming upon the Canadians, who held on
grimly under the fine example of their officers.

At 4.45 a.m. one company of the Seventh Battalion reinforced
the line. Major Edgar having been wounded early in the fight
and his second-in-command, Major Tenaille, being killed. Major
V. W. Odium, commanding the Seventh Battalion, was ordered
at 7 a.m. to take command of the Fifth Battalion as well as
continuing to lead his own.

The Seventh Battalion sent another company to reinforce
the attacking troops during the morning. They were unable
to get far forward on account of the hostile fire, but by nightfall
had strengthened all the weak points in the line.

That night orders were issued to consolidate the captured

S2 THE CANADIANS IN FRANCE

ground without making any further effort to advance. The
troops had not only seized and held K5, but also two hundred
yards of trench to the left and a short length to the right, and that
was all that was expected of them. The artillery surrounded
the workers with a ring of fire, and, somewhat sheltered from
infantry attacks by this means, the new gains were successfully
consolidated.

The action was most successful, though the cost was heavy.
In addition to the officer losses of the Fifth Battalion, the Seventh
Battalion had lost Lieut. G. Hornby, killed, and Captain S. D.
Gardner, the Adjutant, wounded.

At 11.30 p.m. on the night of May 24th the Third Battalion
made an attempt to advance down a trench some two hundred
yards east of the Orchard. The attack was delivered with deter-
mination, but failed in the face of concentrated fire from four
machine guns.

The First Brigade made no further attacks. The remainder
of their time in the Festubert trenches was sjient in consolidation.
This work entailed much digging under heavy fire.

May 25th and 26th were spent by the Canadian Cavalry
Brigade in slowly pushing down disputed trenches with bombs
and bayonets and thus gradually adding to the gains that had
already been made. On the night of the 26th they were relieved
by the Third Brigade.

No further action of importance took place. The First and
Third Brigades went on consolidating and advancing by yards
down abandoned trenches under heavy machine gun fire. By
June 1st, the Forty-seventh (Imperial) Division had completed
its relief of these two brigades and the Canadians were then
withdrawn.

This finished the series of hard-fought little actions known
collectively as Festubert. The casualties of the Second Brigade
in the battle were fifty-five officers and nine hundred and eighty
men. These casualties are typical of those suffered by the
division.

After a short rest in the vicinity of Bethune the Canadians
were sent in to fight in front of Givenchy, an insignificant ruin
of a village just north of the La Bassee Canal, but, like all the
ruins behind that line of 1915, a shrine of British courage. The
Givenchy fighting was a continuation of those isolated actions
which had been the rule at Festubert, a fcAv hundred yards to
the north.

The First Brigade on June 15th made an attack in conjunction
with the Seventh (Imperial) Division on their left. Their business
was to secure the right flank of that division by capturing one
hundred and fifty yards of a double line of trenches to the south,

FESTUBERT AND GIVENCHY 38

between two redoubts known unofficially as Stony Mountain
and Dorchfester. The First Battalion, Lieut.-Col. F. W. Hill,
Avith joarties from the Second and Third Battalions for carrying
out consolidation, delivered the attack.

After a protracted bombardment during the day, two field
guns of the Fourth Battery, under Lieuts. C. S. Craig and L. S.
Kelly, were suddenly unmasked at 5.45 p.m. and began battering
the enemy's lines from positions in our front trenches where
they had been previously placed. Under point-blank fire these
guns knocked out six German machine guns and flattened the
German trenches and barbed wire. The gun-shields were riddled
by bullets, which crackled like hail on the guns. The gunners
fired furiously for fifteen minutes, when their work was over.

At 6 p.m. a mine was exploded under the German line and the
infantry attacked.

By most unfortunate ill-luck we lost a great number of
officers at the very beginning of our attack. The explosion of
the mine was preceded by violent enemy artillery fire, which
killed Lieut.-Col. Beecher and three subaltern officers. The
mine explosion also killed a number of essential bombers.

In spite of this handicap, the companies of the First Battalion,
together with their helpers, went forward successively and with
great gallantry. Dorchester and the enemy's front line were
captured immediately. The men holding these positions had
been blown to pieces or buried by the explosion.

Stony Mountain, however, had not been affected by the mine.
It maintained a machine gun and rifle fire of terrible intensity,
which caused much loss. One company alone lost Captain
Delamere, wounded, and Lieuts. Young and Tranter, killed,
by this means.

The two leading companies, ignoring their losses, attacked
the second line as soon as the first was taken. The second line
was also taken. The blood of the men was up. They did not
flinch in the wilting terror of the enemy's machine gun and rifle
and shell fire, though it created havoc among them. Those
who dared stand before them went down under their grenades
or were bayoneted with scant mercy.

While two companies of the First Battalion, unaided by the
working parties from the rest of the brigade, who could not
get to them through that hell-fire, were busy consolidating the
captured trenches, the remnants of the leading companies attacked
Stony Mountain. These succeeded in getting some distance
down the trench leading to the strong point, and were then held
up by a barricade over which they could not climb except to
certain death.

Here Lieut. F, W. Campbell and Private Vincent won the

3

84 THE CANADIANS IN FRANCE

Victoria Cross and the Distinguished Conduct Medal respectively.
Hoisting a machine gun upon Vincent's back, Lieut. Campbell
opened and maintained a terrific fire on the enemy. Attempt
after attempt was made to overpower the pair when the Germans
counter-attacked, but Campbell smashed the enemy back in
confusion. Eventually he fell mortally wounded and was carried
back dying by Sergeant-Major Owen, while Vincent, the Germans
at his heels, dragged the machine gun into safety.

Having failed to get Stony Mountain, the men bent every
effort on holding the ground they had. Bombs had run out,
however, and very few men were left. Reinforcements of the
Third Battalion, which had now arrived, were of little avail.
The inevitable conclusion was that at 10 p.m., after resisting in
every trench, the survivors of the attack had been driven back
to our own line and entirely out of the position.

Only three officers out of twenty-three were left in the First
Battalion when this happened.

The attack of the Seventh (Imperial) Division also failed.
For the most part they met with great masses of barbed wire,
through which they could not penetrate.

Next day the Third Battalion, in conjunction with the Im-
perial troops, made an attack upon the same ground with the
same objective. Their conduct was as gallant. A footing was
gained in the German trenches all along the frontage of the
battalion, but a heavy bombing assault made the trenches un-
tenable and they were also forced to return to the British line.
The supporting attacks of the troops on the flanks were also a
failure.

On June 17th the First Brigade was relieved by the Second
and went into reserve. The Canadian division was then with-
drawn, and in the first week of July began to move to a quiet
sector of the line.

The new area into which the Canadians moved was immediately
east of Bailleul, and faced the village of Messines, just in the
enemy's lines, while it encircled the Bois de Ploegsteert, commonly
called Plug-street Wood. With the First Brigade in the centre,
the Third on the left and the Second on the right, the First
Canadian Division entered into a phase of tranquillity in its
history which was welcome.

Divisional Headquarters were established in Nieppe, east
of Bailleul.

July went quickly by with nothing but an odd patrol encounter
and a steady digging on new defence lines to mark its passing.
In August important changes were made in the division. Over
in England a second Canadian division was in the last stages of
its training joreparatory to joining its predecessor at the front.

FESTUBERT AND GIVENCHY 35

It had long since been decided to band the two forces into the
formation known as an Army Corps. The promotion of Lieu-
tenant-General Alderson to the command of the Canadian Corps
would leave the First Division without a leader. Two new
Major-Gencrals were created to command the two divisions.

Brigadier-General A. W. Currie, C.B., was selected to head
the veterans in Flanders. Brigadier-General R. E. W. Turner,
V.C., C.B., D.S.O., was given the command of the Second Division.

Lieut.-Col. L. J. Lipsett, C.M.G., and Lieut.-Col. R. G. E.
Leckie, C.M.G., were appointed Brigadier-Generals and to the
command of the Second and Third Brigades.

On August 12th Brigadier-General Turner left for England,
and was immediately succeeded by the new commander of the
brigade. On September 13th Lieut. -General Alderson assumed
command of the Canadian Corps and Major-General Currie took
his place.

Lieut.-Col. D. Watson, of the Second Battalion, left for
England in August to take command of the Fifth Canadian
Infantry Brigade, of the Second Division, in England.

Then the Second Canadian Division came to France.

CHAPTER IV

THE CANADIAN ARMY CORPS

The composition of the Second Canadian Division was as
follows :

Fourth Canadian Infantry Brigade, Brigadier-General Lord
Brooke, consisting of the Eighteenth Battalion, Lieut.-Col. E. S.
Wigle ; Nineteenth Battalion, Lieut.-Col. J. S, McLaren ;
Twentieth Battalion, Lieut.-Col. C. H. Rogers, and Twenty-first
Battalion, Lieut.-Col. W. St. P. Hughes. The Fifth Canadian
Infantry Brigade, Brigadier-General D. Watson, was composed
of the Twenty-second Battalion, Lieut.-Col. F. M. Gaudet ;
Twenty-fourth Battalion, Lieut.-Col. J. A. Gunn ; Twenty-
fifth Battalion, Lieut.-Col. G. A. Le Caine, and Twenty-sixth
Battalion, Lieut.-Col. J. L. McAvity. The Sixth Canadian Infantry
Brigade, Brigadier-General H. D. B. Ketchen, made up of the
Twenty-seventh Battalion, Lieut.-Col. I. R. Snider ; Twenty-
eighth Battalion, Lieut.-Col. J. F. L. Embury ; Twenty-ninth
Battalion, Lieut.-Col. H. S. Tobin, and Thirty-first Battalion,
Lieut.-Col. A. H. Bell.

The artillery, under Brigadier-General H. C. Thaeker, consisted
of the Fourth Brigade, Canadian Field Artillery, Lieut.-Col. W. J.
Brown ; the Fifth Brigade, Canadian Field Artiller}^ Lieut.-
Col. Dodds ; the Seventh Brigade, Canadian Field Artillery,
Lieut.-Col. J. S. Stewart, and the Divisional Ammunition Column,
Lieut.-Col. W. H. Harrison.

The rest of the division Avas composed of three Field Companies
of Canadian Engineers (the Fourth, Fifth and Sixth), a squadron
of Cavalry, Lieut.-Col. I. Leonard, a Cyclist Company, Major
G. I. Davison, and administrative units.

This division was under the command of Major-General
Turner. Of the artillery, only the Fourth Brigade arrived with
the infantry. The remainder was left training in England,
while four brigades (the 1/lst, l/2nd, l/3rd, and l/4th Brigades
West Lancashire R.F.A.) of English artillery, Brigadier-General
J. J. MacMahon, formed worthy substitutes.

36

THE CANADIAN ARMY CORPS 37

The division sailed to Havre and Boulogne on September
11th, concentrated about Gaestres, west of Bailleul, for a week,
and on September 23rd had completed the relief of the Twenty-
eighth (Imperial) Division in the Kemmel sector and was holding
the line with, on its left, the Seventeenth (Imperial) Division,
and the First Canadian Division on its right.

Thus was formed the Canadian Army Corps, which was to
clothe the name of Canada with splendour.

The Canadian Army Corps, before the Third Canadian Division
was organized, had with it, as a reserve, various units (which
subsequently provided the nucleus for the Third Division)
under the command of Brigadier-General M. S. Mercer. Some
of these had already seen long, hard service in the field; the
remainder were regiments newly brought out. Among the former
were the Canadian Cavalry Brigade, which achieved distinction
at Festubert, and the gallant Princess Patricia's Canadian Light
Infantry. Among the latter were the Royal Canadian Regiment,
the Forty-second and Forty-ninth Battalions and four battalions
of Canadian Mounted Rifles.

The forces of Canada were now holding over twelve thousand
yards of trenches — nearly seven miles. The left of the Corps
rested almost upon St. Eloi, the right lay near Armentieres.
The line took in Neuve Eglise, the wooded hills of Mont Kemmel
and Scherpenberg, and faced the desolate skeleton of Messines.

On September 25th the attack at Loos was made, and the
Canadians, new and old divisions alike, rendered some assistance
by demonstrating with smoke and artillery.

No event of importance enlivened the first few weeks of the
life of the Canadian Corps, and patrol activity provided the chief
interest. The Canadian patrols were gaining an ascendancy
over the enemy which was to make No Man's Land theirs wherever
they set foot in it. And in the stories of these patrols lie themes
for tales of daring without which no books of individual heroism
could ever be complete.

At this period a new departure was introduced into trench
warfare. It took the form of raids carried out upon the enemy
under the cover of night. The purpose of these raids was to fall
upon the drowsy Germans, kill as many as possible, capture all
that the raiders could lay hands on, and withdraw before the
bewildered enemy could organize a defence or get his artillery
into action. By this means much information might be
gathered concerning the enemy's trenches, disijositions and
moral, and the confidence and steadiness of his troops might
be greatly undermined.

The Canadians were the pioneers in this form of warfare.
Later they became its foremost exponents.

38 THE CANADIANS IN FRANCE

The Fifth and Seventh Battahons carried out the first raid
on the night of November 16th, in the neighbourhood of Messines.
Two parties of picked men — those of the Fifth BattaHon led by
Lieuts. Campbell and Purslow, and the Seventh Battalion party
commanded by Captains Costigan and Thomas and Lieuts.
Holmes, Mclllree and Wrightson — attacked the enemy's trenches
at two points, killed and captured numbers of the enemy and
withdrew. Heavy salvos of shrapnel and the daring work of
scouts who cut the wire under the close reach of the hostile
sentries, hacked two passages through the German entanglements.
The Fifth Battalion party at the last moment discovered a wired
ditch which they could not cross, and so had to be content with
bombing the enemy. The Seventh Battalion party, however,
had better luck, and, led personally by Captain Costigan, who
slew three of the enemy with his own hand, killed thirty Germans
and brought back with them twelve prisoners, their own casualties,
with those of the Fifth Battalion, being only one man killed. As
the whole expedition only numbered fifty, these results were
more than satisfactory.

Soon after this affair, on December 6th, the West Lancashire
Artillery was withdrawn from the Corps and the artillery of
the Lahore Division took its place. The presence of these gunners
behind the Canadians was a living proof of the solidity of the
British Empire.

Christmas was celebrated royally. Immediately after, early
in January, the Third Canadian Division was organized.

The organization of the division was no mean achievement.
It meant that in just a little under eighteen months of war
Canada's strength at the front had trebled and the country was
prepared to maintain that strength. The Dominion was now
rapidly nearing her maximum effort.

This was the composition of the Third Canadian Division,
with Major-General M. S. Mercer in command:

Seventh Canadian Infantry Brigade, Brigadier-General A. C.
Macdonell, C.M.G., D.S.O., consisting of the Royal Canadian
Regiment, Lieut. -Col. A. H. MacDonnell, D.S.O. ; Princess
Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry, Lieut.-Col. H. C. Buller,
D.S.O. ; Forty-second Battalion, Lieut.-Col. G. S. Cantlie, and
Forty-ninth Battalion, Lieut.-Col. W. A. Griesbach. The Eighth
Canadian Infantry Brigade, Brigadier-General V. W. Williams,
consisted of the First Canadian Mounted Rifles Battalion, Lieut.-
Col. A. E. Shaw ; Second Canadian Mounted Rifles Battalion,
Lieut.-Col. C. L. Bott ; Fourth Canadian Mounted Rifles Battalion,
Lieut.-Col. J. F. H. Ussher, and Fifth Canadian Mounted Rifles
Battalion, Lieut.-Col. C. H. Baker. The Ninth Canadian Infantry
Brigade, Brigadier-General F. W. Hill, D.S.O., was composed of

THE CANADIAN ARMY CORPS 39

the Forty-third Battalion, Lieut. -Col. R. M. Thomson ; Fifty-
second Battalion, Lieut.-Col. A. W. Hay ; Fifty-eighth Battalion,
Lieut. -Col. H. A. Genet, and Sixtieth Battalion, Lieut. -Col. F. A»
de L. Gascoigne.

The artillery of the division was commanded by Brigadier-
General J. H. Mitchell, and was made up of the following brigades :
Eighth Brigade, Canadian Field Artillery, Lieut. -Col. V. Eaton ;
Ninth Brigade, Canadian Field Artillery, Lieut. -Col. H. G.
Carscallen ; Tenth Brigade, Canadian Field Artillery, Lieut.-
Col. G. H. Ralston ; Eleventh Brigade, Canadian Field Artillery,
Lieut.-Col. A. O. L. MacNaughton.

These did not actually join the division until July 1916.
In the meantime the guns of the First Division were placed at
the division's disposal. To fill the gap caused by this movement,
the Fifth and Seventh Brigades, C.F.A., were brought out from
England and, though actually part of the artillery of the Second
Division, were attached for the time to the First Division.

Something must be said here of the great work of the Princess
Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry before it joined the Canadian
Corps.

This unique regiment of veterans landed in France in 1914
and formed part of the Twenty-seventh (Imperial) Division.
It lost its gallant leader, Lieut.-Col. Farquhar, early in the fighting,
and was thrust forward on March 14, 1915, to stem an assault
on St. Eloi, the ruined village which stood at the southern end
of the Ypres Salient.

At St. Eloi there existed a small hillock known as the Mound,
from which it was possible to dominate the surrounding territory.
When the regiment was standing to arms the enemy were making
furious and partly successful attempts to seize the Mound.

On arrival at the scene they found that most of the disputed
line had been retaken, but that the enemy still held the trenches
to the left of it. An attack was at once thrown forward.

In three lines, swept by gusts of harrowing machine gun
fire, " B " Company rushed for the objective. The machine
guns on the Mound crushed it almost instantly, but those who
were not stricken down came on through the appalling tempest
and actually reached ground to the right of the position. This
ground was held, and next day the men were withdrawn from the
struggle, handing their trenches over to an Imperial unit.

This was the first conflict of any magnitude which the regiment
experienced. It was a blood-letting which amply prepared them
for the fearful agony to follow.

It followed hard and fast upon the days when they lay under
shell fire to the south of Ypres while the First Canadian Division
was immortalizing the name of their native country in the terrible

40 THE CANADIANS IN FRANCE

salient. By May 6th the battle line had reached its final position.
On that day the " Pats " were thrown into it to strengthen the
.barrier of steel.

With dawn a shell fire which created a hell began to batter
their line. Before sunrise German infantry surged forward
and fell beneath the rage of the regiment's rifle fire. By sending
every available man into the trenches the battalion developed
an intensity of fire which checked the German charge. The
hostile infantry succeeded in seizing several houses which com-
manded our positions, however, and from here played havoc
with the regiment.

Our casualties were terrible. By seven o'clock that morning
a subaltern, Lieut. Niven, was commanding the battalion.

Another attack, soon after Niven took command, was thrust
upon the Canadian position. Once more it was flung back,
shattered and dismayed, by the Patricia's, who were by this
time in desperate straits. Immediately afterwards the shelling
recommenced, and, without any help available, they were assaulted
by an awful bombardment. Whole trenches disappeared in
smoke. Every machine gun they possessed was smashed up
or buried. With magnificent tenacity the crews kept the guns
in action as long as their condition would allow it. And,
battered, exhausted, surrounded by heaps of corpses and hideous
fragments of human bodies, in the roaring fury of the German
guns the regiment clung grimly to every foot of ground, clung
with a determination beyond all praise and would not retire.

This was the terrible situation the Patricia's were in when,
in the early afternoon, reinforcements consisting of some of the
Fourth Battalion, the Rifle Brigade, arrived and were pushed
into a position on their right flank.

In a charge of immense vigour the Kaiser's battalions swept
down upon a feeble but indomitable force of Canadian and
Imperial soldiers, a force which stood almost isolated, since its
weaker neighbours on either hand had slightly given ground,
and could only muster a fire which must have caused the enemy's
staff much amusement. The German counted only upon numbers.
Moral did not enter into his calculations. In this case it was
a bitter mistake, for the Princess Patricia's and their comrades,
worn, weak and hard hit though they were, threw back this
third assault with a fury incalculable.

That was the turning-point. From there on the violence of
the offensive slackened and the casualties did not mount rapidly.
By midnight the battalion was well on its way to reserve. With
two officers in command, Lieut. Niven and Lieut. Papineau,
one hundred and fifty men, of all those who the night before had
entered, withdrew from that man-made inferno of Death. One

THE CANADIAN ARMY CORPS 41

hundred and fifty men came forth. The glory of the Princess
Patricia's battalion was assured, its name immortal.

Before November 1915 had quite passed into history, the
regiment was sent to the Canadian Corps. It came to the Corps
with a great record, and this record it never ceased to uphold.

Before passing to other things, mention must be made of
the sacrifice which the C.M.R. Battalions inflicted on themselves.
These battalions were originally organized to serve as Mounted
Riflemen. They were faced later with the prospect of either
taking up the formation and the work of infantry or disbandmcnt.
They accepted the former. They never saw their horses again.

For several weeks before the forming of the Third Division
the Seventh and Eighth Brigades had served in France. The
Ninth Brigade had no previous experience.

During March 10th and 11th the First, Second and Third
Canadian Pioneer Battalions arrived from England and joined
the Corps.

On January 25th the Canadian Cavalry Brigade left the
Canadian Corps to get back their horses and fight elsewhere.

The Second Division carried out its first raid on the night
of January 30th, with great success, when two parties of roughly
thirty men each, one from the Twenty-ninth and one from the
Twenty-eighth Battalion, made an entry into the German
trenches and accounted for a large number of the enemy.

The party from the Twenty-ninth Battalion was led by Lieuts.
Wilmott, O'Brien and Gwynne, while Captain D. E. Maclntyre
and K. C. C. Taylor led the men from the Twenty-eighth Battalion.

The raiders were all volunteers and armed as their fancy
pleased them. The wire was cut in front of the German trenches
without discovery and entirely by hand, to prevent the betrayal
of the raiders by needless artillery. In this work Sergeant G. S
Turner and Sergeant F. W. Kirkland, of the Twenty-eighth and
Twenty-ninth Battalions respectively, greatly distinguished them-
selves. At 2.45 a.m. both parties leaped in upon the sleeping
enemy and created havoc. At least one hundred Germans
were accounted for, Private J. C. Andrews, of the Twenty-eighth
Battalion, killing five with his own hand. Eleven prisoners,
five of whom were shot by the enemy, were taken. The raiders
retired under cover of a bombardment. Captain A. J. Rendel,
R.F.A., commanding the trench mortars with much skill.

The casualties in this raid were only two killed and ten
wounded — only one seriously. Of the six prisoners the raiders
dragged back with them three died, so that three prisoners alive
represented the final captures.

The Lewis gun was introduced into the Canadian infantry
during February.

42 THE CANADIANS IN FRANCE

This was the season for sniping, and at no time did Canadian
snipers, always among the best in the British Army, show greater
prowess. Among the best was Private MacDonald, a full-
blooded Indian from Western Canada and a member of the Eighth
Battalion. MacDonald was killed at this time. He had forty-
two niches in the butt of his rifle — each representing a verified
hit — when he fell. Then there was Sniper J. Atkinson, of the
Twenty-fourth Battalion, with twenty-nine hits to his credit,
and Private Patrick Riel, a direct descendant of Louis Riel,
leader of the North-west Rebellion of 1885, who had atoned for
his ancestor's treason by killing the same number as Atkin<?on.

The Ninth Canadian Infantry Brigade, under Brigadier-
General Hill, arrived in France during the second week in March
to complete the infantry establishment of the Third Division.

Spring brought the end of the calm which had for so long
reigned over the destinies of the Canadian Corps. They began
to move into more turbulent territory as the last days of March
slipped away. Their destination was the bloody girdle of smoking
trenches which lay about the broken centre of Flemish trade —
the Ypres Salient.

The Canadian Corps relieved the Fifth Corps of the Imperial
Army. Its headquarters changed from Bailleul to Abeele. The
First Division took over the trenches of the Fiftieth (Imperial)
Division, the Second Division those of the Third (Imperial)
Division, and the Third those of the Twenty-fourth (Imperial)
Division.

The line taken over by the Canadians was three and a half
miles long, the lower half of the Salient. Its left rested on Hooge,
the " Bloody Angle " of the dread wedge. Its right just took
in St. Eloi. The Third Division held the line from Hooge to a
point opposite Zillebeke. The First Division held it thence to
the Ypres-Comines Canal. The Second Division held it from
there to the right of St. Eloi.

The relief of the First and Second Divisions was complete
on April 3rd, and that of the Third Division on March 22nd.

And Canada's offering lay on the Altar of Sacrifice.

CHAPTER V

ST. ELOI
April &-19, 1916

As has already been described, the Canadian Corps moved into
the Ypres SaHent during the last days of March and the first
days of April. The First Division found no abnormal activity
in progress. The Third Division found no abnormal activity
in progress. The Second Division found itself thrown into a
desperate fight with the object of retaining several hundred
yards of enemy trenches newly taken by British troops.

The scene of operations was the country about St. Eloi.
There five great mines had been fired several days before. These
mines were the largest ever exploded on the British front. Their
craters averaged one hundred yards in diameter.

Immediately after the mines went off and while the rain
of debris was still falling, infantry of the Third (Imperial) Division
had swept forward over the disrupted ground and seized all
the enemy's first and second line trenches on a frontage of about
five hundred yards. These were held by them with very little
opposition and connected on the right by a trench some three
hundred yards long to our original front line, the work of digging
this trench being done by men from the Second Canadian Pioneer
Battalion. Immediately after the rush, however, the Germans
pushed forward a hasty counter-attack and occupied the crater
on the left of our new position. The remainder of the craters
were securely in our hands and well behind our new front line.
It was decided that the enemy must be ejected at once.

This took place while the Second Canadian Division was holding
its area in front of Kemmel, before its arrival in the Salient.
The Fourth Infantry Brigade, on the left and nearest St. Eloi,
was called upon to assist in the assault on the lost crater with
its bombers. The assistance was of course given, and together
Imperial and Canadian troops cleared the enemy out. The
crater was then enclosed by our front line, which was next
extended to meet our old position, as desired,

43

44 THE CANADIANS IN FRANCE

With the situation at this stage, the Second Canadian Division
on the night of April 3rd relieved the worn-out division of Imperial
men occupying the St. Eloi sector. The Sixth Canadian Infantry
Brigade was put into the line for the honourable, if terrible, task
of consolidating the position. The Twenty-seventh Battalion,
Lieut. -Col. I. R. Snider, was given the right of the section to hold.
Holding the left of the brigade front was the Thirty-first Battalion,
Lieut.-Col. A. H. Bell.

A short distance in rear of these units were the Twenty-
eighth Battalion, Lieut.-Col. J. F. L. Embury, in brigade reserve,
and the Twenty-ninth Battalion, Lieut.-Col. H. S. Tobin, in
brigade support.

No words can describe the ghastly conditions prevailing in
the trench area at St. Eloi and hope to present a true or vivid
picture of the awful state of affairs in that zone when the Sixth
Brigade took it over. But such a description, no matter how
inadequate, is necessary before any idea of what the brigade
suffered in holding the flattened trenches can be obtained.

When the Canadians came in, of trenches practically nothing
was left. Continual shelling had reduced them to the merest
vestige of what they had been. The entire area was pitted and
torn by war until the ground looked like the surface of the moon.
Millions of shells bursting on this tortured territory had crumbled
it, churned it up again and again, and turned it into a sea of
heavy mud, riddled with innumerable shell holes and the rain-
washed gulfs of countless old mine craters. These holes were
filled with water, so that, to the eyes of aviators who swept over
it, the scene resembled nothing so much as a great sponge soaked
with continual immersion.

During the whole of April 4th the work of consolidation was
continued under terrible conditions. The enemy began battering
the whole of our trenches in the area at 10.30 a.m. on April
4th, and continued to do so with practically no pause until 2 a.m.
on the morning of April 5th. Gradually the line was improved.
Dugouts and machine gun emplacements were commenced.

The work was continued through April 5th. At 11 p.m.
that same night, as the Twenty-ninth Battalion with two com-
panies were relieving Colonel Snidcr's two companies in the
advanced trenches, the enemy, possibly aware that a relief was
in progress, began a frightful bombardment. This bombardment
really began the desperate fight for the craters.

The fire of the artillery of two entire German divisions began
to rend our trenches and was concentrated on the narrow front
held by the brigade.

The effect of such a fusillade upon the short sector against
which it was directed cannot be worthily described. Officers

ST. ELOI 45

of great experience declared that they had never seen its equal,
and the First Division, watching it from the left, never expected
to see a single man escape.

A stand of magnificent tenacity was offered. It seemed as
if each and every man had made up his mind that he would
rather die than give way one inch. So great a spirit animated
these dauntless troops that they continued firing their rifles
until shells tore them from their hands or they jammed as the
bombardment covered them with mud. Machine guns were
kept firing in the teeth of the advancing storm, manned and
remanned as the crews were struck down, and repaired again
and again.

At 3.30 a.m. the Germans fired their last flares and the guns
fell silent. Immediately afterwards, expecting to find no opposi-
tion in our destroyed positions, the enemy launched his infantry
attack. A force, which must have equalled a battalion, moved
forward against our lines through the semi-darkness.

For the purpose of easy identification the huge craters which
were his objective were numbered from one to five, and from the
right of our position to the left. In the narrative which follows
the same system is employed.

The eager infantry which rushed for the broken ruins where
our men waited were violently disillusioned if they imagined
that no fight was to be put up. In Craters 2 and 3 and the
advanced trench to the south-east they found no living man
capable of closing with them, and they swejat on over the pitiful
remnants of their garrisons without a cheek. But on the rest
of the front they met a different situation.

Advancing in the face of the Canadian defence, the Germans
attempted to wrest Craters 4 and 5 from us, as well as the captured
line to the right of Craters 2 and 3. They were hurled back
by our desperate defenders holding the latter position. In Craters
4 and 5 they expected to meet no hostile fire, for it seemed im-
possible that any men could be left alive in the shattered ruins
of the distorted works. But they found that Major P. J. Daly's
company of the Thirty-first Battalion was still capable of throwing
them back, broken and reeling, to their own lines. And a similar
dash at 9 a.m. next day on the same point met with a similar
rception. Here the garrisons, full of fight in spite of the nerve-
racking and withering bombardment, gathered their feeble
strength and repulsed them.

Two most serious factors now entered into the desperate
conflict. One was that the Germans succeeded by a frightful
concentration of artillery in killing, or rendering unfit for fighting,
every man in Craters 4 and 5 and the trenches in front of them.
The other was that telephonic communication, which was poor

46 THE CANADIANS IN FRANCE

from the first, broke down between battalions, and frequently
was cut between the infantry and brigade headquarters.

When the communications failed a system of runners was
put into operation. All were volunteers. They did magnificent
work, carrying messages over absolutely open ground in tempests
of shells. Many were killed, but volunteers always arose to take
their places. Foremost among them was Sergeant James Harvey,
of the Twenty-ninth Battalion, who made no less than fifteen
trips through the fire and brought reinforcements forward with
him, taking wounded back.

As courageous an action was that of Privates A. Davis and
L. R. Seymour, of the Thirty-first Battalion. These men not
only carried messages but also brought in several wounded men.
This feat they crowned when Seymour was wounded as the pair
were attempting to rescue two men buried by an explosion.
The shell which hit Seymour killed the soldiers they were
attempting to succour ; so Davis hoisted Seymour on his broad
back, and struggled with him in mud which reached to his hips
across more than one hundred yards of death-swept ground to
safety.

The brigade, though two of its craters were lost and two
others unoccupied, possessed no idea of allowing them to remain
thus. Counter-attacks were at once arranged for. After a
most violent bombardment of the craters by our guns, the
bombers of the Twenty-eighth and Thirty-first Battalions at
1.30 on the afternoon of April 6th were launched forward in an
attempt to retake Craters 2 and 3 and reoccupy 4 and 5.

They attacked in two parties from either flank of our main
position. In the fearful violence of the barrage which the German
guns immediately created, the men advancing from the right
were instantly overwhelmed. On the left the bombers met
with greater success. But owing to the countless mine craters
in the small space in which operations were proceeding and the
fact that no guides were available, this party mistook two small
craters which they reached for Craters 4 and 5.

From these two craters, under the impression that they were
in 4 and 5, they made numerous attempts to reach Crater 3, in
order to attack it. To do so it was necessary to advance through
a morass of slush in a frightful hail of infantry and artillery fire.
The exhausted Canadians found the attempt too great a trial
of their strength. Word was sent back to headquarters that if
reinforcements were hurried up the position could be held. That
night, believing that Craters 4 and 5 were again in our hands,
reinforcements were accordingly pushed forward. The conduct
of this part of the fight is described in due course.

In the meantime, as the tide of battle ebbed and flowed,.

ST. ELOI 47

other changes were taking place. The shelling which checked
the advance of the bombers attacking from our right was not
commenced with the sole object of breaking that assault. In
order to render their grip upon Craters 2 and 3 secure, it was
necessary for the Germans to obliterate the resistance of the
Canadians still clinging to the trenches south of the craters.
The guns of the enemy were in action with this object.

At no stage of the fight did the spirit soar more bravely over
flesh than during the bloody attempt of the enemy's artillery
to drive the garrisons out of these positions which they were now
bombarding. The men were lying on what the pitiless guns
had converted into ground entirely devoid of cover. With
every shell their strength grew less and less. The dirty rainwater
was crimson with the price they were willing to pay. They
knew no supports could reach them. Yet they could not be
driven back until they were rendered helpless by the destruction
of every weapon they possessed.

When the last rifle became useless, the commander of the
garrisons, Captain Gwynne, of the Twenty-ninth Battalion, who
had distinguished himself in the January raid o]i the German
trenches, decided to evacuate the position. The remnants of
his small force, supported by every available British arm, there-
upon retired to our main line.

Captain Gwynne's retreat left the enemy in possession of
Craters 2, 3, 4 and 5, though he was not yet actually in 4 and 5
and we were under the impression that our own men held them.
And in possession of these craters the enemy was eventually
to remain.

It is unnecessary to state that we entertained no intention
of allowing the Germans to do so without making a great effort
to evict them. Having placed the Eighteenth Battalion, which
was at his disposal, in support of the Thirty-first Battalion,
and the Twenty-first Battalion in reserve at Scottish Wood,
further to the rear, General Ketchen launched a strong bombing
attack of seventy-five men of the Twenty-eighth Battalion, with
two Lewis guns, against Craters 2 and 3. They moved forward
after dark that night and reached the craters which we thought
were 4 and 5. Owing to the intense darkness, heavy downfall
of rain and the grave danger of the party losing itself in the
maze of craters, the attack was abandoned. To have tried to
carry it through would have ended only in disaster.

This concluded the efforts of the Sixth Brigade to retake
the craters. On the following night (April 7th) the Fourth
Canadian Infantry Brigade relieved the men of the heroic
battalions which had borne the brunt of the desperate hostile
attacks. The latter entered this deadly line with units at full

48 THE CANADIANS IN FRANCE

strength. They left it with perhaps two-thirds that number
capable of bearing arms.

The struggle did not cease with their departure from it.
During the period in which the other two infantry brigades of
the division were occupying the trenches, frequent attacks were
launched by both sides. Much work was done to rebuild the
battered line.

Despite the shelling, the antagonists strained everywhere
to strengthen their respective positions. The British trenches
were rebuilt time after time until a fairly strong section, with
a passable system of barbed-wire entanglements, had been con-
structed. Though our fire was terrific, the Germans succeeded
in consolidating their gain, and dug a trench around the northern
lips of the craters in their grasp. It was when this trench
appeared that our troops discovered that we were not holding
Craters 4 and 5.

The effect of this discovery was to cause us to number the
two small craters which were mistaken for Craters 4 and 5. They
were in future to be known as Crater 6 Right and Left. Our
garrisons were not withdrawn.

An effort to capture Crater 2 was made by bombing detach-
ments from each battalion of the Fourth Brigade on the night
of A^^ril 9th. Through a verj'- fierce fire the attackers pushed
on, and succeeded in gaining a temjDorary footing in the crater.
They established a bombing post near it.

This attack was almost immediately countered by a heavy
enemy bombing assault, which took place on the following night.
After an unsuccessful advance by two parties, the Huns
approached Crater 6, but were immediately repulsed. Our
trenches further to the right were at the same time most fiercely
attacked and part of the line in the centre was heavily bombarded.
The Eighteenth Battalion, with the Nineteenth Battalion, threw
off these rushes, and the enemy eventually fell back with severe
casualties.

During the period of comparative calm which followed, the
Fifth Canadian Infantry Brigade took over the trenches.
Bombing affraj^s were numerous. On the night of April 13th
hostile artillery preparation commenced, and at 5.20 next morning
four assaults were beaten off by the detachments of the Twenty-
fifth Battalion under Lieuts. Morgan, W. A. Cameron and L. H.
Johnstone, holding Crater 6. The vicinity of Crater 1 was also
heavily shelled, and was later charged by twenty-five of the
enemy in broad daylight. This attack failed, as it deserved.
While occupying the craters, Lieut. E. J. Brooks, of the same
battalion, with his men, repulsed two attacks.

Several more attempts to drive us out of the craters we held

ST. ELOI 49

were made during the next few days, but all were easily frus-
trated.

The Sixth Brigade relieved the Fifth Brigade on the night
of April 17th. And on the afternoon of April 19th the last scene
of the desperate drama was staged when the German troops,
following a bombardment of violence, attacked and captured
Crater 6 Right and Left.

When the relief took place the Twenty-ninth Battalion took
over the right of the brigade line, which included Craters 1 and
6 Right and Left, from the Twenty-fourth Battalion. The
Twenty-eighth Battalion held the rest of the front. In brigade
reserve was the Thirty-first Battalion, and the Twenty-seventh
Battalion waited in brigade support.

On the night of the relief " C " Company of the Vancouver
unit easily defeated a bombing attack on Crater 6. The succeeding
days saw nothing more than endless artillery fire and entrenching
by either side.

The night before the attack was launched, Lieut. Myers and
Lieut. Biggs, both of " D " Company of the Twenty-ninth
Battalion, relieved the men of " C " Company holding Crater 6.
They had with them ninety-nine men, each being in command of
a party of about fifty.

At about 5 o'clock in the morning the enemy's guns commenced
bombarding the entire Canadian Corps frontage, with an es-
pecially strong concentration of artillery upon the St. Eloi area.
The batteries firing on the latter portion continued their work
practically ceaselessly till 4.30 p.m. that afternoon. Our guns
replied with equal vigour.

The effect of the bombardment on Crater 6 can easily be
imagined. Such dugouts and trenches as the former occupants
had managed to construct began to disappear in deafening sheets
of flame and cascades of black mud. Shells of every calibre were
used against the valiant handful holding the position. High
explosives blew up the supplies of bombs, causing fearful injuries
to the men near by. With appalling rapidity groups of the
garrisons were shattered into atoms or struck down into piles
of streaming and horribly mutilated corpses.

This bombardment, before it ceased, caused a great many
casualties, Lieut. Myers being one of those wounded. When the
fire finally lessened and the smoke of the fire drifted away, it
revealed to the astonished eyes of the German gunners a number-
of men still alive in the craters, in open defiance of their terrible
power, gaining a brief rest from the slaughter.

As the survivors of the hurricane still showed fight, the guns
opened again to pave the way for the final advance. They
bent every effort during the next half hour in pouring the

4

60 THE CANADIANS IN FRANCE

maximum number of shells upon the devoted remnants of the
crater holders. Owing to the fierceness of the barrage the
men in the craters had to be left to their fate. So they died —
magnificently.

When the guns had done their work and a total of less than
tAventy-five men were left alive, the shelling ceased, and at 7.30 p.m.
the Huns' infantry — about one hundred men — advanced. They
met w4th a vigorous fire from our main trenches, but came on.
They met with a fire from the craters as well. There the white-
faced, weary Canadians whom no bombardment could break
looked to their officers, asking " Will we fight ? " Myers, covered
with bandages, came out of his dugout. " Yes, boys," he said;
" we will make a fight for it." So they made a fight for it. Every
useful rifle commenced firing. There were three useful rifles !

Lieut. Biggs, in Crater 6 Right, sent five of his men into
Lieut. Myers's position. He had nothing with which to resist,
and the remainder of his garrison, with himself, were captured.

Some of the enemy swept into his crater. Lieut. Myers,
when his three rifles became useless, held the rest off with his
revolver till all his ammunition was expended. Someone handed
him a fourth rifle, which jammed after one shot. With a yell
his opponents came on. The officer decided, further resistance
being useless, to retire. He gathered the remains of his garrison
together and withdrew, throwing his machine gun into the bottom
of the crater as he went.

After this the Germans entered. Lieut. Myers continued on
his way through the gathering dusk. His party consisted of
five men beside himself. They were all that remained of the
garrisons of both points.

As soon as the men in our main line witnessed the taking
of the craters, word was sent back to brigade headquarters, and
every gun in the area crashed into action. A barrage was placed
behind the lost positions and, following the German tactics,
the positions themselves were subjected to the fury of the artillery.
This prompt action probably prevented the proposed advance
upon the Canadian line from the craters. The bombardment
was kept up continuously through the whole night. It was
opposed by the enemy's batteries, which began firing when
they perceived that their infantry were unable to move.

A counter-attack was at once organized. Major Tait, of the
Twenty-ninth Battalion, was placed in command of one company
of his unit and two companies were placed behind him, ready
to follow him in his charge for the craters. With one company
of the Twenty-first Battalion at his disposal, the remainder
close behind, and the rest of the division standing to arms, his
force was ample for the proposed assault. After a long, toilsome

■i

ST. ELOI 51

march through the gloom of a rainy night the counter-attack
force reached the trenches of the Twenty-eighth Battahon, from
which it was to be launched.

Major Tait saw that no men could possibly reach their
objective if led into the darkness of the night to face the German
artillery. He therefore strengthened the Twenty-eighth Battalicti
with his command and by his advice the counter-attack was
cancelled.

To ascertain conditions in the craters which had been takeUj
that night Major Tait, Lieuts, Jackson and MacLean and two
men crept across the ground which lay between. Though they
were not in British hands the artillery had seen to it that they
were untenable to the enemy. Death, and Death alone, held
them.

This ended the fighting of St. Eloi, or at any rate the more
important fighting. Further bombing affrays took place from
time to time, but all, directed by the enemy, were small and were
thrown back by the Canadians in the trenches without difficulty.

The Second Division's casualties in this battle amounted
approximately to forty officers and twelve hundred men killed,
wounded and missing, in the short period leading up to April
19th and the final loss of Crater 6. Before the fighting had
simmered down to normal they had reached the high figures
of approximately fifty officers and sixteen hundred men.

The determination and heroic endurance of the Second Division
left its mark in the soul of the Germans. These were beginning
to get the measure of the stuff that Canada had sent against
them. Such blows, small in themselves, were nevertheless in
the far future to bring the enemy to his knees as, through the
long years, they drained the life-blood out of him.

And they were gaining for the Canadian Corps a reputation
for military virtue that was to live for ever.

CHAPTER VI

SANCTUARY WOOD AND HOOGE
June 1916

During the heavy fighting which fell to the Second Canadian
Division at St. Eloi, described in the preceding chapter, the
troops of the other Canadian divisions were doing their best
to assist them. This assistance took the form of strong artillery
support and also of a continuous small-arm fire, which kept
the Germans north of the Ypres-Comines Canal perpetually
engaged. In addition, they took some of the strain off the
shoulders of the crater defenders by repulsing several determined
enemy attacks.

The most serious of these assaults was made upon the Thir-
teenth Battalion, Lieut. -Col. V. C. Buchanan. Just previous to
the loss of Crater 6 the battalion, holding trenches on the Bluff,
immediately north of the Canal, was heavily bombarded for
the whole afternoon by mixed fire. After sundown the German
infantry attacked a large crater just in front of our main line.

Owing to the poor state of our trenches and heavy casualties
on our side, the enemy managed to secure a footing. But our
artillery shelled them so violently that when our counter-attack
came forward it found the crater empty. The situation was
immediately restored to normal.

On April 26th the First Battalion, Lieut.-Col. F. A. Creighton,
and the Second Battalion, Lieut.-Col. A. E. Swift, were furiously
shelled for over an hour. Immediately after the fire lifted on
to our support lines a mine was exploded under each battalion
and German infantry lumbered forward to the attack.

The assailants attacked in three parties. The Second Battalion
broke up the first part}'' with machine guns almost at once.
The second party won a hold in a bit of trench held by the First
Battalion, but was immediately ejected. The same fate met
the third party, which had managed to drive in some of the
battalion's advanced posts.

These actions were the most important which occurred on

52

SANCTUARY WOOD AND HOOGE 53

the front of the two northern divisions during the St. Eloi
fighting.

No fighting of importance fell to the lot of the Canadians
during the following month of May, and only one event of great
note occurred at that time. This event was the departure of
Lieut. -General Sir E. A. H. Alderson, K.C.B., for England on
May 28th and the arrival of Lieut.- General Sir Julian Byng,
K.C.M.G., to take his place as commander of the Canadian
Corps.

During this month of normal trench Avarfare, practically
invisible to the troops, a great storm was brewing. When it
burst, it was once more to emphasize to the world the heights
of Canadian courage.

To understand what happened, it is necessary to describe
the topography of the country occupied by the Canadians on
June 2nd, the day on which the attack began. The ruins of
Ypres were in a valley. East of them, some three thousand
yards distant, was a low ridge running roughly north and south.
This ridge was one of a series of ridges rising parallel to each
other like gently undulating waves. It was the last strip of
high ground between Germany and Ypres. Bit by bit, during a
period of nearly two years, the Kaiser's troops had wrested the
outer ridges from the British. The object of the enemy's attack
was to seize this last ridge.

The ground wherein the actual fighting took place was in
the form of what was almost an equilateral triangle, and lay
north of the Ypres-Comines Canal. Ypres stood at the western
corner of the triangle. On the main Ypre&-Menin road, directly
east of the city, was the village of Hooge, the eastern corner.
The southern corner was officially known as Hill 60.

Within that triangle there were infantry of three Canadian
brigades on the day of the assault. On the left were the Royal
Canadian Regiment, Lieut. -Col. C. H. Hill, D.S.O., with its
left flank in front of Hooge. On its right were the " Princess
Pat's," Lieut.-Col. H. C. Buller, D.S.O. These battalions be-
longed to the Seventh Canadian Infantry Brigade, of the Third
Division. Next were the First Canadian Mounted Rifles Battalion,
Lieut.-Col. A. E. Shaw, and the Fourth Canadian Mounted
Rifles Battalion, Lieut.-Col. J. F. H. Ussher, of the Eighth
Canadian Infantry Brigade. The Second Canadian Infantry
Brigade, on the right of Lieut.-Col. Ussher's command, were
represented by the Fifth Battalion, Lieut.-Col. Dyer, which was
on the extreme right flank of the line attacked.

The bombardment previous to the infantry assault began
at 9 a.m. It steadily and rapidly swelled to a violence equalled
only by the artillery fire at St. Eloi in April, and, owing to the

54 THE CANADIANS IN FRANCE

wide front to which it swiftly spread, caused even greater devas-
tation. Frightful casualties occurred. The situation, early in
the morning, was made particularly desperate by the incapacitating
of the two highest commanders of the troops concerned, Major-
General M. S. Mercer, C.B., commanding the Third Division,
and Brigadier-General V. Williams, the leader of the Eighth
Brigade.

The two officers, with their personal staff, were in the trenches
conducting an inspection, when the suddenness of the bom-
bardment caught them. What happened to them is rather un-
certain. Both were wounded. Major-General Mercer was struck
on the head by a flying sand-bag, which injured him severely.
He appears to have been unable to help himself, and his com-
panions could do virtually nothing. He was bandaged — whether
by our men or by the Germans after they captured the line is
unknown — and placed in a dugout, which was subsequently
destroyed by a shell, eliminating any chance of his escape from
death.

Brigadier-General Williams was badly wounded in the face
and was senseless when the enemy attacked. He was captured
and removed to a hospital in Menin a prisoner.

Nor was the tragedy of the two commanders only of general
effect. The serious results attending their disappearance on
an occasion when they were so badly needed can easily be
imagined. To their boundless credit, Brigadier-General E. S.
Hoare-Nairne, Commander of the Lahore Divisional Artillery,
attached for service with the Third Division, and the staff of
the Eighth Brigade, took up the reins of leadership, directing
the operations of the Third Di\ision and the Eighth Brigade
respectively. Lieut. -Col. J. C. L. Bott, Second C.M.R. Battalion,
assumed temporary command of the Eighth Brigade at 6.30 p.m.
that night.

The enemy's shell fire, extending from Hooge to the left of
the Second Infantry Brigade, south of Mount Sorrel, had reached
a tremendous intensity by 11 a.m. It is unnecessary to describe
its terrible effects in detail. It wrecked the defensive work of
months in a few hours. Hundreds of men fell under it. Bomb
stores were blown up and machine guns were destroyed.

Meanwhile, measures to meet the attack were, of course,
being taken. By noon the support battalions of each brigade
were standing to arms and manning the reserve lines immediately
in rear of the front trenches. The infernal wall built up by
the hostile barrage fire between the battalions in the line and their
supports prevented the arrival of reinforcements. Our own
guns were firing mightily.

At 1 p.m. the infantry attack was launched. A mine was

SANCTUARY WOOD AND HOOGE 55

fired under Trench 48, held by the Fourth C.M.R. BattaHon, in
Armagh Wood, a position about one thousand yards north-east
of the Canal. Before the quivering thunder of the explosion
had rumbled away the German battalions charged. The remnants
of the Canadians, overwhelmingly outnumbered, dazed by the
effects of the mine, and suffering from the long torture to which
the enemy's guns had subjected them, were unable to stop the
advance. In spite of a glorious but heart-breaking resistance,
they lost their line and the support trenches behind it.

As soon as the mine Avas fired, Brigadier-General Lipsett,
commanding the Second Infantry Brigade, ordered the Seventh
Battalion, Lieut. -Col. Odium, to form a defensive flank in rear
of the lost trenches. The left of his brigade was entirely exposed,
since the Germans had captured the Fourth C.M.R. Battalion's
ground on that flank, so this movement was absolutely necessary
to stop the enemy's further advance and form a barrier around
which he might not pass to turn the brigade.

The Seventh Battalion therefore occupied a line running
north-west and south-east and approximately one thousand
yards long, and the Tenth Battalion, Lieut.-Col. Rattray, took
its place in the reserve trenches. The left of the battalion rested
on Zillebeke, a village a mile west of our front line, and the right
on Square Wood, a thicket five hundred yards north-west of
the captured trenches.

Shortly after the loss of Trench 48, the Germans, extending
the attack northward, assaulted and captured all the trenches
held by the Canadians up to a thousand yards south of Hooge.
It took them several hours of most desperate and bloody hand-to-
hand fighting to do it. Each trench had to be carried separately.
Positions changed hands again and again. But in the end
weight of numbers prevailed and the whole of the front line, and
part of the support, between Trench 48 and the point indicated
near Hooge was torn from us.

There were magnificent deeds done at this time. The noble
leadership of the officers commanding the battalions stands out
most prominently. There was Lieut.-Col. H. C. Buller, D.S.O.
His battalion held on with concrete determination and was com-
pelled to throw back its right flank only to conform with the
retirement of the survivors of the Eighth Infantry Brigade. In
conducting their defence Captain Niven, well supported by Lieuts.
Hagerty, Molson and Triggs — all hit — again exhibited great
courage.

But to return to Lieut.-Col. Buller. He was in the line,
cheering on his men and firing them with quiet words, when the
Germans charged. As their troops got round the flank and
advanced afresh, this gallant officer stood up on the parapet,

56 THE CANADIANS IN FRANCE

in utter defiance of death, and shouted encouragement to the
battalion. It was then that he was killed. He fell back dead
from the position and the waves of the enemy passed over him.
Not less brave was Lieut. -Col. Ussher, commanding the Fourth
C.M.R. Battalion. He gathered a group of his command about
him and fought on until the overwhelming mass of antagonists
surrounded them and took the exhausted survivors prisoner.

Lieut.-Col. A. E. Shaw, of the First C.M.R. Battalion, also
made a wonderful stand with a group of his unit. Lieut.-Col.
Shaw banded a small number of soldiers into the ruins of a strong
point just behind the front line — the remains of the fire-trenches
were then in German hands. Lieut-Col. Shaw, together with
Major Palmer and Lieut. Rowles, was killed as he fought there
with cold steel.

Then there was Lieut.-Col. G. H. Baker, commanding the
Fifth C.M.R. Battalion. He led his men in their tremendous
efforts to maintain the support line in Maple Copse, and, leading
them, was mortally wounded. He fell at dusk while encouraging
his men in " digging in."

With such commanders as these it is no wonder that the
men fought with a pitiful, hopeless valour which was a glory
to Canada. As already stated, few of them survived to tell
the stories of their valour.

Thousands of incidents of the defence might be narrated,
but these are sufficient to illustrate its heroism. It was a resistance
which could only end one way. Nine German battalions attacked
the last survivors of four Canadian units. Our supports were
cut off from the line and to come up was impossible. The secret
concentration of hostile artillery resulted in a vast outnumbering
of our own guns. The enemy had every advantage which we
had not.

Though our losses were heavy, the Germans' were also very
severe. They paid a bitter price for the line. Our machine
guns reaped a bloody and terrible harvest when the packed
lines of infantry came. Our guns took them in enfilade and at
short range and ploughed ghastly lanes in the advance, and later
rendered the captured positions almost untenable.

One remarkable instance will serve to show what magnificent
support was rendered by the artillery. Lieut. Charles Cotton
was in command of an advanced pair of field guns of the Fifth
Battery, C.F.A., in Sanctuary Wood. His orders were to destroy
them in the event of a successful enemy advance. Instead,
he dragged his guns into the open and fired furiously at almost
point-blank range.

The Germans could not endure the fearful fire and rushed
for the guns, They got them at last— but only over mangled

SANCTUARY WOOD AND HOOGE 57

and gory heaps of their dead, and after repeated attempts. Every
one of Cotton's men was killed or disabled. The attackers were
unable to remove the guns and, when retaken by our counter-
charge, they were found surrounded by great piles of shell cases,
silent testimonies to the grand effort of this Canadian " L "
Battery.

Despite all this valour the enemy, besides capturing the
front and support trenches on the lines previously indicated,
had pushed forward to a depth averaging three hundred and fifty
yards from the lost first line. On either flank, at Hooge and Hill
60, our men were in their original positions. But from in front
of Hooge the new German line, curving in a south-westerly
direction, ran through Sanctuary Wood, near and south of Hooge,
to Observatory Ridge — a thousand-odd yards cast of Zillebeke —
thence through Armagh Wood to take in Armagh House, and joined
the old line near Trench 48. Some advanced parties even
penetrated Maple Copse, a small wood about a quarter of a mile
west of Sanctuary Wood, at about 9.30 p.m., but the effective
action of our artillery and the defence of the Canadian supports
drove them out again. In this defence two companies of the
Fifth C.M.R. Battalion fought splendidly. MeauAvhile the counter-
attack troops were being moved into their places. The Forty-
ninth Battalion, Lieut. -Col. Griesbach, was under orders to
counter-attack and was marching up from its supporting positions
in order to deploy on the line from which the assault was to be
launched. The Fifty-second Battalion, Lieut. -Col. Hay, and the
Sixtieth Battalion, Lieut.-Col. Gascoigne, both of the Ninth
Infantry Brigade, were also moving up to counter-attack. The
Tenth Battalion, Lieut.-Col. Rattray, was preparing some fifteen
hundred yards to the west of Hill 60. The First Battalion,
Lieut.-Col. Creighton, was moved into the second line, running
just in front of Ypres. The Third Battalion, Lieut.-Col. W. D.
Allan, was on its way to take the place of the First Battalion.
The Second C.M.R. Battalion, now commanded by Major M. V.
Allan, with the Forty-second Battalion, Lieut.-Col. Cantlie, were
reinforcing their respective brigades in their new positions. The
Third Canadian Infantry Brigade, Brigadier-General G. S.
Tuxford, was marching up from divisional reserve to counter-
attack.

Finally, two companies of the King's Royal Rifles, begged
from the adjacent Sixtieth (Imperial) Brigade by Brigadier-
General A. C. Macdonell, also came up to support the Hooge line.

The enemy, apart from his temporary lodgment in Maple
Copse already mentioned, made only one more effort to get
forward. This was on Mount Sorrel, where some of them suc-
ceeded in gaining a precarious footing in two small trenches

58 THE CANADIANS IN FRANCE

which the Fifth Battalion had been compelled to evacuate,
owing to heavy enfilade fire. This battalion did great execution
with its machine guns against their advance.

A gallant effort at counter-attacking was made by the remnants
of the Second and Fifth C.M.R. Battalions, under Major Allan,
at 11 p.m. This counter-attack issued from Maple Copse and
was directed against Mount Sorrel. It met with extremely
strong opposition, however, and after making some progress,
was eventually obliged to fall back into the copse again.

Meanwhile, through a long, dark night of wet and cold and
heavy shelling by both sides, the troops for the counter-attack
were slowly getting into position. It had been originally proposed
to utilize the Forty-ninth, Fifty-second and Sixtieth Battalions
for the counter-attack in the Seventh Brigade sector, the whole
being commanded by Lieut. -Col. Gricsbach, who was succeeded,
in order to free him for this work, by Major Weaver. Unfor-
tunately, the Fifty-second Battalion and Sixtieth Battalion were
much delayed by the darkness and an intense barrage through
which they had to pass. Both battalions had very heavy
casualties, the Fifty-second losing their commander, Lieut. -Col.
Hay, wounded, and the second-in-command. Major Young,
killed. The Sixtieth lost practically all its officers and a large
number of N.C.O.'s. Hour after hour went by, and still these
units could not get forward. The Sixtieth Battalion had been
struck so heavily that it was scattered considerably. The
battalion in the darkness had got in front of the Fifty-
second Battalion, which was accordingly unable to pass
forward.

These two fine battalions did ever3'thing possible to get
into position in time.

The result of this delay was that for the Seventh Brigade's
stroke only the Forty-ninth Battalion was in the assembly line
when the time of attack came. It was decided to push this
battalion forward alone.

At 5.10 a.m. most of the counter-attacking troops were in
position. The battalions forming the first line were : on the
right the Seventh Battalion, Lieut. -Col. Odium, which, when it
advanced, was replaced in the front line by the Tenth Battalion,
Lieut. -Col. Rattray, which in turn was to be replaced by the
Third Battalion, Lieut. -Col. W. D. Allan ; on the right of the
Seventh was the Fifteenth Battalion, Lieut. -Col. Bent, supported
by the Sixteenth Battalion, Lieut. -Col. Leckie ; on the left of
the Fifteenth was the Fourteenth Battalion, Major McCombe,
supported by the Thirteenth Battalion, Lieut, -Col. Buchanan ;
while to the left of the Fourteenth was the Forty-ninth.

The objective of each of the four attacking battalions was

SANCTUARY WOOD AND HOOGE 59

the old front line immediately in front of it, the objective of the
whole foree the entire system of lost trenehes.

At 6.40 a.m., as the grey light of dawn erawlcd over the wilder-
ness of the field, the intense artillery bombardment preceding
the counter-attack began. At 7.10 a.m. the rockets fired by the
Third Canadian Division burst in the smoke high above the
crouching troops to signal the advance, and the men moved
forward.

Unfortunately, owing to the inevitable delays, the enemy had
had time to consolidate his line and put out barbed wire, which
the preliminary bombardment did not sufficiently cut. The
same delays caused the assault to be launched in daylight. It
did not entirely fail. It thrust the Germans back in some places
as far as our old front line. In other places the old support
trenches were cleared, and here and there small portions of our
old front line were reoecupied. But the main object, which
was the regaining of our former positions in entirety, was not
accomplished.

As the battalions moved across the open they were enveloped
in storms of shells and slashed by devilish machine gun fire.
The Seventh Battalion on the right were unable to make much
progress, but advanced until they were just outside the German
wire, and there attempted to dig in, as they were unable to go
on, on account of the machine gun fire. Captains Holmes and
Fisher, both very gallant officers, were killed here. The battalions
of the Third Brigade suffered very heavily, but drove the enemy
back from his most advanced position, and, like the Seventh
Battalion, did their best to consolidate. On the left the Forty-
ninth Battalion, moving forward without other infantry support,
regained parts of our old communication trenches and established
a line slightly in advance of the positions whence they had
advanced. Major Weaver, leading them, was wounded, and was
then succeeded by Major Hobbins. Captain McNaughton, with
six other officers, was killed.

The counter-attack swayed to and fro over the disputed
ground certainly until noon. There is no doubt that isolated
parties actually reached and gave battle in our old front line.
After persistent rumours of success, however, it became clear
that the assault had failed. By 1 p.m. all survivors, excepting
those of the Forty-ninth Battalion in Sanctuary Wood, had
fallen back into our jumping-off line.

The performance of the Forty-ninth was very creditable, as
that attack was the first serious action in which they had been
engaged. All battalions, however, showed great courage and
determination. It is impossible adequately to describe th^
machine gun fire which they had been compelled to face,

60 THE CANADIANS IN FRANCE

As soon as the situation had quietened the attacking bat-
tahons were reheved by the support battaHons. On the night of
June 3rd the Seventh, Tenth, Fourteenth and Fifteenth BattaHons
were reheved by the First Brigade, and the Ninth Brigade reheved
the Eighth Brigade, "Princess Pat's" and Forty-ninth BattaHons.
The foHowing day was marked by a very violent and continual
enemy bombardment. Our men worked like beavers at con-
solidating. On the night of June 5th the relief of the last of
the troops hitherto engaged was effected when the Sixth Brigade
relieved the remainder of the Seventh Brigade.

The new counter-attack, which was intended to regain the
whole of our old front line, was to have been made at the earliest
possible moment, but was eventually postponed until the night
of June 12th, or, rather, the early morning of June 13th. Bad
weather had set in, and, as a continual drizzle of rain was falling,
it was considered the wisest course to put off the attack until
the date mentioned.

On the afternoon of June 6th a new loss added to the diffi-
culties of an already very serious situation. After a fierce bom-
bardment of Hill 60, commencing at 1.10 p.m., followed by a
similar one upon Observatory Ridge and Hooge, the enemy,
between 3 and 3.30 p.m., fired four mines under the trenches of
the Sixth Brigade and captured the front line on a frontage of
about three hundred yards.

Immediately after the explosions the infantry attack was
made in force. The Twenty-eighth Battalion, Lieut. -Col. J. E. L.
Embury, made a most heroic resistance, although the companies
holding the line were practically decimated. At the same time
the Thirty-first Battalion, Lieut.-Col. Bell, drove off several
attacks to the right of the Twenty-eighth Battalion.

After the blowing of the mines no counter-attack of any
magnitude was attempted. It was decided that the positions
occupied by the defenders following the discharge were stronger
and better from a tactical point of view than the old. The
effect of the new loss was to place all our original front line from
Hooge to Hill 60 in German hands. When the great counter-
attack to recover the lost trenches was eventually launched, no
attempt was made to regain the old lines at Hooge itself*

Prei^arations for that counter-attack were now being rapidly
put through. It had been decided that no assistance of any
kind was to be asked of Imperial troops on the contested ground,
as the Canadians looked upon the recovery of the trenches as a
point of honour. The only Imperial troops connected with the
attack were the Fourteenth Corps, which made a gas demon-
stration on the north, the artillery of the Lahore Division, and
the Third Division, whose infantry took over the St, Eloi sector

SANCTUARY WOOD AND HOOGE 61

from the Second Canadian Division while it was engaged beyond
the Canal, and whose artillery supported the attack from the
right. The Second Cavalry Brigade also helped by occupying
the second line at the most critical stages of the battle.

The following dispositions were made prior to the launch of
the attack :

The Fifth Infantry Brigade, which had relieved the Fourth
Infantry Brigade after it had completed the consolidation of
the positions won on the morning of June 3rd, was in its turn
relieved by the Second and Third Infantry Brigades on the ground
in rear of Observatory Ridge and Mount Sorrel. The Sixth
Infantry Brigade remained in its line at Hooge. The Fourth
Infantry Brigade, which was in position south of Hill 60, and the
Ninth Infantry Brigade, between the Sixth Infantry Brigade and
Maple Copse, also remained in their line until after the assault.
These reliefs were completed on the night of June 11th.
On the same day the artillery of the First and Second Canadian
Divisions, the Lahore Division and the Third (Imperial) Division,
supplemented by masses of heavy guns especially assembled,
began the bombardment preliminary to the attack.

The bombardment took the form of a steady fire on the
positions about Hill 60 and on any machine gun emplacements
which had been located. On June 12th, from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m.,
the fire was continued, but was distributed over all the German
line from Hill 60 to Sanctuary Wood. On the same day particular
attention was paid to the new German positions, Hill 60 and
the Snout, a small salient from which the former counter-attack
had been held up. Finally, the full fury of the guns was to be
directed on the objective from 12.45 a.m. to 1.30 a.m. on
June 13th.

These bombardments had the desired effect. They smashed
the new works of the enemy into rubbish. The wet weather
had rendered the trenches easy victims to shell fire. The artillery
also hammered the German moral into the condition which would
mean least infantry resistance. It shut out food and reinforce-
ments and took a terrible toll of lives.

When the hour of vengeance dawned the assaulting battalions
were ready. On the left were the Thirteenth Battalion, Lieut. -
Col. Buchanan, with the Sixteenth Battalion, Lieut.-Col. J. E.
Leckie, on their right. On the right of the Sixteenth were the
Third Battalion, Lieut.-Col. W. D. Allan. These battalions were
supported by the Fourteenth Battalion, Major McCombe, Fifteenth
Battalion, Lieut.-Col. Bent, and the First Battalion, Lieut.-Col.
Creighton, being extended from left to right in the order men-
tioned. The Fifty-eighth Battahon, Lieut.-Col. Genet, with a
company of the Fifty-second Battalion, was to cover the left
flank of the whole by a bombing attack.

62 THE CANADIANS IN FRANCE

The attack was divided into two parts : that of the Third
Infantry Brigade, termed the Left attack, was under Brigadier-
General Tuxford. The Right attack was under Brigadier-General
Lipsett. The assaulters were to advance in two lines. The
objective of the Left attack was all the old British front line
from the left of the lost trenches to Observatory Ridge. The
Right attack was to take our old trenches on Mount Sorrel.

Promptly at 1.30 a.m. the tornado of our shell fire lifted from
the first objective. Our troops on either flank of the counter-
attack opened up rapid machine gun and rifle fire. The smoke
and gas arranged for was released on Hill 60 and the left of Hooge.
At precisely the same time, as if propelled by a giant hand con-
trolling the tremendous forces at work, the attackers rose out of
their trenches and moved forward in silence through the dark.

Quietly, in order by ranks which even the roughness of the
ground and the profound blackness of the night could scarcely
disturb, the men moved steadily upon their objectives. They
reached the desolation of the German first lines and captured it
almost at once. Here and there was a savage hand-to-hand
fight of short duration, but the victorious ranks surged on
without a halt.

As they swung forward from the first objective, their rockets
announcing its capture slashed the black with streaks of fire, a
few flares shot up from the German positions ahead, and the
resistance seemed to stiffen. In some places the long lines of
advancing men came under fierce rifle and machine gun fire,
and wild shells attempted to reply to the violence of our own
barrage. The troops pushed on, though at this stage many
fine officers went down, and many of their followers with them.

The machine guns which caused their deaths were silenced
in tempests of bombs or at the bayonet's point as the men strode
on. There were now furious struggles in the flickering horror of
the darkness, in the mud and the rain. Several strongholds held
out to the last and the garrisons were dispatched swiftly by
panting phantoms behind darting bayonets which they could
scarcely see.

Old Canadian bomb stores and ammunition dumps were
recovered almost untouched. The battalions found themselves
on familiar ground again, stumbling into the ruins of their old
trenches and the old front line. At 2 a.m., out of the dazzling
furnace of shell-bursts, the howls of the enemy wounded, out
of the earth-shaking thunder of artillery, above the hoarse
cheers of the conquerors, the rockets of victory darted up from
one end of the attacking line to the other, to tell the gunners
who toiled like slaves in rear that vengeance was complete.

Then the arduous work of consolidating the regained positions

SANCTUARY WOOD AND IIOOGE 68

commenced. It was heart-breaking, but splendidly carried
out. In the very short time available before the inevitable
counter bombardment and attack, the rain-washed ditches were
cleared and braced and strengthened. Communication trenches
were hewn out of the sodden ground and stores and ammunition
were carried up. All this was done in complete darkness, in
heavy torrents of rain.

At 5.20 a.m. the enemy's artillery fire began to crash on the
hard-won line. It continued without cessation until 9.30 a.m.
The effects on the trenches were severe and heavy casualties
resulted. Then the enemy's infantry came out of No Man's
Land to attack.

With a fine judgment the commanders of our assault had
decided that the German counter-stroke might be expected at
that exact hour. They had therefore arranged for an intense
bombardment of the hostile positions. This commenced as
arranged. It came at the most opportune time possible. All
communication with artillery from our infantry had been cut
by the German fire, so that had our guns not arranged to bombard
as they did, no artillery support could have been obtained.

By virtue of this foresight our weary and drenched infantry
were able, with such great support, to shatter that first counter-
attack. The strongest enemy effort was directed upon Mount
Sorrel. Fortunately, this effort had also been foreseen, and the
most powerful concentration of our guns played on the lines
before Mount Sorrel.

And now the consolidation was once more resumed. The
support battalions had by this time in most cases relieved the
assaulting troops. Two hours of desperate work went by before
another counter-attack swept forwaVd against our trenches and
was withered and beaten back by our small-arm fire.

That was the last counter-attack attempted, but a continuous
harrowing bombardment was directed on our positions throughout
the day, all through the night, and did not cease for several days.
Through this, in mud and water, under indescribable conditions,
the men strove heroically. By noon consolidation was almost
complete.

Nearly all the battalions concerned in the attack were with-
drawn that night and other battalions of the First Division took
their places. These fresh troops behaved splendidly. Though
they suffered extremely heavy losses, they carried out the reliefs
as steadily as they did in quiet times. They pushed forward,
waist-deep in the quagmire of the battle-field, and occupied the
line without a hitch.

During this relief another prominent officer was killed. While
the First Battalion was handing over its line to the Eighth Bat-

64 THE CANADIANS IN FRANCE

talion, a huge shell struck the dugout where the staffs of the
two units were at work. In the resulting shambles Lieut. -Col.
Matthews was severely hurt and four others were injured. Lieut.-
Col. Creighton was mortally wounded and two others were killed
by the concussion. In this way a very gallant officer met his
death and another colonel was added to the long roll of those
who fell in the battle.

The Fifth Canadian Brigade relieved the troops in the line
on the night of June 14th. Their entry might be said to have
set the seal upon the third desperate conflict for Ypres.

Each brigade of the Canadian Corps took its turn in the re-
captured line during the next few weeks, until the situation was
again normal, which was at the end of June. They cleared the
far-spread desert of the salient of the innumerable Canadian and
German dead. There were many Canadians who were buried
there on the field of their honour by night, with only the crash
of shell fire as a requiem. The clearing parties discovered
General Mercer's body in the dugout in Armagh Wood on the
night of June 23rd. And next day this gallant soldier was buried
in a little cemetery near Abeele, on the Poperinghe Road.

The casualties of the Canadian Corps in this protracted con-
flict were, in round figures, three hundred and ninety officers
and eight thousand one hundred men. Of these seventy-five
officers and one thousand and fifty-six men gave up their lives.
Approximately two-thirds of the total casualties were incurred
in the fighting of and about June 2nd. The Eighth Brigade in
that period alone lost seventeen hundred and seventy men.

The aim of the German Army, in making this attack, was not
merely local. The thunder was gathering in the Somme Valley.
Shrinking from the menace of this forthcoming blow, the enemy
struck at Ypres in an effort to divert troops and guns to that
sector of the line — troops and guns essential for the battle of the
Somme. The Canadians, by fighting from first to last alone,
completely defeated this object, and the Commander-in-Chief
carried on with his preparations undisturbed.

Indeed, the Germans did themselves more harm than good.
They set the desire for vengeance alight in the ranks of the
Canadian Corps ; so that, far from crippling that Corps or
gaining anything, the attack brought the Canadians down to
the Somme in September with their zeal for offensive action
on fire.

The new dead in the Ypres Salient, whom the Germans had
called cowards, might smile in their sleep.

CHAPTER VII

THE SOMME
September-November 1916

With the final settling down of the Canadians into their original
trenches north of the Ypres-Comines Canal, a period of extra-
ordinary quietness fell to them. It lasted from the end of June
to the middle of August, and was marked by scarcely any im-
portant event. The chief happening was the landing of a Fourth
Canadian Division in France, which will be duly described.

A few high promotions were made to replace losses suffered
in the fighting. Brigadier-General Lipsett, of the Second Infantry
Brigade, was promoted to command the Third Division.

The successor of General Lipsett was Brigadier-General
F. O. W. Loomis, D.S.O. He had held the command of the
Thirteenth Battalion prior to his selection as brigadier.

The whole of the month of July was devoted to an unbroken
series of raids delivered by the infantry. It is not possible to
describe all these sorties in detail, though every one was worthy
of such a description. A few of the more important operations
should be recorded.

On July 8th the Fifty-second Battalion assisted a small
attack of the Fourth Battalion on Mount Sorrel by raiding the
enemy's trenches to the flank. The Fourth Battalion's effort,
made by " C " Company and the battahon bombers, was in-
tended to drive the Germans out of an advanced trench on
Mount Sorrel. Unfortunately, it failed with rather severe loss
and the death of the commander of the attack. Captain A. G.
Scott, but, as usual, the utmost bravery was displayed.

Other minor operations were carried out by the Twenty-fifth
Battalion on the night of July 28th, followed by an exceptionally
daring one by the Nineteenth Battalion on July 29th, which was
made in broad daylight and was very successful.

August saw more of these raids, the most important being
that made by the Royal Canadian Regiment in the early morning
of August 18th. Two nights before, the Nineteenth Battalion,

5 ^^

66 THE CANADIANS IN FRANCE

by a clever ruse, drew the Germans into their front line opposite
the battalion in crowds, and then watched our artillery smash
up the enemy in their trenches.

Apart from these minor operations, warfare during the period
of quiet was unvaried by anything unusually important.

On August 16th the Fourth Canadian Division, having duly
assembled in the region of Steenvoorde, just west of the Canadian
Corps area, marched forward in time to relieve one of the divisions
of its fellow-countrymen en route for the Somme. This magnifi-
cent body of men had been training in England for several months
previously.

The division was commanded by Major-General D. Watson,
C.B., who had been succeeded in the command of the Fifth
Canadian Infantry Brigade by Brigadier-General A. H. Macdonell,
D.S.O., at the time of the St. Eloi fighting, and had gone to
England soon afterwards to take over his new force.

The composition of this division was as under :

The Tenth Canadian Infantry Brigade, Brigadier-General
W. St. P. Hughes, consisting of the Forty-fourth Battalion,
Lieut. -Col. E. R. Wayland ; Forty-sixth Battalion, Lieut.-Col.
H. J. Dawson ; Forty-seventh Battalion, Lieut.-Col. W. N.
Winsley, and Fiftieth Battalion, Lieut.-Col. E. G. Mason. The
Eleventh Canadian Infantry Brigade, Brigadier-General V. W.
Odium, D.S.O., composed of the Fifty-fourth Battalion, Lieut.-
Col. A. H. G. Kemball, C.B. ; Seventy-fifth Battalion, Lieut.-
Col. S. C. Beckett ; Eighty-seventh Battalion, Lieut.-Col. R. W.
Frost, and One Hundred and Second Battalion, Lieut.-Col. J. W.
Warden. The Twelfth Canadian Infantry Brigade, Brigadier-
General Lord Brooke, consisted of the Thirty-eighth Battalion,
Lieut.-Col. C. M. Edwards ; Seventy-second Battalion, Lieut.-
Col. J. A. Clark ; Seventj^-third Battalion, Lieut. -Col. P. Davidson,
and Seventy-eighth Battalion, Lieut.-Col. J. Kirkaldy.

The artillery of the division was not formed until June 1917.
It was then commanded by Brigadier-General C. H. MacLaren,
D.S.O., and consisted of the folloAving units, drawn and formed
from the artillery of the First and Second Divisions :

Third Brigade, Canadian Field Artillery, Major J. A. Mac-
Donald, D.S.O. ; Fourth Brigade, Canadian Field Artillery,
Lieut.-Col. J. S. Stewart, D.S.O., and Divisional Ammunition
Column, Major E. T. B. Gilmore.

The remainder of the division consisted of the Tenth, Eleventh
and Twelfth Field Companies, Canadian Engineers, and the
usual administrative units.

The division, on its arrival in the battle-zone on August 16th,
was immediately posted, brigade by brigade, to the Second and
Third Divisions in the trenches.

THE SOMME 67

During August the issue of the Lee-Enfield Rifle to all troops
in the Canadian Corps was completed and the Ross Rifle, which
had hitherto been used by most of the Corps, was discarded.

The gigantic struggle on the Somme was now in full swing.
For several weeks the Canadians had feared that the greatest
battle of all time was destined to go on to its ultimate end,
perhaps to an overwhelming victory, Avithout their being permitted
to take part in it. The Commander-in-Chief eventually decided
otherwise. And on August 13th, having handed over their sector
to the Third Canadian Division, the First Canadian Division,
infantry and guns, was well clear of the Ypres zone and swinging
down the roads which led to St. Omer and the Somme.

Soon afterwards all the Canadian Corps, with the exception
of the Fourth Canadian Division, which was to remain near
Ypres for the time being, followed it. The Second Division was
reliev^ed by General Watson's command on August 25th, and also
marched by road to the area at St. Omer. The Third Division
left by train on September 7th for an area about Cramont, having
been relieved on August 25th by the Fourth (Imperial) Division
and spending the interval in training at Steenvoorde. Then,
on September 8rd, Canadian Corps Headquarters handed the
Ypres Salient into the safe keeping of the First Anzac Corps and
the relief was complete.

Having gone through some preliminary training on the lines
laid down by the development of fighting on the Somme in the
area west of St. Omer set aside for that purpose, the First and
Second Canadian Divisions entrained in turn, using the stations
at Arques, St. Omer and Audruicq.

The First Division commenced to move on August 20th, and,
having detrained, was concentrated in the zone west of the Somme,
ready for action, by September Ist. The entraining of the Second
Division began on September 4th, and it detrained and was also
ready for action on the Somme by September 8th. The Third
Division, which began its entrainment on September 7th, was
also concentrated in the Somme area by September 12th. On
September 5th the Corps Troops had assembled in the same
district.

The night of September 1st found the First and Third Canadian
Infantry Brigades ready to relieve two brigades of Australians
east of Mouquet Farm. And before their entry launched the
Canadians into the titanic struggle it would be well to describe
briefly conditions on the Somme when they came in.

Trench warfare was now gone on the Somme front. But
open warfare had not yet returned. The fighting was a combina-
tion of both. Shell-holes were occupied and linked up in a few
hours and stood for a trench, or were occupied and not linked

68 THE CANADIANS IN FRANCE

up at all. Cavalry went out, but could not charge or quite get
clear of barbed wire. Trenches of the old type still existed, but
only here and there, and were then of enormous importance.
There was little barbed wire to be found, except in the region of
the old trenches. Batteries moved over the open and fired in
the open according to the old ideas, yet were still hampered by
trenches, shell-holes and slov^^ncss of infantry advance.

By slow degrees the two Canadian brigades relieving the
Australians completed the relief on the morning of September
5th. This was the outcome of the handing over of their front
to the Canadian Corps by the First Anzac Corps on September 3rd.

The line taken over v/as approximately two thousand yards
long, a straggling, shell-hammered so-called trench set in the
man-made desert astride the Bapaume Road beyond Pozieres.
Its left was just outside the famous Mouquet Farm, which had
proved a stumbling-block in our advance for weeks.

On September 8th the Second Infantry Brigade of Canadians
relieved the Third Infantry Brigade. Then at 4.45 p.m. on
September 9th the Second Battalion, Lieut.-Col. A. E. Swift,
D.S.O., struck Canada's first blow in the Somme zone.

The battalion, moving forward from its trenches on the
extreme right of the CorjDS line behind the overpowering curtain
fire of the massed guns, seized five hundred yards of the German
line with eighty prisoners and the loss of very few men. This
trench was rapidly incorporated into our system of defence,
and was used as a starting-place for the next drive.

With the relief of the First Infantr}^ Brigade by the Fourth
and Sixth Infantry Brigades the Second Canadian Division came
into action on the right of the Dominion's line on September
10th. Two days later the Second Infantry Brigade's relief by
the Eighth Infantry Brigade brought the Tiiird Canadian Di\dsion
also into the battle. This brigade went in on the left of the Sixth
Infantry Brigade, thereby relieving the last of the First Division.
These three brigades were destined to make the greatest and most
successful attack of the Canadian Corps, and, indeed, one of the
most brilliant of the entire British Army, on the Somme.

The terrain in which the first great attack was delivered,
roughly, was bounded on the south by the straight but almost
obliterated Bapaume Road. A short distance north of the Road
and over a mile from the Canadian line was a rubbish-heap
which once was Courcelette and is now a glorious name in
history.

The main defences to the village consisted of a ruined Sugar
Refinery just north of the Bapaume Road, which the enemy
had turned into a great redoubt. Tliis was one thousand yards
from the Canadian trenches. Besides the enemy's immediate

THE SOMME 69

first line, a strong defence line, running almost parallel to the
Bapaume Road from the centre of the Corps line to a point
south of Courcclettc and then turning at a right angle and crossing
the Bapaume Road past the Refinery, guarded the approaches
to Courcelette.

There were many minor bits of line in Avhieh the Germans
made a fight for the village, but these, known as Sugar Trench
and Candy Trench, constituted the backbone of the enemy's
resistance. This backbone was broken at one blow.

The Canadian attack Avas not merely of local importance.
It was the pivot on which the whole of the forces from their left
down to the right of the Army swung northwards in one day.
Had the pivot given way or failed to turn, success might have been
jeopardized. But the pivot turned i^recisely as required.

The preliminary bombardment began on the previous night
and roared with the combined power of hundreds of Canadian
and Imperial guns along the three-thousand-yard length of Sugar
and Candy Trenches, barraged behind them to shut off assistance
from the doomed enemy, searched every yard of rearward ground
and drowned the fire of the German guns. This terrible bom-
bardment did not cease all night.

Through the darkness the Canadian battalions stole and dis-
posed themselves along the front line from Mouquet Farm to
the Bapaume Road for the assault. These battalions were dis-
tributed as follows, from right to left :

The Eighteenth Battalion, Lieut.-Col. H. L. Milligan, the
Twentieth Battalion, Lieut.-Col. C. H. Rogers, the Twenty-first
BattaHon, Lieut.-Col. E. W. Jones ; these belonged to the Fourth
Infantry Brigade. Of the Sixth Infantry Brigade, the Twenty-
seventh Battalion, Lieut.-Col. P. .1. Daly, D.S.O., and the Tv»'enty-
eighth Battalion, Lieut.-Col. J. F. L. Embury C.M.G. ; the
Thirty-first Battalion, Lieut.-Col. A. H. Bell, followed, mopping
up for the Sixth Brigade. The Fifth C.M.R. Battalion, Lieut.-
Col. D. C. Draper, D.S.O., and the First C.M.R. Battalion, Lieut.-
Col. R. C. Andros, came from the Eighth Infantry Brigade.

The objective assigned to the seven front-line battalions was
about equally divided among them. Each had first to overcome the
enemy's line just in front of them. The Fourth Infantry Brigade
was then to attack Candy Trench and take it from the Bapaume
Road to the Sugar Refinery and also the Refinery itself. Sugar
Trench and the remainder of Candy Trench were to be captured
by the Sixth Infantry Brigade, while the C.M.R. 's were to capture
the continuation of Sugar Trench as far as Mouquet Farm.

At 6.20 a.m. the " intense barrage " opened on the German
lines. This was the signal for the great attack, and instantly
the British troops all along the Somme line sprang out of their

70 THE CANADIANS IN FRANCE

trenches and, cheering wildly, surged over the shell-hole desolation
to attack the enemy.

To assist them in their assault the two brigades of the Second
Division each had with them a trio of the now renowned Tanks,
or heavy armoured cars. This was the first appearance of the
great steel fortresses, armed with machine guns and light quick-
firers, upon the field of battle.

The artillery, the Tanks and the irresistible dash of the in-
fantry carried everything before them. In successive lines and
with fixed bayonets the infantry pressed on, following hard after
the clamouring shield of shells and nobly supported by the Tanks.
Machine guns here and there opened on them, but were quickly
disabled with bombs. The wild shelling of the blind German
guns, combined with the machine gun fire, caused man}^ casualties,
but was absolutely no hindrance to the heroic advance.

So brilliant was the assault that Sugar and Candy Trenches
were taken within the hour. On this front Captain K. L. Paton,
of the Twenty-seventh Battalion, though suffering from four
wounds, continued to lead his men until he fell exhausted, and
was succeeded by Lieut. A. E. McElligott. At many points
desperate little hand-to-hand fights took place, but soon died
down. The Fourth Infantry Brigade, pouring into the ruins of
the Sugar Refinery, captured it at the bayonet's point and were
in complete possession by 7.30 a.m.

The Tanks smashed the Refinery's resistance piecemeal.
On the Sixth Brigade line of advance one landship reached the
objective and destroyed a machine gun, but the other two were
severely damaged at the outset and took no part.

By 8 a.m. every yard of the Canadian objectives had been
secured. The line now ran approximately along the south edge
of Courcelette, from the south-eastern corner of that place to
immediately north of Martinpuich. From Courcelette our men
were established westwards in trenches along the main road to
Ovillers. Prisoners were streaming back, mingled with hundreds
of wounded of both sides.

The Canadians had now performed their allotted task of the
day, but the task of making further progress at every opportunity
still remained. Before the afternoon was well advanced the
Fourth Infantry Brigade pushed their men forward under a galling
rifle and machine gun fire through heavy shelling and, after a
short fight, captured Gunpit Trench. This trench was over
two hundred yards from the morning objective and lay south of
the Bapaume Road, parallel with the track from Martinpuich
to Courcelette.

But this was only a beginning. Orders were rapidly issued
for the capture of Courcelette itself. The wall had been broken

THE SOMME 71

down, patrols from the Sixth Infantry Brigade had penetrated
into the fortress, and it only remained for our troops to clear it.
While the morning objectives were being consolidated by
streaming companies in a fierce fire and the warm sun of September,
other battalions, white with dust, pouring with sweat and laden
with their weapons, were marching at a forced pace to take
Courcelette.

The attacking battalions, suffering heavy casualties as they
passed into the desert where Death played, deployed along the
whole of the new Canadian line from the Gunpit Trench almost
to Mouquet Farm. These were the battalions, distributed from
right to left in the order named :

The Twenty-second Battalion, Lieut.-Col. T. L. Tremblay,
and the Twenty-fifth Battalion, Lieut.-Col. Edward Hilliam,
D.S.O., supported by the Twenty-sixth Battalion, Lieut.-Col.
A. E. G. Mackenzie. These belonged to the Fifth Infantry
Brigade. On their left were the " Princess Pat's," Lieut.-Col.
R. T. Pelly, and the Forty-second Battalion, Lieut.-Col. G. S.
Cantlie, supported by the Forty-ninth Battalion, Lieut.-Col.
Griesbach, all of the Seventh Infantry Brigade. The Eighth
Infantry Brigade was represented by the Fourth C.M.R. Battalion,
Lieut.-Col. H. D. L. Gordon.

A terrific bombardment howled on Courcelette and the trenches
to the west and east — the Fabeck Graben and those along the
eastern edge of the village. In the fire the unseen German
infantry lay and waited for the end.

At exactly G p.m. it came, as the sun was sinking on the close
of one of Canada's great days. The Fifth Infantry Brigade,
attacking Courcelette, arose out of the crumbled trenches
captured in the morning, and, with their comrades of the
Third Division moving on the Fabeck Graben, marched in
waves, which kept their alignment magnificently, towards their
objective.

This attack was also completely successful. The barrage of
shells crept forward, a thick cloud of smoke, and the bayonets
followed in steady, flashing lines, moving as irresistibly as Fate.
Shell after shell blew gaps in the lines, hidden machine guns
cut long swathes in the lines, officers fell and gasped out their
lives in shell-holes, men went down in sudden heaps. The
casualties were heavy as the inferno was traversed. Here three
of the original members of the Twenty-fifth Battalion, Major
E. J. Brooks, Major J. H. Tupper and Captain J. C. Stairs, all
most gallant officers, were killed within one half-hour. But still
the bayonets went on.

On the right the Fifth Brigade entered Courcelette with
their Colonels at the head of their men. Through the ruins they

72 THE CANADIANS IN FRANCE

went. Fearful fighting took place here and there. Lieut.-Col.
Hilliam, in the thick of the fight, was too busy to notice a wound
in the hand. There were savage bayonet conflicts, struggles of
bombers with machine gunners around the machine guns and
hand-to-hand grapplings at dugout entrances. Hundreds of
mouthing, exhausted wrecks which once were German soldiers
surrendered without firing a shot.

Straight through the village they pressed and into the Quarry
beyond. This, although a strong point with deep dugouts,
was quickly taken ; digging in along the north and east sides of
Courcelette began, and the place was won. At the forefront of
the consolidation Lieuts. H. J. Chabelle, G. E. Dupuis and C.
Greffard, of the Twenty-second Battahon, each did brilliant
work, heedless of their wounds.

Meanwhile, on the left, the attack of the Third Division was
in progress. The "Princess Pat's" and the Forty-second Bat-
talions had been ordered to take two objectives — firstly, a svmken
road running right across their front ; secondly, the Fabeck
Graben. The Forty-ninth Battalion was then to push through
these units and establish a line along the whole of the Seventh
Brigade front on the crest of the high ground beyond the Fabeck
Graben.

The Forty-second Battalion took its objectives rapidly and
without great difficulty. The " Princess Pat's," hov/ever, after
taking the first objective, only succeeded in gaining a footing
in the Fabeck Graben with two platoons on the immediate right
of the Forty-second. Thence to the east was a two- hundred-
yard gap filled with Germans, and thence again, along the Fabeck
Graben to Courcelette, were parties of the " Princess Pat's."
The Germans in the trench therefore had Canadians on both
sides of them. This was the situation when the Forty-ninth came
up to take the third objective. There followed long and obscure
fighting. Eventually, the Forty-ninth Battalion cleared the
enemy out of that portion of the Fabeck Graben in which they
still had a footing and seized the Chalk Mound, some two hundred
yards beyond the Fabeck Graben, where two companies consoli-
dated and linked the position with the trench in rear. At
midnight the line was secure.

To the left of the Forty-second Battalion the Fourth C.M.R.
Battalion continued the attack. They had a further five hundred
yards of the Fabeck Graben to conquer. Two companies attacked .
The assault was launched at 6.30 p.m., in order that it might
coincide with the entry of the Seventh Brigade into the Fabeck
Graben.

It was rapidly delivered and completely successful, largely
owing to the initiative of one man, the officer commanding the

THE SOMME 73

attack of the battalion, Captain W. R. Patterson. The German
barrage caught the second attacking company, " C," and inflicted
such heavy causalties on this company as it deployed that it
could not advance. Captain Patterson therefore quickly extended
" B " Company to cover the whole frontage of the two companies
and took the whole objective, consolidated, and gained touch
with the Forty-second Battalion on the right.

Thus the whole of the main objectives of the Third Division
were taken and a line established by the Canadian Corps nearly
one thousand yards in advance of that captured only that morning.

In this way Sir Julian Bj^ng and his Canadians crowned their
victory about Courcelette and made their greatest Somme advance.
With one stroke they smashed through the defence lines of the
village, tore it out of the enemy's hands, and set free two square
miles of France, while they took nearly a thousand prisoners and
much material.

This success complete, new blows were at once delivered.
Five hundred yards beyond, and roughly parallel to, the Fabeck
Graben, was Zollern Trench, a ditch three thousand yards long,
running from Thiepval to join the Fabeck Graben near Courcelette.
In the centre of Zollern Trench, half-way betAveen Thiepval and
Courcelette and immediately north of Mouquet Farm, was the
Zollern Redoubt, an extremely strong position, well provided
with dugouts and machine guns.

The Third Division was ordered to take Zollern Trench and
the Redoubt as well.

This was a difficult undertaking. These objectives had
several times been attacked from the south by troops other than
Canadians without success. It was therefore decided to carry
out the new assault as follows :

The Seventh Brigade was to capture five hundred yards of
Zollern Trench, from its junction with the Fabeck Graben west-
ward, attacking frontally in a northerly direction. When this
objective had been taken the Ninth Infantry Brigade was to
deploy on a line running north and south between Fabeck Graben
and Zollern Trench, its right in touch with the left established
by the Seventh Brigade in Zollern Trench. From this line it
was to advance and assault the Zollern Redoubt from the east.
The Eighth Infantry Brigade was to co-operate by bombing up
towards the Zollern Redoubt from the south-east.

The assault of the Seventh Brigade was ordered for 5 p.m.
on September 16th. The subsequent assault on the Zollern
Redoubt was to take place at 6.30 p.m., when it was thought
that the Seventh Brigade might be on its objective line. It was
of course impossible to launch the latter attack if the former
v.ere not successful.

74 THE CANADIANS IN FRANCE

The following battalions, from right to left, were employed
by the Seventh Brigade :

The Royal Canadian Regiment, Lieut.-Col. C. H. Hill, D.S.O.,
the Forty-second Battalion ; in support was the Forty-ninth
Battalion.

The attack, after a bombardment of one hour's duration, was
launched by these units promptly at 5 p.m. It w^as made under
cover of an intense barrage, and was pushed with the greatest
possible courage and resolution. It failed — the assaulting waves
died in a hell of machine gun fire.

No footing was gained in Zollern Trench, but the " Princess
Pat's," co-operating on the right, succeeded in gaining a few
yards of the trench by bombing along from its junction with
the Fabeck Graben.

Brigadier-General Macdonell ordered the Forty-ninth Battalion
to push forward and lend its weight to the assault. These orders,
however, arrived too late and w^ere eventually cancelled. The
attack of the Ninth Brigade, wholly dependent on the success
of the Seventh Brigade, was also cancelled.

Great courage was displayed in this fruitless attack. When
all their men had become causalties. Captain S. J. Mathewson
and Lieut. J. K. Mathewson, of the Forty-second Battalion,
leading the attack of the right of the battalion, continued to press
on alone until only one hundred yards from the objective. They
could not get further, as the machine gun fire was indescribably
intense.

In the Royal Canadian Regiment, Lieut. Penniman, after
all his men had become casualties, joined the bombers of the
" Princess Pat's " and fought with them.

The Eighth Brigade, like the Ninth Brigade, was not called
upon to advance after the assault of the Seventh Brigade had
failed. At 7.30 p.m., however, while the remnants of those who
had attacked the Zollern Trench were drifting back into the
Fabeck Graben, the Second C.M.R. Battalion attacked and cap-
tured Mouquet Farm, that thorn in the flesh of the British Army.
This position had been constantly raided and harassed by the
Eighth Brigade during the preceding days. By 8.30 p.m. the
Farm was in our hands. A line was quickly constructed around
it, and the place was thus incorporated into our defence system.

Movements of relief were then set in progress. The Ninth
Infantry Brigade, which was to have taken Zollern Redoubt,
instead relieved the Seventh Infantry Brigade during the night.
At the same time the Fourth Brigade was relieved by the Fifth
Brigade and the Forty-sixth (Imperial) Brigade, while the Eighth
Brigade was relieved by the Thirty-fourth (Imperial) Brigade. No
further attempt to advance had been made that day. Everywhere

THE SOMME 75

consolidation was in progress. Thousands of men toiled like
slaves to secure the hard-won ground. Meanwhile the guns
were moving up into position to support the next attack. During
the next forty-eight hours the enemy made isolated efforts almost
ceaselessly to regain Courcclette and the trench system they had
lost, but all these efforts were crushed by the sleepless artillery
and the infantry holding the line.

By September 17th all the victors of Courcclette were relieved.
More territory passed into our possession that day. At 5 p.m.
each battalion of the Fifth Infantry Brigade sent forward bombing
parties, under a shrapnel barrage. These worked their way
through a maze of trenches east of Courcclette and thereby drove
the line forward two hundred yards along the whole of that side
of the village. The night of September 17th brought the First
Infantry Brigade into the trenches to their relief.

Thus the whole of the Second Division passed out of the
Valley of the Shadow.

On the night of September 19th two small but extremely
savage attacks were made in the vicinity of Courcclette Quarry,
but proved entirely fruitless, owing to the fine defence of the Third
and Fourth Battalions. In some places we pushed forward new
outposts, especially around Courcclette.

The end of Zollern Trench came later. It was pounded to
ruin by our great guns, and it ceased to be either an obstacle
to an attacking force or a shelter for defence.

By September 25th every brigade of the First Division had
fought its second turn in the front line. More progress had been
made in the maze of trenches east of Courcclette. The Sixth
Infantry Brigade then relieved the First Infantry Brigade.

And now begins the tale of Regina Trench. When men of
the future tell stories of war and valour, if they know heroism,
they will speak of this trench and the fights that won it.

Picture a densely wired defence line, sited with a serpent's
cunning to take every advantage of concealment and protection
from shell fire afforded by the ground, running unbrokenly from
near Thiepval to south of Pys, across the Canadian front as it
lay now beyond Courcclette. Between this line and ours was
another trench, Hessian Trench, roughly parallel to it, but
terminating abruptly north of Courcclette. A third line ran
from Courcclette to join Regina Trench and cut Hessian Trench
on the way.

Regina Trench was the densely wired line from Thiepval
to south of Pys. Kenora Trench was the line connecting it with
Courcclette. Never was a name more appropriate than that of
Regina Trench, for it was a queen crowned by Canadian valour.
Those who aspired to remove the obstacle it presented in the path

76 THE CANADIANS IN FRANCE

of their advance had a fearful task before them. Yet when, on
September 26th, the first attack went forward, the six battahons
engaged had no thought of failure. From right to left, these
were the battalions :

Twenty-ninth Battalion, Major J. M. Ross, and the Thirty-
first Battalion, Lieut.-Col. A. H. Bell, both of the Sixth Infantry
Brigade. They were to seize part of Kenora Trench and the
ground east of it. The Fourteenth Battalion, Lieut.-Col. R. P.
Clark, M.C., and the Fifteenth Battalion, Lieut.-Col. C. E. Bent,
of the Third Infantry Brigade ; the Fifth Battalion, Lieut.-Col.
H. M. Dyer, D.S.O., and the Eighth Battalion, Lieut.-Col. J. M.
Prower, D.S.O., of the Second Infantry Brigade. They were
first to capture the Hessian line and Kenora before going on to
take Regina Trench.

In conjunction with Imperial troops on the left, these
battalions rose to the assault and set forth on their terrible
task at 12.35 p.m.

Within an hour the struggle at close quarters for Hessian
and Kenora Trenches was over and they were almost completely
won. A small line south of Kenora, known as Sudbury Trench,
was also captured. In the Fifth Battalion, Lieut. W. W. McLellan
showed great gallantry. He was early wounded, but led his
company in spite of it. With one man he captured a machine
gun and turned it on the enemy. And, not content with this, he
next rescued a wounded officer under intense fire.

For the moment the attack on Regina Trench was abandoned,
as barbed wire was still thick before it, in spite of the fierce
preliminary bombardment. The business of consolidation began
under the usual gruelHng opposition, and the Second Brigade
commenced bombing to the left to effect a junction with the
Imperials.

All night long these efforts were continued but proved fruitless.
The artillery meanwhile were battering Regina Trench, five
hundred yards ahead, paving the way for a new assault. Some
elements of the Third Brigade, before dark and the abandoning
of the attack, actually won to Regina Trench, but they could not
hold on.

Next day the Seventh Battalion, pushed up to help the rest
of its brigade, joined in its attempt to gain touch with the Imperials
on the left. By grim, steady driving they brilliantly cleared
five hundred yards more of Hessian Trench, As the Germans
fled from them across the open, our machine guns swept down
scores. An immediate counter-attack at 1 p.m. set foot in a
small part of the new gain, but was at once ejected, and the entire
move failed with great loss.

At the same time the Thirty-first Battalion, showing magnifi-

THE SOMME 77

cent tenacity, and assisted by a company of the Twenty-seventh
BattaHon, under Captain McGaw, at last secured the greater part
of its share of Kenora Trench and the ground east of that Hne.
This battalion had battled for twenty-four hours to gain its
objective, attacking three distinct times. By 9 p.m. on September
27th it had finally taken the line set out for it. It was almost
decimated by its losses, but it performed its task.

A Avithdrawal began during the night of September 27th.
The vigilance of the troops around Courcelette and infantry
patrols, which were always out, discovered this almost at once.
The enemy had evidently had enough of it on that front.

The Twenty-sixth Battalion, Lieut. -Col. A. E. G. MacKenzie,
and the Nineteenth Battalion, Lieut. -Col. W. R. Turnbull, under
Brigadier-General Kctchcn's orders, at once deployed and
advanced, with instructions to gain as much ground as possible.
The Nineteenth Battalion, moving from between Courcelette and
the Bapaume Road, reached a position nearly a mile ahead of our
line, their right on the Warlencourt Road, their left five hundred
yards north-west of that point, before heavy fire arrested their
advance. Advancing north of Courcelette, the Twenty-sixth
Battalion reached a trench three hundred yards south of Regina
Trench between the roads to Miraumont. Unable to go further
because of sniping, they established themselves in the trench.

Nor was this all. The Canadian Corps Cavalry Regiment,
Lieut. -Col. C. T. Van Straubenzee, for the first time in the war's
history, was able to advance. Before noon of September 28th
a patrol under Lieut. Campbell had located the enemy in Destre-
mont Farm, on the Bapaume Road, a mile from Courcelette.
By nightfall the enemy was reported as established in force in
a new line before Le Sars.

Before once more attacking Regina Trench a complete defence
line was consolidated by our troops. Pushing to the right, the
Canadians got into touch with the Imperials at Destremont Farm,
which was now in their hands. Meanwhile, the Germans violently
counter-attacked our new line between Twenty-three Road and
Courcelette, held by the Twenty-fourth Battalion, Lieut. -Col.
Gunn, at 10 p.m. on September 28th.

Our guns awoke instantly: the iron door of our protective
barrage came down in front of our trenches with an ear-splitting
crash and set the night on fire. The machine guns and rifles
got to work and swept the columns of the enemy from end to end.
The assault seemed to melt in the furnace and failed with heavy
casualties.

A strong attack on a post in Hessian Trench was also beaten
back at the same time.

Touch was at last established between the flanks of Canadians

78 THE CANADIANS IN FRANCE

and Imperials in Hessian Trench next day. The Second C.M.R.
BattaUon effected this.

Everything was now ready for a new advance on the whole
of the Canadian front. The following battalions were deployed
from right to left on October 1st, with orders for the attack :

The Twentieth Battalion, Lieut.-Col. Rogers, and theEighteenth
Battalion, Lieut.-Col. Milligan, of the Fourth Infantry Brigade,
on the line from Destremont Farm to the East Miraumont Road.
The Fifth Infantry Brigade was to advance from the left of the
Fourth Brigade to Twenty-three Road, using the Twenty-Second
Battalion, Twenty-fifth Battalion and Twenty-fourth Battalion.
The Fifth (on the right) and Fourth C.M.R. Battalions of the
Eighth Infantry Brigade were to advance on a front from Twenty-
three Road to the road from Courcelette to Grandcourt.

On the front thus covered, Regina Trench as far as Courcelette
Trench, which ran parallel to the East Miraumont Road, thence a
line straight to Dyke Road and from that road to Destremont
Farm, was to be assaulted. At 3.15 p.m. the infantry waves
went forward on all this two-mile deployment.

The guns had almost everywhere done their work, and with
the creeping barrage arched like a shield in front of them, the
battalions got almost everywhere into their objectives. But
German machine guns were on all sides, in shell-holes between
trenches and in concealed emplacements, filling the air with a
dense crossfire which swept the advancing lines into ruin.

And yet the infantry reached their objectives, though the
ground over which they went was carpeted with the men they
lost. The way of the Fourth C.M.R. Battalion was hopelessly
blocked by barbed wire which our guns had been unable to cut.

While elsewhere their breathless comrades were clearing
the German positions, the men of this battalion sought with
glorious courage to advance. They ran up and down in front
of the entanglements, seeking a passage. Still, while these breakers
of khaki dashed fruitlessly on the wall of wire, the remains of the
other battalions were fighting furiously to clear the last Germans
from the rest of the Canadian objective. A strong point at the
junction of Courcelette and Regina Trenches was the centre of
this fighting.

Heavy German artillery fire now added to the difficulties
and horrors of the situation. It ran, in the form of a barrage,
straight across the ground over which the Canadians had advanced,
completely shutting off assistance, and stormed down on the
captured bits of the line. The ground behind our men was thus
turned into a shambles where the wounded were blown to pieces
and the living were struck down like flics.

Under such conditions consolidation was impossible. The

THE SOMME 79

enemy immediately counter-attacked on the whole line. Every-
where they met with magnificent resistance, but they succeeded
in retaking the trench held by the right company of the Fifth
C.M.R. Battalion and getting a footing between the Twenty-
fourth and the Twenty-fifth Battalions.

This marked the beginning of the end. Almost decimated
by terrific machine gun fire through which they had passed in
their advance and then pounded mercilessly by artillery, the
Canadians in the German position found themselves unable to
dislodge the enemy from the redoubt in Courcelette Trench or
the parts they had just retaken. By 5 p.m. another violent
counter-attack was made, and all Regina Trench, except that
portion lying between Twenty-three Road and the Kenora Trench
junction, was lost.

Kenora Trench itself would also have been captured, so fierce
was the enemy's rush, had not the survivors of the Twenty-fifth
Battalion occupied the trench and made a desperate stand
there.

It is needless to say that a terrific fight took place before
our men were driven from Regina Trendi, and that the enemy
paid the price in full.

So it went on, until, as has been told, only the Twenty-fourth
Battalion remained in Regina Trench. The end of the tale of
this attack is simple, but its simplicity is of great valour. Through
all that dreadful night succeeding the counter-attack the remnants
of our assaulting troops strove again and again to retake their
objectives. The last men of the Eighth Infantry Brigade in
Regina Trench — the left company of the Fifth C.M.R. Battalion,
reinforced by two platoons of the first C.M.R. Battalion — fought
along the trench to gain touch with the Fifth Brigade, but they
were swept back, out and into Hessian Trench. This rendered the
position of the few soldiers left in the trench intolerable, and they
were ordered to withdraw.

Regina Trench had only dead Canadians in possession after
that. The men in front of it meanwhile had come back through
all the night to the assault. But when the dawn came they
gave up the struggle and consolidated on the ground they held.
Regina Trench was still untaken. The new Canadian line,
however, ran across No Man's Land from Hessian to Kenora
Trench, thence across the East Miraumont and the Pys Roads
down to Destremont Farm Road. Though their objectives were
not secured, the Canadians had thus driven forward their whole
line nearly five hundred yards.

During the two days following, advantage was taken of the
comparative calm which succeeded the attack to relieve the
troops which took part. The next few days were then utilized

80 THE CANADIANS IN FRANCE

in consolidating the latest gains and in rearranging the guns
for a further drive.

It is to the boundless credit of the Canadian Corps that the
two previous failures at Regina Trench did not in the least affect
their iron resolution to capture it. The German troops had
undoubtedly been ordered to hold the trench to the last — the
fearful losses of their defence proved that. In the same way
every man of the battalions which moved up to the trenches for
the third assault was determined that the Canadians should
take Regina Trench at all costs.

On October 8th the following battalions went over the parapet,
deployed from right to left in the order named :

The Fourth Battahon, Lieut.-Col. W. Rae, D.S.O., and the
Third Battalion, Major J. B. Rogers, M.C. (Major Yates, Second
Battalion, temporarily in command), both of the First Infantry
Brigade ; the Sixteenth Battalion, Lieut.-Col. Leckie, D.S.O.,
and the Thirteenth Battalion, Major G. E. McCuaig, of the Third
Infantry Brigade ; the Fiftj^-eighth Battalion, Lieut.-Col. H. A.
Genet, and the Forty-third Battalion, Lieut.-Col. R. M. Thomson,
of the Ninth Infantry Brigade ; the Royal Canadian Regiment,
Lieut.-Col. Hill, and the Forty-ninth Battalion, Lieut.-Col.
Griesbach, of the Seventh Infantry Brigade.

At 4.50 a.m., as the glare of the terrible barrage began to
pale with dawn, these battalions swept out in waves and assaulted
Regina Trench from the Grandcourt-Courcelette Road to the
Quadrilateral, and thence attacked a line to Dyke Road, thus
advancing on a front of over two miles.

With the exception of the Forty-ninth and Thirteenth Bat-
talions, which were held up by barbed wire and machine guns,
every unit got into its objective, if with heavy losses. They found
the trenches utterly smashed and crammed with German dead.

In view of what followed, this testimony that the enemy
lost at least as heavily as ourselves is consolatory.

Shortly after we had gained a footing in "our positions the
inevitable counter-attack came. Pressing on through the storm
of our shell fire, the Germans madly drove into the troops of the
Seventh and Ninth Infantry Brigades, and retook the portions
of Regina Trench which these brigades had captured.

The firmness of the Canadian defence is exhibited by the
fact that it took the enemy all morning, aided though they were
by their immense numerical superiority, their terrific shell fire,
their knowledge of the ground and the courage of despair, to
drive these scattered fragments of four Canadian battalions
out of Regina Trench. The fight was a replica of the ordeal
of October 1st.

When at last the objectives of these brigades had been re-

THE SOMME 81

captured, the enemy, between 2 and 3 p.m., hurled forward his
waves against the remainder of the Canadian attackers, where
the Third and Fourth Battahons, in the Quadrilateral, and
the Sixteenth Battalion, in Regina Trench, were holding their
objectives.

Our machine guns, the sledge-hammer blows of our guns,
and the fury of our rapid rifle fire tumbled the advancing ranks
into chaos. But new ranks came on and on, and at last won
to the trenches, threw themselves on our line, and took it
from us.

A post of the Sixteenth Battalion managed to hang on, though
everywhere else their support had gone. And there they remained,
magnificent in their isolation, until ordered to retire, under cover
of the night and their Lewis guns, from their impossible position.
Thus ended the third — and last — unsuccessful bid for Regina
Trench. Though our casualties were severe and we had not yet
won the Trench, the day was still a day of success. Over two
hundred prisoners had been taken and the losses of the enemy
in killed and wounded must have been appalling. But no gain
of ground had been made by the Canadian Corps.

The last act of this drama of Regina Trench was now at
hand. The attackers of October 8th were relieved, those of the
First Division by the Second Infantry Brigade and those of the
Third Division by the Eighth Infantry Brigade. The Fourth
Canadian Division, which had arrived on October 5th, now
came forward fresh from the Ypres Salient, to break the
battered wall which their comrades had undermined.

The division relieved the Third Division in the line on
October 11th. The veterans of the latter formation moved out
of the Somme area on October 20th. The Second Division had
already gone, leaving on October 10th. On October 21st, the
First Division followed them. The Canadian Corps Headquarters
had moved north on October 17th.

All the Canadians of the September battles had now left.
They took away with them glory that few troops in the world
have ever rivalled.

The Fourth Canadian Division was attached to the Second
Corps. No finer troops could have been chosen to put the finishing
touches to the fame of their countrymen on the Somme.

After much digging by the Tenth and Eleventh Brigades,
which resulted in communications and defensive positions in
general being greatly improved, the Fourth Canadian Division
set to work to shatter Regina Trench and thereby at last to crown
that hideous line with Canadian steel. In conjunction with an
Imperial attack to the left, the Eleventh Brigade at 12 p.m. on
October 21st attacked and captured four hundred yards of

6

82 THE CANADIANS IN FRANCE

Regiiia Trench and a further five hundred yards of ground to
the right.

The Eighty-seventh Battalion, Lieut.-Col. R. W. Frost, was
responsible for establishing a line facing north-east. Its right
linked with our existing front line. Its left rested on the Cource-
lette-Pys Road. On the left of the Eighty-seventh Battalion
the One Hundred and Second Battalion, Lieut.-Col. J. W. Warden,
carried on the attack. Its duty was to take Regina Trench between
the Courcelette-Pys Road and Courcelette Trench. It was then
to establish a line one hundred yards in advance of Regina Trench
and gain touch with the troops on its flanks. The Seventy-
fifth Battalion, Lieut.-Col. S. G. Beckett, was to support the
whole attack and dig a support line and new communication
trenches to the line of the objectives.

The assault went without a hitch under an intense artillery
barrage. One hundred and sixty-two prisoners were taken and
the positions won were rapidly and firmly consolidated. It was
a clean-cut, well-earned success. Our casualties were light, for
the spirit of the defence was quite broken.

Now there remained in German hands only the bit of Regina
Trench between Pys Road and Farmer Road, the track which
ran across Dyke Road to Le Sars. The long, dreadful torture of
gun fire and incessant attacks, and the bad weather which had
developed, had put the enemy into a condition in which they
would be no match for a determined foe. Canadian tenacity had
won at last. For on November 10th, after an unsuccessful
effort by the Forty-fourth Battalion, they attacked the bit of
Regina Trench remaining, and finally wrested it from the Germans.
The Forty-sixth Battalion, Lieut.-Col. H. J. Dawson, the
Forty-seventh Battalion, Lieut. -Col. W. N. Winsley, and the
One Hundred and Second Battalion, Lieut. -Col. J. W. Warden
(Major C. B. Worshop temporarily commanding), the first two of
the Tenth and the latter of the Eleventh Infantry Brigade, were
the attackers. The Trench had been systematically bombarded
for days past. At midnight, in the glory of wonderful moonlight,
the Canadians, supported by an artillery and machine gun
barrage, slipped over the parapet and struggled across the morass
of No Man's Land.

This attack also went without a hitch. The Canadians gained
all their objectives by 1.30 p.m., and sixty prisoners. Thirty-
two of the prisoners, v/ith two machine guns, were captured by
the One Hundred and Second Battalion. Then they drove on
two hundred yards and consolidated a line north of the Trench.
The enemy made a feeble attempt to counter-attack and failed
miserably. And the Twelfth Brigade during the following night
relieved the victors.

THE SOMME 83

That ends the story of Regina Trench. Thenceforth troops
came and went freely over the sinister ground where so many
gallant men had died. Thenceforth a rapidly crumbling ruin
straggling across the country behind our lines was all that
remained.

Conditions on the Somme had by this time changed very
much from those prevalent in September. Winter had inter-
vened to save the Germans from a great strategical defeat —
possibly the clearing of the invaded portions of France — which
would have undoulbtedly overtaken them had the weather
remained fine. The continuous rain and cold, with the deep
mud, had now made rapid advance impossible.

Although the state of affairs in the front area was so bad,
heavy blows might still be delivered. This was violently demon-
strated to the Germans on November 18th, when the Fourth
Division set the seal to the record of Canada's Somme achieve-
ments in the assault which carried the British line to the
outskirts of Grandcourt.

The six battalions in the forefront of the Canadian attack
were, from right to left, as follows :

The Forty-sixth Battalion, Lieut. -Col. Dawson, the Fiftieth
Battalion, Major R. B. Eaton, the Seventy-fifth Battalion, Lieut.-
Col. S. G. Beckett, the Fifty-fourth Battalion, Lieut.-Col. Kemball,
the Eighty-seventh Battalion, Lieut.-Col. R. W. Frost, and the
Thirty-eighth Battalion, Lieut.-Col. C. M. Edwards. The first
two belonged to the Tenth, the next three to the Eleventh, and
the last to the Twelfth Infantry Brigade.

In addition the Forty-fourth Battalion, Lieut.-Col. E. R.
Wayland, of the Tenth Brigade, was to co-operate by digging,
as the attack progressed, a line to link up the right of our
jumping-off position to the right of our objective.

The objective assigned to the Canadians was about fifteen
hundred yards of the Desire Trench, so-called because of the
fierce desire with which they yearned to take it. It ran for
about two thousand three hundred yards roughly parallel to
Regina Trench, at distances varying between two hundred
to eight hundred yards from the positions held by our
troops.

At 6.10 a.m. this final attack of the Canadians on the Somme
went forward behind the sheltering curtain of the guns. Snow
was falling heavily. The ground over which the assault passed
was a sea of mud, churned and re-churned by the shells.

The right flank of the Canadians acted as a pivot on which
their line swung round until the battalions on the left had reached
Desire Trench, one thousand yards in advance of their assembly
trenches. This difficult operation was carried out perfectly,

84 THE CANADIANS IN FRANCE

in spite of the appalling state of the ground, and the Canadians
sprang into Desire Trench everywhere almost simultaneously.

In a very short time practically the whole of the objectives
had been taken. The most determined opposition offered was
about two hundred yards to the east of the Pys Road, where the
trench line lay guarded by a burrow of machine guns. These
guns prevented the left companj^ of the Fiftieth Battalion from
securing its objective and drove it back into Regina Trench.

The objective here was under intense enemy shell fire, which
rendered it untenable. The attackers had the greatest difficulty
with the machine gun nest referred to and suffered considerably.
At about noon the remainder of the Fiftieth and also the Forty-
sixth Battalion were heavily counter-attacked and driven out of
Desire Trench. They eventually consoh dated a line about three
hundred yards south of the trench and gained touch with the
Eleventh Brigade on the left.

The left flank of the attack was advanced so swiftly that the
Eighty-seventh and Thirty-eighth Battalions not only seized
their objective but sent forward patrols and captured a section
of the Grandcourt Trench guarding the very outskirts of that
village. And here they held on until ordered to withdraw
so that the rest of the trench might be safely bombarded.
Captain J. W. MacDowell, of the Thirty-eighth Battalion, in this
affair captured three machine guns in a most dashing manner.
Lieut. G. S. MacFarlane helped in this operation, though suffer-
ing from a wound received earlier.

" Digging in " began immediately, as each battalion secured
its objective. This was carried out in a vile morass of earth
and dirty water under continual counter-bombardments. After
many hours of unabating toil the whole of the new line was
consolidated.

Such, very briefly, was the Canadian part in the Grandcourt
drive. The difficulties were enormous, and the state of the
country was bad enough to make the stoutest general blench.
Yet this new division drove across the quagmire on which the
Germans vainly relied for protection, stormed into the great
length of Desire Trench, and, having dragged and beaten the
enemy out of his lair, held that chain of mud-holes and sent
back over six hundred prisoners as trophies of their valour.

With this exploit the story of the Canadians on the Somme
comes to a close. The Fourth Division held the line for a fort-
night longer, while their Imperial comrades north of the Ancre
were preparing for the move which gave us Beaumont-Hamel.
During the last week of November they were relieved by the
Fifty-first (Imperial) Division and followed the rest of the Canadian
forces to the Vimy Ridge,

THE SOMME 85

To sum up their material gains in the great battle : the
Canadians took three guns, about fifty machine guns, a score
or so of trench mortars, great quantities of every kind of ammu-
nition, and two thousand five hundred prisoners. They drove
forward a two-mile line about three miles. They overcame half
a dozen intensely strong trench systems and several bastions of
defence, in spite of every form of resistance by a desperate foe.
In the gain of ground alone their achievement was unsurpassed
by that of any other Corps.

Lack of space forbids the revealing of the human side of their
great struggle. Only three of their many heroic deeds may be
described in detail here — those which won the Victoria Cross.
Corporal Leo Clarke, of the Second Battalion, in the attack of
September 9th, gained the honour by repulsing, single-handed,
an attack by twenty of the enemy. Led by two officers, this
party rushed for a block which Corporal Clarke was building in
the captured trench. Alone and armed only with a revolver,
Clarke went out to meet them. Having emptied the revolver,
he discharged two German rifles into them. A German officer
next bayoneted him in the leg, whereupon he killed the officer.
The rest of the enemy then took to flight, but this super-soldier
shot four more and captured a fifth. And next day, having had
his wounds dressed, he voluntarily returned to duty.

Unfortunately he died in hospital a few days later.

Piper James Richardson, of the Forty-third Battalion, won
the Cross by an act of singular gallantry during the attack on
Regina Trench on October 8th. He headed his company in its
advance upon the objective, playing the pipes above the din of
the battle. Coming upon the masses of wire guarding the trench,
the company was checked and the enemy opened intense fire
upon the men with devastating effect. The attack faltered, and
for the moment a tragedy appeared imminent. Realizing the
situation. Piper Richardson at once rose to the occasion. Playing
the pipes in that terrific fire, he began to march up and down in
front of the entanglements, as coolly as if on his native heath,
far from the presence of death. The effect of his magnificent
bravery and the wild rallying-cry of the pibroch upon his comrades
was instantaneous. They hurled themselves through the wire
and upon the enemy and took their objectives.

The situation saved. Piper Richardson proceeded to take
part in the fighting which followed. Later, he was detailed to
take a wounded comrade and a prisoner to the rear. After
proceeding two hundred yards he remembered that he had left
his pipes behind. He insisted on returning to recover them, and
he has never been seen since. He remains one of the many
unsolved mysteries of the war.

86 THE CANADIANS IN FRANCE

The equal of Corporal Clarke was Private John Chipman
Kerr, of the Forty-ninth Battalion. During the attaek of
September 1 6th he lost a finger by a bomb explosion. Undeterred
by his injury, he carried on his duty as bayonet man with a party
of bombers until, when grenades began to run short, he dashed
forward alone, and, firing heavily on them from point-blank
range, killed many of the enemy and himself compelled sixty-
two Germans to surrender. The result was that two hundred
and fifty yards of trench were easily captured.

The casualties of the Canadian Corps during the Somme

fighting, on the whole, were very heavy. It was impossible,

attacking a most determined enemy frontally in positions of

enormous strength as they were, that it should be otherwise.

These were the casualties :

The first three Canadian divisions and Corps Troops lost
on the Somme, in killed, wounded and missing, one thousand
and sixty-one officers and twenty-two thousand nine hundred and
seven men. The Fourth Canadian Division lost one hundred and
thirty-five officers and two thousand four hundred and seventy-
one men. This gives a total of one thousand one hundred and
ninety-six Canadian officers and twenty-five thousand four
hundred and seventy-eight Canadian men. Over four thou-
sand Canadians gave their lives in that desperate battle of
three months.

Sometimes it is asked. Were the results of the Somme battle
worth the price ? They were. Compared with the gains achieved
in the later stages of the war, when the ground held by the
enemy and the guns and the men of the enemy were overrun
in advances of irresistible power, the visible, tangible results
were small. But the Battle of the Somme made those later
results possible.

There was no comparison between the fighting on the Somme
and that experienced later, simply because the type of warfare
was wholly different. On the Somme, Britain and Germany, of
more or less equal strength — Germany filled with the conviction
that every yard held or lost spelt victory or defeat — stood locked
breast to breast in a grapj^le which each was determined should
end only in one way — the death of the opposing force. Later the
fighting became more flexible and the price paid for a thousand
yards of ground infinitely less.

Yet the Somme was worth while. There was no other way
to destroy the German Army than to attack its mighty fortifica-
tions by direct assault, cost what it might. Sir Douglas Haig
did not shrink. He gained ground that, later, gave him the
essential room wherein, in March 1918, to rally the British Army
and save it from complete defeat. Pie took the lives of thousands

THE SOMME 87

of the enemy, thousands which, had the Battle of the Somme
never been, were the striking force with which Ludendorff might
have dehvcred just that death-blow to the Allies that was im-
perative in July 1918. Thanks to the Battle of the Somme, that
striking force was not there !

The flower of the German Army had been crushed in the
mud between Albert and Bapaume. And the Canadian Corps,
bleeding from many wounds, had done its share to crush it.

CHAPTER VIII

IN ARTOIS

October 1916-April 1917

While the Fourth Canadian Division was winning its spurs in
the Somme zone, the bulk of the Canadian Corps was marching
northwards to take up a new position.

The first troops of the Second Canadian Division left the
Somme on October 10th. They were followed by the Third
Canadian Division, which reached the new area on October 22nd
and the First Canadian Division, which was also in the district
of its future activities on October 24th.

The Canadian infantry arrived in the zone of the First Army
without artillery, except in the case of General Turner's command,
which was accompanied by the Lahore Brigades. The rest of
the Canadian troops left their guns at the Somme to keep the
shell fire to its normal pitch, and did not hear them again until
the beginning of December, when they relieved the Imperial
artillery covering the Canadian infantry and so came to the
support of their own divisions once more.

The three divisions successively concentrated in the reserve
area around Bruay, and each in turn relieved an Imperial Division
on the front between Lens and Arras, which was the sector they
were now to occupy.

On October 18th, relieving the Thirty-seventh (Imperial)
Division of the Seventeenth Corps, the Second Division went
back into the trenches. They were followed by the Third Division,
which on October 26th relieved the Sixtieth (Imperial) Division
of the Seventeenth Corjis. After them came the First Division,
which, on October 28th, took over a section of line from the
Twenty-fourth (Imperial) Division of the Seventeenth Corps.

This series of reliefs put the Canadians back into the trenches
and established them in their winter positions. It also placed
them on the soil wherein, with steel and blood, they were yet
to write one of the greatest chapters in their history.

88

IN ARTOIS 89

Never were the Canadians entrenched upon more historical
ground. Souchez, and the field of Loos to the left, witnessed
some of the fiercest fighting of the war. A year-long battle of
awful character had been waged for Lorette Ridge, the key to
the last coal-mines of France. Carency, Neuville St. Vaast, the
Labyrinth — these are shrines of French valour.

The Canadians, during that winter in the shadow of Vimy
Ridge, put in an enormous amount of work on their trenches,
keeping old fortifications in repair and building new ones, im-
proving roads and laying miles of light railway. The construction
of new dugouts, great tunnels and railway was with a view to
preparing for a project which, as yet, was but a dream in
the minds of the General Staff. But the troops did not
know that.

The Canadians at once began to make the front as " offensive "
as possible and to give their opponents a disagreeable time.
Though villages and rearward territory were barred, the first
line Boche and his trenches were legitimate prey.

The best forms of annoyance were " artillery strafes " and
raids. The Corps Commander laid down a policy of continuous
aggression which the gunners and infantry were eager to follow.
Throughout the winter, hours which did not hear the roar of
combined gun fire were rare and raids were nightly occurrences.
Sometimes two or three raids were delivered in twenty-four
hours, and an average of at least one raid a week was maintained
by each infantry brigade.

Another form of offence was the blowing of mines, followed
by the occupation by our troops of the resulting crater. Fresh
positions for outposts were thus obtained in No Man's Land.
No part of the Western front witnessed more mining than that
in Artois, where the desert between the hostile lines was broken
by the wide mouths of countless craters, the products of two
years' warfare in the bowels of the earth.

Major-General R. E. W. Turner in November was recalled to
England, to take command of the forces there, and succeeded by
Major-General Burstall, late Commander of the Canadian Corps
Artillery. Brigadier-General E. W. B. Morrison, C.M.G., D.S.O.,
stepped into the vacancy created by Brigadier-General Burstall's
promotion. General Morrison was succeeded by Brigadier-
General H. Panet, C.M.G.

During the first week of December the Fourth Canadian
Division, accompanied by the divisional artillery of the Canadian
Corps, arrived in the area around Bruay, after its tour of duty
and glory on the Somme. The division established its head-
quarters at Bruay and went into billets in the district to the south,
the troops having marched from Albert. It was given a short

90 THE CANADIANS IN FRANCE

period in which to carry out its reorganization as its fellows
had done.

Raids were now harassing the Germans with clockwork
regularity, and a rich haul of prisoners, machine guns and equip-
ment stood to the credit of the Canadians. This haul was greatly
augmented when, on December 20th, one of the most successful
raids ever launched was made upon the German lines.

The First C.M.R. Battahon, Lieut.-Col. R. C. Andros, delivered
the assault. The frontage attacked lay just north of the road
from Arras to Lens, the right flank touching the road and the
left lying four hundred and fifty yards beyond. The trenches
here formed a small salient inviting aggression and contained
several objectionable machine gun emplacements.

Major Laws, commanding the battalion at the time, was
largely responsible for the careful planning of the attack. After
very thorough wire-cutting and reconnaissances, which occupied
several nights, the attackers, who numbered nearly seven hundred,
manned the assembly trenches and a large crater in front.

At the appointed time dense clouds of smoke were released
from our trenches, completely concealing the scene of action
from the enemy around it. As the smoke poured over No Man's
Land our furious barrage came into play, covering fire was opened
from our machine guns, and at 3.15 p.m. our men moved forward
in orderly waves through the smoke.

Majors Maxfield, Taylor, Casewell and French, each in com-
mand of his company, led the attackers, assisted, of course, by
their subalterns. A few machine guns attempted to stop the
advancing waves, but were of no effect and soon ceased their
useless sweeping of the hidden country. The Germans were
cowering in their dugouts and were unable to get out before
the assailants were upon them.

Except for a brief bombing struggle, practically no resistance
was made, and the men went quickly to their tasks of wholesale
destruction. Pushing on to the support line, they established
bombing posts in it, in all communication trenches and to the
flanks. Then everything breakable was destroyed.

The machine gun emplacements were smashed to pieces.
All dugouts were battered in by throwing down bombs or in-
cendiary explosives. The Germans sheltering in them were
given a chance to come out and surrender. Most of them were
overjoyed to do so, but those who refused paid the penalty of
their obstinacy.

Wherever sentries attempted to shoAv fight they were either
killed or overpowered. The prisoners were rapidly collected
together and their arms disposed of.

The systematic wrecking of the hostile trenches was complete

IN ARTOIS 91

before we had been in possession two hours. Under cover of
night our men then very quietly withdrew, taking their prisoners
with them. Long afterwards, during the midnight watches,
the Germans violently shelled their ruined trenches and launched
a counter-attack, thus displaying their complete ignorance of
the situation.

Our casualties were very slight. The enemy's were heavy.
They lost two officers and fifty-six men in prisoners alone, and
their killed and their smashed trenches must have cost them dear.
This raid was the most fruitful raid on the Western front,
up to that time. But the precedent it set — that it was possible
to raid the enemy in daylight with impunity — was of even greater
value than the mere local results. The decision to raid in day-
light was a very daring one, but the success of the move Justified
the risk and blazed the trail for grander strokes.

In accordance with a decision to relieve each division in the
Canadian trenches in turn and to give it a month of thorough
rest and training, the Fourth Canadian Division relieved the First
Canadian Division during the period of December 18th-21st.
On January 16th and 17th another raid on a grand scale
was delivered, this time by the Second Canadian Division. So
successful was this operation that it established a record which
the rest of the British Army did not overtake for several
weeks.

There were two distinct attacks, but they were made in con-
junction Avith each other and really formed one operation. The
scene of the assault lay in the German trenches opposite the
Fourth and Fifth Infantry Brigades. The Fourth Brigade was
to enter the enemy's lines on a front of eight hundred yards,
while troops from the Fifth Infantry Brigade were to spring
into the hostile trenches a mile to the south-west. Each assault
was to be preceded by the explosion of a mine.

For ten days before the raid the guns leisurely and methodically
pounded the German trenches and wire on the front of the Second
Division, sweeping away the entanglements almost everywhere
and thereby preventing the Germans from locating the objective
which we were actually to attack. On January 16th the first,
and smaller, raid was launched.

While the sun sank three officers and one hundred and fifty-
five men of the Twenty-sixth Battalion, Lieut.-Col. Maclntyrc,
waited with fixed bayonets and the artillery barrage got into
its stride. Just before the hour of advance, smoke clouds were
released to cover the movement, and at 4.30 p.m. the mine was
touched off.

Instantly three parties of the battalion, led by Lieuts. G. W.
Otty-Barnes, G. S. Reid and G. R. Harrison, followed by a party

92 THE CANADIANS IN FRANCE

of Engineers of the Fifth Field Company, C.E., under Lieut.
West, C.E., and one of tunnellers from the Two Hundred and
Twenty-fifth TunnelHng Company, R.E., cHmbed out of their
trenches and went forward into the smoke and the swirl of falling
snow. They did not heed the fire of the choking German machine
gunners, but crossed the white fields and dropped into the first
line of the enemy.

The front line was an empty wreck. The raiders pushed
on to the supjoort line, meeting thirty white-faced opponents
on the way, who fled before them. Entering their dugouts,
these men refused to emerge, so the New Brunswickers shut
them in for ever.

The party of Engineers from the Fifth Field Company super-
intended the work of destroying the emplacements and dugouts,
while the tunnellers searched and demolished the mine-shafts,
and at 5 p.m. the task of the raiders was complete. They then
returned, driving eight prisoners, but, by extraordinary bad luck,
all the prisoners were killed by German shells. The enemy's
guns had taken a very long time to grasp the situation. Our
men had been in the German trenches twenty-five minutes before
the first of their shells arrived.

The smaller raid had now played its part, and fifteen hours
afterwards the second raid took place.

On the half-mile front south of the great Double Crassier,
eight hundred and fifty men of the Fourth Infantry Brigade
waited for the time to advance. They were drawn equally from
the Twentieth Battalion, Lieut.-Col. Rogers, and the Twenty-
first Battalion, Lieut.-Col. Jones. The Twentieth Battahon
men, on the left, were led by Majors C. C. Wansbrough and
H. W. A. Foster, M.C. The parties from the Twenty-first
Battalion on the right were commanded by Majors Elmitt and
Raymond. With each unit was a detail of Engineers from
the Sixth Field ComjDany, which was to supervise demolitions.

While the artillery barrage was gathering its full power,
dense clouds of covering smoke were released from our lines.
The machine guns of the brigade machine gun company, admirably
handled, kept up a continual swelter of bullets. At 7.45 a.m.
the mine burst in an eruption of flame and the raiders instantly
went forward.

There was a brief but strong resistance, which was quickly
crushed. The artillery shut the door on German reinforcements
while the infantry proceeded to clear the trenches. This was
done in twenty minutes, with every foe dead or a prisoner and
every dugout or emplacement a wreck.

They pushed forward three hundred yards to the second line,
where a lively combat with bombs took place on the left, but was

IN ARTOIS 93

soon over. Again the earthworks were destroyed and the enemy
killed or overpowered.

Two machine guns, a trench mortar, one officer and ninety-
nine men were taken, and at 8.45 a.m. the second line was a
complete ruin. Then our men withdrew, taking with them their
prisoners and their trophies, as well as their few casualties.

Thus ended a dashing daylight raid, which set the pace for
the British infantry for several weeks. Our own losses were
small. In addition to the men captured, the Eleventh Reserve
Division, which was the German force pitted against ours, lost
at least one hundred and fifty killed.

The First Division had now completed its term of rest, and
on January 20th it finished relieving the Second Division. The
latter marched back to Bruay to enjoy a month of respite.

Several more raids of importance were launched by the
Canadian Corps that winter. The first took place at 9 p.m. on
February 3rd, when the Tenth Infantry Brigade sent forward
seventy-five men of the Forty-fourth Battalion, Lieut. -Col.
R. D. Davies, D.S.O., on the right, and ninety-nine men of the
Fiftieth Battalion, Lieut.-Col. E. G. Mason, on the left, attacking
the German positions on a front of seven hundred yards east of
Carency.

The attack was made after a fierce artillery bombardment,
the men going forward under cover of a terrific barrage fire.
The entire line was cleared, prisoners collected and dugouts
destroyed.

The raid was admirably executed and took only half an hour
from start to finish. All our wounded were brought in. A total
of twenty-one prisoners was taken. Our casualties for this
dashing assault amounted to twenty-six all ranks.

Another raid took place on February 13th at 4 a.m. It was
delivered by eight hundred officers and men drawn equally from
each battalion of the Tenth Brigade, the whole commanded by
Lieut.-Col. R. D. Davies, Forty-fourth Battalion. The front
attacked covered six hundred yards of the enemy's line opposite
Givenchy, and the advance, on the left, reached a depth of nearly
five hundred yards.

Parties of the Forty-sixth and Fiftieth were employed to
cover the left flank, while the remainder of the men from these
units pushed forward and assisted their comrades of the Forty-
fourth and Fiftieth Battalions. The latter were allotted the
task of penetrating and mopping up the enemy's first and second
defence lines on the whole front.

The attack was difficult, for it was carried out under the
dominating summit of Hill 120, that great crown of Vimy Ridge
commonly known as the Pimple.

94 THE CANADIANS IN FRANCE

The Forty-fourth Battalion under Captain Belcher, advancing
on the right with the rest of the raiders, close to a terrific barrage,
met with severe opposition. At the same time the Fiftieth Bat-
talion co-operated. This battalion suffered greatly owing to
casualties. Meanwhile, the Forty-seventh Battalion parties
systematically mopped up, causing numerous casualties. Captain
Wansborough led these parties bravely and well, and the raiders
in front had no cause to complain of ineffectual mopping up.

On the left of the rest of the raiders the Forty-sixth Bat-
talion met with a most determined resistance in a strong point
where deep dugouts gave shelter to numerous Germans. The
defensive flank to protect the remainder of the brigade was
formed and maintained. Parties of sappers from the One
Hundred and Seventy-sixth Tunnelling Company, Tenth Field
Company and Sixty-seventh Pioneer Battalion, under Captain
Gary and Lieut. Bird, C.E., assisted in destroying mine-shafts
and dugouts.

By 5.30 a.m. all the raiders, including the wounded, were
back in our trenches.

The results of this extremely successful and gallant raid
were many. Over one hundred and sixty casualties were in-
flicted, fifty-two prisoners taken, and a large number of dugouts
and mine-shafts were bombed. All this was achieved at a cost
to ourselves of about one hundred and seventy-five casualties.

This raid was followed on February 19th by two very successful
raids, the first at 9.30 a.m. by four officers and ninety men of the
Seventy-eighth Battalion, Lieut.-Col. Kirkaldy, D.S.O., and the
second at 5.30 p.m. by three officers and ninety-three men of
the Forty-sixth Battalion, Lieut.-Col. Dawson.

The raid of the Seventy-eighth Battalion was led by Lieut.
Thornhill. Stiff opposition was met with on the right, where
Lieut. Derbyshire was in command, but the allotted task w^as
performed and several dugouts were destroyed, while three
struggling Germans were dragged back as prisoners.

In the dusk of the winter evening the raiders of the Forty-
sixth Battalion were led forward under an artillery barrage by
Lieuts. Reymes, Gilpin and Bingham. They met few Germans,
but, to quote the laconic report of the battalion on the subject,
" these were dealt with." No prisoners were taken, but an
immense amount of material damage was done with incendiary
explosives, many dugouts and a machine gun being destroyed.

A large combined raid followed on February 22nd, when five
officers and eighty-five men of the Thirty-eighth Battalion,
Lieut.-Col. Edwards, D.S.O., on the right, and two officers and
twenty-seven men of the Seventy-eighth Battalion on the left
co-operated to render the lives of the enemy even more unpleasant

IN ARTOIS 95

than before. The attack was launched at 5.30 p.m., supported
by an intense barrage, and was most successful. The Thirty-
eighth Battalion inflicted heavy losses on the enemy, no less than
thirty-five being counted lying dead in the ruined lines. This
unit wrecked several large dugouts and worked steadily through
the front line.

Meanwhile, on the left, the Seventy-eighth Battalion's party,
their ardour unsatisfied by their previous raid, bombed their
way along their allotted objective, killing twenty of the enemy
and wounding many more.

By 5.40 p.m. all the raiders were on their way back to our
lines.

Our casualties were light in this brisk encounter, totalling
only thirty-six. The enemy's, on the other hand, were severe,
the least optimistic estimating his losses at one hundred and
twenty all told.

Yet another raid followed. This raid, unfortunately, was
not as successful as those preceding it. If all had gone well,
it would have been the greatest coup of the Canadians in that
long Avinter of clean-cut fighting. But, well-planned and pre-
pared though it was, circumstances were against it. Great praise
is due to the men who took part, for, in sjiite of these difficulties,
they carried out the original programme with the greatest
gallantry.

The battalions concerned Avere the Seventy-second, Lieut. -
Col. T, A. Clark, the Seventy-third, Lieut. -Col. H. C. Sparling,
of the Twelfth Infantry Brigade, and the Fifty-fourth and
Seventy-fifth Battalions, of the Eleventh Infantry Brigade,
and commanded by Lieut.-Col. A. H. G. Kemball, C.B., D.S.O.,
and Lieut.-Col. S. G. Beckett respectively. These battalions,
distributed from right to left as named, were due to attack at
5.40 a.m. on March 1st on a front of two thousand yards between
Souchez and the Bois Corre. They were to be assisted by a gas
demonstration, which was to begin at 3 a.m., and an artillery
bombardment and barrage.

The time for the release of the gas arrived with the wind blowing
as desired. The gas was released and blew into No Man's Land.
The wind was not strong enough to carry the cloud out of the
hollows in the ground, where it collected, unseen by our men.
And in the interval before the hour at which the troops were
to attack the wind changed.

A terrible German artillery barrage suddenly came doAvn upon
the front-line trenches, where our men were marshalling densely
for the attack. This barrage started just before the hour at which
the infantry were to cross the parapet. It caused severe loss.
But the hands of the officers' watches and the orders said

96 THE CANADIANS IN FRANCE

" Advance ! " and their sense of obedience was stronger than
their fear of death.

The long hnes rose up and went forward, and their aUgnment
was perfect, although the Germans lashed them with shrapnel
and machine gun fire. Many went doAvn, and the rest went
on, calmly and steadily, in a manner that Canada has a right to
be proud of. They got into the pools of gas, and those who could
not get their respirators on in time died there.

At last the dreadful journey was over and they could see
the masked men behind the machine guns. The losses they
had suffered goaded them on, and they shattered the German
defence with their bodies and their bare steel, and pushed on to
the support line, in one place winning forward seven hundred
yards. There was desperate fighting in this line with grenades.
Lieut. -Col. Kemball was killed in the forefront of the struggle.
Lieut.-Col. Beckett had already fallen, rallying and urging on
his men.

The infantry spent an hour and a half in the German lines.
Their retirement, under cover of heavy machine gun and artillery
fire, was conducted with great steadiness in the teeth of a terrific
opposition. They brought one officer and forty-four men with
them as prisoners, though the enemy endeavoured to rescue
them in a most determined manner.

In all the German deeds of darkness occasioned by the war,
any act of chivalry shines forth like a star. Such an act occurred
after the withdrawal of our troops, and it should be set down as
an acknowledgment of the decency of the German commander
concerned. Our stretcher-bearers were allowed to bring in our
wounded and gassed, who then lay suffering untold agonies in
No Man's Land.

But these troops, who had suffered heavily, were to have their
revenge. The story of their vengeance was written on the slopes
of Vimy Ridge, and the pen that was to write it was even then
prepared.

On March 31st, at 10.30 p.m., the Canadians proceeded to
avenge themselves of the losses suffered by their comrades in
the raid just described, when, for the last time ere they went
forward to take the German lines in deadly earnest, the aggressive
Tenth Brigade attacked, and took, for the duration of an hour,
six hundred yards of the enemy's front and support system a
short distance south of the Souchez River. The assault was made
by fifteen officers and six hundred men drawn equally from the
Forty-seventh, Fiftieth and Forty-sixth Battalions, attacking
from right to left in the order named. It was covered by the
usual intense and minutely accurate artillery, trench mortar and
machine gun barrage without which no operation on a large

IN ARTOIS 97

scale was ever attempted. Mention should here be made that
the scene of the whole operation was deep in mud, through which
the indomitable infantry struggled waist-high.

It was a complete success. The Forty-seventh Battalion,
raiding a group of craters, killed every one of the sentries they
found in those positions. Several dugouts were bombed.

The Fiftieth Battalion did equally well, bombed eight dug-
outs, and with them all but six of the Germans within. The six
were wise and surrendered. The Forty-sixth Battalion party
met with the heaviest opposition of all. The enemy even went
so far as to attempt a counter-attack. In spite of this resistance,
the men of this party killed a large number of Germans and
bombed four dugouts full of the enemy.

Within an hour all the raiders were back in our lines and
the panic of the German guns was dying away.

Lieut. -Col. Dawson was in complete command of this well-
conducted operation.

This raid was a fitting finish to the long series with which
the Fourth Division, and especially the Tenth Brigade, had made
itself famous in the Canadian Corps. The hour for which the
men were yearning was now about to strike.

The culmination of the long campaign which the Canadians
had waged against Vimy Ridge was at hand. The greatest honour
which could be bestowed upon them was near.

These troops from the Dominion were to be ordered to take
the Vimy Ridge, which had defied France,

CHAPTER IX

THE TAKING OF VIMY RIDGE

April 1917

The first definite movement of troops with a view to taking
the Vimy Ridge occurred during the week of February 11th-
17th, when the Second Canadian Division, having finished its
period of training and recuperation, reheved the Third Canadian
Division in the trenches south of Neuville St. Vaast. The
Third Division went straight out of the fine to Bruay, and
the Second Division was left in the trenches from which it
was to make its great advance.

Hardly had the Second Division found the bearings of its
new front when the First Canadian Division began to move.
By March 5th it was relieved in the trenches north of Souchez
by the Twenty-fourth (Imperial) Division, and on March 8th it
took over from the Second Division the sector of line between
the Lens-Arras Road and a point immediately south-east of
Neuville St. Vaast.

The preliminary orders for the attack appeared in February.
In obedience to these orders, the gathering of material commenced
at the beginning of March, and that process is fit to rank with
the seven old Avonders of the world.

Everywhere behind the Canadian front great gangs of men
set to work. They began building huge dugouts for the reception
of the wounded. They toiled at night with pick and shovel to
dig extra trenches for the accommodation of the attacking troops.
In the areas to be occupied by the brigades gigantic piles of
trench munitions began to appear.

The trench tramways for the carriage of these munitions
were extended and improved, and arrangements were made to
thrust the lines through into the captured territory on the very
heels of the attack. Food and water was stored in enormous
heaps close to the trenches, the water being kept in petrol tins
for convenient transportation and pumped into new tanks within

98

THE TAKING OF VIMY RIDGE 99

easy distance of the stores. Arrangements were made for
accommodating the prisoners of war. A great cage was built
at Le Pendu, on the main road from Arras to Bruay.

This cage was large enough to hold one thousand men at a
time. But it was not large enough to hold the men that came
back with the ebb-tide from the Canadian rush on Vimy Ridge.

While the material was accumulating, the men and the guns
began to get into their places. The Fifth (Imperial) Division
had been placed at the disposal of the Canadian Commander,
and they marched into the area. With them came three brigades
of artillery.

In addition to these guns several groups of heavy artillery
also arrived and began to get into position. All these extra
guns were supplementary to the divisional field and heavy
artillery of the Canadians, and swelled the strength of the guns,
which were to support the assault, to truly gigantic proportions.
Altogether and in round figures, there were now seven hundred
guns to assist the Corps.

The arrival of the Fifth (Imperial) Division added three
infantry brigades and forty odd guns to the forces under Sir
Julian Byng, so that he had now fifteen infantry brigades, about
fifty thousand bayonets, at his disposal. He used practically
all of them, with the result that the Canadian Corps struck
with all its might and the whole of the Dominion did its share
on the fateful day.

Having studied the preparations for the attack and reviewed
the troops which were to strike for Canada, it is necessary to see
what the plan which these troops were to follow was to be and to
consider the obstacles which they had to overcome.

It had long before been decided that the British Army, when
it was strong enough, should capture all the high ground held
by the enemy immediately in front of it, in order to pave the
way for further blows. The Vimy Ridge was the foremost and
the greatest of the objectives of this plan.

A German withdrawal had taken place in the first months
of 1917, making a big move appear feasible. At either end of
the new front were Lens and St. Quentin, both keys to important
territory behind. The plan was to capture these j^laces by a
turnfng movement of the Third Army, just south of the Vimy
Ridge. To secure their flank and make this movement possible,
Vimy Ridge had first to be taken. After this the First Army,
with which were the Canadians, was to join in the movement of
the Third Army.

Here, then, was the plan. The long and formidable bulk
of the Vimy Ridge, held by a desperate and terribly fortified
enemy, was at one and the same time the immediate obstacle

100 THE CANADIANS IN FRANCE

and the chief objective of the British Army and the Canadian
Corps.

The Ridge lay between the two insignificant streams of the
Scarpe and the Souchez, sloping gradually down from north-
west to south-east, for a distance of about seven miles. At
the extreme north was first the steep prominence of the Pimple,
between Givenchy and the Souchez River, its crest four hundred
feet high and seven hundred yards from the British front line.
This was the bastion of the German right. Thence the ground
fell away to a wide valley and rose again until crowned by
Hill 145, one mile away, four hundred and seventy feet high
and rightly regarded as the central bastion of the Ridge.

Between these two promontories was the village of Givenchy,
which nestled in the depths of the valley on the eastern slope of
the Ridge, and which stood as a formidable barrier to those who,
having won the crest, might seek to push down into the plains
beyond.

From Hill 145 the ground swept down easily on the western
face of the Ridge for another mile. The eastern side, however,
was very steep, dropping swiftly into the levels beloAv. The
whole of the eastern slope in this region was covered thickly with
the trees of the Bois de La Folic, which ended at the Lens-Arras
Road. Beyond the road the western face of the Ridge swelled
into Hill 140, which was over four hundred and fifty feet high
at the crest. The long, straggling village of Thelus and the
hamlet of Les Tilleuls, both on the southern side of this hill,
combined with it to make it the left bastion of the German
position and one of the strongest.

The eastern slope of the Ridge beyond the main Lens Road
was as steep as at Givenchy, and, near the road, was split by
a ravine which ran straight out to Vimy village and which was
clothed with the wood known as the Bois de Bonval. Beyond
that ravine the eastern slopes were covered by the Goulot Wood,
the Bois de la Ville and Farbus Wood. Between the last-named
and Station Wood, north of it, was Farbus, a strongly fortified
village.

South of Farbus Wood the Canadian attack did not go, but
from that wood on to the southAvard the Ridge blended in easy
sweeps with the plains. ,

This was the natural obstacle which faced us. It had been
made a thousandfold more terrible by the work of over two
years lavished upon it by the enemy. Along their front line
scores of mine-craters, bristling with machine guns, formed
an almost unbroken wall. Hill 145 and all the territory north
of it was a maze of trenches and hidden tunnels. South of
Hill 145 the orchards of La Folic Farm, the farm itself, the

THE TAKING OF VIMY RIDGE 101

Echole Commune and the Bois de La Folic, together with the
Schwaben Tunnel, which was five hundred yards long and capable
of sheltering at least two thousand men, were united by a web
of trenches into one great Gibraltar.

South of Hill 145, also, began the long and powerful Swischen
Stellung, a trench which ran along all the Canadian front at an
average distance of five hundred yards from the maze of the
first line. East of Neuville St. Vaast was Grenadier Tunnel, as
formidable as the Schwaben. Five hundred yards beyond the
Swischen was the Zwischen Stellung, and beyond that again,
guarding Thelus, was Thelus Trench. The backbone of this
trench system was the woods around Farbus, wherein lurked
the heavy guns.

All these things, linked together by many minor trenches,
fringed with miles of terrible barbed wire — of which the two
belts five hundred yards apart and forty yards wide between
Thelus and Farbus are fine examples — and backed with hundreds
of machine guns in concrete emplacements, formed what was
admittedly the mightiest enemy stronghold on the Western
front.

To the Canadian Corps was allotted the task of capturing
the Vimy Ridge between Kennedy Crater, an old mine-crater
in No Man's Land precisely opposite Souchez, and Commandant's
House, a place south-west of Farbus Wood. This was to be
captured in one day. They were then to push north and capture
the Pimple, which would place the whole of the Ridge in our
control. The Third Army, using the Canadians as a pivot,
was at the same time to advance its whole line east of Arras.
Kennedy Crater was the hinge of the entire advance.

To the Fourth Canadian Division was allotted the task of
overcoming all the enemy's defences on the Ridge from Kennedy
Crater to five hundred yards south of the crest of Hill 145, and
thence thrusting their mile-long line forward one thousand yards
until it could look down on Givenchy. They Avere then to take
the Pimple.

South of this division the Third Canadian Division was to
carry the wave up and over the top of the Ridge between Hill
145 and the Bois de Bonval, thus advancing a fifteen-hundred-
yard line into the western edge of the Bois de La Folic, a mile
east of the British trenches.

From the Bois de Bonval, the Second Canadian Division took
up the attack. They were to drive forward three thousand
yards on a front of a mile so that they might occupy the western
edges of the Bois de la Ville from the Bois de Bonval to south
of Farbus. This involved a very long march and the subjection
of Thelus and Hill 140.

102 THE CANADIANS IN FRANCE

The advance of the First Canadian Division was on a front,
shghtly greater tlian the Second Division, which gradually
converged to about five hundred yards at its furthest limit, which
was to be just west of Farbus Wood.

Such were the obstacles which each Canadian division was
to overcome. Their objective lines were four. The first was
the Swischen Stellung and its continuation north and south.
The second was the Zwischen Stellung and the line set down
as the limit of the advance of the Fourth and Third Divisions.
The Second and First Divisions alone carried on the Canadian
advance thenceforward to a line five hundred yards east of
Thelus, which was the third objective line, and afterwards to
the limits already mentioned, the fourth objective. If any
further advance proved possible to these divisions they were
forbidden to press it beyond the Arras-Lens Railway, for the
simple reason that our field guns were incapable of firing
beyond that range.

A proportion of field guns on the fronts of the First and
Second Divisions did not take part in the preliminary bombard-
ment at all. Instead, they were brought up in the dead of night
just before the attack and audaciously placed in positions a
few hundred yards behind our front line, the better to support
the advance on Thelus and beyond. These guns did not fire a
single shot until that advance began.

The preliminary bombardment commenced on March 20th.
The first stage lasted until April 2nd. During that time the
field guns and trench mortars systematically shelled the German
barbed wire on their first and second lines, while the howitzers
smashed the German trenches with fearful blows and co-operated
with hundreds of machine guns to search every road and com-
munication trench down which must come food, ammunition
and men for the German front system of defence.

The second stage began on April 2nd and ended with the
hour for the assault. The wrecking of the enemy works and forti-
fications was completed at this time. The harrowing fire on
the enemy's communications was increased to a terrible intensity.
The field guns and howitzers finished the wire-cutting, the latter
of heavy calibre devoting their attention to the entanglements
beyond the German second line.

While the preliminary bombardment was in progress our
guns twice barraged with creeping fire as far as the second
objective.

The effect of this concentration of gun fire can be imagined.
It swept the hostile trenches out as if by the hand of God. It
turned the green heights into a desert bare and white and empty
as the moon. The only things that survived were the belts of

THE TAKING OF VIMY RIDGE 103

wire beyond Thelus, and some of those on the front of the Fourth
Division which our guns could not reach properly, a few deep
dugouts and concrete machine gun emplacements, the gun-
pits in the Bois de la Ville and a small percentage of German
infantry.

In the week before the assault the brigades which were to
take the first two objectives withdrew all their battalions but
one from the trenches, in order to give them a period of rest.
The reserve brigades were already out.

On the night of April 7th the only Tanks which were to assault
the German trenches, the eight monsters of No. 12 Company,
" D " Battalion, Heavy Branch Machine Gun Corps, got into
position. They were to assist the attack of the Second Division.
April 8th came, and with it the attacking troops went from
their rest billets behind the lines to the points from which they
were to advance. They began to move early in the morning,
and they marched forward all day by companies to their positions
of assembly behind the lines. The infantry of the First Division
gathered in the woods around Ecoivres ; those of the Second
Division concentrated in the Bois des Alleux ; the wood about
Villers au Bois hid the Third Division's battalions, and the
Fourth Division gathered together about Souchez and Carency.
While these troops were marching, the headquarters of
brigades and divisions were also moving up. The brigades
fought their battalions from dugouts near our front line. The
divisions, the First at Maison Blanche, the Second at Aux Reitz
and the others further along the line of the Arras-B6thune
Road, also worked in dugouts. At Camblain-l'Abbe was the
headquarters of the Canadian Corps.

The concentration of the infantry in their trenches was over
by 4 a.m. on April 9th, and at 5.30 a.m. on that day they were
to cross the parapets.

April 9th was Easter Monday. It followed on a week of
uncertain, squally weather. At dawn, sleet and wet snow
were falling heavily and helping the shells to turn the vast
bulk of the Ridge to a quagmire. A strong wind was blowing.
Altogether the prospect did not look promising, but the elements
were, in the main, upon our side. They provided a thick curtain
of rain and mist which hid our trenches from all but the foremost
of the enemy. And the wind blew straight into the faces of the
Germans, blinding them with the lash of the snow and the smoke
from the shells.

At 5.30 a.m. the intense barrage began, machine guns opened

fire, and the British infantry climbed out of their trenches and

went forward to reap one of the greatest triumphs of their history.

The artillery barrage which led the Canadians on was a

104 THE CANADIANS IN FRANCE

cataract of flame and steel of indescribable power. Seventy-
five yards in front of the lines, two-thirds of the available eighteen-
pounders maintained a murderous shrapnel fire. Beyond them,
firing high explosive and shrapnel, the remainder of the field
guns rained shells upon the ruins of the German lines and trench
works. These light guns had each only a front of from thirty
to sixty yards to cover, thereby combining to create a hell through
which a man might live only by a miracle. The heavy guns
fired on points in advance of the creeping barrage, which was
made even more fearful by the fire of hundreds of machine guns.

Behind this dense w^all came the infantry, marching in platoon
formation and in waves, each battalion on a frontage of about
three hundred and fifty yards. They had their bayonets fixed
and they moved in line after line, so that the whole Ridge was
covered with them.

The attack of the Canadian Corps can be dealt with in two
parts. The three most southerly divisions were able to carry
out their duty without a serious hitch, and it is to them that
the first part automatically falls. The Fourth Division met
with a particularly desperate resistance, and the story of their
final success against this defence forms the second part.

The troops of the Third Division which now advanced were,
on the left, the Seventh Infantry Brigade, and on the right the
Eighth Infantry Brigade. The Seventh Brigade had, on the right,
the Royal Canadian Regiment, Lieut. -Col. C. H. Hill, D.S.O.,
in the centre " Princess Pat's," Lieut. -Col. A. S. A. M. Adamson,
D.S.O., ; the Forty-second Battalion, Major B. McLellan, D.S.O.,
on the left, and in support the Forty-ninth Battalion, Lieut. -Col.
R. H. Palmer, D.S.O. The Eighth Brigade sent forward the First
C.M.R.'s, Major B. Laws, D.S.O., on the right ; the Second
C.M.R.'s, Lieut.-Col. G. C. Johnston, D.S.O., M.C., in the centre ;
and the Fourth C.M.R.'s, Lieut.-Col. H. D. L. Gordon, D.S.O.,
on the left, with the Fifth C.M.R.'s, Lieut.-Col. D. C. Draper,
D.S.O., in support.

These battalions were covered by the Field Artillery of the
Third Canadian and the Sixty-third (Royal Naval) Divisions and
by Number Four and Number Seven Groups of Heavy Artillery.

The Second Division had on its right the Fourth Infantry
Brigade. The Eighteenth Battalion, Lieut.-Col. G. F. Morrison,
D.S.O., advanced on the right ; and on the left was the Nineteenth
Battalion, Lieut.-Col. L. H. Miller, D.S.O. This brigade was
supported by the Twentieth Battalion, Lieut.-Col. H. Rorke,
D.S.O., and the Twenty-first Battalion, Lieut.-Col. T. F. Elmitt,
was in reserve. On the Second Division's left the Fifth Infantry
Brigade were placed, the Twenty-Fourth Battalion, Lieut.-Col.
C. F. Ritchie, M.C., being on the right and the Twenty-sixth

THE TAKING OF VIMY RIDGE 105

Battalion, Lieut. -Col. A. E. G. Mackenzie, D.S.O., on the left,
while the Twenty- second Battalion, Lieut.-Col. T. L. Tremblay
D.S.O., and the Twenty-fifth Battalion, Lieut.-Col. D. S. Baiild»
were in support and reserve.

Covering these battalions were the Second Canadian and the
Fifth (Imperial) Divisional Artilleries (consisting of Field Artillery)
and the Twenty-eighth and Ninety-third Army Field Artillery
Brigades. Backing the Field Artillery were Number Three and
Number Five Groups of Heavy Artillery.

Further south, where the First Division was attacking, the
Second Infantry Brigade advanced on the right and the Third
Infantry Brigade on the left of the front allotted to that division.
The Second Brigade employed the Fifth Battalion, Lieut.-Col.
H. M. Dyer, D.S.O. ; on the right, the Seventh Battalion, Lieut.-
Col. W. F. Gibson ; in the centre, on the left, the Tenth Battalion,
Lieut.-Col. D. M. Ormond, D.S.O. , with the Eighth Battalion,
Lieut.-Col. J. M. Prower, in support of the whole. The Third
Brigade attacked with the Fifteenth Battalion, Lieut.-Col. C. E.
Bent, D.S.O., on the right ; the Fourteenth Battalion, Lieut.-
Col. G. McCombe, D.S.O., in the centre ; the Sixteenth Battalion,
Lieut.-Col. C. W. Peck, on the left, and in support the Thirteenth
Battahon, Lieut.-Col. G. E. McCuaig, D.S.O.

The attack of the First Division was covered by the Field
Artillery of the First Canadian and Thirty-first (Imperial) Divisions
and the Fifth (Royal Horse), Seventy-second and Twenty-sixth
(Army Field Artillery) Brigades, and the Number One and Number
Two Groups of Heavy Artillery.

The infantry brigades just mentioned were to take the British
line over the crest of Vimy Ridge. On the extreme right of the
Canadian Corps the Fifty-first (Highland) Division moved out
at the same time.

The ground over which they passed was difficult beyond
description. Great shell-holes pitted the Ridge from end to
end. Odds and tangles of the ruined barbed wire were scattered
everywhere. On all sides were collapsed trenches, wrecked
dugouts and the indescribable debris of the fortifications our
guns had broken. The Vv^hole area over which the attack passed
was deep in mud. This mud held up the Tanks which crawled
out behind the infantry, and they did not get beyond the morass
of the first German trench system, where they lay like stranded
ships for the rest of the action. But over and through this
desolation and around the yawning lips of the old mine-craters
the troops advanced behind the beckoning of the ever-marching
barrage.

They found the German defences wrecked and the German
dead strewn about in the ruins of their shattered lines. There

106 THE CANADIANS IN FRANCE

was little fight left in those haggard little handfuls of men which
survived. Here and there a machine gun or a group of men
opened fire, but they were silenced by a tumult of rifle or hand
grenades. The enemy's artillery, the shadow of its former strength,
put down a barrage against our front line at the commencement
of the assault, but the battalions were not to be stopped that day.
They left their dead and wounded behind and shook the fire
from them as a ship shakes itself when it emerges from tumul-
tuous seas.

In the underground tunnels were found hundreds of white-
faced Germans. These men had been living in terror of their
lives for days while our guns roared over their heads, blocked
the entrances to the tunnels and slaughtered their comrades
up above like flies. The dugouts which had survived gave
up their quota of prisoners. All these fell to the parties
which were told off in each battalion for the grim work of
" mopping-up."

The prisoners, mingled with our wounded, were now stream-
ing back. An hour after the commencement of the assault, the
last sectors of our first objective had been captured by our infantry.

There now ensued a slight pause in the advance of the opera-
tions of these three Canadian divisions. The leading battalions
fired their victorious rockets and began to consolidate the first
objective. Aeroplanes sent out to locate the British line came
soaring through the murk high above the thunder, found the
flares which the troops had lighted to mark their positions, and
went back again to give their news to the staff. The machine
guns which had hitherto supported the assault and the trench
mortars of the leading brigades moved up to secure positions
for the final phases, while at the same time other machine guns
began to take their places for the assault on the second objective.

Far in the rear the gunners gained a brief respite from their
labours. They slackened their fire to a slow rate and the full-
throated roar of the shells diminished slightly. But before
7 a.m. all was ready for the continuation of the attack, and
they fell fiercely to work again.

The barrage, which had hung in a thundering Niagara some
hundred odd yards in front of the consolidating battalions ever
since they had gained their objective, recommenced its majestic
march. The machine guns reo25ened fire until the noise of their
firing, heard through the clamour of the guns, sounded like hail
beating against a thousand windows in a tempest. The reserve
battalions of the brigades of the First and Second Divisions,
one of each brigade, passed through their comrades and accom-
panied the brigades of the Third Division in their advance to
the second objective.

THE TAKING OF VIMY RIDGE 107

This stage of the attack was much Hke the first. The troops
formed up under the wing of the barrage with parade-ground
precision. They followed up the barrage so closely that they
were at its iron heels. In the fog and confusion of the smoke
and sleet, numbers of men even moved forward too quickly and
were struck down by the blast of our own shells. But there was
method in this action of keeping close to the barrage. When
the few German machine guns which survived the barrage
began to fire, the infantry were so close upon them that their
fusilade was choked at the outset.

The " mopping-up " parties again reaped their full harvest
of terrified prisoners, who came out of ruined dugouts and
trenches like dead men rising from the grave. Here was taken
a German brigadier, comfortably engaged in shaving. He
had been lulled into a false security by the long bombardments
from which no infantry attack had developed hitherto, and, when
he saw the bayonets and captivity, he wept.

And so, as the black pall of the barrage crept on, the infantry
followed, gathering up their prisoners as they went, with a hand-
ful of shattered guns and scores of machine guns. Between
7.45 a.m. and 9.30 a.m. they reached and seized the whole of their
second objective.

On the Third Division front the advance was over. But
on the front of the First and Second Divisions the greatest part
of the victory was still to come. The leading brigades had
now done their work, and it remained for the brigades in reserve
to carry it on.

The reserve brigades began to move forward to their starting-
lines. They were the First Infantry Brigade, now commanded
by Brigadier-General Griesbach, the late leader of the Forty-
ninth Battalion, and the Sixth Canadian and Thirteenth (Imperial)
Infantry Brigades. The latter was part of the Fifth (Imperial)
Division, and it was to continue the advance of the Second
Division's left, while the Sixth Brigade continued it on the
division's right and the First Brigade pushed out on the front
of the First Division.

The reserve brigades pushed through their comrades, busy
consolidating on the line of the second objective. As they went,
the men who had taken the first trenches of the Germans ceased
their work for a moment and cheered wildly. The advancing
brigades returned the greeting and felt their courage stiffened
by that generous applause.

By this time, the Third Division had thrust forward machine
guns into the Bois de Bonval ravine to cover the left of the
impending advance. The machine guns which were to provide
the barrage for this advance were also in position. At 9.20 a.m.

108 THE CANADIANS IN FRANCE

the concealed guns on the fronts of the First and Second Divisions
opened fire with an ear-sphtting clap of thunder, and began
covering the ground from which the fresh troops were to start.
At the same time the field guns on the Second Division front, which
had hitherto covered the assault of the whole division, switched
their fire to the line in front of the Thirteenth Brigade, while
the hitherto active guns of the First Division ceased fire.

The reserve brigades, having crossed the second objective,
now deployed. They were in the following order :

On the right was the First Brigade, wuth the First Battalion,
Lieut. -Col. J. H. Hume, on the right ; the Third Battalion, Lieut. -
Col. J. B. Rogers, M.C., in the centre ; the Fourth Battalion,
Lieut.-Col. W. Rae, D.S.O., on the left, and in reserve the Second
Battalion, Lieut.-Col. T. L. McLaughlin, D.S.O. Next came
the Sixth Brigade, with the Thirty-first Battalion, Lieut.-Col.
A. H. Bell, D.S.O., on the right ; in the centre the Twenty-eighth
Battalion, Lieut.-Col. A. Ross ; and the Twenty-ninth Battalion,
Lieut.-Col. J. M. Ross, D.S.O., on the left ; all followed by the
reserve unit, the Twenty-seventh Battalion, Lieut.-Col. P. J.
Daly, C.M.G., D.S.O.

On the left of this brigade came the Thirteenth (Imperial)
Brigade, with the First Royal West Kents on the right and the
Second King's Own Scottish Borderers on the left, the other twa
battalions of the brigade being in support and reserve.

At 9.35 a.m., all else being ready, the barrage began to lift
again, and these troops advanced to thrust the Canadian line
down over the crest of Vimy Ridge.

In twenty minutes of almost unbroken marching these
battalions reached Thelus Trench and took it in their stride.
When the barrage surged beyond the trench it left behind only
a few scattered men who soon were taken, a few machine guns,
which were silenced at once, and a fleeting handful of Germans
who were cut down in the storm of bullets from the attacking
Canadians.

And now the advance went sweeping grandly on and sub-
merging in one devouring rush strongholds and fortifications —
or what was left of them — which Germany would have sold
her soul to keep. Thelus village had also been entered bj^ this
time. It was found to be a levelled ruin filled with dead. The
" moppers-up " dragged and hammered the living out of their
holes, and sent their bombs crashing into the wreckage of the
dugouts to place Death in complete possession. Hours after
the tide had gone on, Germans were still being discovered in
great tunnels, under the village, which had nearly proved
their tombs.

Thelus Mill, the wood south of it, and Count's Wood to the

THE TAKING OF VIMY RIDGE 109

north, one by one were reached by the thunder-cloud and the lines
which followed it. As a famous British Correspondent put it,
" The Germans were like sheep attacked by tigers." At 10.40 a.m.
the lines of Canadians were lapping the lower face of Hill 140
and Thelus was conquered. The third objective was reached
everywhere by 1 p.m., and the lines halted.

The barrage resumed its advance at about 12.30 a.m. The
reserve battalions of the Sixth and of the First Brigades followed
i t and began the final phase of the great assault. The Thirteenth
Brigade on the left thrust its right into the Bois de Goulot as
the pivot on which the remainder of the troops were to swing.

The great belts of wire in front of Farbus were found to be
partially cut, but still capable of presenting a serious obstacle.
A few machine guns and riflemen in trenches behind somehow
survived the barrage and opened fire when our troops advanced.
They were soon silenced, however, by a shower of rifle grenades,
and the Canadians climbed through the wire and went on.

The advance had been so successful that it had got within
sight of the heavy guns in the woods north of Farbus. And to
reach the enemy's active guns had been the aim of the British
infantry ever since the beginning of trench warfare. By this
fact alone the triumph of Vimy Ridge may be gauged, for that
aim was first realized there.

The German gunners, who had never expected to see the
gleam of hostile steel, did not accept their fate without a struggle.
They depressed the muzzles of their great guns and sent their
monster shells roaring into the advancing lines. But the Cana-
dians had already won through a continuous shower of gun fire,
and not point-blank bombardment nor rifles nor revolvers nor
machine guns, all of which the desperate German gunners
employed, could stop them now.

The machine guns were soon knocked out by rifle grenadiers,
and the last lines of the Canadian assault raised a cheer, dashed
forAvard and sprang down into the gun-pits among the gunners
and the guns. There was a fierce fight. The Germans who
would not surrender were cut down with the bayonet and driven
back from the guns, which they tried to disable. The last spark
of their resistance was soon stamped out. Among the prisoners
taken here was a colonel of artillery, who acknowledged to the
full the bitterness of his humiliation and defeat.

Meanwhile the First Infantry Brigade to the south had won
to their last objective. At 2 o'clock the barrage halted, and
at 3.30 p.m. the final line of advance had been reached everywhere.
This completed the capture of all the southerly slopes of Vimy
Kidge.

Beyond, f^r across the Douai plain, a vista of green fields

110 THE CANADIANS IN FRANCE

and little villages had been opened. The sight of it was like
the Promised Land.

There now remained to the three southerly Canadian divisions
only the tasks of exploiting their successes and consolidating
the ground which they had won. The consolidation was pushed
forward rapidly. Outposts were sent into the eastern edges
of the thick woods on the eastern slopes of the Ridge, a main
resistance line was built along the crest, supported by strong points
behind, and communication trenches were repaired and rendered
serviceable. This Avas the task of thousands of men for the rest
of the day and several days thereafter.

To exploit our successes the battalions which had captured
the final objective of these three divisions were ordered to send
out strong patrols into Petit Vimy, the Bois de La Folic, Farbus,
and Farbus and Station Woods. During the afternoon platoons
accordingly pushed forward into these places, worked their way
through, and, on the First and Second Division fronts, dug in
beyond and remained there. The ever-ready and hard-worked
artillery provided a barrage to protect them as far as the
Lens-Arras Railway, beyond which they could not fire except
with heavy guns unsuitable for barrage.

The guns which had supported the first stages of the assault
were now toiling up to get into suitable positions at close range.

And now, with the greater part of* those terrible heights
safely in Canadian hands, we turn to the fighting of the Fourth
Division.

This division employed the Eleventh Infantry Brigade on
the right, and on the left the Twelfth Infantry Brigade. The
battalions were disposed as follows :

On the right of the Eleventh Brigade was the One Hundred
and Second Battalion, Lieut. -Col. J. Warden ; on the left was
the Eighty-seventh Battalion, Major Shaw, They were supported
by the Seventy-fifth Battalion, Lieut.-Col. C. Worshop, D.S.O.,
and the Fifty-fourth Battahon, Lieut,-Col. V. V. Harvey, D,S,0,
The Twelfth Brigade employed, on the right, the Thirty-eighth
Battalion, Lieut,-Col, C. M. Edwards, D,S,0,, and on the left
the Seventy-second Battalion, Lieut, -Col. J. A, Clark, D.S,0.
In support and reserve were the Seventy-third and Seventy-
eighth Battalions, Lieut.-Col. H. C. Sparling and Lieut.-Col. J.
Kirkaldy, D.S.O. The Tenth Infantry Brigade was in reserve
for the whole division.

This infantry was covered by the Field Artillery of the Reserve
(formerly Lahore) Divisional Artillery, the Second Canadian
Divisional Artillery, and the Eighteenth, Two Hundred and Forty
Second, and Seventy-sixth Army Field Artillery Brigades. It
was also covered by Number Four Group of Heavy Artillery.

THE TAKING OF VIMY RIDGE 111

When, at 5.30 a.m. on April 9th, the troops of the Fourth
Division surged forward with the rest of the Canadians, they had,
in common with the rest, a well-laid plan, which was to place
them in possession of all their objectives by noon that day. They
had no reason to expect to meet opposition which would prove
particularly difficult to overcome.

But it is the unexpected that happens in war. The division
had no sooner left its trenches than it came under terrific artillery,
rifle and machine gun fire. The effect was staggering, but, as
once before, on that self-same ground, on March 1st, they had
pressed on through such a fire, they pressed on now. The Eleventh
Brigade came up against uncut wire, in the centre of its line,
guarding the front trenches of the enemy.

And now was enacted the tragedy that inevitably follows
the meeting of a gallant attacker and a determined defender
behind machine guns and barbed wire. At the very outset of
their journey, while those on the flanks worried their way through
the awful fire, the men in the centre began to go down. They
fell thick and fast at the fringe of the wire and in the wire, the
living streaming with yells over the dead, only to be cut down
in their turn. The threat to the success of the entire division
was very serious.

Nor was this all. The men on either flank of the uncut wire
had reached a line some two hundred yards west of the Givenchy-
Thelus Road. This was short of their objective. But how could
ranks greatly depleted by casualties, and with a gap in the centre
filled only with their dead, hope to proceed further ? No sooner
had they reached their line than a number of caves and tunnels
suddenly disgorged hundreds of Germans who had remained hidden
while the waves of Canadians passed over their heads. These
men, with rifles and machine guns, re-manned the ruins of the
front trenches and began to add their quota to the fire which
was now pouring into the attackers from every side.

The enemy thus announced that he was ready to fight to
the last before he would willingly surrender the northern end
of the Ridge.

But help was coming. At 6.30 p.m., as the long day was
drawing to a close, General Odium launched the Eighty-fifth
Battalion, Lieut. -Col. A. H. Borden, which had been placed
at his disposal, into the battle from our old front line,
with the object of destroying the Germans now harassing his
brigade from the rear and reinforcing the gallant remnants
that were left.

The Eighty-fifth Battalion deserves special praise for its
fine performance, and for two reasons. No barrage was possible,
as it would kill our own men. They therefore attacked without

112 THE CANADIANS IN FRANCE

a barrage, for the first time since the days when we had learned
that absence of artillery meant almost certain death. And it
was a new battalion, which had been employed in digging trenches
for several weeks and had never yet taken part in an attack.
That a new battalion under these circumstances should do so
well is the highest possible tribute to its efficiency.

The Eighty-fifth Battalion, then, advanced at 6.80 p.m.
They did so in perfect order in the face of a strong fire. Without
artillery support they disposed of the Germans at the bayonet's
point. This done, they pushed on, joined up with the battalions
ahead, and closed the gap in the front of the Eleventh Brigade.

The Twelfth Infantry Brigade, although it had suffered heavily
and had been obliged to call on the Forty-sixth Battalion, Lieut. -
Col. H. J. Dawson, of the Tenth Brigade, for assistance, had
meanwhile reached and held its final objectives. To complete
the task there now remained only a strip of ground between the
Pimple and the Bois de la Ville to be taken. This represented
an advance to a line five hundred yards in front of the foremost
Canadian line, as held that night, on a front of about one mile.
As the Eleventh and Twelfth Infantry Brigades were too exhausted
to attack this line, which was their final objective in the original
plan, the Tenth Infantry Brigade was ordered to do so.

After continuous and bloody fighting had taken place on
the Fourth Division front the whole night long, the Fiftieth
Battalion, Lieut. -Col. L. F. Page, and the Forty-fourth Battalion,
Lieut. -Col. Davies, therefore attacked at 3.15 p.m. on April 10th.
By the time this further Canadian assault was made the German
resistance had been beaten out and they had received enough.
Before night fell the last objectives had been gained.

In the meantime, on April 9th, the rest of the Canadians,
busy consolidating the southern end of the Ridge, had dealt
with several strong attempts to counter-attack. The Germans
were now bombarding our positions heavily, and in this bombard-
ment the majority of the casualties suffered on April 9th occurred.
But the diggers went on steadily, and the cold moon that looked
down upon the snow-covered world that night saw them firmly
established in their hard-won ground.

At 10 a.m. on April 10th, a force of about six thousand infantry
was observed advancing towards our line from the direction of
Fresnoy. They marched in close order, led by mounted officers.
Our gunners opened fire from every gun that could bear when
the enemy came within range, and the column disappeared in
the most appalling bloodshed which the Canadian guns had ever
caused.

There was still left in the enemy's hands the Pimple. This
objective was to be taken after the rest of the Ridge had been

THE TAKING OF VIMY RIDGE 113

secured. The task was allotted to the Forty-fourth Battalion
on the right and the Fiftieth Battalion in the centre. Two com-
panies of the Forty-sixth Battalion attacked on the left of the
Fiftieth Battalion.

The attack was delivered in a blinding snowstorm, through
waist-deep mud, at 5.30 a.m. on April 12th, in the dark hours just
before the dawn. The artillery and machine gun barrage moved
slowly in front of the troops, who were eager to stand once and
for all as conquerors on that hill which they had raided so often.
The state of the ground was a drag upon such eagerness. But
the gale, as on April 9th, was on our side. It pushed the men
along from behind and it blinded the startled German machine
gunners waiting and staring through the gloom and the flying
snow for the attack.

Like wraiths out of the storm our men bore suddenly upon
them. The Forty-sixth Battalion joined issue hand-to-hand
with the Prussian Guard who came forth to meet them, and wiped
them out with the bayonet. Elsewhere the rest of the brigade,
as keen and determined as ever, in spite of their gruelling fighting
of April 10th, beat and drove the enemy out of their positions
and entrenched on their ground.

The whole of the objectives were taken by 9 a.m., and with
them the last of the Vimy Ridge.

Thus ended the fight for that dominating position which had
been called impregnable. The gain of the Canadians had been
great. In the first day of the assault and the week following,
the events of which were the aftermath of the victory, the Canadian
Corps captured over four thousand men, over forty guns —
including two eight-inch, seven 5-9's, three 4-1's, and two field
guns, all captured in action by the Sixth Infantry Brigade in
the Bois de la Ville — some of which were employed to hasten
the enemy's scurry from their lost fortress, and a large quantity
of war material and ammunition.

Among the proudest of their trophies were four Victoria
Crosses. All these were won in connection with " those inventions
of the devil, machine guns and barbed wire." Major Thain
Wendell MacDowell, D.S.O., Thirty-eighth Battalion, captured
two machine guns and seventy-seven prisoners, aided only by
two runners, during the desperate fighting of April 9th, and later
held the position he had won for five days, although badly wounded
in the hand at the beginning of operations. Sergeant Ellis
Welwood Sifton, Eighteenth Battalion, on the same day rushed
single-handed at an enemy machine gun which was holding up
his company and killed the crew. He then held the trench till
his comrades came up, but was killed in the process. Private
William Johnstone Milne, Sixteenth Battalion, captured two

8

114 THE CANADIANS IN FRANCE

machine guns and put their crews out of action with no assistance,
but he too was killed immediately after. Finally, Private J. G.
Pattison, of the Fiftieth Battalion, rushed and silenced a machine
gun, single-handed, killing the crew of eight men with bombs
and the bayonet.

Casualties on the whole were slight — the Sixth Infantry
Brigade, which lost five hundred and twenty-seven killed and
wounded, is a fair example of the average price paid by each
brigade. In the ranks of the Fourth Division the casualties
were highest.

The taking of the Ridge was a very great achievement, even
when compared with the events of later months. An immensely
strong position was attacked and carried in extremely bad
weather from a starting-line dominated and overlooked in every
way by a fully prepared and ruthless enemy. As an isolated
accomplishment it stands high. The possession of the Ridge
gave us essential observation and elbow room. It gave us a
bastion in that wall against which the desperate British Army
was to stand a year after — a bastion which never fell, and around
which the grey waves of the German assault beat in vain.

For Canada, Vimy will always be a name of reverence and
the Ridge a monument of Glory.

CHAPTER X

LENS AND HILL 70

April-October 1917

It was apparent to all possessed of even a limited knowledge of
the value of the victory of Vimy Ridge that immediate and
possibly far-reaching consequences must follow. The central
bastion of the German defence on the Western front had been
carried at a blow. It therefore .became necessary for the enemy
to adjust his line instantly and do his utmost to repair the damage
caused to his defensive fabric by the loss of a position which he
had always considered impregnable.

How far the German High Command would alter existing
dispositions as they were left when the last yard of the Canadian
objectives fell into our hands was a matter of conjecture to all
concerned. To any man who stands on the summit of the
dominating crest which was now firmly in British possession and
looks down upon the site of the enemy's front line as the Canadian
rush had left it, the necessity of a withdrawal is apparent. The
depth of the withdrawal was another matter.

The first plans of the Canadian Corps for continuing the
advance after the subjection of the Ridge were for pressing on
to the next main German defence system, the strongly wired
trenches known as the Oppy-Mericourt-Vendin Line. This
line covered the villages from which its name was derived, and
stood as a strong barrier in the path of any advance to encircle
Lens from the south-west. It was necessary for the First Army
to break this line before the development of the second stage
of Sir Douglas Haig's plan of campaign could take place. The
duty of the Canadians was to accomplish the breaking of the line
between Oppy and Mericourt, push on, and seize a low ridge running
east and west beyond Acheville. In so doing they would com-
pletely outflank Lens and place the British line fairly and squarely
on high ground overlooking the mining centres east of the great
town, and with them the whole of the German lines of communi-
cation leading to the city.

115

116 THE CANADIANS IN FRANCE

To achieve this, however, it was first necessary to advance
the Canadian hne as it lay now at the feet of the Vimy Ridge
to within striking distance of the Oppy-Mericourt Line. Not to
be caught napping, the Canadian Corps ordered constant patrol
activity, with the object of at once discovering any attempt of
the Germans to sneak away unobserved.

At first these patrols had no success. The period of failure,
however, was not wasted. Everywhere the troops that had
followed the barrage to victory on April 9th and the days following
were relieved by the reserve brigades of their own divisions.
Then, after the lurid glare and smoke of the burning dumps of stores
and ammunition in the towns and villages within the enemy's
lines, notably in Lens, had for several days announced the German
intentions to retire, the patrols in the dawn of April 13th found
the enemy's resistance at an end and began to make rapid progress
forward. At the same time, the Second (Imperial) Division on
the right and the Twenty-fourth (Imperial) Division on the
left kept close on the heels of the Germans.

The Canadians, with the First, Second, Fifth, Ninth, Tenth,
Eleventh and Twelfth Brigades, pushed on all day, while the
artillery kept the enemy busy by firing on their trenches to the
east. The First and Second Divisions' infantry before dusk were
established along the railway from Bailleul to Vimy, and had
outposts in Willerval. Vimy, Petit Vimy and La Chaudiere
were in the possession of the Third Division, and on the north
the Fourth Division were early in Givenchy, where they incident-
ally added to their trophies by taking an eight-inch howitzer and
two field guns. Before nightfall this division had reached the
Vimy-Angres line of trenches south of Fosse 6, and, with the
Twenty-fourth (Imperial) Division, had penetrated into the Bois
de I'Hirondelle on the left.

The Second (Imperial) Division, south of the Canadians and
advancing with equal boldness, was by that time in possession
of Bailleul Railway Station.

The Fifth (Imperial) Division completed the relief of the
Fourth Division during the night, and at 5.30 a.m. patrols every-
where resumed the advance. By noon the Imperial troops
south of the Corps had advanced nearly two thousand yards,
the Canadian line had reached and passed Mont Foret Quarries
in the centre, and on the left the patrols had cleared the Bois de
rilirondelle, with the valuable ridge on which it stood, and had
penetrated the outlying suburb of Lens known as the Cite de
Petit Bois. So rapid had been the move of the Imperial Corps
on the left that it was at that time in Lievin, where it had seized
large quantities of German war materials.

On April 15th, however, hard clashes took place against the

LENS AND HILL 70 117

enemy's positions, and it was definitely established that he held
the Oppy-Mericourt-Vendin Line in strength, together with
the switch trench covering Arleux — the Arleux Loop — and that
he meant to keep it.

In the three days the Canadian line had been advanced about
three thousand yards on a front of five thousand, and our foremost
troops were now some thousand yards west of, and in an excellent
position from which to attack, the Arleux Loop, as a preliminary
to breaking the Oppy-Mericourt Line just beyond. Steps were
at once taken to complete preparations for the necessary attack.
The objective was extremely strongly protected by barbed wire,
densely woven and many yards deep. The first course was to
set to work with the artillery to destroy this wire.

Gun by gun, battery by battery, the Canadian and English
artillery were steadily moving up to closer and deadlier range.
On April 17th they were in a position to commence wire-cutting,
and also to harass with fierce and irregular gusts of fire the com-
munication trenches, roads and tracks which were the arteries
carrying to the front line the life-blood of the enemy.

No visible incident enlivened this period of preparation,
beyond artillery fire, except an advance of the Fifth (Imperial)
Division on April 23rd under an artillery barrage. This attack
took over two thousand yards of the trench line which ran in
front of Thelus, east of Vimy and west of Lens, and secured the
last portion of that line in German hands south of the Souchez
River. It was an attack which was necessary in order to adjust
the line to conform to the advance of the Imperial troops north
of the river.

The latter all this time had been making relentless progress
through the maze of suburbs, pit-heads, mines and railway
embankments south-west, west and north-west of Lens. The
enemy abandoned to them valuable stores, and nightly crimsoned
the sky with the glare of his burning and exploding dumps.
Everything seemed to point to the easy accomplishment of the
immediate task before the Canadians.

On April 24th, the Fourth Canadian Division, reorganized
and refreshed, relieved the Fifth (Imperial) Division in its new
line, and thus became responsible for the front between the Vimy-
Lens Railway and the Souchez River. Preparations for the attack
on Arleux and the Arleux Loop were completed. At 5 a.m. on
April 28th the attack was launched.

The Second Brigade had been selected to make the assault.
The troops employed were, on the right, the Eighth Battalion,
Major J. P. McKenzie, D.S.O., in the centre the Tenth Battalion,
Major A. T. Thomson, D.S.O., M.C., on the left the Fifth Bat-
talion, Lieut,-Col. H, M. Dyer, D.S.O. In close support of the

118 THE CANADIANS IN FRANCE

Eighth BattaHon, to follow on its heels and do its " mopping-up,"
was the Seventh Battalion, Lieut.-Col. W. F. Gibson. A battalion
of the Third Brigade, the Sixteenth Battalion, Major R. O.
Bell-Irving, M.C., performed a similar duty for the remainder
of the assaulting troops.

The artillery of the First Canadian Division, augmented by
three Imperial brigades of field artillery and strongly backed by
the Canadian Corps heavy artillery and an Imperial group of
Royal Garrison Artillery, provided the necessary covering barrage
and counter-battery work. The whole was augmented by the
admirable fire of the brigade machine gun company.

During the night the attacking infantry assembled without
detection within three hundred yards of the Arleux Loop. At
the hour of the assault the whole of the artillery supporting
the advance, together with the machine guns, suddenly split the
night with fire, and the infantry moved out under the lee of
the barrage. On their right the Second (Imperial) Division went
with them.

The frontage of the Canadian attack was but two thousand
two hundred yards and the objective a line just beyond Arleux
which would make the village and the Loop our own. The
danger besetting an assault on such a comparatively narrow front
was well realized. To prevent the enemy from grasping the fact
that the area of attack was small, and thereby to cause him not
only uncertainty as to the scope of the operation but also to dis-
tribute his responding gun fire over a wide front, the artillery
barrage of the British guns crashed down upon the whole of the
enemy's first line opposite the Canadian Corps, from end to end.
The ruse was completely successful. From end to end of that
line the German S.O.S. rockets rose, wildly and repeatedly calling
for assistance, and answered everywhere by the startled fire of
their artillery.

Close behind the barrage, which moved forward steadily
in the gloom, the Canadian battalions pressed rapidly on. A
scattered rifle and machine gun fire searched them as they
advanced. In a short time they found themselves at the fringe
of the deep wire guarding the Arleux Loop. The artillery had
done its work well, but here and there strong entanglements
still remained. As the attackers struggled through the wire
the enemy's machine guns and rifles suddenly struck them with
a terrific fire.

" B " Company of the Eighth Battalion encountered par-
ticularly strong wire and a most determined opposition, but they
silenced their enemies with bombs and broke into the trench,
cheering, to complete the work with the bayonet. " D " Company
of the Fifth Battalion was thrashed at point-blank range by a

LENS AND HILL 70 119

machine gun handled with diaboHcal skill from a position in the
Arleux Loop. The company was in its death agonies in the wire.
Major K. L. Campbell, M.C, its commander, grasping the situation
instantly, rushed forward, snatched some bombs from the hands
of the nearest men and charged the gun single-handed, only
to fall riddled and dead before it. The result was promising
disaster when Lieut. Foulkcs of " A " Company, in support, broke
into the trench further to the south, bombed his way with a few
men rapidly up the trench, destroyed the resisting machine
gun, avenged the gallant Campbell and enabled the advance to
proceed.

The Tenth Battalion on the right, meanwhile, had made
rapid progress, and now the whole attack swept into and over
the Arleux Loop and pressed resolutely into Arleux itself. There
followed desperate and bloody fighting in the sunken roads around
the place and in the ruined houses, which were lairs for many
machine guns. Between them, the Tenth and Eighth Battalions
crushed the resistance of the enemy in Arleux, while the Fifth
Battalion dealt with those to the north.

By 8 a.m. touch had been gained with the Imperial troops
on the right and the Second Canadian Division on the left. The
whole of the objectives were quickly taken and consolidation was
set in progress. Three determined attempts of the enemy to
assemble to counter-attack were dealt with during the day.
When dusk fell, a line running roughly north and south through
the eastern edges of Arleux, with a flank thrown back to our
old line some seven hundred yards north of the village, had been
put into a thorough state of defence. Its strength was tested
at 8.30 p.m., when a strong counter-attack suddenly developed
against the left, held by the Fifth Battalion. The S.O.S. streaked
the dark with fire, the artillery and machine guns instantly
responded, and by the combined action of this support with the
infantry the enemy was rapidly repulsed.

Thus the Arleux Loop and Arleux were taken, together with
seven officers and three hundred and sixty-five others, who fell
into our hands as prisoners.

On April 29th, during the night, the Third Brigade relieved
the purchasers of this considerable little victory.

The outer wall had now been broken and our troops were
within reach of their real objective, the Oppy-Mericourt Line.
The Second Division pushed its outposts into the sunken road
from Arleux to Mericourt to conform to the new line to the south,
and immediate preparations were set in force for the assault on
the enemy's trenches.

The ensuing days witnessed great artillery activity as our
guns began to cut the wire and break down the trenches of the

120 THE CANADIANS IN FRANCE

Oppy-Mericourt Line and to strive with the Germans for the
ascendancy in power. Our heavy artillery were moving up.
Our lighter guns were already in a position to support the proposed
advance.

The Canadian gunners merited high praise in this stage of
their fighting. In order to keep within range of the recoiling
German lines they had moved down into the plains east of the
Vimy Ridge. Here the Germans had left few gun emplacements
and there was little or no shelter for the guns, which were com-
pelled to fire in the open and in view of the opposing artillery.
In their exposed positions the enemy harassed them night and
day without rest, bombarding them with gas and every form of
shell. They lost heavily, but they endured it all with stolid
silence and supported the infantry with never-faltering accuracy
and strength.

Their chief work was to place the Oppy-Mericourt Line in
a condition which would justify an attack. Wire-cutting by
shell fire went on steadily. By May 3rd it was decided that
the hour had struck, and at 3.45 a.m. the infantry went " over
the top."

The battalions were as follows :

On the right, the Third Battalion, Lieut. -Col. J. B. Rogers,
D.S.O. (less two companies) ; on their left the Second Battalion,
Lieut.-Col. R. P. Clark, M.C. ; to the left of the Second Battalion
was the First Battalion, Lieut.-Col. G. C. Hodson ; the Fourth
Battalion, Lieut.-Col. W. Rae, D.S.O., and the remaining two
companies of the Third Battalion were in reserve to these bat-
talions. All these units belonged to the First Brigade. To the
left of the First Battalion were the Twenty-seventh Battalion,
Lieut.-Col. P. J. Daly, C.M.G., D.S.O., and the Thirty-first Bat-
talion, Lieut.-Col. A. H. Bell, D.S.O., both of the Sixth Brigade.

The final objective of these troops covered a front of two
thousand five hundred yards. Their task was to break the
Oppy-Mericourt Line between Fresnoy and Acheville, push
forward outposts beyond and on the right, where the First Brigade
was attacking, to fling a loop around the village of Fresnoy and
the woods in the vicinity, five hundred yards in advance of these
positions.

In the actual breaking of the trench line the First Brigade
was responsible for smashing through from just south of Fresnoy
to some two hundred and fifty yards north of the village. The
Sixth Brigade was to push through from that point to the junction
of the trench with the Arleux Loop. It was also to take the
five hundred yards of the Loop which were still held by the enemy
and prolong the new front to the original line. No such pro-
Jongation on the part of the First Brigade was necessary, as the

LENS AND HILL 70 121

Second (Imperial) Division on its right was also attacking the
Oppy-Mericourt Line at the same hour.

Covering the advance with a creeping barrage were the First
and Second Divisions' field artillery, supplemented by a certain
number of Imperial guns and by the machine guns. As Fate
decided, the story of the action at Fresnoy fell into two parts —
that of the First Brigade on the right, where complete success
was achieved, and that of the Sixth Brigade on the left, which
was only partially successful. The troops in both cases wrested
their victory from the enemy only by desperate effort. The
story should therefore be told as it occurred — in two portions.

Whilst the battalions of the First Brigade assembled in the
intense darkness, they were subjected to much shell fire. The
enemy was alert and extremely nervous, illuminating No Man's
Land by a ceaseless succession of flares.

At 3.45 a.m. the hollow roll of the waking guns rumbled
through the darkness, to swell instantly into the deafening clamour
of intense barrage fire, and everywhere the infantry advanced.
They were greeted almost at once by a deadly shell fire and the
concentrated hurricane from numerous machine guns.

Through this storm of death the First Brigade moved rapidly,
and were soon struggling, despite many casualties, in the dense
wire guarding the German trenches. The artillery had done its
work well, but the entanglements were still strong enough to
cause serious delay. In the face of point-blank rifle and machine
gun fire, the blast of which— so short was the range — seemed to
scorch the gallant infantry plunging through the wire, they
forced their way into the German front line. The line was
strongly manned, filled with determined men who fought with
wild courage. Yelling, the Canadians hurled their bombs into
the packed masses barely discernible in the gloom and then
went for them Avith the bayonet.

The enemy was superior numerically. Later, when the
prisoners were questioned, it was discovered that they had actually
been massing for an attack, which was to have been made at
6 a.m., when the barrage burst suddenly upon them. But their
superiority in numbers was of little avail. They were cut to
pieces. The trench line was taken and the Canadians swept
on. An attempt to rally west of Fresnoy was shattered ; the small
woods flanking the village and the ruins of the village were taken
after a nightmare struggle in the pandemonium of shell fire,
and, almost to schedule time, the last of the final objectives,
one thousand yards from the line on which the troops assembled,
was secured.

On the right, though Gavrelle was captured, the Imperial
troops had not been able to gain their final line. It was there-

122 THE CANADIANS IN FRANCE

fore necessary for the Canadians to form a flank facing south-
east in order to hnk their exposed right with the arrested left
of the EngHsh infantry. The two companies of the Third Bat-
tahon in reserve had been kept in hand for such a contingency.
They were hurried up and they closed the gap.

Meanwhile the Sixth Brigade, on the left of the First
Battalion, was fighting against great odds.

The difficulties facing this brigade were peculiar. They
had to capture a line which was for the greater part at right
angles to the main line of advance. This line was dominated
by the high ground east of Acheville, by that at Mericourt and
by Hill 65, far off in the north-west beyond the Souchez River.
Machine guns on all the nearer ridges and the artillery around
Rouvroy, Sallaumines and hidden in the ruins of Lens could
combine a frightful converging fire on the brigade during and
after the assault.

When the Canadian barrage started the Western infantry
went forward.

The German reply to our fire was as prompt on the front of
these units as it had been on the right. The troops had barely
moved when from all sides, from east, north and north-west,
shells and bullets flew into them. In a few moments the whole
area over which they were to advance was blazing with the
shattering explosions of innumerable projectiles, raining down
upon the fragile waves so swiftly that they could not be counted.
With the most appalling rapidity the waves were blasted away.

The Twenty-seventh Battalion was particularly hard hit.
The leading company on the right was virtually annihilated as
it deployed to attack. The enemy's barrage fell like a hurricane
upon them. In a short time the company was reduced to a
handful of men. The remainder were dead or dying on the
ground.

The bravest heart might have failed in that hellish horror
of darkness, lightning and violent death. For a moment the
men wavered in the midst of it. At times like these, if a great
leader is not there, the game is lost. This time there arose such
a leader— Lieut. R. J. Combe, the last officer of his company,
new to France, but with a soul that could overcome the terror
of the unknown.

Combe steadied his men when they staggered in the grip of
death. He stood up in the dark, and his voice and example
made obedience come where paralysis had been. The pitiful
fragment of a company got into line again. And with Combe
leading them, it went on.

There were only five men with him when Combe got to the
wire of the Oppy-Mericourt Line, Even his brave spirit must

LENS AND HILL 70 123

have faltered when he saw the dense wire and that there were
hundreds of forms in the dim trenches behind, waiting for them.
But he faced them and began to bomb the trenches.

With his five men at his back, he burst through the wire
and into the hne beyond. Fighting the packed masses, he drove
them back. More Canadians came up. He reorganized them
and went on fighting. They cleared the whole of the objective
allotted to his company, fought down to the right and gained
touch with the First Battalion. Thus by the individual courage
of one inexperienced officer the line was taken and held.

Combe was shot dead as he was consolidating his position
after daylight — shot by a sniper in the moment of his triumph.
But he had won the Victoria Cross.

Captain Charles Stinson, commanding the company supporting
Lieut. Combe, had followed closely on the heels of the leading
waves, and, when the barrage struck them, had kejjt his men in
hand and brought them up to the fringes of the wire. Here
they took shelter till, in response to the cry for reinforcements,
he joined the remnants of the right company and strengthened
the line. The men were trickled in small groups into the objec-
tive under very heavy fire as soon as the opportunity came.

Meanwhile the left company of the Twenty-seventh Battalion
and the leading waves of the Thirty-first Battalion had been
fiercely engaged. The Thirty-first Battalion encountered several
strong outposts of the enemy soon after starting, and were
inevitably delayed while they overcame these posts with bombs
and the bayonet. Like the Twenty-seventh Battalion, they
then came upon the dense wire guarding their objective and were
similarly reduced to trickling men through such gaps as they
could find, while the enemy shot them down with machine
guns. After much bitter and obscure fighting the Sixth Brigade
found itself with the right company and Captain Stinson's company
of the Twenty-seventh Battalion in the support line of the Oppy-
Mericourt Line. The right company of the Thirty-first Battalion
was in possession of the greater part of the Arleux Loop — all
except the last three hundred yards leading up to its junction
with the Oppy-Mericourt Line. Thence the remainder of the
Twenty-seventh and Thirty-first Battalions were forming a
defensive flank facing north-east, on a line practically a thousand
yards long, to connect the troops in the Arleux Loop with our
old front line. Two companies of the Twenty-eighth Battalion,
Lieut.-Col. A. Ross, D.S.O., were pushed up in close support of
the whole.

This was the situation as it finally crystallized. During
the day the First Brigade, busy consolidating, dealt with two
violent German counter-attacks, the more important being

124 THE CANADIANS IN FRANCE

delivered at noon against the First and Third BattaHons. Both
were repulsed after sharp fighting.

On the following day at 8 p.m., nothing daunted by its losses
of the day before and its knowledge of the severe resistance
forthcoming, the Sixth Brigade made a gallant attempt to take
the rest of its original line. Following a bombardment, bombing
parties of the Twenty-eighth Battalion, Lieut.-Col. A. Ross,
D.S.O., and the Twenty-ninth Battalion, Lieut.-Col. J. M. Ross,
D.S.O., the latter on the right, attacked in the face of violent
opposition from strong bodies of the enemy. The Twenty-
eighth Battalion secured all the original objective of the Twenty-
seventh Battalion still in German hands. The Twenty-ninth
Battalion, however, could only take about one hundred yards
of the front and support lines of the Oppy-Mericourt Line.

Before proceeding to the events following Fresnoy, mention
must be made of the great gallantry of the artillery of the Second
Canadian Division, supporting the Sixth Brigade. Under the
heaviest counter-battery fire, with their ammunition dumps
blazing and losing many casualties, the men of these batteries
stood to their guns and supported the infantry with skill and a
high devotion.

The Fifth (Imperial) Division relieved the Second (Imperial)
Division on the right of the Canadians on May 4th, and on the
following day completed the relief of the First Canadian Division,
which went back to rest in Bruay.

The troops which attacked at Fresnoy had achieved a con-
siderable local success, displaying fine determination in spite of
severe opposition.

Their prisoners alone — eighteen officers and four hundred
and thirty-eight men — represented much achievement. Else-
where, however, the general advance on May 3rd met with little
result. The German resistance beyond Arras was now becoming
so strong that it was quickly realized that no further advance
could be made except by employing a larger number of troops
than Sir Douglas Haig, whose real blow was still to come in
Flanders, cared to commit to the operation. All hope and
all idea of continuing to press on east of Arras was therefore
abandoned.

This being the case, it was obvious that the project of the
Canadians for outflanking Lens from the south had also to be
put aside. A quick change of plan was made, and it was decided
to push forward astride the Souchez River until our troops were
within rifle-shot of the town. Once the line had reached the
outskirts of the place, a rapid enveloping move might force the
enemy out and save the necessity of fighting in the town
itself.

LENS AND HILL 70 125

To manoeuvre into such close proximity involved considerable
effort. It would be necessary to advance an average distance
of over two miles, through a maze of railway embankments,
pit-heads, mines, suburbs, slag-heaps and great manufacturing
buildings, before the Canadian infantry could look into the heart
of Lens. The comparative ease and swiftness with which the
Imperial troops had hitherto made progress through the western
suburbs gave good cause for hope that the plan might be accom-
plished without much fighting. As it happened, the enemy
resisted desperately, so that the operations resembled the long
advance of besiegers to within assaulting distance of a fortress.
To save the valuable mining machinery and other institutions,
it was hoped to achieve the objective by skilful use of infantry
patrols unsupported by serious artillery action. Gradually the
German defence, coupled with their policy of destroying and
flooding the mines, made this restraint unnecessary and impossible.
The fighting which was to come abounded in many fine acts of
individual courage and resource, fine leadership of isolated patrols
and some of the fiercest conflicts the Canadian troops ever
experienced.

On the night of May 5th the first stroke in the new campaign
was delivered with an attack by the Tenth Brigade of the Fourth
Division. At 9.45 p.m. the Forty-sixth Battalion, Lieut. -Col.
H. J. Dawson, D.S.O., and the Forty-seventh Battalion, Lieut. -
Col. M. Frances, attacked a system of trenches, covering some
five hundred yards of ground between the Electric Generating
Station and La Coulotte, officially known as the Triangle.

The Forty-seventh Battalion had a particularly severe fight,
dealing with large numbers of the enemy with rifle grenades
and bombs before they were able to enter the front line. It
was estimated that over seventy casualties were caused in this
fighting. Both battalions captured all their objectives, together
with fifty prisoners and a machine gun. Several enemy counter-
attacks were repulsed. It was a clean-cut little success, a good
augury of others still to come.

On May 7th a fierce German counter-attack in force was
delivered at 3.30 p.m. against the newly won Triangle. All arms
skilfully co-operated to meet it, and the assault was repulsed
with very severe casualties.

An intense barrage covered the Forty-fourth Battalion, Lieut.-
Col. R. D. Davies, D.S.O,, which at midnight on May 9th attacked
two hundred and fifty yards of trenches, both front and support
lines, defending and slightly north-west of La Coulotte. The
whole of the objectives were quickly taken and consolidated and
a handful of prisoners were sent back. Our losses were very
slight.

126 THE CANADIANS IN FRANCE

The enemy, with his poHcy of determined and furious contesting
of every yard of ground, was not content with this. On May
10th he launched two fierce attacks, assisted by flammenzverfer,
one at 7 p.m. and the other four hours later. The Tenth
Brigade met this strange weapon with the coolness with which
they were wont to face all others, and beat the Germans back in
disorder. At 3.30 the next morning, however, the enemy
advanced again. They attacked with more Jlammenwerfer and
^vith large numbers of men. After a desperate resistance our
lightly held outposts were driven back to the line which we had
held before the last successful attack.

Here Major C. S. Belcher and Captain L. Moffatt, of the Forty-
fourth Battalion, re-formed their men and established a line
about one hundred yards from the lost positions. At 5 p.m.
Belcher led forward the counter-attack in person without any
previous artillery preparation. The determined rush of the
Western infantry completely demoralized the enemy and carried
all before it. The lost line was entirely regained.

The casualties of the Canadians in the strenuous and successful
fighting for these positions amounted in all to only seventy,
which were suffered by the Forty-fourth Battalion. On the other
hand, careful estimates accounted for over two hundred grey-
clad Germans dead in No Man's Land and in the grass in front of
our outposts. The balance was thus well upon the credit side.

With no military action except much shelling and patrolling.
May came to an end. On June 1st the relief of the Second
Division by the First Division in the line north of Arleux brought
the First Division into the trenches again and sent the former
back to Bruay for an exceedingly well earned rest. The Third
Division at the same time relieved the right of the Fourth
Division south-east of the main Lens-Arras Road.

The Tenth Brigade at midnight on June 2nd struck again.
The objectives were the Electric Generating Station, the Brew^ery
at La Coulotte and La Coulotte itself. The attack was carried
out by the Forty-fourth Battalion, Lieut. -Co). Davics, on the right,
the Fiftieth Battalion, Lieut.-Col. L. F. Page, D.S.O., on the left,
and one platoon of the Forty-sixth Battalion, to which w'as
assigned the task of capturing a concrete machine gun emplace-
ment in the centre of the objective line.

All objectives were taken under an artillery barrage, but losses
were severe. The strongest opposition was met with.

After holding on resolutely to La Coulotte and the Brewery
for several hours, the Forty-fourth Battalion was compelled to
drop back before dawn to its original line. The Fiftieth, however,
retained the Electric Generating Station and the five-hundred-
yard line with advanced outposts which they had established

LENS AND HILL 70 427

in front. Through the whole of a blazingly hot day, cut off from
reinforcements and ammunition by the intense barrage which
the Germans kept playing continuously on the shattered ruins
of the Generating Station, they stood fast. At 6.45 p.m., having
lost a large number of men, they were driven back to the line
from which they had emerged at midnight. The platoon of the
Forty-sixth Battalion, which had taken and held the machine
gun emplacement allotted to them, were forced to conform to
this movement.

All told, the Tenth Brigade in this operation had taken one
hundred and fifteen prisoners. They had shown a fine deter-
mination, but the exposed objectives they had taken were rendered
quite untenable.

On June 4th the Eleventh Brigade relieved the brigade,
which had incurred five hundred and eighty casualties in sixty
hours of vicious fighting in the vicinity of the rusty steel skeleton
of the Generating Station.

The One Hundred and Second Battalion, Lieut. -Col. Warden,
promptly went out at 3.30 a.m. on June 5th and seized the place
for the last time. The enemy, flying on the approach of the
stealthy patrols, were wiped out by a burst of fire from rifles
and Lewis guns. The gain of ground effected amounted to an
advance of over two hundred yards.

The whole policy of the Canadian Corps was to harass the
enemy without rest. Sounds of fighting were still to be heard
from the darkness beyond the river, when, at 11.45 p.m., the
whole front of the Third and Fourth Divisions suddenly became
clamorous with the tumult of an intense barrage and one of
the largest raids yet staged by the Canadians commenced.

From right to left the following battalions climbed out of
their trenches and advanced in the darkness to annihilate the
enemy :

The Royal Canadian Regiment, Lieut.-Col. C. H. Hill, D.S.O.,
Forty-second Battalion, Lieut.-Col. B. McLennan, D.S.O., and
Forty-ninth Battalion, Lieut.-Col. R. H. Palmer, D.S.O., all of
the Seventh Brigade of the Third Division ; in reserve to this
brigade was the Princess Patricia's, Lieut.-Col. A. A. M. Adamson,
D.S.O., and the Fourth C.M.R. Battalion, Major W. R. Patterson,
was attached for the operation. The Eighty-seventh Battalion,
Lieut.-Col. J. V. P. O'Donahoe, D.S.O., Seventy-fifth Battalion,
Lieut.-Col. C. C. Harbottle, D.S.O., and One Hundred and Second
Battalion, Lieut.-Col. Warden, of the Eleventh Brigade, continued
the advance to the left of the Third Division.

The Third Division's infantry had for their objective the
enemy's first and second lines between the Vimy-Lens Railway
and the Arras-Lens Road. The frontage of the raid allotted

128 THE CANADIANS IN FRANCE

to these troops covered a thousand yards, and the deepest advance
amounted to eight hundred yards.

The night was most unfavourable, being dark and rainy.
The men pressed eagerly forward in spite of it. The Royal
Canadian Regiment met with the strongest resistance. A
machine gun which caused considerable trouble was disabled.
Alcove and Amulet trenches and a communication trench, all
near the Railway, were scenes of fierce fighting, in which the
bayonet was used freely and many Germans were killed. Else-
where little resistance was encountered. In all quarters many
dugouts were destroyed with Stokes bombs. It was estimated
that over seventy dugouts were treated in this way. At 2.30
a.m., with sixty-two prisoners and four machine guns as trophies,
and leaving behind them over seven hundred German casualties,
the men of the Seventh Brigade returned to our lines.

Meanwhile, on the left the Eleventh Brigade had not been
quite as fortunate. The German artillery only made a feeble
reply to the advance of the Third Division. On the front of
the Eleventh Brigade, however, a devastating fire had commenced
at 8 p.m. and continued steadily until within half an hour of
the raid. As soon as the intense barrage broke in thunder on the
hostile lines at 11.45 p.m., the lull in the enemy's bombardment
ceased and a violent fire was maintained thenceforth.

In the shelling prior to the launching of the raid, enough
damage was done to have ruined the success of the Eleventh
Brigade. Three platoons of the Seventy-fifth were buried by
the bombardment and the survivors were dug out only just in
time to attempt the attack on the Brewery, their allotted objec-
tive. Similarly, among the Eighty-seventh all the ofBcers and
N.C.O.'s detailed to lead the attack of that unit on the Brewery
were killed or wounded before the hour came to advance.

At that hour, disregarding these mishaps, the Eleventh
Brigade attacked. The Eighty-seventh Battalion, which had
lost thirty killed and one hundred and ninety wounded before
a single man crossed the Canadian parapet, did not secure all
its objectives, but put in some very useful work with bombs
and bayonet in the darkness about the embankments near the
Brewery. Similarly, the Seventy-fifth Battalion did not take
the Brewery or the trenches in front of the Electric Generating
Station, but they too sent many Germans to their last account.
The northerly troops of the One Hundred and Second Battalion
took the allotted objectives, but the rest of the battalion could
not do so, and was forced to confine itself to inflicting losses
from outside.

At 1.45 a.m. the Eleventh Brigade withdrew. They had
taken seventy prisoners and five machine guns, bombed and

LENS AND HILL 70 129

destroyed three other maehinc guns and eighty dugouts, and,
around Fosse 7 and La Coulotte, had accounted for three hundred
Germans. They also kept possession of two small trenches
named respectively Callous and Candle, and rapidly incorporated
them into their defences.

The whole area raided by the Canadians had been most
systematically wrecked. Capable officers were certain that only
ruined dugouts and dead or dying Germans were left behind.

June 9th witnessed the departure of Lieut. -General Sir Julian
Byng from the Canadian Corps. He was succeeded by Major-
General Sir A. W. Currie. The occasion was one of intense
regret for all concerned. Sir Julian had been immensely popular
with everyone in the Corps, which enthusiastically accepted the
title of the " Byng Boys." In the hands of the departing Corps
Commander the force had gradually developed into an almost
perfect fighting machine, ranked by many as the equal of the
Old Army — greater praise there could not be.

On the other hand, equal to the regret at the loss of their
Imperial leader was the pleasure felt at the succession of Sir
A. W. Currie, a Canadian born and bred, to the command of the
Dominion's forces in France. It signified the end of Canada's
apprenticeship in the Workshop of War.

Sir Arthur Currie was succeeded by Brigadier-General A. C.
Macdonell in the command of the First Division. Lieut.-Col.
H. M. Dyer succeeded Brigadier-General Macdonell as com-
mander of the Seventh Brigade on June 29th, Lieut.-Col. C. H.
Hill, D.S.O., commanding in the meantime.

General Currie at once applied his vigorous methods to the
guidance of the Canadians. In the North, Messines and the
ridge associated with the name had fallen, and Sir Douglas Haig's
plans were moving smoothly and rapidly towards the culmination
of the year's campaign — the general advance beyond Ypres.
The role of the First Army was now to drive the enemy into the
Oppy-Mericourt-Vendin Line from Fresnoy onwards, take that
Line and secure possession of Lens. The part of the Canadian
Corps in this operation was to capture Adept, Agent and Keane
Trenches as far as the Arras-Lens Railway. These were certain
trenches forming a kind of advanced outpost line in front of the
Oppy-Mericourt-Vendin Line on the Canadian front. At the
same time, by means of feint attacks, the discharge of smoke and
so forth, the enemy was to be deceived into imagining an attack
on the main line imminent. The threat would compel him to
pin large reserves to the vicinity. The real attack would come
later, when things were more favourable.

Then, with dramatic suddenness, the Imperial troops on June
25th captured Hill 65, north of the Souchez River, which took

9

130 THE CANADIANS IN FRANCE

all the enemy's positions south of the river, where the Canadians
were in enfilade, and rendered them untenable. The enemy at
once withdrew on this front. Orders were immediately issued
for the Third and Fourth Divisions to push forward patrols and
ascertain if he had departed.

Patrols of the Twelfth Brigade made rapid progress, and by
dusk were in possession of the majority of the trenches north of
La Coulotte. The Fifth C.M.R. BattaHon, Lieut.-Col. D. C.
Draper, D.S.O., advancing on the Third Division front, found
the Germans still in strength and made no gains.

During the night arrangements were swiftly completed for
a resumption of the advance on the Corps front under an artillery
barrage, and at 7.30 a.m. the first shell wailed over and the patrols
went on. The Twelfth Brigade employed the Thirty-eighth
Battalion, Lieut.-Col. C. M. Edwards, D.S.O., on the right, the
Seventy-second Battalion, Lieut.-Col. J. A. Clark, D.S.O., in the
centre, and the Eighty-fifth Battalion, Lieut.-Col. A. H. Borden,
on the left. The last-named had replaced the Seventy-third
Battalion in the Twelfth Brigade in April, the latter unit having
been disbanded. To the south the Ninth Brigade attacked with
the Forty-third Battalion, Lieut.-Col. W. Grassie, D.S.O., on the
right, and the Fifty-eighth Battalion, Lieut.-Col. H. A. Genet,
D.S.O., on the left.

Practically no resistance was encountered, the Eighty-fifth
Battalion, which wiped out the crew of a machine gun, took
the gun and five prisoners and slew another thirty-five, meeting
with most opposition. All the enemy's trenches in front of the
system defending Eleu dit Leavitte and Avion were taken.
The Third Division's infantry got to within three hundred yards
of Avion. The men of the Fourth Division probed the ruins of
Eleu and Avion Trench and found that the enemy held both
lightly.

After dark the steady movement went on. The Third
Division cleared the whole of Avion Trench around the village,
while the Fourth Division crossed to the eastern side of the
Arras-Lens Road and placed its outposts five hundred yards
beyond on all their front as far north as the Souchez River.

This operation involved an attack at 2.30 a.m. under a strong
artillery barrage. The Third Division, employing the Fifty-second
Battalion, Lieut.-Col. W. B. Evans, D.S.O., on the right, the
Fifty-eighth Battalion in the centre, and the Forty-third Battalion
on the left, met with little opposition. The Forty-third Battalion,
moving with its right on the Arras-Lens Railway, encountered
the most serious resistance, but by 5.30 a.m. held five hundred
yards of Avion Trench.

At the same time the Fourth Division, represented by the

LENS AND HILL 70 131

Twelfth Brigade, attacked all the portions of Avion Trench and
Eleu on their front still in German hands. With the same
dispositions as before, this brij^adc advanced rapidly to the attack
close in lee of the barrage. On this front also all objectives were
secured by 5.30 a.m.

During the rest of the morning of June 28th touch was
established by the brigades with the troops on their flanks
and strong patrols continued the advance. The Third Division,
employing the P'ifty-eighth and Forty-third Battalions, had
lively fighting, and after securing a footing on certain points
were forced to withdraw. The Twelfth Brigade, advancing at
the same time — 7.10 — got into the south-western end of Avion.
The enemy was firmly established in the north-eastern portion.

The troops of the Twelfth Brigade involved in this action
were those already employed in the morning.

With the exception of a small advance on the night of June
29th, in which the Fifty-second Battalion pushed its posts north-
east along Avion Trench until they were within a stone's-throw
of the Avion-Mericourt Road, no further gains as a result of
the enemy's withdrawal were realized. Much useful work had
been done. Objectives which were originally expected to require
serious fighting were taken without much effort. Our troops,
though faced Avith a most formidable network of trenches and
railways, were now close to Lens on the southern side.

The last of the fighting just recorded had taken place under
very adverse weather conditions, in a pelting downpour of rain.
All the strenuous operations of the past month, in fact, had been
much handicapped by most uncertain weather. This was now
to change, however, to a fine July and a steadily dull period of
early August.

On July 1st the Third Canadian Division relieved the Fourth
Canadian Division in its new positions on the edge of the flooded
land in front of Cite St. Antoine. The Fourth Canadian Division
went back to rest after as strenuous a two months as it had yet
experienced.

July was not conspicuous for any greatly outstanding incident,
but much activity of a minor character took place. Early in
the month, to mislead the enemy as to that blow on the north,
where the Second Army was poised to strike and the Third Battle
of Ypres was fast approaching, it was decided that the First
Army was to simulate an offensive on its whole front. The
original project of breaking the Oppy-Mericourt-Vendin Line
had been postponed for the present — our troops were now in a
position whence the line could be assaulted at any time. The
original plan of securing Lens still remained. The taking of
Lens would bring fear to the enemy for the safety of Lille, An

132 THE CANADIANS IN FRANCE

attack on Lens from the north-west would, by the more direct
threat against Lille, cause greater alarm to the Germans than
one from the west or south.

To take Lens from the north-west we had first to take Hill
70, which stood like a solid breakwater in advance of the city.
So the First Army decided that the primary step now required
was to seize Hill 70. Its passing into our hands would give us
possession of a buttress in the walls of Lens, essential observation
over a wide front into and beyond the town, and would greatly
improve our positions. It might even force the enemy out of
the place without further fighting. Little hope of successful resis-
tance could remain to the Germans when our men on Hill 70 had
the whole fabric of their defences laid out before their view.

To the Canadian Corps was allotted the honour of capturing
Hill 70 and, incidentally, Lens.

They had first, however, to secure the ground gained in June
and to simulate an offensive on the whole of the front now held
by them.

The entire month was spent in digging and wiring new trenches.
Many thousands of yards of line were built and vast quantities
of wire were erected. The enemy did his best to hinder the
work. The measure of his success may be gauged by the fact
that on the night of July 3rd he fired six hundred shells into
the area where a single working party was engaged without
either stopping the work or disabling one man.

In simulating an offensive we discharged large numbers of
gas drums into Lens, so that the city reeked with gas and was
pregnant with death. We also harried the roads and trenches
wherein the hostile army had its being with endless heavy artillery
bombardments. Our patrols were unceasingly active. Every-
where they set upon and drove back the enemy whenever met
with in No Man's Land. Our guns and trench mortars went on
steadily cutting barbed wire as if in preparation for an assault
on trenches which actually we intended to leave severely alone.
Raids were frequent. The most noteworthy was one carried
out by the One Hundred and Sixteenth Battalion, Lieut. -Col.
S. Sharpe, which had replaced the Sixtieth Battalion in the Ninth
Brigade. The battalion was full of eagerness to prove itself.
And it did so— brilliantly.

The scene of the raid was the trenches about Siege 4, east
of Avion, and the hour of advance 1 a.m. on July 23rd.

The enemy bombarded the area of operations not only before
but throughout the raid, so that the men were forced to wear
their respirators during the period of assembly and also in the
earlier stages of the attack. In spite of this and the fact that
the battalion bad never yet been seriously engaged, everything

LENS AND HILL 70 133

went smoothly. Many fine acts of courage were performed.
Lieut. J. Hughes himself shot two Germans who attempted to
train a machine gun on his men, and jout the gun out of action.
Major Currie, commanding " C " Company, though wounded in
the face and deprived of all his subaltern officers, led his men
with great courage throughout. Sergeant Houston alone killed
four and captured one of the enemy.

After penetrating to a depth of four hundred yards on a front
of six hundred, taking all objectives and over fifty prisoners and
destroying a machine gun and trench mortar, the battalion with-
drew at 1.35 a.m. Their losses totalled only seventy-four. The
German casualties in the dugouts which the Canadians bombed
must alone have equalled these.

The Germans repeatedly attempted to imitate these successful
tactics, but without exception every one of their attempts ended
in colossal failure.

While this activity was going on, silently and steadily the Corps
was preparing for the forthcoming bid for Hill 70. On July
16th, having been relieved by the Thirty-first (Imperial) Division
in the line on the right of the Corps front, the First Division
completed the relief of the Sixth (Imperial) Division in the line
at Loos. On July 26th the Fourth Division relieved the Third
Division. This placed two of the three Canadian divisions which
were to be employed on their battle fronts. The immediate
entry of the Second Division into the line between these two
divisions and the move of Corps Headquarters from Camblain
I'Abbe, where they had been ever since the Vimy offensive, to
Hersin-Coupigny, a place more central for the proposed assault,
completed the necessary rearrangements of troops.

A glance at the map will show that the Canadians had all but
won to the position on the very outskirts of Lens to which they
had aspired for so long. North of the Souchez River, however,
they were still some distance too far westward. The last days
of July and the early days of August were therefore devoted to
closing in on the town on that side. The Eleventh Brigade, by
much heroic fighting by individuals and patrols, worked its
way into the Cit6 du Moulin and finally held posts within a
thousand yards of the innermost position of Lens. The Second
Division also pushed forward its outposts to positions in Cite
St. Edouard and Cite St. Emile, not a mile north-west of the city.

The days before the launching of the great attack were days
in which the fury of preparation reached its height. Small
raids harried the Germans incessantly. In wire-cutting, trench
destruction and counter-battery work our guns were never silent.
In reply, the Germans searched our areas ceaselessly. They
hurled thousands upon thousands of gas shells into the streets

134 THE CANADIANS IN FRANCE

at night, for the benefit of our ration- and ammunition-bearing
limbers making their way up to the front hncs.

Gas-discipHne was so good that practically no casualties
resulted. The Germans were powerless to stop our preparations.
At 4.25 a.m. on August 15th the guns broke rumbling into the
wild tattoo of an intense barrage, and the Canadian infantry
went out to write " Hill 70 " on their colours in letters of blood
and fire.

The attack was made on a front of eight thousand yards,
from the Lens-Bethune Road in the south to the Bois Hugo in
the north. The first objective was the German second line,
which ran parallel to and just beyond the Lens-La Bassee Road.
Then came the intermediate one which, except for a small portion
on the left of the Second Canadian Division, lay everywhere-
on the front of the First Canadian Division. It was a non-
descript line of trenches five hundred yards beyond the first
objective. The second objective was the line of Commotion,
Nun's Alley, Norman and Hugo Trenches, which ran along Emily
Road to the switch railway west of Cite St. Auguste, thence to
the Bois Hugo. At its greatest depth (near Cite St. Auguste)
this represented an advance of two thousand yards beyond the
first objective.

The following troops v/ere employed :

On the right, from Lens-Bethune Road to five hundred yards
north of the railway running west out of Cite St. Auguste, the
Second Division, using on the right the Fourth and on the left
the Fifth Brigades ; from the left of the Second Division to
the Bois Hugo, the First Division, with the Second Brigade
on the right and the Third upon the left. For the attack on the
first objective, the battalions, from right to left, were the Eight-
eenth, Lieut.-Col. L. E. Jones, D.S.O., the Twenty-first, Lieut.-
Col. E. W. Jones, D.S.O., the Twentieth, Lieut.-Col. H. V. Rorke,
D.S.O., the Twenty-fifth, Major A. C. Blois, D.S.O., the Twenty-
second, Lieut.-Col. T. L. Tremblay, D.S.O., the Fifth, Lieut.-Col.
L. P. O. Tudor, D.S.O., the Tenth, Lieut.-Col. D. M. Ormond,
D.S.O., the Sixteenth, Lieut.-Col. C. W. Peck, D.S.O., the
Thirteenth, Lieut.-Col. C. E. McCuaig, D.S.O., and the Fifteenth,
Lieut.-Col. J. W. Forbes, D.S.O.

On the front of the Fourth Brigade and of the Third Brigade,
which had then but a short distance to go, the same troops were
used for the assault on the second objectives. But the Fifth
and Second Brigades, which had to take the intermediate and
the second objective and advance a greater distance, thrust
the Twenty-fourth Battalion, Lieut.-Col. C. F. Ritchie, M.C.,
Twenty-sixth Battalion, Lieut.-Col. W. R. Brown, D.S.O., Eighth
Battalion, Lieut.-Col. J. M. Prower, D.S.O., and Seventh Battalion,

LENS AND HILL 70 135

Lieut.-Col. W. F. Gilson, D.S.O., through the infantry assigned
to the first objective and attacked the intermediate and second
objectives with the fresh battalions named, which advanced
from right to left as mentioned.

The business of the Eighteenth and Twenty-first Battalions
was to make a right wheel from east to south-east, so that their
line faced Lens and was in a position to ward off any counter-
attack from the town. For the rest of the troops the advance
was a straightforward easterly march.

The advance was timed so that the Second Brigade would be
on the intermediate objective at the same hour as the rest of
the attackers reached the second objective. The Second Brigade
was then to push on and secure the second objective allotted to it.
Backing the fourteen Canadian battalions were the First,
Second, Ninth and Tenth Brigades of Canadian Field Artillery,
together with an Imperial brigade on the First Division front ;
the Fifth and Sixth Brigades of Canadian Field Artillery and
two brigades of the artillery of the Forty-sixth (Imperial) Division
on the front of the Second Division ; further to the south, on
the Fourth Division front, the Third and Fourth Brigades of
Canadian Field Artillery, with two English brigades ; dominating
all were the First Canadian, Sixty-third and Sixty-fourth Groups
of Heavy Artillery, for destructive fire, and the Second Canadian,
Fifteenth and Fiftieth Groups of Heavy Artillery for the work
of keeping down the reply of the enemy's batteries. Each field
gun had a front of only twenty yards to cover. The result was
one of the most intense creeping barrages ever employed.

Hundreds of Canadian machine guns supported their own
divisions by a constant fire.

In the almost complete darkness the barrage stormed swiftly
forward. Avion, far to the south, was pelted with gas drums
and boiling oil was fired into Puit 14 on the left of the Second
Division. Dense clouds of smoke were released on the front of
the First Division. Covered by all this, the infantry pressed
eagerly on and rapidly overran the enemy's forward position.
The hostile artillery responded with remarkable promptness,
the first shells of their barrage falling heavily on our front and
support lines within three minutes of the commencement of our
attack.

There was fierce fighting here and there — notably at a place
in the German front line called Dynamite House — but nowhere
any real cheek. Many brave deeds were accomplished. Corporal
Purman, of the Tenth Battalion, rushed an enemy machine gun
single-handed, and, though wounded in the arm as he ran, seized
the gun and hurled it on top of the crew, who promptly — and
wisely — surrendered. Further north Corporal Gracie, of the Six-

136 THE CANADIANS IN FRANCE

teenth Battalion, by deadly fire with his Lewis gun wiped out
the entire creAv of a hostile machine gun in a swift duel.

Half an hour after the Canadians had commenced to advance
the whole of the first obj ccti ve was taken. The assault now pushed
on, the First and Second Divisions, with the exception of the
Second Brigade, which had the intermediate objective to secure,
advancing on the second and final objective.

All the troops but the Second Brigade met with little resistance
during this stage of the attack. The German artillery had now
distinctly slackened. By 5.40 a.m. the last yard of the final
objective allotted to these men was in our hands.

The intermediate objective gave the Eighth and Tenth
Battahons much trouble. Daylight was now rapidly approaching
and the German machine gunners were able to see the lines of
misty figures moving forward in the cold light of early morning.
They fired furiously, so that the trenches resounded with the
hollow tapping of the machine guns even above the steady roar
of the barrage. But the Second Brigade, as invincible as ever,
ignored its losses, cleared the objective in bitter conflict, and,
to quote the laconic report of a company commander, at all
points " arrived on time."

Touch was rapidly established with the flanks, and the Eighth
and Seventh Battalions advanced to the attack on their final
objective, the thousand yards of trench, railway and quarry in
the centre of the line coveted by the Canadian Corps.

These battalions had suffered severe losses in their advance
to the intermediate objective. The result was that in the face
of the extremely stubborn defence against which they now
attacked they lacked the weight to drive home their assault.

The German machine guns in the trenches in front and on
the flanks, in Cite St. Auguste, the Chalk Quarry and the railway,
with one accord turned their fire on the advancing infantry.
The attack in this frightful fire gradually lost momentum and
became a slow progress from shell-hole to shell-hole by the few
gallant survivors of the leading waves. Eventually the Eighth
Battalion was definitely checked half-way up to the final objective.
The Seventh Battalion was held up in front of the wire guarding
the western edges of the Quarry. With great difficulty and
through a diabolical fire, Lieut. Clarke and fifty men of the bat-
talion secured a footing in the Quarry, but were unable to clear it.

The Canadian advance on the whole, however, had been a
swift and unqualified success. The hour for the further develop-
ment of the plan had come. It was thought that the threat to
Lens might by this time be reasonably expected to have caused
the evacuation of the citj^ and word was accordingly passed to
the Eleventh Brigade, waiting eagerly to send strong patrols

LENS AND HILL 70 187

forward, that it was to advance and see if the Germans had
withdrawn from their positions west of and in Lens itself.

Accordingly, at 8,25 a.m. patrols of the Seventy-fifth Battalion,
Lieut. -Col. Harbottle, on the right, and the Eighty-seventh
Battalion, Lieut.-Col, O'Donahoe, on the left, advanced behind
an artillery barrage.

The Germans, when the main attack on Hill 70 was launched,
had made by far their strongest artillery reply upon the west
of the city, where no infantry actually moved forward. This
was natural, for the advances of the Canadians for weeks past
had been upon that front. Thoroughly warned by the attack,
they were ready to meet any such a thrust as that now delivered
with a repetition of their heaviest gun fire. As it was with the
hostile artillery, so it was with the infantry. These had not
retired, but, on the contrary, were ready to make a desperate
resistance. In fact, the whole defence of the Germans was of the
most obstinate character, as their violent counter-attacks on the
north were soon to prove.

The patrols, advancing with the primary object of occupying
Aconite and Alpaca Trenches, five hundred yards ahead, and the
Green Crassier, a huge triangular slag-heap north of the Souchez
River, were greeted as soon as they emerged from their trenches
with an indescribably heavy fire of all arms. In spite of this
the survivors took Aconite Trench, passed into the houses east
of it, and secured possession of several important points in the
vicinity. The Green Crassier and Alpaca Trench they could not
take. The very heavy rifle and machine gun fire from these
positions, which were strongly held, defied all their efforts.

At 10.15 a.m. the Germans vigorously counter-attacked and
drove our men back to Bell Street, two hundred and fifty yards
beyond. Here the Germans were held after fierce fighting and
eventually the line of Bell Street was consolidated.

While this was in progress, the two divisions to the north
had been working like slaves in preparing their hard-won ground
for defence and the first of the German counter-attacks had
developed.

The rest of the story of that August day is one long record
of the repulse of innumerable counter-attacks. In the whole
story of Canadian achievements there is nothing finer than this
tale of the holding of the new gains upon Hill 70.

The first of these counter-attacks took place about 8.45 a.m.,
when the Germans advanced in two waves against Commotion
Trench, held by the Twenty-first, Twentieth and Twenty-fourth
Battalions. The waves were withered and beaten back by a
tempest of rifle, Lewis gun and machine gun fire on the grey slopes
in front of the trench. At 9 a.m. masses of the enemy were observed

138 THE CANADIANS IN FRANCE

gathering and were shelled and rent to pieces by our watchful
artillery. Between 10,30 and 11 a.m. the masses gathered again,
clouds of tiny figures seen through the smoke of battle on the
plains in the far distance among the mines, and nearer figures
which looked like ants in the trenches to the eyes of the men
behind the guns. Once more our shells broke in whooping
thunder among these masses of men, surrounding them with
points of twinkling fire and scattering death in their midst.

At 11.45 a.m. the Germans, moving down from the north
across the open, advanced against the Fifteenth Battalion, that
strong hinge on the extreme left of the First Division. The
infantry and the artillery combined against them and the attack
collapsed in disorder.

At 12.30 p.m. the Germans emerged from the Bois Hugo
and fiercely attacked the Thirteenth Battalion, while they
endeavoured at the same time to push down Humbug Alley.
There was desperate fighting with bombs, and the attackers
were driven back.

In defeating this attack the infantry had great assistance
from the artillery, which switched from target to target with
magnificent promptness and accuracy.

While this was going on the Fifteenth Battalion, on the left,
was again heavily attacked, this time in great force. Four
waves of the enemy stormed up against the defenders, their
bayonets fixed and their faces filled with a wild despair. The
artillery and the machine guns reaped a bloody harvest among
these desperate ranks and left many dead or dying on the ground.
One or two Germans got into the trenches held by our men, but
they were promptly bombed out by a dashing counter-attack.

About half an hour after this sanguinary defeat the enemy
made a second attempt to get into the trenches of the Fifteenth
Battalion, but were easily driven back by rifle fire. At 1.47 p.m.
the enemy launched yet another counter-attack, this time
against the Twenty-fourth BattaUon. This unit, calmly holding
its trenches as it had held them all the morning, met the advance
with an accurate and rajDid fire. The Germans pressed on bravely,
falling everywhere, but they were playing a lost game. The
attack was finally checked well beyond the Canadian positions,
with the heaviest loss.

Forty minutes after the development of this assault, the
Germans hurled their grey waves against the Eighteenth Battalion.
After losing heavily and fighting with great fury, the enemy
eventually gained a slight footing in Chicory Trench. A counter-
attack was quickly organized, and by 5 p.m. the last of the
hostile infantry was driven out of that small gain for which they
had paid so much.

LENS AND HILL 70 180

While this struggle was in progress, the enemy once more
attempted to drive back the Fifteenth Battahon. Various
parties came rushing along the different communication trenches
leading up to the line held by the battalion, in another despairing
effort to clear the Canadians out. The battalion stood as firm
as the mountains of the land of their Scottish forbears and the
attack was hurled back in ruin from every point.

At 5.25 p.m., as the blue twilight was closing down on the
bitterly contested ground, a last frantic counter-attack was made
upon this battalion. Their S.O.S. rockets floating above the
trenches in the distance roused our tireless artillery, and the fury
of an intense shell fire overwhelmed the Germans and drove
them flying to their own lines, leaving many dead in front of the
Fifteenth Battalion's positions. This was the last attempt against
the left flank.

It is not too much to say that the great defence of the Fifteenth
Battalion at that critical point was one of the primary causes
of the successful retention of the new line.

At 6 p.m. a hostile concentration was observed to be taking
place on the front where lay the trenches which the Second
Brigade had as yet been unable to secure. A new attack on
these trenches had been planned, and at 6 p.m. the barrage to
cover this attack commenced. Heavy losses, difficulties of
communication and other causes made it impossible for the
Seventh and Eighth Battalions to advance. The barrage, how-
ever, served a most useful purpose, for it shattered the German
masses gathering on the front.

The evening came steadily on, the front quietened, and at
8.50 p.m. it seemed that the Germans had exhausted themselves.
At this hour, however, the S.O.S. was suddenly fired from one
end of the Corps front to the other. The guns responded with
superb promptness, and the darkness beyond the Canadian out-
posts was split with fire. After half an hour's barrage the artillery
gradually slackened off. Word filtered through that the Twenty-
fourth Battalion had beaten off two counter-attacks, one delivered
through the trenches and one across the open, and the left of the
Fourth Division had also successfully accounted for an attempted
enemy advance. Everywhere else the German infantry had been
caught in the barrage and destroyed.

Quietness came once again, and the rest of the night passed
calmly.

Such is the record of a day as full of terrifie fighting as any
in the annals of the Canadian Corps. A most successful blow
of devastating power had been delivered. During the day
prisoners of four different enemy regiments (equivalent to British
brigades) had been taken. All the support battalions of the troops

140 THE CANADIANS IN FRANCE

holding the hne had been engaged by 6 a.m. Thence troops from
reserve Avere steadily thrown in and as steadily engaged by our
guns, with the fine observation at their disposal, as soon as they
came within range, shattered by our infantry and utterly defeated.
During the night the Fifth and Tenth Battalions relieved
the Seventh and Eighth Battalions, prior to making an attack
with the object of taking the portion of the final objectives still
retained by the enemy.

The two outgoing units went back to reserve after as glorious
a day as any in their annals.

Mention must be made of the splendid gallantry displayed
by Private M. J. O'Rourke, of the Seventh Battalion, during
the fighting of this period, gallantry which later won for him the
Victoria Cross. Private O'Rourke was a stretcher-bearer and
had already won the Military Medal. His performance on Hill
70 is one long record of self-sacrifice. He repeatedly tended the
wounded, bringing them food and water and dressing their
injuries under that frightful enemy fire. Several times he was
buried by shells, but when ordinary men would have retired with
shattered nerves, he continued to carry on. On one occasion
one of our men, blinded by a shot, was seen standing in No
Man's Land beyond our barrage, hands outstretched, a pitiful
object of compassion. O'Rourke, disregarding the fire of friend
and foe alike, won through the hell that lay between and brought
the man into safety. On another occasion, when certain of our
posts were forced to fall back, O'Rourke brought in a wounded
man who had been left behind, though the enemy's fire was
unceasing and intense.

O'Rourke was of the type that stands for all that is best
in man.

In the first hours of daylight on August 16th the enemy
made a feeble effort with three small parties to attack the
Thirteenth Battalion. These attempts Avere all beaten off with
bombs and rifle fire. At 4 p.m. an intense barrage began, and the
Fifth and Tenth Battalions advanced to make their attack.

The Fifth Battalion attacked on the right. The Tenth
Battalion, when two hundred yards from their objective, were
held up by a furious machine gun fire. Their Lewis guns at once
engaged the machine guns, and, after a strenuous duel, secured
the mastery and enabled the advance to proceed. There was
violent fighting for the objectives, but one hour after the com-
mencement of the advance they were firmly in our grasp. During
this struggle a trench a short distance west of the Quarry yielded
a large number of prisoners. Posts were quickly established
in front of the objective, and not a moment too soon.

Between 7 and 8 p.m. a counter-attack in great force developed.

LENS AND HILL 70 141

It lasted over an hour, and the severity of the fighting may
be gauged from the fact that the battahons never ceased firing
during the whole of that time. There was an obscure swaying
to and fro of the battle, but eventually our troops drove off the
enemy, who gained nothing. On a portion of the Fifth Battalion
front a slight withdrawal finally took place, as very few men
were left and ammunition was exhausted.

During the counter-attack the artillery lent admirable support
to the infantry. The German waves rolled up in the dark and
were blasted by rifle and machine gun fire, swayed, recoiled
desperately, their dead strewn on the ground, and were driven
back into the barrage and smashed to pieces there. Again
they came up and recoiled and were shattered and rallied, and
came on and were shattered again. So it went until even the
finest of the enemy's troops were forced to cry " Enough ! "
and vanish into their own lines, defeated.

For a time there was peace. Half an hour after midnight
the horror began again. A vast German counter-attack developed
on the whole Corps front, covered by a heavy barrage to which
our guns replied vigorously in response to the widespread S.O.S.
Dim waves of Germans came on in the fierce light of flares,
surrounded by vivid haloes of flame, ear-splitting tumult and
smoke. One could imagine them thrust into the furnace by a
panic-stricken General Staff in rear, without reason or a chance
of success. Masses were driven back by the Fourth Battalion of
the First Brigade, which was in the process of relieving the rest
of the First Division, and which was holding the Quarry. On
the entire Canadian front, following terrible slaughter, the
enemy's attack was finally repulsed when within one hundred
yards of our positions by the deadly precision of our rifle and
machine gun fire.

It was during the repulse of these great counter-attacks that
a runner of the Tenth Battalion, Private Harry Brown, a young
lad, carried a message through the enemy's barrage when all
the telephone wires were cut and it was impossible to call for
artillery support except by runner. Brown with another soldier
was told that the message must be delivered at all costs — the
Germans were even then massing in front of the Canadian line.
The other man was killed. Brown worked his way alone through
the annihilating shell fire. His arm was shattered to bits, but
he kept on, his teeth set and his body racked with agony.
Drenched with blood and sweat, he reached his destination,
staggered in, and gasping " Important message ! " fell down the
steps of the dugout.

He died a few hours later, never regaining consciousness.
But he had saved the men in the lince The counter-attack was

142 THE CANADIANS IN FRANCE

repulsed and Brown got the Victoria Cross. There never was a
decoration more bravely earned.

During the day the Second Division bombed northward
along Norman Trench to gain touch with the First Division on
the left. On the right the Eighteenth Battalion, which had taken
a large portion of Amulet and Colza Trenches, was compelled to
evacuate these gains, as the Eleventh Brigade on its right found
it impossible to conform.

On the early morning of August 18th the enemy renewed his
counter-attacks with as great a fury as ever. His first assault
was made upon the Fourth Battalion at 2.30 a.m. The Fourth
Battalion, Lieut.-Col. A. T. Thomson, D.S.O., M.C., waited until
the Germans were within eighty yards of the outposts. Then
they opened fire with every rifle and Lewis gun Avhich could be
brought to bear. The effect was staggering, and the assaulting
waves literally disappeared, shrivelled up in the fire.

There was a short period of quietness, but by 3 a.m. the
whole Corps front was under intense artillery bombardment.
This continued for forty minutes, and dumps blew up, men fell
wounded and killed in every part of the line ; in the outposts
and the fire-trenches in front, every man was on the alert, enduring
the hellish barrage with grim steadiness for the sake of the com-
pensation that was coming. At 4.45 a.m. the enemy's fire Ufted
and their infantry advanced.

The full power of the attack fell on the Twenty-first, Second
and Fourth Battalions. The Germans gained a slight footing
in the Chicory Trench near the La Bassee Road. The Twenty-
first Battalion, holding the line here, counter-attacked with
energy and swiftness, and threw the Germans out again before
they had time to realize it. The Fourth Battalion, in the Chalk
Quarry, was attacked once more, but with equally futile results.
Our barrage, which had come down on a line two hundred yards
nearer our positions than before, burst into the very midst of
the attack and blasted it asunder. The enemy, caught in the
rush of shrapnel and high explosive, died like trapped wolves.
Their losses were very heavy.

On the front of the Second Battalion, Lieut.-Col. L. T.
McLaughlin, D.S.O., there was terrific fighting. The enemy had
bombarded this unit with great fury, and large numbers of the
hostile infantry then emerged from the portions of the Bois
Hugo still held by them and bore down on the Canadians like a
whirlwind.

For a moment Major O'K. M. Learmouth's company was sur-
prised. Major Learmouth rapidly gathered some of his men about
him and led a counter-attack against the Germans. The dash
and vigour of this rush completely restored the situation. There

LENS AND HILL 70 143

followed a long and desperate struggle in which the enemy, covered
by a most intense fire of machine guns, fought like madmen,
and bombs and bayonets were used with fearful effect by both
sides. Major Lcarmouth was the soul of the defence. He stood
up on the parapet of tlie trench, catching the enemy's bombs and
hurling them back into the packed masses raving around him.
He was the centre of an endless hail of bullets, but seemed to
bear a charmed life. At last he was mortally wounded, but con-
tinued to direct his men, inspiring them to a magnificent resistance.
Everywhere he was to be found, shouting to the men to stand
fast. Physical exhaustion notwithstanding, he insisted on re-
maining with the company until all danger had passed and he
had handed over the command. Unable to move, this invincible
leader was finally carried out in dying condition.

The Victoria Cross was awarded to Major Lcarmouth for
his gallantry in those dreadful hours.

The Victoria Cross was won also in the repulse of the German
counter-attacks by Sergeant Frederick Hobson, of the Twentieth
Battalion. A Lewis gun holding an important trench junction
on the front of this battalion was silenced by a shell during the
enemy's preliminary bombardment, all but one man of the crew
being killed. Sergeant Hobson, though not himself a Lewis gunner,
at once rushed forward and extricated the gun. The enemy
at that moment attacked. He opened fire upon them till the
gun jammed. Realizing the desperate nature of the position
and the danger to the safety of the line that would follow any
success of the Germans at that point. Sergeant Hobson left the
sole survivor of the crew, who had now recovered from the first
shock, to repair the gun, and ran out alone to meet the enemy.
Using the bayonet and the butt freely, he dashed into the midst
of his antagonists. Stricken with momentary terror when this
one man attacked them, they recoiled. For several minutes
Hobson held them at bay. Then a bullet killed him ; the German
attack swept up again. By that time, however, the Lewis gun
had been repaired, reinforcements arrived, and the attack was
bloodily repulsed.

Hobson's heroic sacrifice had not been in vain. Once more
the Canadian line was held by the gallantry of a single man.

The rest of the day passed quietly. During the night a small
withdrawal was made on the extreme right of the First Division,
it having been found inadvisable to hold the outposts as they
then existed.

The last desperate bid for Hill 70 had now been made by the
Germans. Thenceforth no more serious counter-attacks were
made. While all this strenuous fighting had been going on
north-west of Lens, continuous local actions of a fierce character

144 THE CANADIANS IN FRANCE

had been in progress on the front of the Fourth Division, west of
the city. An effort had been made on August 17th at 4.35 a.m.
to capture Aloof Trench. The trench had been entered in several
places, but finally all footing was lost. A slight advance on a
five-hundred-yard front immediately south of the Lens-Grenay
Railway followed on the night of August 18th. This was carried
out by the Tenth Brigade.

On August 20th there was long and hard battling on the
front, north of the Souchez River, where the Tenth Brigade
was striving with the utmost gallantry to gain the last of the
objectives originally assigned to the Fourth Canadian Division
on August 15th. The struggle took place around Amulet and
Aloof Trenches. The Forty-sixth Battalion, Lieut. -Col. H. J.
Dawson, D.S.O., secured possession of several buildings well in
advance of their line, but were mercilessly shelled and were forced
to Avithdraw. Later attempts to re-establish our posts in these
buildings were unsuccessful. The Fiftieth Battalion, Lieut.-Col.
L. F. Page, D.S.O., on the left of the Forty-sixth, meanwhile
had been violently engaged. Posts which were placed in Aloof
Trench after desperate fighting were finally driven back to Amulet
Trench by a strong counter-attack, combined with the raking
fire of a number of machine guns placed in commanding positions
in houses east of the trench.

While all the furious fighting subsequent to August 15th
was in progress, the Canadian Corps, fully alive to the fact that,
instead of retiring, the enemy was resolved to contest every foot
of ground, had been preparing steadily to carry out another
attack in force with the object of tightening the jaws of the
pinchers slowly closing around Lens. On August 21st, at 4.35
a.m., the new attack was delivered by the Tenth Brigade on the
right and the Sixth Brigade on the left, which employed the
following vmits, named in order from right to left :

The Forty-seventh Battalion, Lieut.-Col. M. Frances, the
Forty-sixth Battalion, Lieut.-Col. Dawson, the Fiftieth Battalion,
Lieut.-Col. Page ; these belonged to the Tenth Brigade. The
Sixth Brigade attacked with the Twenty-seventh Battalion,
Lieut.-Col. Daly, and the Twenty-ninth Battalion, Lieut.-Col.
W. S. Latta, D.S.O.

The attack was covered by an intense artillery and machine
gun barrage.

The objective of the Tenth Brigade consisted of a line about
fifteen hundred yards long in Alpaca and in front of Aconite
and Aloof Trenches. This entailed an advance of about three
hundred j^ards and the subjection of many strongly defended
houses and small lines of trench. To the north, the Sixth Brigade
had to advance on a front of about one mile to a maximum

LENS AND HILL tO l45

depth of five hundred yards. Their objccliv^c consisted of the
general hne of Combat, Cinnabar and Nun's Ahcy Trenches as
far north as Commotion Trench. These positions were strongly
held and fringed with belts of formidable wire.

The attack falls automatically in the telling into two distinct
parts, which if described simultaneously result only in a confused,
incoherent story. The first part is that of the Tenth Brigade,
where, except on the left, complete success was realized after
heavy fighting. The second part is that of the Sixth Brigade,
which succeeded almost everywhere in attaining its objectives
but lost so heavily in trying to take what still remained untaken
and in holding the positions it won, that it could not withstand
the unrelenting pressure of the enemy and had eventually to
relinquish all for which it sacrificed so much. The attack of the
brigade was a failure, but, like the Gallipoli failure, a splendid
one. Canadians will never have a prouder memory than that of
the unsuccessful attack by these men from Manitoba and British
Columbia and the North-west, on August 21st, within rifle-shot
of Lens.

To describe, then, the part played by the Tenth Brigade.

The brigade swept forward at dawn under cover of its barrage.
The Fiftieth Battalion started under exceedingly adverse con-
ditions. Just before zero, that hour at which the quiet of the
morning was broken by the sudden crash of artillery and the
shouts of advancing men, the battalion had the misfortune to
be heavily and consistently shelled. Casualties were severe.
None the less the battalion, depleted though it was, pressed for-
ward. It instantly met with the fire of a host of massed machine
guns in Aloof Trench and in every house and building over-
looking the area astride the Lens-Grenay Railway. The effects
were instant. The men who survived in places got into the
objective, but their gallantry was in vain. At noon the remains
of the battalion were back in the original line.

Meanwhile the Forty-sixth Battalion on their left and the
Forty-seventh Battalion beyond had battered their way in the
face of very heavy machine gun fire into their objectives.

The fighting on the front of these two battalions was of a
desperate and prolonged nature. The battalions, continually
counter-attacked, harassed by point-blank machine gun fire
and violent shelling, worked their way steadily and doggedly
through their objectives. By 5 p.m. these had been entirely
taken, after a day of bloody and furious individual conflict.
The Forty-seventh Battalion withstood six determined rushes
of the enemy during the day, engaging and driving them back
in rough-and-tumble struggles with bayonets and hand-grenades.

During this fighting of the Forty-seventh Battalion wesl^

10

146 THE CANADIANS IN FRANCE

of Lens, a member of the unit, Private Felip Konowal, won the
Victoria Cross for as sustained an effort of individual daring
and fierceness as any ever recorded. Konowal was a Russian,
with all the cold-blooded contempt for human life and for personal
danger common to his race. He was in charge of a section,
to whom he continually set a magnificent example. He " mopped-
up " numerous cellars, craters and machine gun emplacements.
On one occasion he personally bayoneted three Germans in a
cellar. On another, single-handed he killed seven who fought madly
for their lives in a crater. Yet again, in the midst of a desperate
struggle, he rushed a machine gun emplacement whence a machine
gun was holding up the advance of the right. He calmly entered
the emplacement alone, killed the entire crew and brought
back the gun. Not satisfied with this achievement, he repeated
it the following day, killing the whole of the crew of a machine
gun and then destroying the gun and emplacement with ex-
plosives.

Altogether this most gallant fighter killed at least sixteen of
the enemy single-handed, and it was only when completely ex-
hausted by wounds that his ardour was satisfied.

Men like Konowal made the individual Canadian soldier the
terror of his enemies and the pride of his own country.

The Sixth Brigade meanwhile had been most heavily engaged.

Before the hour of assault a severe bombardment had been
directed against the brigade almost continuously. It ceased
shortly before the battalions advanced, and though the casualties
had been many, hope w^as high and unusual difficulty was not
anticipated.

A sudden hurricane of trench mortar bombs was fired on the
left trenches of the Twenty-ninth Battalion just as the men were
getting ready to "go over." Ten minutes before the hour,
at 4.25 a.m., the two platoons of the battalion holding the left
were violently attacked. There was fierce and hard fighting,
the platoons doing their utmost against a greatly superior force
to retain their positions, guarding the whole of the impending
attack from a rush in flank which would be its ruin. The struggle
was deadly, all the Canadian officers at the threatened point
being killed or wounded, together with most of the senior N.C.O.'s.
In this desperate situation Sergeant Croll rose nobly to the
occasion, took command of the men and held the trench against
all comers. At the crisis of affairs a platoon of the Twenty-eighth
Battalion reinforced the threatened joost and temporarily relieved
the situation.

But the hour of attack had come, the full fury of the Canadian
guns had been loosed, the barrage was shrieking and whistling
over the heads of the attacking infantry, and still the fight on

♦

LENS AND HILL 70 147

the left Was going on. A final effort pressed the Germans back ;
those leaders still on their feet rallied their men, and the left
pushed forward in line with the general advance.

There can be only one solution to explain the dreadful oppo-
sition which was instantly encountered on the whole front of
the Sixth Brigade, and especially on the extreme left. The
solution lies in the fact that the enemy must have been not only
about to launch a general counter-attack, but must have actually
launched it when the troops moved out. For, without warning,
there suddenly bore down upon the feeble left a great number of
the Fifth Guard Grenadiers (among the finest of the German
infantry). At the same time a terrific barrage fire started on
the whole of the Canadian front line. Fortunately, as the Sixth
Brigade started its attack from a line in No Man's Land, the
leading waves escaped this fire.

While " D " Company of the Twenty-ninth Battalion saw
these men sweeping towards them, " C " Company, the centre
company of the battalion and fighting to the south of " D " Com-
pany, came upon a great force of the enemy deployed along
Twisted Alley and obviously about to advance. The surprise
such a meeting created was mutual. Then the ranks closed and
both sides rushed at each other with levelled bayonets.

There followed such a fight at close quarters with cold steel
as has rarely been seen either in the Great War or any other — •
a fight in No Man's Land, in front of the Canadian objective,
that old Homer would have loved.

The left of " D " Company, slashed by point-blank machine
gun fire and already greatly weakened by its defence of the flank,
was completely wiped out. But the Canadians inflicted even
greater loss, for the Twenty-ninth Battalion were masters of the
art of bayonet-fighting. Fifteen minutes of pistol-work, the
trampling underfoot of dead and dying men, and the swaying
struggle of a host of determined opponents, ended in the collapse
of the enemy, and the Twenty-ninth pushed forward. Those
that remained got into Cinnabar Trench at its junction with Nabob
Alley, and, reinforced by " A " Company, led by Major Grimmett,
which came up at a decisive moment, the left went on with a
rush and captured the whole of Nun's Alley within the allotted
objectives.

" C " Company was not everywhere so successful. A strong
point held by one machine-gun and surrounded by a web of
unbroken wire met the renewed advance of the company with an
annihilating fusillade. Instantly the whole of the company was
virtually destroyed.

There was a temporary check while the few survivors of
this sudden opposition, seeking shelter in shell-holes from the

148 THE CANADIANS IN FRANCE

devastating swish of endless streams of bullets and the blast
of great shells, took stock of the position. Then Lieut. Carter,
though already shot in the chest, rushed at the gun, a handful
of men behind him. He was killed at once ; his body fell in the
wire that guarded that little devil of steel and the rush melted
away. Sergeant Stevens, now in command, rose up among the
dead of his company, and himself attacked the gun. It killed
him and a corporal who followed him.

It was at this juncture that Company Sergeant-Major R.
Hanna, in command of the company, since no officers remained,
arrived upon the scene. He took in the situation at a glance —
saw the corpses of his men all about him, wounded crawling
madly for shelter, and, dominating that dreary shambles where
so many gallant men lay stiffening in blood, the machine gun
rapping out whistling death beyond.

In the midst of this mortal hell he proceeded, calmly and
steadfastly, made of that stuff which knows not fear, to organize
a final rush. That done, he led the attack, seconded nobly by
the living that remained to him. Single-handed he pushed
through the wild tornado of machine gun fire. With the flame
from the gun in his face, he climbed through the barbed wire
to destroy it alone. Single-handed he killed three of the crew
with the bayonet and brained the last with the butt of his rifle.
The gun was silenced, and the advance, relieved from its fire at
last, went on.

Hanna was subsequently awarded the Victoria Cross for a
deed that should live as long as Canada itself.

The position on the front of the Twenty-ninth Battalion was
that, by noon, except for a gap of four hundred yards between the
extreme right and the rest of the battalion, the whole of its
objectives were taken.

The Twenty-seventh Battalion ah this time had been dealing
with opposition equally as stubborn. Advancing with the creeping
barrage after a gruelling bombardment of their line, the right of
the battalion overcame a most determined defence, forced its
way into strongly held trenches through a mass of wire, and hurled
the enemy out of the objective in nearly four hours of hand-to-
hand conflict. Lieut. J. W. Wood, leading a portion of the com-
pany, himself stormed a machine gun post in the western end
of Combat Trench, killing five of the crew and capturing two
prisoners.

The centre company, however, was not so fortunate. It
encountered a very determined defence and a large amount of
barbed wire, with the result that it never got into Combat Trench.
It also encountered a machine gun post which, in spite of several
determined attacks, was never taken. The company managed

LENS AND HILL 70 149

to establish and hold a post in Cinnabar Trench north of Combat,
The left company, together with a platoon of the reserve company,
battled its way into Combat Trench and also into Cinnabar on
either side of Conductor Trench. During the morning, after
herculean effort, touch was gained by this company with the
Twenty-ninth Battalion on the left.

During the morning also Major A. J. S. Taunton, D.S.O.,
and Lieut. J. M. MacKie organized and personally led a gallant
effort to overpower the resisting machine gun post on the front
of " B " Company in the centre. The effort failed, and thence-
forth the post remained active and inflicted much loss.

The business of the Sixth Brigade was now to hold the ground
they had gained. It was a terrible task. The enemy swept their
positions with fire, shelled them with an intensity rarely equalled,
sniped them from every possible point, and never ceased from first
to last to counter-attack. The German infantry seemed to pour
in an endless stream from the houses of Lens. The Canadians
who were unfortunate enough to be in the open could find no
shelter from this unceasing pressure. In many cases the ground
they held was strewn with a deep mass of bricks, stone and other
debris into which it was impossible to dig.

During the afternoon, it being quite hopeless to attempt
consolidation in this rubble, the right of the Twenty-seventh
Battalion fell back two hundred yards and dug-in on the line
thus taken up. But even this was of little avail.

At 4 p.m. the inevitable end had come. The survivors of
the attack of the brigade at that hour had been forced to fall
back everywhere to our original line. It was a heart-breaking
end to as magnificent an effort as could be conceived.

This may be said with truth — the losses of the Germans
must have been at least equal to our own. The toll taken by
the bayonet-fighters in No Man's Land was greatest on the
German side. Later, the casualties inflicted by our guns and
small arms, which fired throughout the day, were very heavy.
A final consolation lies in the achievement of so much of the
original aim when the attack was opposed with such ardour from
the outset.

The fighting of August 21st finally ceased after a violent
assault by the enemy on our positions in Chicory Trench. The
false hope which his expensive success north-west of Lens had
evidently aroused within him was violently shattered, for this
effort was completely repulsed with severe loss.

This concluded the fighting of the Canadian Corps in the
neighbourhood of Hill 70. During the period August 15th-22nd,
twenty- four officers and one thousand three hundred and fifty-
four others had been taken prisoners by the Corps. The futile

150 THE CANADIANS IN FRANCE

counter-attacks subsequent to August 15th had cost the enemy
two fresh divisions. Altogether at least four German divisions
had been practically destroyed. A most important position
had been taken. All this was achieved at a cost of one hundred
and ninety-nine officers and five thousand nine hundred and
thirty-nine men killed, wounded and missing in the Canadian
Corps. Of these, thirty-three officers and eight hundred and thirty-
five men had been killed.

The British artillery, Canadian and Imperial, had borne a
noble share in the victory. Their barrage work had been perfect,
and on all occasions they responded to the repeated calls upon
them with splendid skill and precision. As an example of their
devotion it may be mentioned that on the night of August
17th they had maintained an incessant barrage though violently
bombarded by high explosives and immense quantities of gas
shell, which forced them to wear their respirators almost
continuously.

The fighting west of Lens was fated to continue for a consider-
able period after that on the north-west had ceased. On August
23rd, at 3 a.m., General Hilliam's tireless Tenth Brigade attacked
Fosse St. Louis and the Green Crassier.

The attack was carried out by the Forty-fourth Battalion,
Lieut. -Col. R. D. Davies, D.S.O. Two companies attacked and
one company followed and " mopped-up " the dugouts, trenches
and houses, which the waves in front passed over. After half
an hour's fierce battling in the narrow defiles of trench and up
and down the vast mountain of shifting slag, the Crassier and
Alpaca Trench were taken. Fosse St. Louis was a scene of great
slaughter and ceaseless fighting throughout the day. Two
platoons of the Forty-fourth Battalion, assisted by the Forty-
seventh Battalion, which co-operated on the north side, made
desperate efforts in the face of the ceaseless fire of five machine
guns to gain a footing in that mass of battered steel. It was not
until 8.30 a.m. that the machine guns were overpowered and the
place cleared of the enemy.

Immediately after the loss of the Fosse the Germans began
a series of terrific counter-attacks against the men holding the
place, disregarding casualties, time and fatigue. At the same
time they continually strove to take back the Green Crassier
and Alpaca Trench. Up and down the fight swayed, and there
were many dead on the ground.

Fosse St. Louis changed hands at least three times. The
enemy had a trick of emerging with a sudden rush of men from a
tunnel in the shadows of the building and overpowering our
posts in one fierce sweep. Thereafter the Canadians holding
the posts entered the place again, to clear it with a shower of

LENS AND HILL 70 151

grenades, a press of red bayonets and the converging fire of
Lewis guns.

Time and again Captain Martyn, of the Forty-fourth BattaHon,
led his men into that place of horror.

Meanwhile the Green Grassier was rendered absolutely un-
tenable by the combined bombardment of all the Germans guns
within range. Machine gun bullets mingled with the shrieking
shrapnel playing like lightning over the slag. Not one man who
attempted either to reach or leave the Grassier won through
alive.

At 3 p.m. a combined assault on the Grassier resulted in its
passing into the hands of the enemy. Only a few survivors
came back from it. At the same time, throwing up all hope of
carrying the Fosse by assault, the enemy shelled our posts out
of the place by a violent bombardment. Alpaca Trench was held,
however, despite a final rush upon it, and the assault was beaten
back. Our Lewis guns around the Fosse took up positions
whence the whole of the interior might be denied to the enemy.

Thus ended a day of sustained and terrible effort. The
Forty-fourth Battalion, already much depleted by its previous
fighting, had lost seven officers and two hundred and fifty-three
men casualties. On the other hand, the German losses were
estimated as from four to six times our own. Practically no
prisoners were taken.

Certain reliefs had now been completed. The Third Canadian
Division, on August 23rd, had relieved the First and Second
Canadian Divisions, which went out to enjoy, at Bruay and Cam-
blain I'Abbe respectively, the rest they had so nobly earned.
This was followed on August 27th by the relief of the right brigade
of the Third Division by the Sixth (Imperial) Division and a
consequent shortening of the front.

The operations on the Canadian line were now to quieten
gradually. Much minor activity still enlivened the autumn
days.

On September 4th three companies of the Fifty-second Bat-
talion, Lieut.-Gol. W.W.Foster, made a powerful raid on Cinnabar
Trench from Nun's Alley to a point four hundred yards south of
it. The whole of the raid, which was launched at 12.35 a.m.
under cover of an artillery barrage and clouds of smoke, went
without a hitch. Nun's Alley, near Cinnabar Trench, was found
to be full of dead. Here all dugouts were destroyed. In the
centre of the objective, " B " Company was much hampered
by barbed wire and machine guns, but broke into the crowded
trenches and wiped out the garrison. Captain Fryer, leading
" D " Company on the right, was killed early in the raid and
Lieut. Kingj who took commt^nd, though his arm was broken,

152 THE CANADIANS IN FRANCE

remained with his men through it all and reported all details of
the raid to his battalion commander before he would leave the
line. Cinnabar Trench was packed with Germans and very severe
hand-to-hand fighting took place, the enemy resisting gallantly
and refusing to capitulate until only a sergeant-major and seven
men were left. These, together with three others and several
machine guns, were taken and all our casualties safely brought
back to our own line. On withdrawal, the raiders established
a post three hundred yards in front of our former line, and this
was afterwards maintained there.

On September 8th the relief by the First Canadian Division
of portions of the Third and Fourth Canadian Divisions placed
the oldest formation back in the line. The Third Division there-
upon " side-slipped," taking over a portion of the front hitherto
held by the Thirty-first (Imperial) Division in front of Mericourt.
On September 1-ith the Second Canadian Division, relieving the
left sector of the Third Division, also returned to the trenches.
A portion of the left of the First Division was subsequently
relieved by the Seventy-first Brigade of Imperial troops. Thus
from north to south the Canadians were now disposed as follows :
First Division, Fourth Division, Second Division, Third Division.
The whole front had shifted southwards, and where but one
division had held the line astride the Souchez River, four were
now disposed.

The gathering of the Canadian divisions south-west of Lens
was actually the prelude to what was intended to be the last
and final assault on the toAvn. The Canadian authorities had
been quick to grasp the fact that the Germans were prepared for
all attacks from the direction of Hill 70 or from the west, and that
further assaults from these quarters would meet with intense
opposition and would probably cost heavily. It was therefore
decided that an attack from the south-west, where quietness
had reigned for so long, would stand the best chance of success.

The plan was first formulated in the last week of August,
and preparations were to be completed by the beginning of
October. Then with sudden swiftness the entire scheme was
postponed — as it afterwards ensued, for ever.

During the whole summer, from July 31st onwards, the great
offensive in the North had been in progress. The time had
now come for the culminating blow of the campaign. In that
hour Sir Douglas Haig turned to that weapon which a season
of unbroken fighting had proved to be one ujjon which, as ever,
he might implicitly rely. On October 7th the first suggestion
of employing the Corps at Passchendaele was raised. Within a
week it was moving swiftly and secretly to the North, the new
battle-field that was j^et as old to them as the Corps itself.

LENS AND HILL 70 153

Thus Lens never fell into Canadian hands, though their guns
had been beating at the very gates of that stronghold. Yet the
name is one of the proudest with which British troops were ever
associated. In six months of bloody and sustained effort the
Canadians had forced their way through country most admirably
suited to defence, and held by a courageous and determined enemy
until they were within an ace of final victory. They had drawn
into their breasts the spears that might have slain that Army
smashing with grim courage through the hordes in Flanders —
they had held to the area around Lens, fearful to go to their
comrades in the North, a great force of Germany's finest troops.

CHAPTER XI

PASSCHENDAELE

October-November 1917

In the first week of October the preHminary moves for the transfer
of the Canadian Corps to Ypres were made. The First Canadian
Division reheved the Fourth Canadian Division in the hne,
and the Fourth Division went out to the area about Barhn.
At the same time the Third Canadian Division was reheved in
the hne by the Second Canadian Division and proceeded to
the Villers Chatel area. Thus the two senior Canadian divisions
became responsible for the front of the whole Canadian Corps,
and the remainder of the Corps began its journey to the scene
of its earliest activity.

It was intended that the Fifth Corps (Imperials) should relieve
the two Canadian formations left in the line at an early date in
order to free the whole force for its new work in the North.

The move of Corps Headquarters, Corps Troops, and the
Third and Fourth Canadian Divisions now began, and Avas accom-
plished rapidly and smoothly by rail, road and omnibus, most
of the mounted personnel and transport moving by road, while
the infantry and dismounted men moved by omnibus and train.
The Fourth Canadian Division was in a position to relieve the
men fighting in front of Ypres by October 20th. Similarly,
the Third Canadian Division moved on October 14th, and into
the forward area by October 22nd. Meanwhile the artillery of
these divisions had marched by road, commencing on October
12th, until they were in a position to go into action behind their
own infantry when the latter began their operations. Corps
Headquarters on October 12th had handed over the front around
Lens to the Fifth Corps ; it then staged through Lillers and
Poperinghe, moving to these places on October 12th and 15th
respectively, until finally, on October 18th, General Currie took
over the command of the front held by the Second Anzac Corps,
with Headquarters at Ten Elms, near Poperinghe. This front

154

PASSCHENDAELE 155

was held at that time by the Third AustraHan Division and the
New Zealand Division.

All was now ready for the launehing forward of the Canadian
Corps into that arena wherein had taken place for over two months
a tremendous battle. To those still serving in the Corps who
had been present at that first battle in April long ago when the
enemy had loosed his clouds of poison gas (they were now lament-
ably few), the occasion was a momentous one. The front they
were to take over was almost that on which they had stood
on that memorable afternoon in spring. Almost the same —
the great endurance of the Anzac infantry had already carried
the line beyond Gravenstafel, that ridge of evil memory where the
troops of the Corps Commander had made their splendid stand,
when General Currie led them as a brigadier.

When the Canadians came into the line in sight of Passchen-
daele the wet season had arrived and the whole of the battle
area was a quagmire — a veritable Slough of Despond. In this
quagmire the British Army had been struggling with indomitable
valour, driving the enemy from ridge to ridge with a dogged
determination which was proof against mud, rain, wounds,
shell fire, bullets and fatigue. The weather and the ever-growing
strength of the enemy due to the collapse of Russia were now
in alliance against us, and the offensive had reached a stage where
loss of momentum made further sustained effort useless.

There were, however, certain limited objectives which, if
taken, would be of great worth. Such an objective was the
Passchendaele Ridge, lying athwart the British line, and the last
high ground worth mentioning in Northern Flanders. The
Ridge, if taken, would provide valuable observation in an easterly
and north-easterly direction for many miles and an invaluable
position whence to launch a new attack when conditions were
more favourable.

It had been decided to take this Ridge before winter forced
a conclusion. To the Canadian Corps was allotted the post of
honour, with the objective of Passchendaele village, crowning
the summit of the Ridge.

It did not seem an inviting task. Already many assaults
had broken in vain against that dominating ground, beaten down
into the mud by the elements and the enemy. The Anzacs had
tried to take it several times with heroic endurance but no success,
and their bodies lay everywhere in that terrible mud, practically
engulfed, their faces forward towards the German position, a
tragic and yet a splendid sight. The Canadian Corps, however,
undeterred by the forbidding reputation of the Ridge, decided
that it should take the objective in four phases.

The decision was accomplished, and at the ^nd of the fourth

156 THE CANADIANS IN FRANCE

phase Canadian outposts stood upon the eastern slopes beyond
Passchendaele. Between the entry of the Corps into the arena
and the cuhnination of its plan lies a story of great achievement
in adversity.

The Canadians, who by this time had experienced almost
every form of warfare to be found in Western Europe, were now
to make the acquaintance of a new and terrible type of conflict
which may be summarized briefly in three words — mud and " pill-
boxes." The enemy, when the Third Battle of Ypres began, had
depended for his defence upon trenches strongly wired and heavily
manned. Finding these methods unfavourable, the crowds of
troops falling easy victims to our barrage-fire and tanks, he next
relied upon shell-hole defence — which consisted chiefly of isolated
machine gun posts placed chequer-wise in convenient shell-holes.
The advantage derived from this scheme, which was that it gave
our artillery no definite target to fire on and enabled the Germans
to ambush our advancing infantry, was brought to nought by
the intensity of our searching fire. The enemy thereupon
resorted to placing these isolated posts in small block-houses
of concrete, distributed to cover one another by supporting fire
and forming a deep belt of fortresses which it would be necessary
to overpower one by one.

Such a method was a terrible obstacle to the advance. Then
came the rain, which flooded all the little streams in that flat
and marshy country and turned the shell-pocked land into an
endless waste of mud, through which progress could be made only
very slowly. That the British troops, toiling through this mud
with no cover to attack the dominating and merciless block-
houses— or " pill-boxes " — ever succeeded in progressing at all
speaks volumes for their courage and determination.

With warfare at the stage described, the Canadian Corps
moved up to take Passchendaele.

On October 22nd the Third Canadian Division relieved the
New Zealand Division on the left of the Corps front, while the
Fourth Canadian Division took over the right of the Corps
front from the Third Australian Division. The frontage of the
Canadians totalled approximately five thousand five hundred
yards and was bounded on the south by the Ypres-Roulers
Railway, while a line roughly parallel to the Railway formed the
northern boundary.

While the infantry reliefs were in progress a series of artillery
moves were completed, and by October 24th the following dis-
tribution of guns was in force : On the Fourth Division front
were the artillery of that division with three Army brigades of
field artillery (Imperial) and the Sixty-sixth (Imperial) Divisional
Artillery. Two groups of Imperial heavy artillery, for bom-

PASSCHENDAELE 157

bardment work — the Sixteenth and Seventy-seventh — and two
groups for counter-battery fire — the Second and Forty-second
— backed the hghter pieces on this front. To cover the front
of the Third Division, besides its own artillery, were sited the
artillery of the New Zealand and the Forty-ninth (Imperial)
Divisions, together with two Army brigades of Imperial field
artillery. In their support were the Seventieth and Thirteenth
groups of heavy artillery for counter-battery work and the Sixty-
second and Sixteenth groups for bombardment work. Dominating
the whole Corps front were the First, Third and Sixth Canadian
Siege Batteries.

This was a tremendous weight of artillery, but by no means
excessive for combating the pill-boxes studding the enemy's
territory.

It had been decided that the first Canadian attack — the
first phase of the operations against Passehendaele and the sixth
phase of that larger plan of the" Second and Fifth Armies — should
be launched at once. The divisions then in th'e line were to
carry out this phase and also the one which followed, which would
carry the front to within striking distance of the crest of the
Ridge. The remaining two phases were to be carried out by
the First and Second Divisions on arrival, and would end when
the line was secure upon the heights.

Preparations were pushed rapidly forward. Before October
26th the elusive Germans, hiding in their pill-boxes in the marshes,
had been located about one thousand yards beyond our outposts,
which had moved forward slowly until the line, running generally
north-west and south-east, had reached on the right the point
where the main Gheluvelt-Passchendaele Road crossed the
Ypres-Roulers Railway. The objective was thereupon assigned
as a line about one thousand yards beyond and roughly parallel
to the positions of our outposts. On the right this line touched
Decline Copse, the grisly remains of a small wood on the railway,
and in the centre just included Snipe Hall, a collection of pill-
boxes— nothing more. On the front of the Third Division an
intermediate objective had been decided upon. This was some
five hundred yards from the main objective on the left boundary
of the Corps, while it rested on Snipe Hall on the right, a short
distance north of the boundary between the Third and Fourth
Divisions.

At 5.40 a.m. on October 26th all was ready for the attack,
and the infantry advanced at that hour to begin the renewed
offensive of the Canadians.

The following was the order in which the Canadian Battalions
advanced, from right to left, as named :

Forty-sixth Battalion, Lieut.-Col, H. J. Dawson, D.S.O., of

158 THE CANADIANS IN FRANCE

the Tenth Brigade ; Fifty-eighth BattaUon, Lieut.-Col. H. A.
Genet, D.S.O., and Forty-third BattaHon, Major W. K. Chandler,
of the Ninth Brigade ; and the Fourth C.M.R. Battalion, Major
W. R. Patterson, of the Eighth Brigade.

These battalions were covered by an artillery barrage of
tremendous power, travelling in lifts of one hundred yards in
eight minutes. The slow movement of this barrage was main-
tained in order to allow the plodding infantry to keep up with
it. In addition to the gun fire, four batteries of machine guns
of the machine gun battalions of the division concerned, aided
by one battery of the Canadian Motor Machine Gun Brigade
— each battery consisting of eight guns — covered each divi-
sion, sprinkling the whole area in front of the battalions with
bullets and filling the gaps in the artillery barrage with their
deadly fire.

As the battalions assembled in the shell-holes they held as
an outpost line, a sickly drizzle of cold rain was falling and dawn
was coming up, bleak and cheerless. The weather cleared later
in the day and for a time it was possible to see some distance.
But at the hour of the attack the whole of that miserable scene
was blurred with mist and rain.

At 5.40 a.m. the guns suddenly spoke with a hollow roll of
thunder and the first shells of the barrage burst in dazzling
swirls of flame in the murk beyond the waiting infantry. The
thunder-roll quickened into the hurrying drum of intense fire
and the assault began.

On the Canadian right the First Australian Division acted
as flank guard by thrusting out its posts south of the railway.
On the left the Eighteenth (Imperial) Corps, represented by the
Sixty-third (Royal Naval) Division, attacked a menacing post
called Source Farm and fired heavily upon another enemy position
named Vat Cottage, whence the Germans were able to command
the greater part of the area over which the Canadians advanced.

The Forty-sixth Battalion, despite violent opposition from
Decline Copse in the form of heavy machine gun fire, made sure
progress, and, closely supported by the Fiftieth Battalion, steadily
overpowered the enemy as the barrage crept forward.

Machine gun fire was very heavy, and as the battalion neared
Deck Wood and Haalen Copse, these places suddenly belched
forth storms of bullets. But, in spite of this opposition, the
battalion captured all its objectives well on time. It was a neatly
carried out piece of work under conditions of much difficulty.
The going was not extremely bad and little or no wire was en-
countered. With much ardour the battalion pushed its centre
well over the main road to Passchendaele, beyond the objective
and secured fine observation points as a result.

PASSCHENDAELE 159

While this was going on, the Third Division had been
fighting its way forward with set teeth through an indescribable
maehine gun resistance, knee-deep in mud and water. The
Ravebeek, a small stream along the right of the division, now
long since flooded over, proved a desperate obstacle, and many
men fell and were drowned in the water, or, wounded, went under
and were not seen again.

In spite of the appalling machine gun fire good progress was
made at first by the Ninth Brigade, attacking in the centre of
the Canadian line. The fire of the machine guns was diabolical.
It came chiefly from Crest Farm, the south side of Belle vue Spur,
Bellevue and Snijse Hall. All these places, where stood almost
impregnable pill-boxes, impervious to the fearful bombardment,
converged the fire of countless machine guns on those thin lines
of men struggling valiantly through the mud. The battalions
were enveloped in this storm, as dry grass is withered by a roaring
fire. Everywhere the men fell and died in the mud, or lay helpless
and moaning in the water, where their blood mingled with the
rain, or got up when wounded to plunge forward again and fall
again, motionless. The living continued to press on, sometimes
in short rushes with pauses to get breath, and sometimes without
stopping until, drenched with mud, sweat and rain, and often
blood as well, they collapsed from sheer exhaustion. And all
the time, from first to last, that merciless fire never ceased.

By 8.15 a.m. the remains of the battahons, with the exception
of some of the Forty-third and a few men of the Fifty-second,
who were scattered about in ones and twos over the ground leading
to the objective, were back on the line fiom which the attack
had been launched. It seemed that a tragic end to a great effort
had come.

But Brigadier-General F. W. Hill had no intention whatever
of acknowledging defeat. He set about to organize another
attack.

While these events were taking place on the Ninth Brigade
front, the Fourth C.M.R. Battalion had been fighting with splendid
gallantry. In the face of the fiercest fire this battalion pushed
on until within a short distance of the intermediate objective.
They fought their way through all opposition, overcoming pill-
box after pill-box, until the critical situation in which they
found themselves called a halt.

Many fine feats of great courage were performed by this
battalion in the wild battles that they fought among the pill-
boxes. There was Private John William Holmes, who was
subsequently awarded the Victoria Cross. One of those terrible
block-houses had cheeked the right and was causing many casual-
ties. Alone Holmes faced the dreadful fire from that dominating

160 THE CANADIANS IN FRANCE

fortress and struggled to within bombing distance of two machine
guns placed in the open near the place and sweeping the area
with merciless bursts of fire. Surviving by a miracle, with two
well-directed bombs he silenced the guns and scattered their
crews, dead and dying, around them. But the pill-box was
still alive, spitting out venomous death. He got another bomb,
returning through the hail of bullets. Retracing his steps, still
under the heaviest fire and still alone, he got close to the pill-
box and threw the bomb inside, where it burst with devastating
effect.

Thoroughly cowed, nineteen Germans emerged from the pill-
box and surrendered to this lonely and bedraggled Canadian
without another move. The fire from the pill-box ceased and
the advance went on.

By 10 a.m., then, the Fourth C.M.R. Battalion was established
in a critical position on the left, its flanks exposed but the
men full of fight and determined to hold their ground. The
Naval Division had now come up. On the right yawned a
gigantic gap where the Ninth Brigade were reorganizing on
their original line.

At 10 a.m., however, dramatic news came through, which
indicated a great act of gallantry and which altered the whole
complexion of affairs. It was suddenly learned at that hour
that one officer and about fifty men of the Forty-third Battalion,
with two Lewis guns, had not only penetrated the enemy's lines
as far as the northern slopes of Bellevue Spur, but had actually
taken two pill-boxes in that position and held them still. Isolated
and far beyond their comrades though they were, they were still
capable of holding on. They only asked for assistance so that
the advantage gained might not be lost.

The officer in command of this party of dauntless men was
Lieut. Robert Shankland, D.C.M. The last officer left when,
after the terrible advance through the machine gun fire in the
early hours of the morning, the remains of his battalion captured
the pill-boxes on top of Bellevue Spur, he had risen grandly
to the occasion. While the whole of the main attack, beaten back
by the severe losses it had suffered, was drifting slowly into
its forming-up line, he took command of the men that remained.
Under his leadership they garrisoned the pill-boxes. The enemy,
streaming away into the east before the more successful troops
on the flanks, presented a great target. Shankland was quick to
take advantage of it, and bursts of fire from his gallant handful
scattered many Germans dead upon the ground. A counter-
attack was launched, but it was repulsed with much loss by the
men in the pill-boxes.

When the situation had somewhat quietened, Lieut. Shankland

PASSCHENDAELE 161

proceeded, wounded though he was, to report to his battalion
commander. Then he returned to his men.

By his heroic determination this officer had snatched success
out of the grasp of defeat. The httle band of men under his
command — ralhed and steadied and led by him under appalling
fire — gave a foothold on which the new attack now in preparation
might depend. It formed a solid barrier in the path of the enemy,
behind which the new attack gathered unmolested. Shankland
well deserved the Victoria Cross which he subsequently received.

It was decided that the new assault should satisfy itself with
the intermediate objective. Between 10.30 a.m. and 11 a.m. the
remnant of the two attacking battalions, strongly reinforced by
the Fifty-second Battalion, Lieut.-Col. W. W. Foster, D.S.O.,
set out again to fight their way through the enemy's defences
and seize the ground hitherto denied them.

The attack was a complete success, and at the end of it, as
darkness was closing down, the Ninth Brigade had secured a
line which in places was practically that of the final objective
and which nowhere was more than seven hundred yards from that
position. Dad and Lambeek Trenches, in which a few of the
Fifty-eighth Battalion had secured a footing, were completely
cleared by the advancing waves. Moving on without a barrage
through an endless welter of fire, they worried their way forward
yard by yard. The enemy still on Bellevue Spur were disposed
of and the pill-boxes in their possession were cleared by bombing.
The men smashed a passage into those grim dens and exterminated
the garrisons. Sixty prisoners were extracted from Lambeek
Trench alone.

Captain C. P. J. O'Kelly, of the Fifty-second Battalion, was
a leader and a moving spirit in the gallant recovery of the Ninth
Brigade. His own company took at least six pill-boxes and
one hundred prisoners, with ten machine guns. He led the
advance and the subsequent struggle among the pill-boxes,
careless of the fire of the enemy and of death itself. Captain
O'Kelly won the Victoria Cross, and no finer leadership in the
midst of appalling conditions has ever retrieved a lost battle.

The gap between the brigade and the Fourth C.M.R.'s, holding
on with tireless energy to the ground they had won, was closed
by the Fifty-second Battalion. The achievement of this unit
in that day's fighting is one of which it had good cause to be
proud.

During the afternoon the situation on the Canadian front
was gradually improved, touch was gained throughout, and a
line averaging five hundred yards beyond the former German
outposts was established. This line was held all day against
several desperate counter-attacks. At 4 p.m. the enemy's first

11

162 THE CANADIANS IN FRANCE

serious effort was launched. This came in the shape of a combined
assault by two battalions, reliably estimated as numbering five
hundred each, bearing down on Bellevue from the direction of
Meetcheele. In response to the S.O.S. the guns, standing in
the open in the rear, hurled shell after shell into these drifting
grey masses and the machine guns swept them away. The
attack was beaten off Avithout loss to ourselves. Another assault
at 4.45 p.m. and one at 6.40 p.m., both moving along the main
road to Passchendaele, were dealt wdth and achieved no success
whatever. The shattered remains of these three counter-attacks
yielded nearly a hundred prisoners.

During the afternoon the First C.M.R. Battalion, Lieut.-Col.
Andros, reinforced the Fourth C.M.R. Battalion, who had lost
very heavily in their sustained defence. Everywhere the Canadian
positions were organized for the night and the men settled down
on the newly won ground.

Thus ended the first phase of the Canadian offensive. An
advance averaging a depth of six hundred yards had been realized,
and approximately three hundred prisoners had been taken.
The day had been notable for the grim determination of the
infantry, particularly in the Ninth Brigade. Most important
work had been done. The troops received the thanks of the
Commander-in-Chief on the following day, Sir Douglas Haig
especially singling out the Third Canadian Division for his
appreciation — an honour which they had more than earned.

The night of October 26th witnessed a slight withdrawal
by the Forty-sixth Battalion, Lieut.-Col. Dawson, of the Tenth
Brigade, defending Decline Copse. Hitherto, in the midst of
a murderous fire — which never ceased to pound the Copse through-
out the day — despite casualties, the place had been held. The
men were covered with mud from head to foot and their weapons
rendered useless by the mud which caked them. The battalion
took up a position just outside the Copse and held it.

The Tenth Brigade had repulsed two counter-attacks and
endured a terrible barrage during the afternoon.

The night of October 26th also witnessed a renewed attack
on the part of the Ninth Brigade. A cluster of pill-boxes in
the centre of the brigade front, on the line of the intermediate
objective, was taken after sharp fighting, and eighteen machine
guns fell into the hands of the attacking troojos. This action
resulted in a considerable advance, and all but some three hundred
yards of the objective still in the enemy's possession were secured.

Until the launching of the second main attack (the second
phase of the Canadian Corps offensive, the seventh of that greater
scheme of the British Armies) the chief action on the Corps front
was that of preparation. But Decline Copse became a centre

PASSCHENDAELE 163

of very bitter fighting. This fighting went on during all the
interval between the two phases — an entr'acte in the great drama
of Passchendaele.

The fighting was done almost entirely by the Tenth Brigade.

Immediately after the loss of Decline Copse on the night
following the first phase, steps were taken to set about winning
it back again. The Forty-seventh Battalion, Lieut. -Col. M.
Frances, which relieved the much-tried Forty-sixth Battalion after
the loss of the Copse, was ordered to retake it. It was not until
10 p.m. on October 27th that the assault could be launched.
At that hour the battalion advanced on the northern side of the
main road to Passchendaele, while the Forty-fourth Battalion,
Lieut. -Col. Davies, attacked south of the road. Decline Copse
was reoccupied. No enemy were seen, but fierce resistance was
met with from distant enemy machine guns.

The advance was finely supported by the artillery.

During the whole of the following day the positions in Decline
Copse were held under a frightful and incessant artillery fire.
It is difficult to understand how men could survive that fire or
could hold their ground if they did. There was no cover except
such as that afforded by an occasional crowded pill-box. Even
the pill-boxes were rarely available for the use of outposts— they
were far too precious for that, and more often were utilized as
regimental aid posts or as battalion headquarters. But the men
in the outposts stuck there, and losses, mud and shell fire could
not drive them out.

At 8.45 p.m. on October 28th the Germans delivered a strong
counter-attack. They advanced from the Australian side of
the railway and attacked Decline Copse at about midnight in
co-operation with other troops from the north. There was a
bitter struggle in the Copse, and at the end of it the place was
once more in German hands.

The officers on the spot acted with great promptitude and
determination. The Twelfth Brigade, commanded by Brigadier-
General J. H. MacBrien, had arrived while the fight was in progress
in order to relieve the Tenth Brigade after its sustained effort.
Two platoons of the Eighty-fifth Battalion, Lieut. -Col. A. H.
Borden, which was to relieve the defenders of the Copse, at once
joined forces with the Forty-fourth Battalion and drove the
enemy out.

The relief of the Tenth Brigade then proceeded slowly to a
successful conclusion.

While the fight swayed to and fro about Decline Copse, all
preparations for the second phase were rapidly pushed forward.
This was a matter of stupendous toil under immense difficulties.
Ammunition for guns and small arms, stores of water and rations,

164 THE CANADIANS IN FRANCE

grenades and sand-bags and tools all had to be carried ujd to the
fighting-line through the vast expanse of swamp. Wagons and
lorries, toiling over roads ncAvly reconstructed, carried these
necessities as far forward as possible, and pack-mules and carrying
parties transported them the rest of the way. Not a round arrived
at the gun-positions, where the eighteen-pounders clamoured in-
cessantly for more and still more ammunition, unless brought
up by men and mules, Avho suffered the pangs of hell to feed the
guns. The lives of the infantry and machine gunners were
wholly dependent on these labouring trains, as the weapons that
they fought %nth were dependent.

Communications, too, had to be extended and improved
and those already existing had to be kept in repair. Roads
had to be mended with the brick and rubble of ruined villages,
new shell-holes being instantly filled in so that there might be
no check in the all-important traffic, which began in a tremendous
river of horse and motor vehicles roaring along the road from
Ypres to Poperinghe and ended in a trickle of swaying limbers
plunging along in the mud among the bursting shells. Plank
roads had to be mended and thrust on. The light railways,
those thin arteries of steel straggling over the flats to carry trucks
of ammunition for the heavy guns, had to be pushed up and added
to, mile by mile. The duck-board tracks, which formed the only
safe means of transit for the infantry going forward and the
wounded coming back, had to be pushed up also, to carry the
tide of battle to and from the line.

Nor was this all. The buried cable and the unburied wires
linking up the foremost positions had to be kept going and con-
stantly improved, so that the news on which the fate of attack
or defence depended might pass with the greatest despatch
between those who fought and those who held the reins. Wireless
had to be moved further forward as headquarters and dumps
and aid posts moved.

In labours such as these the engineers, pioneers and supply
units of the Canadian Corps, assisted by such infantry help as
could be spared, toiled day and night, not only between the
first and second phases of the operations, but between the battles
and during the battles, with splendid skill and unabating zeal.

By the efforts of these troops all was ready for the resumption
of the offensive on October 30th, four days after the launching
of the attack upon Bellcvue Spur. At 5.50 a.m. on that date
the following infantry advanced from right to left in the order
given :

The Eighty-fifth Battalion, Lieut. -Col. Borden, Seventy-
eighth Battalion, Lieut. -Col. J. Kirkaldy, D.S.O., and Seventy-
second Battalion, Lieut. -Col. J. A. Clark, D.S.O., all of the Twelfth

PASSCHEND AELE 1 65

Brigade of the Fourth Division ; then Princess Patricia's Canadian
Light Infantry, Lieut. -Col. Adamson, and the Forty-ninth Bat-
tahon, Lieut.-'Col. R. H. Pahiier, D.S.O., of the Seventh Brigade
of the Third Division ; on their left the Fifth C.M.R. Battahon,
Lieut. -Col. D. C. Draper, D.S.O., of the Eighth Brigade.

The artillery covering the attack was the same as that which
supported the assault on October 26th, with the exception that
the Sixty-sixth (Imperial) Divisional Artillery and the guns of
the Xew Zealand Division had now been replaced by the divisional
artillery of the First and Second Canadian Divisions, newly
arrived from Lens. Thus the advance was backed almost
entirely by Canadian guns.

The machine gun support was the same as that rendered
during the first phase, and each gun had only thirty yards of front
to cover. There were certain machine guns allotted to the task
of covering the infantry as they advanced and others which
followed the battalions and took up positions to guard the con-
solidation when the advance ended. These duties demanded
high qualities, and the Canadian machine gunners were not found
wanting. The Germans were in the habit of searching our forward
area with devastating artillery fire to destroy the machine guns
before the hours at which they expected an assault. This made
it necessary to withdrew the machine guns till the attack was
imminent. Such tactics imposed a great strain on the men,
who endured it all with stolid courage. Passchendaele witnessed
many gallant actions -by machine gunners — one of these won
for them a Victoria Cross, on October 30th, and is described in
due course. They suffered an extraordinarily high share of the
total Canadian casualties.

The objectives of the advance which now went forward lay
on a front of two thousand yards. The troops of the Fourth
Division had only one objective, which necessitated a penetration
to a maximum depth of a thousand yards on the extreme left
and covered their whole front. Their task included the subjection
of Crest Farm, an extremely strong position about seven hundred
yards in advance of the line from which the attack was launched.

The Third Division, still operating on the lower and more
difficult terrain, had two objectives, the intermediate objective
being a line pivoting on the right and attaining its greatest
depth in the centre at Meetcheele. The next (and final) objective
lay another five hundred yards ahead ; thus a total penetration
of thirteen hundred yards was required of the infantry of this
division. The strong positions of Vanity House, Vapour Farm
and Graf were obstacles on the front, as well as Snipe Hall, which
repeated efforts had hitherto failed to overcome.

Thus the Canadian Corps, facing the powerful combination

166 THE CANADIANS IN FRANCE

of innumerable pill-boxes, strong points, mud, water and the
resistance of a desperate and ruthless foe, were confronted with
a great defensive which it would require all their courage and their
determination and their fine physical strength to defeat. But
success would carry their line on to the slopes of Passchendaele
Ridge.

It was intended to carry out certain exploitations of success,
if possible immediately after the taking of the objective, but in
any case before the next phase of the offensive. The places
known as Grun, Graf, Mosselmarkt and Valour and Vegetable
Farms were to be seized. There would then be little between
the Canadian Corps and the crest of the Ridge that was its goal.

A bright moon was shining during the hours prior to the
assault. It aided our men in their assembly, but it caused much
anxiety for fear that the enemy should discover the movement of
the troops. Before the dawn of the attack, however, scurrying
clouds swept over and obscured the moon, so that there was
almost total darkness and everything was very still at 5.50 a.m.

Suddenly the silence was blasted by the crash and scream
of the barrage and the men advanced. A strong wind had dried
the higher ground, and this aided the attack greatly. Through-
out the day the weather was cold, but it was fair and gave the
operation a sporting chance of success.

The fight was almost a repetition of that of October 26th.
On the right, despite a most desperate resistance, the gallant
Fourth Division secured every foot of that line to which they
aspired and in places even penetrated beyond. The enemy's
artillery and machine guns opened fire with fine promptness
and with the most deadly intensity hitherto experienced by the
Twelfth Brigade. The Eighty-fifth Battalion received the full
force of this terrible counter-blow. The battalion staggered in
the heart of the hurricane, losing half its men from shell and
machine gun fire. But it pushed on, heedless of its dead, and by
7.30 a.m. it stood triumphant on its objective line, its courage
as unshaken as ever. The rest of the brigade lost almost as
heavily, but went on with equal gallantry. The Seventy-second
Battalion, suffering heavily from fire from all directions and
particularly from the left, where the Third Division was struggling
desperately to make headway, was in full possession of Crest Farm
by 6.45 a.m., and had secured its objectives shortly afterwards.
Threatened with an attack on its exposed left and from behind,
the battalion rapidly formed a defensive flank along the swollen
Ravebeek, which was the boundary of the two divisions. Firm
on its objective the Twelfth Brigade remained, and all the wild
efforts of the enemy failed to shift it one yard from its
tenacious hold.

PASSCHENDAELE 167

The Third Division on the left was by this time locked fast
in a death-grapple with the Germans, where men died with their
faces set towards Passchendaele and their fingers tight on bomb
or trigger. So far the enemy retained possession of practically
all the final objective and had no intention of surrendering it.
The brigades attacking the position were among the very finest
in the Canadian Corps. So they would not recognize defeat
as long as they could speak or breathe or see. They took the
intermediate objective, but they were not satisfied with that,
and they would continue to push on until death or exhaustion
called a halt.

The Seventh Brigade suffered heavy losses as they toiled
through a tempest of fire. They went on, though, and their
dead dropped everywhere. The scattered lines in the wake of
the barrage disappeared, but re-formed and went on and were
lashed mercilessly, but went on and were killed. Their bodies
gathered around the pill-boxes, that spat flame and seemed to
glare like lions among dead wolves. There were colonels who
prayed for tanks as they watched those splendid men of theirs
go down. No tanks could operate on such ground.

This fight was the hour of sacrifice for very many gallant
souls. Major T. M. Papineau, M.C., was killed as he called on
his men. With him there died one of the very last of Princess
Patricia's original officers and a great soldier.

Then there was Sergeant George Mullin, of that regiment.
Mullin performed a wonderful feat of arms. There was a pill-
box in front causing the heaviest loss and gradually destroying
the force which moved against it. Snipers were firing from
the vicinity as well and picking off numerous officers. Sergeant
Mullin did not hesitate a moment, though death stared at him
from the loopholes of that house of hell. Alone he fought
his way up to within bombing distance of the snipers. They
tried to run as he drew near, but he threw his bombs with deadly
effect and killed them all. The pill-box rained its fire around
him, but he went on, and the bullets rent his clothes to ribbons.
It was marvellous that he escaped. Crawling on top of the pill-
box— men gazed at him open-mouthed, forgetting to move as
they watched him — he shot the two German machine gunners
operating the murderous weapons, coolly and deliberately firing
through the loopholes with his revolver. Then he rushed to
the entrance of the pill-box to kill the garrison. But the garrison
had seen enough and it came out — ten men strong — and sur-
rendered tamely to Sergeant Mullin at the door.

This N.C.O. got the Victoria Cross for this splendid act of
courage.

Meanwhile the Forty-ninth Battalion, striving desperately

168 THE CANADIANS IN FRANCE

to push on to the final objective, were displaying feats of equal
bravery. Such another as Sergeant Mullin was Private Cecil
John Kinross, of the Forty-ninth Battalion. Early in the advance
of his company they came under intense artillery fire and were
then held up by machine guns. Kinross rose up among the
remains of his comrades and in full view of the enemy. Heedless
of the concentrated fury of shrapnel, high explosive and machine
gun bullets, he searched the distance for the machine gun causing
the greatest loss. Finding it, like a man preparing to thrash a
bully and all the while under that annihilating fire, he stolidly
removed his equipment and all else that might encumber him
until he carried only a cotton bandolier and his rifle with bayonet
fixed. Alone he then proceeded to walk across the open ground
separating him from the machine gun. This weapon poured
out a wild stream of fire around him, but failed to touch him.
Kinross got close to the gun, moving with the irresistible sureness
of Fate. When within a few yards he rushed. There followed
a brief fight — six men to one — and then the gun ceased fire and
he waved to his company to come on, the whole of the crew dead
at his feet. The company, freed from the menace, was able to
resume its advance.

Private Kinross was wounded later in the day, but lived to
get his little token of bronze.

These were but some of the many great individual achieve-
ments which marked the fighting of the Seventh Brigade among
the pill-boxes and the machine guns opposed to them. The
Princess Patricia's, in spite of Sergeant Mullin's valour and
the desperate efforts of all the men, were held up in another
quarter by machine gun fire. The whole of the officers and
N.C.O.'s in the vicinity were down and the remnant of their
followers were now confronted by a nest of machine guns.

It was at this moment that Lieut. Hugh MacKenzie, D.C.M.,
of the Seventh Canadian Machine Gun Company, covering the
advance around Graf and Meetcheele, came up and took a hand.
Lieut. MacKenzie was in command of four machine guns following
the troops with the object of protecting the consolidation of the
line captured. Seeing the men checked in the fire of the machine
guns, he handed over his command to an N.C.O., and, hurrying
forward, took control. The men instantly recognized a natural
as well as an official leader. Under a furious fire, Lieut. MacKenzie
organized an attack on the nest of German machine guns and
rapidly drove it home. It was an instantaneous success, the
nest being completely exterminated.

There was in the intermediate objective a pill-box on the
crest of the hill before Meetcheele which the men now confronted.
Lieut. MacKenzie immediately prepared a new plan of campaign.

PASSCHENDAELE 169

A converging assault was then launched, and in the face of the
heaviest opposition the pill-box was reached and silenced. But
the gallant officer who had brought about its capitulation was
dead. He had been instantly killed leading the main frontal
attack upon the pill-box.

For his magnificent leadership Lieut. MacKenzie received
the Victoria Cross. That he did not live to get it was the greatest
regret of the men of the Princess Patricia's whom he had so
gallantly commanded.

While these things were happening around Meetcheele, the
Fifth C.M.R.'s had been making steady progress under conditions
of desperate difficulty. The task of this battalion in any event
was a very hard one. They had to advance over the lowest ground
on the Canadian front, with an almost impassable morass on their
flanks and between them and their final objective. All their
positions were overlooked by those terrible pill-boxes on the
high ground to the right, where the Seventh Brigade were. The
safety of the battalion depended to a great extent on the capture
of the final objective allotted to the troops on the right and also
to the troops on the left, the Sixty-third (Royal Naval) Division.
The Fifth C.M.R.'s, battling grimly through the marshes with
both flanks exposed — for neither on right nor left were the final
objectives ever taken — not only seized most of their final objective
but held their gains with inflexible resolution.

The line which the Fifth C.M.R.'s secured as a result of their
advance included Vanity House on the right. Vapour Farm in
the centre and Source Farm on the left. For a long time after
the opening of our intense barrage at 5.50 a.m. no word came
through as to the fate of the attack, and this caused much anxiety.
The battalion had disappeared into the swamps, and wounded
slowly drifting in brought only vague and uncertain news. At

10 a.m. this uncertainty ended with dramatic suddenness when
an exhausted pigeon struggled home with a message that Major
J. R. Pearkes with forty men had captured the greater part of
his unit's objective as well as a considerable portion of that
allotted to the unit on the left, that he had the situation well
in hand and that he could hold on. No fear for the safety of
his little force was evident, but reinforcements were badly needed.

On receipt of this news every effort was made to reinforce
that little band of gallant men clinging on to their line with such
a fine contempt for the dangerous position they were in. By

11 a.m. the whole of the Second C.M.R. Battalion, Lieut. -Col.
G. C. Johnston, D.S.O., M.C., was on the move to reinforce the
line. During the hours that followed, while the enemy shelled
the whole area with great severity, the supports gradually
toiled up.

170 THE CANADIANS IN FRANCE

By degrees the outposts of the Canadian battalions settled
down. On the whole front of the Fourth Division, every yard
of the final objective was held. The Princess Patricia's had
reached Meeteheele and were digging-in in front of Furst Farm
and the swamps near Graf Wood. Thence the Forty-ninth
Battalion lay with its left thrown back from Meeteheele, short
of the intermediate objective, which they had not been able to
take. There was a huge gap of about five hundred yards on
their left between them and the right of the C.M.R.'s, but this
was largely swamp, and when machine guns and Lewis guns took
up positions to cover the gap only death by fire or drowning
awaited any German who attempted to pierce it. Further to
the north the reinforced Fifth C.M.R.'s held their line and, apart
from the loss of Vanity House, which it is doubtful if we ever
really owned, no change in that line occurred.

Such was the situation when night fell on the Canadian
front. This situation was not one which befell of itself. It
cost fierce efforts to bring about and fiercer efforts to maintain,
for the enemy counter-attacked bitterly many times.

The first of these counter-attacks was launched at 8 a.m.
from Mosselmarkt and was beaten out and destroyed by barrage
fire. This counter-attack, aiming at the Canadians near Meet-
eheele and Graf, was also opposed by the Seventy-second Battalion
in Crest Farm, who used, among other weapons, the machine
guns they had wrested from the enemy. The Germans finally
fled in disorder north of Passchendaele. By 9.30 a.m. they could
be seen massing again around Venture Farm and Vindictive
Cross-Roads, and at 10 a.m. their heaviest effort of the day was
made. A large force advanced again on Meeteheele and at least
a battalion moved down from Vat Cottage to attack the remnants
of the Fifth C.M.R. Battalion. Major Pearkes, who moved
about everywhere with complete contempt of danger, inspired
his men to great efforts (he was later awarded the Victoria Cross)
and successfully shattered the advance. A similar fate met
the attack on Meeteheele, the survivors of the Seventh Brigade
plying their weapons with great effect.

Not satisfied with this repulse, the enemy again advanced
at 11.15 a.m., with the object of driving back the troops holding
the junction point of the two Canadian divisions. A like fate
met this move, enormous execution being done at short range by
every weapon the Canadians could muster.

These were the outstanding counter-attacks in a long day of
counter-attacks, many of which had to be dealt with as our
men were engaged with machine guns and pill-boxes in their
efforts to secure their objectives. The last serious assault
occurred after nightfall, when a strong party of the enemy,

PASSCIIENDAELE 171

estimated at over eighty, secured a footing in a trench in front
of Crest Farm. The support company of the Seventy-second
BattaHon promptly came up and dislodged these Germans at
the point of the bayonet, over thirty being killed or captured.

The second phase of -the offensive was over. The Canadians,
except in the left centre, had taken and held their final objective.
The fighting had been very bitter, as the small number of prisoners
taken — less than two hundred and fifty all told — bears witness.
But now the waves were lapping round the heights of Passchen-
daele, and that white ruin of the village church, pointing heaven-
ward, a beacon and an inspiration, lay less than a thousand
yards from the outposts that watched it through the blur of
the misty rain.

Certain of the strong points which had been our objectives,
and others which it had been intended to seize had the original
plan of exploitation been possible, had now to be taken, with a
view to thrusting our line into a good position for the launching
of the third phase. Minor patrol enterprises took place with
the object of securing the strong points referred to.

The first of these enterprises occurred at 1.15 a.m. on November
2nd. At that hour, following an increase in our usual artillery
harassing fire, two parties of the First C.M.R. Battalion, Lieut. -Col.
Andros, left our line under cover of two machine guns. Their
object was to secure possession of Vine Cottage and Vanity
House. Lieut. Shannon led the attack on Vine Cottage while
Lieut. Davidson led against Vanity House. This latter place
was easily taken. On approaching Vine Cottage our men were
challenged, but at once killed the sentry and rushed the pill-
box. They were busy dealing with the garrison when they were
suddenly counter-attacked by a large body of the enemy who
emerged from east of the road near the Cottage. As a result
they were driven back to Vanity House. Here they joined our
men already in position and held on.

On the following night the Seventy-eighth Battalion occupied
Grun, pushing out other posts at the same time. On the same
night patrols of the Forty-second Battalion, Lieut. -Col. B.
McLennan, D.S.O., took Graf, which had hitherto resisted all
efforts to overpower it. The enemy countered in force and with
great vigour and promptness. After heavy fighting our men
were finally ejected from Graf.

The strength with which the enemy attacked the place gave
an inkling of what was coming. At the very moment when our
patrols were fighting for Graf, a vast attack was massing behind
the German outpost line. On the right, in spite of a violent
German bombardment as a preliminary to the assault, our patrols
discovered this gathering storm and warned the defence just in

172 THE CANADIANS IN FRANCE

time. At 5 a.m. the barrage fire of the enemy reached a climax
and then hfted, and their infantry, rehably estimated at a strength
of two regiments (each equivalent to a British brigade), advanced.
The Canadian infantry fired one S.O.S. and the artillery answered
with magnificent rapidity. The Germans who penetrated through
the artillery barrage — they were very few — were almost every-
where wiped out by the lesser arms. Only at Crest Farm did
they secure the slightest footing, and there the Nineteenth Bat-
talion, Lieut.-Col. L. H. Millen, D.S.O., and Twenty-first Bat-
talion, Lieut.-Col. E. W. Jones, D.S.O., the latter on the right,
immediately drove them out again. In a very short time the
front had quietened, and a further advance on Crest Farm at
5.40 a.m. was easily repulsed by the infantry.

This finished the German effort to stave off the impending
blow for Passehendaele.

Mention of the Nineteenth and Twenty-first Battalions brings
the Second Canadian Division into the narrative. This division
had been relieved on October 17th by the Forty-eighth (Imperial)
Division and, leaving the line at Lens, moved in the wake of the
First Division, which had handed over its Lens position to the
Fifty-ninth (Imperial) Division on October 14th and had then
moved from Barlin. Thus both divisions were concentrated
about Ypres during the second phase, and then, moving forward
immediately afterwards, relieved the rest of the corps in their
new lines. The Second Division took over the front of the Fourth
Division, while the First Division relieved the Third Division.
The tired troops then went back to Ypres.

The outgoing divisions had done fine work— the fact that
in one week they had won no less than seven Victoria Crosses
gives the measure of their achievements. Mention should here
be made of Brigadier-General Odium's Eleventh Brigade, which,
though not employed in any attack, was allotted the monotonous
and costly task of consolidation, carrying and repair work, which
it performed adequately, under most difficult conditions.

Preparations were now pushed forward rapidly for the resump-
tion of the offensive— the third phase of the Canadian scheme,
the eighth of the greater project of Sir Douglas Haig.

On November 6th all was ready for the third phase, and at
6 a.m. this phase began with the creeping barrage that led the
infantry assault.

These were the battalions that advanced, named from right
to left :

Twenty-sixth Battalion, Lieut.-Col. A. E. G. MacKenzie,
D.S.O. ; Twenty-seventh Battalion, Lieut.-Col. P. J. Daly,
C.M.G., D.S.O. ; Thirty-first Battalion, Major C. D. McPherson ;
Twenty-eighth Battalion, Lieut.-Col. A. Ross, D.S.O. ; the first-

PASSCHENDAELE 173

named belonged to the Fifth and the remainder to the Sixth
Brigade. On the left of these were the First Battalion, Lieut.-
Col. A. W. Sparling, D.S.O. ; Second Battalion, Lieut.-Col. L. T.
McLaughlin, D.S.O. ; and Third Battalion, Lieut.-Col. J. B.
Rogers, D.S.O., M.C., all of the First Brigade.

The artillery supporting the attack was the same as that
employed in the preceding phase. The machine gun support
was also similar, save that the machine gun companies of the
divisions concerned supplied the machine guns which had hitherto
been found by the Third and Fourth Divisions. The barrage
moved more rapidly than on previous occasions, as the ground
was higher and the weather cold and fairly dry.

During the few days prior to the assault in which the attacking
divisions had been in the line they had completed the work of
their predecessors towards manoeuvring into the best available
starting-line. As a result, the troops on the right had less than
five hundred yards to go to the church of Passchcndaele, and the
greatest distance to be traversed by any man was not more than
a thousand yards. The objective was a semicircular line three
thousand yards long, well beyond Passchcndaele on the right,
Mosselmarkt in the centre and Vine Cottage on the left.

No Australian or English troops co-operated except by provid-
ing artillery and machine gun fire. Australian machine guns in
particular rendered valuable assistance by keeping doAvn the
fire of the enemy on the Keiburg Spur.

The barrage opened with promptitude and tremendous fury
at 6 a.m. With the bursting of the first shell the Canadian
infantry pressed forward, full of eagerness to be at grips with
the enemy. The reply of the German guns, which had been
maintaining an intermittent bombardment all night, was vigorous
and rapid. It was directed against our outpost positions until
7 a.m., when it switched to the ground won by the advance and
remained there steadily for the rest of the day.

The attack from start to finish was a complete and dashing
success — one of the best and cleanest pieces of work to the credit
of Canadian arms. On the right the Twenty- sixth Battalion
swept over the front fine of the Germans, driving them before
their swift rush, rapidly overpowered the pill-boxes and machine
guns in the south-eastern portion of Passchcndaele, and had
secured the whole of their objectives within an hour.

Meanwhile the Sixth Brigade, carrying out the main attack
around the church and on the high ground north of the village,
were engaged hand-to-hand with the enemy. This brigade
behaved with all its old dash and gallantry.

So rapidly were the men upon the Germans holding the out-
posts that they had practically no chance. Four machine guns

174 THE CANADIANS IN FRANCE

were taken in the front line before the crews could get them into
action and the gunners w^ere despatched at the point of the
bayonet. The men used the steel with an ardour and skill born
of long practice and high moral. Almost all the Germans in
the front line were bayoneted.

The determination of the Twenty-eighth Battalion, wading
through a swamp in some places waist-deep in water, was very
noticeable. Pressing fiercely on, the whole of the Sixth Brigade
hurried through a waking shower of machine gun bullets to deal
with the pill-boxes around the church and in the village, where
lay the enemy's main resistance line. The Germans holding
this line saw the eager rush of Canadians approaching, and most
of them threw down their arms and ran in sheer terror. But
many of the pill-boxes held out, and much deadly fighting took
place before they were subdued. Great acts of courage were
performed in this fighting.

For example, there was the work of Private J. P. Robertson,
of the Twenty-seventh Battalion, later awarded the Victoria
Cross. For a moment his platoon was held up by a mass of
barbed wire and caught in a concentrated machine gun fire. It
was suffering heavily when Private Robertson broke through
a gap in the wire, rushed at the offending gun and disposed of
the crew of four, killing them all with the bayonet or the butt.
The platoon was enabled to advance. Robertson shot down the
Germans running away from the advancing platoon, causing much
loss, then bodily picked up the gun and went with his comrades
to the final objective. Here he set up the weapon, and, though
fired at continuously, proceeded to operate it against hostile
snipers with extraordinarily good results.

The Canadian snipers, following their usual practice, were
by this time out in shell-holes in front of our line and doing great
execution. Later in the day, during the consolidation, two of
these men were severely wounded. Not content with the won-
derfully fine work he had akeady done, the gallant Robertson
went at once to the rescue. Under a diabolical fire, to which every
German within range added his share, while the area was searched
by gusts of shrapnel and high explosive, he got one of the men
into safety. Returning through the inferno, he had started back
with the second man when he was instantly killed.

So died a splendid type of British fighting-man, terrible to
his enemies and willing to lay down his life for his friends.

The fight swirled fiercely up and down among the pill-boxes
and the machine guns. Lieut. Cameron, of the Thirty-first
Battalion, dashing through the Canadian barrage, attacked the
Germans with great fury. Single-handed he transfixed with his
bayonet a bomber in the act of throwing his bomb. Several

PASSCHENDAELE 175

more Germans felt the terrible thrust of his steel, and the sight
of this slaughter so terrified twelve more that they surrendered,
abandoning a machine gun without firing another shot. Lieut.
Cameron had already been wounded and yet, another wound
notwithstanding, he continued to lead and inspire his men
throughout the day.

Such another was Lieut, Kennedy, of the same battalion, who
completely cowed the entire garrison of a pill-box, containing
three officers and thirty-four men, all alone and armed only with
a revolver though he was. Corporal L. H. Lindell, of the Twenty-
eighth Battalion, further to the north, displayed equal gallantry.
This N.C.O. located a machine gun firing through the barrage.
Rushing forward alone, he silenced the gun with the bayonet,
and, disregarding a severe wound, forced an officer and thirteen
men to surrender under pain of death.

So the Sixth Brigade smashed their way irresistibly through
Passchendaele behind the tumultuous barrage. The First Brigade,
on their left, at the same time rapidly overran the whole of their
objectives. Desperate fighting took place, but the men were
irresistible.

One great example of the individual dash of the First Brigade
will serve to show the mettle of the whole. Corporal Colin
Barron, of the Third Battalion, was with his unit when three
machine guns in front caused a check. Barron acted without
the least hesitation. Dashing alone through the most appalling
fire, he burst into the nest and ran amok with the bayonet.
Four of the crew he killed, and was about to despatch the rest
when these surrendered. The possibility of successfully resist-
ing such a man as this seemed non-existent. So they gave in.
Ignoring them, Corjooral Barron seized one of the guns and
turned it on the Germans fleeing from all sides, with most
gratifying results.

That was how another Victoria Cross was won.
The fiercest fighting centred around Vine Cottage and Mossel-
markt. The entire garrison of Mo,sselmarkt was either killed
or captured. At Vine Cottage one and a half companies of the
enemy fought with great fury, and it was only when thirty of
the defenders were left to be taken prisoner that the place was
finally secured.

The Canadians at length beat out all opposition, and by 8 a.m,
the whole of the aim of the assault had been realized and our men
stood victorious on their objectives on the whole front.

By 8.50 a.m. the German counter-attacks had commenced.
At that hour a force estimated at a battalion emerged out of
the smoke north of Passchendaele and began to move towards
our new line. At 9.50 a.m. the enemy assembled in strength

176 THE CANADIANS IN FRANCE

round Vindictive Cross-Roads, and again at 10.30 a.m. and yet
again at 11.45 a.m. All these gatherings were dealt with by
the Canadian artillery and the guns of the Imperials on the left
and were broken up at the outset. As soon as it was clear to
the Germans that the Ridge was lost, they began to pull out their
guns from east of Passchendaele in a panic, and splendid shooting
against these fleeing guns was recorded by the British batteries.
Thus the third phase ended in complete success. Over five
hundred prisoners had been taken — among them two battalion
commanders, one of whom commanded the local support battalion
— and every foot of the objectives had been secured. The
victory was not gained lightly, for the Germans had orders to
fight to the last for the retention of Passchendaele and in many
places put up a desperate defence. But the dash and vim of
the highly trained Canadian infantry and the power and skill
of their artillery were a combination which proved irresistible.
The campaign, which had lasted so long in front of Ypres,
had thus reached a valuable conclusion at last. Practically all
Passchendaele Ridge was now in our hands. Certain portions
remaining had still to be taken, north of the village, towards
Westroosbeke. Besides giving us possession of all the high
ground worth having beyond Passchendaele, the taking of this
ground would enlarge the salient which the Canadians had forced
into the German lines and thus relieve an awkward situation.
The attack which was designed to take the ground referred
to, constituted the fourth phase of the Canadian offensive and
the ninth in the strategic plan of the British Army. All effort
was bent on preparing for this final Canadian assault.

After the loss of Passchendaele the enemy had faded tempor-
arily into the mists beyond, and it became one of the first duties
of patrols to locate the exact position he had assumed as a
preliminary to a fresh advance. In this work the patrols were
assisted greatly by what were known as " Army barrages " or,
as some preferred to call them, " Army shoots."

The practice was simply this : at a prearranged hour and
for a fixed period, every gun, field or heavy, flat trajectory or
howitzer, on the whole of the front of the Second Army would
open and maintain intense fire upon the enemy's batteries and
forward areas, pill-boxes, trenches, tracks and roads. The lighter
weapons would combine into a terrible barrage, which rolled
backwards and forwards among the suspected German outpost
positions, searching every yard of the tortured ground in front
of our lines.

These barrages were frequent and were let loose at any hour
of the day or night. They produced various results. Besides
undoubtedly causing much havoc, they kept the hostile army

PA-SSCHENDAELE 177

in a perpetual state of nervousness, so that their moral was worn
to shreds as they cringed in the heart of that fearful bombard-
ment and waited for the attack which might never come. They
drew out the fire of the enemy's guns, thus forcing him to disclose
his battery positions, and they set the infantry sending up hundreds
of alarm rockets, which gave their outposts away, since it was
from the outposts that the rockets rose.

On November 10th, at 6.5 a.m., all being ready, the new and
last attack was launched. These were the battalions which went
forward :

The Twentieth Battalion, Lieut.-Col. H. V. Rorke, D.S.O.,
the Seventh Battalion, Lieut.-Col. W. F. Gilson, D.S.O., and the
Eighth Battalion, Lieut.-Col. J. M. Prower, D.S.O.

They attacked from right to left as named. The first belonged
to the Fourth and the remainder to the Second Brigade.

The infantry were supported by the same force of artillery
as that which backed them up on November 6th. The machine
gun support varied, however, as three batteries of the Canadian
Motor Machine Gun Brigade covered the whole Corps front, while
a similar number, found by the division concerned, supported
each division.

The objective allotted to the attackers covered a front of
about two thousand yards and involved an advance on the left
of about seven hundred yards from the starting-line. The advance
went in a generally northern direction, and as it was not wished
to gain much ground to the east, the depth of the drive that
way was small.

The story of this last Canadian attack at Passchendaele is
one which will bear comparison with any other. The assault
was carried out in a violent rain-storm which flooded the whole
area and did not cease throughout the day. The assembly
prior to the attack and all the fighting was done in an indescribably
severe bombardment, in which the enemy hurled every conceiv-
able kind of shell, up to eight-inch, upon the devoted infantry.
Communications, after the signal service had performed wonders
to keep the lines going, eventually failed, and all messages had
to be transmitted by pigeon, lamp and runner. The runners
sacrificed themselves without hesitation, so that the despatches
might get through, facing machine guns and the awful artillery
fire and the horrors of mud and tempest again and again.

Despite these dreadful conditions, the Canadians carried
the whole of their objectives and held them while the converging
gun-fire of the enemy blew the line to shreds.

Attacking on the right, the Fourth Brigade quickly took their
objectives. The Second Brigade at the same time forced their
way through a desperate resistance, suffering very heavily, and

12

178 THE CANADIANS IN FRANCE

also took their objectives. They had to overpower a particularly
strong defence at Vindictive Cross-Roads, but the exhausted
troops were in full possession of the line they desired by 9 a.m.
The Eighth Battalion, to achieve this, were compelled to go
through a most powerful barrage which the enemy laid down
four hundred yards in front of their jumping-off line. This was
in addition to the machine gun and artillery fire faced by all
the other attacking troops.

Having captured their objectives, the battalions began
consolidation. On the Seventh Battalion front this was ren-
dered practically impossible by the fire from Venison Trench,
which lay about five hundred yards from the Canadian positions.

It was quickly decided by the Seventh Battalion that Venison
Trench must be disposed of. Accordingly, at 7.45 a.m. Lieut.
Carmichel, now commanding the right company, as Captain
Morkill had been Avounded, and the only officer left in that
company, led his men out to the attack.

Venison Trench was taken after sharp fighting in which
thirty prisoners were captured. A pill-box in the trench offered
a very stout resistance, however, and refused to capitulate,
the Germans firing heavily upon our men from inside and also
maintaining an intense fire from two machine guns located in
the trench nearby. Private C. S. Dorais thereupon took up a
commanding position with his Lewis gun and proceeded to knock
the hostile machine guns out. The guns were silenced, and four
parties of Germans who emerged from the pill-box in turn
and endeavoured to retrieve the guns were all scattered by the
accurate fire of Private Dorais. Eventually his Lewis gun was
put out of action and things looked decidedly unfavourable.
At this moment a Lewis gun operated by men of the Twentieth
Battalion, who nobly supported the attack, came up and opened
a heavy fire on the pill-box. Under cover of this fire a determined
rush secured the pill-box, together with eighteen prisoners and
two machine guns. It was a first-class little demonstration of
good team-work between Lewis gunners and riflemen.

Owing to the pronounced salient which our line now formed
as a result of the failure of the Imperial troops on the left,
orders were received soon afterwards that the position must
be vacated. Under the supervision of Captain Loughton the
Seventh Battalion thereupon fell back to the original objective
at noon. Here the right company was reinforced by two platoons
under Lieut. Donaldson and proceeded to dig-in.

The Twentieth Battalion, which had closed the gap between
its left and the Seventh Battalion when the latter advanced on
Venison Trench by sending up two platoons from its support
company, now fell back again.

PASSCHENDAELE 179

Meanwhile the Eighth Battalion, with its left entirely " in
the air," had been suffering desperately from the fire of Vox
and Vocation Farms, the objectives of their English comrades
on the flank. These places, which were heavily manned and full
of machine guns, lay well to the rear and close to the left of the
Canadian battalions. An immense gap separated the battalion
from the Imperials, who were now back on the line whence they
had started. The whole of the support and reserve companies
of the battalion, as well as " C " Company of the Fifth Battalion,
Lieut.-Col. Tudor, had to be utilized to close the gap. Thus
the Canadians faced west, north and east at once. Later " B "
Company of the Fifth Battalion came up on the left of " C " and
so strengthened the point of junction.

At 1.45 p.m. the enemy began to mass for a counter-attack
north-east of Vindictive Cross-Roads and near Venison Trench,
and at 2.50 p.m. launched his effort. Our artillery, which main^
tained an almost ceaseless barrage the whole day, had kept
the Germans under steady fire while they were massing, and it
now joined with the infantry in repulsing the advance with
severe loss. This was the one and only counter-attack attempted.
The artillery during that grim struggle was superb.

As if fully realizing that their dispirited infantry could never
hope to turn our men out of their new line, the German gunners
bent every effort to do so with shell fire. The bombardment
which they maintained all day was said to be the heaviest ever
experienced by Canadians during the war. It rained shells
down upon that irregular line from every point of the compass.
All battalion headquarters were furiously shelled, as were the
dressing-stations. These places were pill-boxes and were crammed
with men, wounded and unhurt alike. The wounded were every-
where, propped against the walls, on tables and on top of one
another on the floor. The atmosphere was dense with the fumes
of the shells and foul air, and, while the pill-boxes rocked to the
ear-splitting din outside, the rain flooded the floor where the
wounded lay and men splashed up and down in pools of curdling
blood and water.

The horrors were worse outside in the storms of rain and steel,
where no shelter was available and the exhausted men lay wet
to the skin in shell-holes among their dead or dying friends.
But the stuff that gives way was not in them. By 9 p.m. they
were in touch with the Imperials at Venture Farm, a strong if
erratic line had been established, and the ground they had won
was firmly and indisputably theirs.

The total of prisoners captured by Canadians at Passchendaele
rose to forty-two officers and one thousand and eighty-seven
men as a result of the day's fighting. Four field guns were also

180 THE CANADIANS IN FRANCE

taken by the Eighth BattaHon at Venture Farm. Many of the
prisoners were killed by their own shell fire.

On November 12th the relief of the Canadian troops who
had carried out the final phases of the Corps offensive was com-
menced, when the Third Division relieved the First Division,
the former having come up from its rest area around Watou
for the purpose. Next day the Fourth Division from Caestre
relieved the Second Division. The outgoing troops commenced
their journey back to Lens.

The return of the Third and Fourth Divisions to the line
was not with a view to any further offensive action, since the
four phases of the Canadian Corps operations had been completely
and triumphantly achieved. But Canadian troops had to hold
the line until the arrival of their Imperial comrades destined
to relieve them.

The Third and Fourth Divisions were soon relieved by the
Eighth and Thirty-third (Imperial) Divisions respectively, and
on November 18th, when these reliefs were complete, Canadian
Corps Headquarters handed over its line to the Eighth (Imperial)
Corps and followed its divisions back to the South.

Thus were concluded the Canadian operations beyond Ypres,
and the Corps left that accursed region never to return to it
again. The last drop of Canadian blood had been shed in Flanders
and the association of the Dominion with the city was finished.
As Ypres .is symbolical of pain and adversity to Canadians, so
did the departure of the troops from its vicinity synchronize
with the end of their struggle against desperate odds. Thence-
forth the role of the Canadians was to be one only of triumph in
attack, with some of the odds at last upon their side.

The achievements of the Canadian Corps at Passchendaele
may be briefly summarized as follows : In sixteen days, working
to a fixed plan and a time-table to which the courage of the
men enabled them to adhere with almost mathematical faithful-
ness, tried by a whole summer of desperate fighting elsewhere,
they advanced their line a distance of over a mile, where every
yard of ground was completely devoid of cover, swept by the
fire of innumerable machine guns, searched by the fire of hundreds
of guns converging on it from all sides, and dominated by in-
numerable pill-boxes, every one of which was held by a ruthless
and determined enemy. Against these odds, fighting troops which
the Germans, owing to their increasing numerical superiority
due to the Russian collapse, were able to relieve constantly,
the Canadian battalions worried over the field where so many
men of British stock had already died, and, after terrible sufferings
in unspeakable mud and rain, finally stood victorious on the
heights to which they set their aim.

PASSCHENDAELE 181

They took twelve hundred prisoners and many machine guns
in this fierce effort, and lost in killed, wounded and missing a
rough total of ten thousand casualties.

In all probability, no battle ever fought by Canadians de-
manded more from the individual of every arm than the three weeks
in that period in the autumn of 1917. Infantry, artillery, engineers,
pioneers, signallers, transport and medical personnel — all endured
much peril and suffering. The medical men did grand work.
They drove their motor-ambulances over roads that were not
roads at all. How they ever got the wounded out of those
dreadful miles of waist-deep mud and water only the God who
made them can say.

These things are forever linked with the name of Passchendaele,
" Passion Dale " or, as the English have it, " Easter Valley,"
a name symbolical of sacrifice. It is not too much to compare
the Canadian troops struggling forward, the pangs of hell racking
their bodies, up the Ridge, their dying eyes set upon the summit,
with a Man Who once crept up another hill, with agony in soul
and body, to redeem the world and give Passchendaele its
glorious name.

CHAPTER XII

THE WINTER OF 1917-18
November 1917-May 1918

On being relieved by the Third and Fourth Canadian Divisions
at Passchendaele, the First and Second Canadian Divisions at
once moved back to the vicinity of Lens. On November 17th
the First Canadian Division completed the relief of the Fifty-
ninth (Imperial) Division in the Lens and Avion sectors of the
line, while on the following day the Second Canadian Division
relieved the Forty-eighth (Imperial) Division in the sectors of
Mericourt and Chaudiere. This was followed on November 20th
by the assumption of control of the front now held by these
divisions by the Canadian Corps Headquarters.

By that time the Corps Troops had concentrated in Pernes,
Divion and Hersin, and the Canadian artillery was on the march.
The artillery of the Fourth Division relieved the artillery of
the Forty-eighth (Imperial) Division in the line. The Third
Division's artillery went to a well-earned rest in St, Hilaire.
Starting on November 16th and 17th respectively, the Third and
Fourth Canadian Divisions moved to the First Army area, the
former going to train and rest at St. Hilaire, while the latter
went to Auchel for the same purpose.

There were now left in the North only the artillery of the
First and Second Canadian Divisions and the heavy guns. The
artillery of the divisions began to leave Belgium on November
23rd and 24th respectively, and, having arrived in the area
administered by the Canadian Corps on November 26th and
27th, went straight into the line to relieve the guns covering
their respective divisions. Having relieved the Fifty-ninth
(Imperial) Division's artillery, the batteries of the First Canadian
Division went into action behind their own infantry, and the guns
of the Second Canadian Division, relieving the Fourth Canadian
Divisional Artillery, did likewise. These moves were completed
by November 27th. The effect of this complicated series of

183

THE WINTER OF 1917-18 183

reliefs was to place two Canadian divisions in the line, holding
trenches covered by their own guns, while two Canadian divisions
with their own artillery were training and resting in the rear.
By the middle of December all the Canadian heavy artillery
had also returned to the South and the whole Corps was com-
plete again in its old area.

Meanwhile the Corps front had been teeming with activity.
The ever-growing German Army was beginning to feel its strength,
and was becoming more and more aggressive every day as it
prepared itself for its supreme effort in the spring. It attacked
the Canadians by means of raids, artillery " strafes " and other
minor forms of warfare without rest and received many lusty
blows in return. The record of the winter's work is a long story
of ceaseless fighting on a small scale leading up to the supreme
height in March 1918. It is a record of almost continuous
Canadian success and German failure.

During the months of November and December the enemy
attempted a raid practically every night. All these raids were
dispersed, two against the Fourteenth Battalion, Lieut. -Col. G.
McCombe, D.S.O., on November 29th and December 1st, being
repulsed in particularly fine style. Heavy bombardments were
frequent and we used great quantities of gas. Fierce patrol
fighting took place. Much work was also done on trenches and
wire by the Canadian troops.

On December 20th the Third and Fourth Canadian Divisions
began to move back into the line. The First Canadian Division
and a portion of the Second Canadian Division were relieved by
the Fourth Canadian Division, while the Thirty-first (Imperial)
Division took over the front of the remainder of the Second
Canadian Division on the right. The Third Canadian Division
meanwhile relieved the Eleventh (Imperial) Division in the
Lens sector.

These moves were completed by December 23rd, and the
relieved troops went back to rest, training and Christmas dinner
in the areas in the rear.

During January raiding continued violently on both sides.
At 7.30 p.m. on January 13th a very fine " stealth " raid was
carried out by two officers and forty-two men of the Fifty-eighth
Battalion, Lieut. -Col. R. A. MacFarlane, D.S.O. Lieut. A. H.
Jucksch, M.C., commanded, with Lieut. W. W. Johnston, M.C.,
as assistant. The idea was to rush a heavily wired post in a sap
near Commotion Trench and then to attack a portion of the
front line and wipe out any Germans encountered therein.

After over an hour's hard work by Lieut. Jucksch personally,
a tube containing ammonal was placed in the entanglements
guarding the post. It was then fired; a gap in the wire resulted.

184 THE CANADIANS IN FRANCE

the men dashed through, and the post was rushed, the garrison
of six men being all killed or captured. A barrage of trench
mortars and machine gun fire was placed around the objective
in the front line, and the raiders bombed their way into it. A post
was encountered there and was overpowered after stiff fighting.
The party then split into three groups, each of which took up a
position in a different trench to kee^D off any Germans attempting
to come up, while a fourth group under Lieut. Johnston syste-
matically " mopped-up." When this had been accomplished,
the whole withdrew, Lieut. Jucksch being the last to leave.

The complete success of the enterprise may be gauged from
the fact that eleven prisoners were taken, thirteen Germans
were killed and many other casualties were inflicted. As further
evidence of the surprise effect of the raid and the superiority
of the Canadians involved over the enemy, it may be mentioned
that our men suffered no casualties whatever.

Many other fights of a minor character followed this success.

The dispositions of the Canadians balding the line were
altered on January 20th, when the Second Division took over
the Mericourt and Avion sectors of the front from the Fourth
Division, while the Fourth Division in turn took over the Lens
sector from the Third Division. On January 23rd the First
Division came forward and completed the relief of the Third
Division in the Cite St. Emile and Hill 70 portions of the line.
The Third Division then went out to Auchel to refresh itself
by rest and training.

January came to a close with much patrol activity and much
defence construction on the part of the Corps, which was putting
out miles of barbed wire, digging miles of new trenches, con-
structing new dugouts and emplacements and lavishing every
scrap of material available, whether issued by the engineers or
salved from the field of battle, upon the task. February brought
in fiercer raiding and more frequent battles in No Man's Land.
The two Armies were sparring out the round before the Germans
let loose their last desperate offensive.

On February 5th the enemy opened a heavy barrage on
the Twenty-fifth Battalion, Lieut.-Col. A. O. Blois, D.S.O., and
the Twenty-ninth Battalion, Lieut.-Col. W. S. Latta, D.S.O.,
at 10 p.m., and then attacked about twenty minutes later. A
party of about one hundred attempted to rush one of the posts
held by the Twenty-fifth Battalion, but met with such a hot
reception that they did not reach our trenches at any point.

While this fighting was in progress, the Twenty-ninth Battalion
had also been very hotly engaged. Three parties, totalling over
fifty officers and men, had advanced against them. The Canadian
artillery, in response to the S,O.S., at once barraged No Man's

THE WINTER OF 1917-18 185

Land, and the fire of the infantry and machine gunners repulsed
the attack. Our patrols promptly issued from our trenches
and pursued the retreating Germans into the barrage, where they
suffered heavily. Three Germans wounded and one unwounded
were taken prisoner by the patrols in the pursuit.

At 3 a.m. on February 13th the Third Brigade struck back
in the Hill 70 sector of the front. The extremely dense wire
guarding the German positions on this portion of the line had
been destroyed in most places by a long bombardment by Canadian
trench mortars and heavy guns. The raiders were fortunate in
having a dark and completely moonless night for their enterprise.
There were to have been five raids, each covered by what was
called technically a " box " barrage, which was a barrage designed
to enclose the objective, on all sides but that from which our
own men advanced, with a wall of fire. At the last moment,
however, the wire in front of the objective of the Fourteenth
Battalion was found to be too dense to negotiate, and this raid
was cancelled. The four attacks remaining were carried out
by two officers and thirty-nine men of the Thirteenth Battalion,
Lieut. -Col. K. M. Perry, D.S.O., on the right ; the Sixteenth
Battalion, Lieut.-Col. C. W. Peek, D.S.O,, on their left, represented
by a party of two officers and thirty-two men ; on the left of
this party were one officer and fifty-three men of the Fifteenth
Battalion, Lieut.-Col. J. W. Forbes, D.S.O., and on their left
were another party of two officers and thirty-four men of the
Sixteenth Battalion.

Six hundred yards separated the objective of the party on
the right from that of the next party ; thence was a further
gap of two hundred yards to the next objective, and finally
another gap of five hundred yards to the extreme left. Thus,
while all parties were entirely dependent on themselves for support,
yet the broad front of attack, from Cite St. Auguste to the Bois
Hugo, tended to distribute the enemy's resistance accordingly.
The raids were launched simultaneously at 3 a.m. in the
midst of pandemonium. The Thirteenth Battalion party met
with extremely heavy machine gun fire, and the few men who
managed to penetrate into the objective were forced to withdraw.
The Sixteenth Battalion party on their left, most gallantly led
by Captain Scroggie and Lieut. R. E. Allan, met very similar
opposition. Under heavy fire they attempted to hack their way
through the wire, but after more than half an hour's courageous
effort were forced to withdraw with their casualties, among
whom was Lieut. Allan, Avho had been wounded severely.

The story, however, was different elsewhere. The Fifteenth
Battalion party fought its way with difficulty through the wire
and came to close grips with the enemy, They bombed a machine

186 THE CANADIANS IN FRANCE

gun, killing all of the crew but one, whom they captured, together
with his weapon. Several German dugouts were then destroyed.
Lieut. Johnston and Lieut. B. W. Allan, leading the raid on the
extreme left, with their men of the Sixteenth Battalion, broke into
the German trenches without much difficulty and proceeded to
demolish everything they came in contact with. A machine
o-un was bombed and five prisoners were taken. A series of deep
dufTouts were then treated in a similar manner and afterwards
blown up with mobile charges.

On counting gains and losses when all the raiding parties
had returned, it was found that six prisoners and two machine
guns had been taken and heavy loss inflicted on the enemy —
the left party alone having counted eighteen dead in the trenches
they attacked. Our total casualties equalled this figure. Success,
therefore, was once again on the Canadian side.

The Fourth Division was relieved by the Second Division in
the Lens sector on February 20th, and on the following day the
Third Division took over from the Second Division their part
of the front in the vicinity of Mericourt and Avion. The Fourth
Division proceeded into Army Reserve at Bruay and began a
fresh course of training and rest.

February passed into history with a fine " stealth " raid
by the Twenty-fifth Battalion to mark its final days. This
raid occurred on February 26th, during the night. Lieut. P. R.
Phillips led one party of seven men while Lieut. M. McRae led
a second party of five. Lieut. McRae took up a position in a
shell-hole near a wall — the scene of the raid was the vicinity of
Fosse St. Louis. Lieut. Phillips then led his men forward to
inflict all possible damage on the enemy. A sentry behind the
wall was stalked and finally shot by Lieut. Phillips. Getting
through a hole in the wall, the party next proceeded to bomb a
cellar which was known to be occupied. While this was going-
on a number of Germans came up and attempted to interfere.
Covered by the fire of his men, Lieut. Phillips promptly seized
one of the Germans, dragged him bodily to the hole in the wall,
and passed him into the safe custody of the party in support.
The whole Canadian force then retired under a shower of grenades
from the enemy.

Six Germans were killed and one prisoner taken as the result
of this little effort by fourteen Canadians at a cost of only one
slightly wounded.

With March, raiding activity increased on both sides until
the whole Canadian front seethed with continuous minor fighting.
The British Army was now expecting the German thunder-
cloud to burst at any moment, and ceaselessly probed the
fringe of the cloud to gleau the latest information from behind,

THE WINTER OF 1917-18 187

The Germans, swiftly gathering their forees for the supreme
blow, sought ever to find any change in the disposition of their
opponents which might threaten the success of the coming effort.
The air was tense before the storm of which these little operations
were the preliminary rumblings in the hills.

On March 4th the enemy raided the Twenty-first Battalion,
Lieut.-Col. E. W. Jones, D.S.O., with four parties averaging
each fifty strong. After four minutes' intense shell fire these
parties attacked at 5.58 a.m., just as day was breaking. They
were strongly assisted by a i^arty of forty men from a battalion
specially trained in assault tactics. The main blow was directed
against " D " Company, and met with such a fierce fire from all
available Lewis guns and rifles that the attackers were practically
wiped out and failed to gain any footing in our positions. Another
blow fell on the front line, which in the daytime was held only
by observers. The night garrison had been withdrawn in the
usual way just before the barrage began, and the enemy, to a
strength of seventy-five men armed with fla^nmenwerfer and bombs,
were able to penetrate the thinly held line and proceed down
our communication trenches. At this stage of the proceedings
Captain A. W. Black, although already wounded in the hand,
organized a counter-attack with the support platoon, and led it
with such dash that the enemy were entirely ejected and our line
was re-established at all points.

The Twenty-first Battalion countered this effort two days
later when they raided the German lines at 2.15 a.m. on March
6th. Two officers and sixty-five men attacked under an intense
barrage. Lieut. A. W. May, M.C., commanded, ably seconded by
Lieut. J, R. Smith. The latter led his men to the attack on a
number of cellars and dugouts, killing three Germans who fled
upon the way. The dugouts and cellars were bombed with
little resistance. Lieut. May then dashed through Smith's party
with forty men and attacked four dugouts further on. With
the exception of one man, who was taken prisoner, all the occupants
refused to come out and so were killed at once, nine being accounted
for in one dugout alone. In the fighting around these places
Lieut. May, single-handed, despatched five of the enemy. The
raiders then returned to their own lines, leaving a total of thirty
dead behind them, in return for very slight losses among
themselves.

Thus the Germans could not claim to have scored in their
encounters with this New Brunswick battalion earlj^ in March.

On March 14th the whole of the Second Division and the
portion of the First Division holding the line at Cite St. Emile
were relieved by the Fourth Division, which had marched up
from the area around Bruay, refreshed and eager to get at the

188 THE CANADIANS IN FRANCE

enemy again. The Second Division went back to Bruay in
its turn, there to be in Army Reserve ready to close any
breach in the line which the coming German offensive might
effect.

On the following day the artillery of the division were relieved
by the Fifth Canadian Divisional Artillery. The latter artillery
had originally been raised as part of the Fifth Canadian Division,
which was subsequently disbanded. It was then decided to
send the artillery over to France, where it would prove a very
valuable addition to the large force of guns already serving
with the Canadian Corps. At that time it was commanded by
Brigadier-General W. O. H. Dodds, C.M.G., and consisted of the
Thirteenth Brigade Canadian Field Artillery, Lieut.-Col. E. G.
Hanson, D.S.O. ; Fourteenth Brigade Canadian Field Artillery,
Lieut.-Col. A. T. Ogilvie, and the Fifth Canadian Divisional
Ammunition Column, Lieut.-Col. R. Costigan.

The artillery landed in France in July, and after a certain
amount of training in the back areas, finally took up positions
covering Canadian infantry in the Lens sector at the beginning
of September 1917. From that time, with short intervals of
rest, these batteries had been continuously in action around
Lens, doing steady work requiring much endurance, skill and
gallantry.

On March 15th the Fifth C.M.R. Battalion, Lieut.-Col.
D. C. Draper, D.S.O., carried out a most successful raid. No
Man's Land at this point — near Mericourt— was nearly nine
hundred yards wide. It was therefore important that possession
of this ground should be denied to the enemy. Accordingly a
group of scouts under Lieut. Atto went out prior to the raid
and patrolled it constantly, thus ensuring that the assembly
and advance of the raiders should not be interfered with. To
safeguard the movement still further, Lieut. Morrissey, with
twenty men and a Lewis gun, took up a position in No Man's
Land to the right of the objective, while Lieut. Dixon with a
similar party assumed a corresponding position to the left. At
3.45 a.m. the assembly of the raiders was accomplished without
mishap under the supervision of Major T. D. Sneath, M.C., who
commanded the whole force. The assembly was largely assisted
by a perfect night and a confident and tranquil enemy. Shortly
afterwards a terrific barrage began, and the one hundred and fifty
men comprising the main attack went forward. At the same
time a demonstration — technically known as a " Chinese attack "
— was made upon the left.

Little resistance was met with, and the raiders rapidly over-
came their objectives. Many Germans were killed and a large
nuniber of dugouts were destroyed. The raiders withdrew

THE WINTER OF 1917-18 189

in exceptionally good order after taking fourteen prisoners —
including a warrant officer — and a machine gun.

The cost of this enterprise was only thirty casualties all told.
Unfortunately it included Major Sneath, who was killed while
directing the operation.

On March 20th the Fifth Canadian Divisional Engineers
arrived in the Corps area, having recently landed in France
from England. They came, like the Fifth Division's artillery,
to augment the force of technical units at the disposal of the
Canadian Corps. Their arrival when skilled men were in such
demand was not a moment too soon, for on the following day the
last bid of the enemy for victory was launched.

It was on March 21st that the German wolf, so long defiant
in its reeking den, emerged to make a final frenzied attempt
to burst through the ring of steel around him. At first he was
destined to inflict frightful wounds upon his enemies, but in the
end his recklessness proved his undoing. By leaving that position
in which he had lain trapped but safe for so long, he gave the
hunters their chance, and the world knows how, though mangled
by his dreadful blows, they finally fell upon him and destroyed
him. Prospects looked very black in those early days of the
great German offensive, but the fact that the hostile Army had
abandoned its trenches and come into the open at last was not
a disaster for Allied arms, but a blessing in disguise. As Sir
Ian Hamilton said, the enemy came forth from his defences and
the Lord delivered him into our hands.

The Canadian Corps was as ready for the forthcoming blow
as any troops on the Western front, and had done everything
that mortal man could do to render its position impregnable.
As soon as it returned from Passchendaele it had set about the
task of putting its house in order. A defensive system of three
zones, each consisting of an immensely strong series of trenches
protected by vast belts of barbed wire and sown with concrete
machine gun posts and deep dugouts, and totalling over six
thousand yards in depth, stretched completely across the front.
The principle of manning these trenches was by a series of strong
localities completely wired in, rendering each other mutual
support, but each stored with rations, water and ammunition,
and capable of holding out alone for an indefinite period. These
were held in cases of emergency by garrisons of at least one platoon
under an officer. Small and easily overpowered outposts were
avoided.

This was exactly the principle laid down by Marshal Foch
later and adopted by all the Allies when bitter experience had
proved it to be the best. All these localities could be covered
by guns placed in pits already prepared. Every gun-pit within

190 THE CANADIANS IN FRANCE

three thousand yards of the front line was surrounded by barbed
wire to keep off German infantry, so that the gunners might
fight to the last. Sniping guns for firing into the initial assault
at short range and anti-tank field guns had been arranged for.
The speed and accuracy of the Canadian gun fire were tested
daily by a practised S.O.S. In short, all jDOssible steps had been
taken to ensure the perfect co-ordination of all arms.

Every available man who could handle a pick and shovel,
supervised by expert engineers, was put to work ; the whole
directed by Brigadier-General W. B. Lindsay, C.M.G., D.S.O.,
the Chief Engineer of the Canadian Corps.

In addition to work on defences, the engineers had spent,
and continued to spend, many months of labour on camps, light
railways, roads and waterworks.

Apart from these material measures for the safeguard of
the ground entrusted to them, every man who could fire a rifle
was allotted a definite task to perform in the event of a German
attack, and all plans for the defence had been prepared and orders
issued before the launching of the enemy's great effort. As
time went on these were added to and improved, on the theory
that perfection is never arrived at.

A very powerful force was formed from the men in the
Divisional Wings (or reinforcement camps). Army Troops Com-
panies and Tunnelling Companies in April. This force totalled
three hundred officers and nine thousand men, and was organized
into two brigades commanded by Lieut. -Col. H. T. Hughes,
C.M.G., and Lieut.-Col. A. McPhail, D.S.O., and styled " Hughes'
Brigade " and " McPhail's Brigade " respectively.

The next step taken was to organize on similar lines all the
men of the Special Companies of Royal Engineers — such as
those responsible for firing gas drums — for action in case of attack.
These amounted to three thousand and were placed under orders
of the Third Canadian Division.

With measures such as those described — which are but few
of the many important ones — the Canadians prepared themselves
for battle. Secure in the knowledge of their own strength,
with the Vimy Ridge as a citadel behind them and the defence
systems they had perfected as their ramparts, they awaited any
assault the enemy might launch with every confidence. Their
feelings are well exhibited by the words of the order issued to
them by Sir Arthur Currie early in the fighting, when the sky
was dark and it seemed as if the British Army was in its death
throes. As Fate and the enemy decided, no serious attack was
directed against them, even March 21st passing comparatively
quietly, and they were left in proud isolation while the waves
of grey roared everywhere around them. It was as if the German

THE WINTER OF 1917-18 191

High Command dared not attack cither their strong positions
6r the men who manned them. Though their power was never
tested, the past record of the force justified the belief of its leaders
that they would perish to the last man among a shambles of dead
Germans before a single Prussian would place his foot upon the
Vimy Ridge that they had so nobly won a year before.

As soon as it became evident that the main blow of the enemy
had fallen on the front of the Third and Fifth Armies, the Canadian
Corps at once took stejDS to lend its aid. The assistance rendered
took two main forms. The Dominion troops proceeded to reheve
a number of Imperial divisions, to set them free for the all-
important task of cheeking the hostile onrush. They thus assumed
responsibility for the defence of a larger front, until at one time
the Canadians were holding the greater part of the hne of General
Home's First Army. They also stripped their reserves of a large
proportion of their best troops in order to lend the weight of their
forces to the staggering British infantr}^ reeling before the shock
of the first encounters.

These movements are described in due course in the pages
that follow. The earliest was the sudden transfer of the First
Canadian Motor Machine Gun Brigade to the Amiens front,
which began on March 22nd. Twenty-four hours after the receipt
of the first warning the brigade was heavily engaged with the
enemy. No story of Canadian achievement in battle is complete
without some description of the doings of the brigade in front
of Amiens, when it went to the rescue of the remnants of
the splendid Imperial divisions standing at bay before that
ancient town.

On March 22nd, when it became obvious that the city would
be in great danger shortly, the British High Command gathered
every available man in a desperate effort to save it. The chief
requirements of the moment were speed, in order that rapid
manoeuvre might be carried out, and above all so that the troops
might get into the threatened area in time, and fire-power, so
that the resisting powers of the exhausted divisions might be
strengthened. The High Command, laying its hand on every
unit that could fulfil these qualifications, could not fail to demand
the services of the First Canadian Motor Machine Gun Brigade,
which, thoroughly armed with Lewis and Vickers guns, each
equivalent to the fire-power of at least ten rifles, and comprised
entirely of armoured car and motor-cycle detachments, of high
speed, possessed both the necessary qualifications. At 3 p.m.
the brigade, which was widely scattered, some of it in the line
and some of it in rest billets, received orders to move to Amiens.
At 5.30 a.m. on the following day — March 23rd — the whole night
having been spent in withdrawing the guns in the line, concen-

192 THE CANADIANS IN FRANCE

tration and preparation, the brigade moved off, Lieut. -Col.
W. K. Walker in command.

At noon Amiens was reached. The brigade was sent on to
Villers-Bretonneux at once and arrived there at 4 p.m. It was
then split up, various batteries going into action on different
portions of the front. From that moment until April 8th, with
scarcely any respite whatever, these batteries were desperately
engaged with the enemy.

Two batteries were sent from Villers-Bretonneux to Roye
under the orders of the Eighteenth (Imperial) Corps. These
batteries were " D " battery, under Captain R. D. Harkness,
M.C., and " E " battery, under Captain H. F. Meurling, M.C.,
who was responsible for general supervision of the two. At
8 p.m. " B " battery, under Captain E. H. Holland, M.C., and " C "
battery, under Captain W. C. Nicholson, M.C., the whole com-
manded by Captain Holland, were sent to the assistance of the
Seventh (Imperial) Corps, Finally, at 1 p.m. on March 24th
Major W. F. Battersby, with " A " battery, was hurriedly sent
to fill a gap in the front of the Nineteenth (Imperial) Corps.

On March 24th the whole force was fighting furiously. Captain
Meurling's detachment on the extreme right was pushed forward
to Nesle, after reaching Roye at 2 a.m. Various groups of
machine guns were then rushed out from Nesle to help the
Sixtieth and One Hundred and Eighty-third (Imperial) Brigades
and the artillery covering the town. Captain Harkness arrived
in time to assist Brigadier-General Spooner, commanding the
One Hundred and Eighty-third Brigade, in organizing a counter-
attack after the enemy had broken the line. In the stand which
followed at Mesnil St. Nicaise the cars were riddled with shrapnel,
but fortunately no one was hurt.

The artillery, which were being covered by Lieuts. Vosburgh
and Black, had been forced to retire. These officers thereupon
took their guns to the aid of the exhausted infantry in front and
were welcomed royally.

Major Battersby, speeding to support the men of the Nine-
teenth Corps, was just in time to save the situation south of
Cizaucourt, on the Somme. The enemy had battered their way
over the river and were making rapid progress, when the Canadian
machine guns came into action and raked them with fire. The
attack was shattered and for the moment the hostile advance
was checked.

On the left, in the vicinity of Clery, over fifteen miles north
of Captain Meurling's force, the detachment under Captain E. H.
Holland meanwhile had been locked in death with the over-
whelming mass of the enemy. The detachment came into action
in front of Clery, which was held by a small body of worn-out

THE WINTER OF 1917-18 193

infantry, with both flanks hopelessly " in the air " and the whole
under terrific shell fire. During the morning the Germans
attacked the village in great force, and the infantry and machine
gunners, fighting to the bitter end, were cut to pieces. The
remains of the force fell back and entrenched a thousand yards
west of Clery. By the time dusk set in there were only four
machine guns in action. The rest had been captured or smashed.
Very severe losses had been suffered. Captain Holland, Lieut.
W. H. Snyder, Lieut. F. G. Waldron and Lieut. R. H. A. West
having all been killed as they fought their smoking guns among
the raging masses of the enemy. Captain Nicholson had been
wounded, and almost all the N.C.O.'s were casualties, as were
the majority of the men. But the determination of those who
were left was as fierce as ever.

On March 25th the retreat continued, and very bloody fighting
again took place. On the following day Captain Meurling's
detachment — or what was left of it — was told that it might rest
at Quesnil. Exactly twenty minutes passed before they weie
entreated to get on the move again, for the enemy had again
broken through, this time at Fouquescourt, less than five miles
away. The motor-cycles and cars dashed off, and by 12.30 p.m.
had filled the gap and were in action once more. They were no
sooner firing than another desperate plea for help arrived. The
enemy had broken the line at Bouchoir, on the right rear of
the position held by Captain Meurling, creating an extremely
dangerous situation.

Captain Meurling, who had already augmented his feeble
strength with all the Imperial machine gunners or infantry he
could get, despatched Lieut. Black with four guns manned by
these improvised crews to the rescue. They arrived in the nick
of time, met the oncoming enemy with annihilating fire, rallied
the infantry in the vicinity and saved the position, together
with the headquarters of the Twentieth (Imperial) Division, which
had nearly been taken.

The German Army evidently saw Amiens already in its grasp,
and was pressing its attack through the ruins of the British line
with remorseless energy. Soon after the fight at Bouchoir,
German cavalry came down upon Hangest, three miles due
west, and still further in rear of the threatened positions at
Rouvroy and Warvillers. Lieut. Black's men aided the infantry
in beating off their advance.

By this time desperate fighting was in progress at Warvillers
and Rouvroy. Six of the sixteen machine guns helping to
hold this front were destroyed. Captain Harkness, in command
of the guns at Rouvroy, had lost the majority of his men and
came back on a motor-cycle through violent shell fire to get

13

194 THE CANADIANS IN FRANCE

reinforcements from Captain Meurling. He was blown off his
machine by a shell on the way, but struggled on and reached
Captain Meurling in an exhausted condition and explained the
situation. Every man available was sent up — there were four
men available — and all day and all night the Rouvroy machine
guns and the infantry with them fought for and held the place
in the face of an endless series of assaults.

Major Battersby and Captain Nicholson on the left had also
been fiercely engaged. Two of their armoured cars under Lieut.
W. E. Smith, on the road from Villers-Bretonneux to Hamel,
completely broke up the enemy's wild efforts to get across the
Somme from the north. These cars fired into the endless columns
of German infantry for over four hours, causing immense loss.

On the morning of March 27th the detachment under Captain
Meurling was withdrawn, and went to Hebecourt for the first
real rest it had obtained since it entered the battle. On the
following day the brigade concentrated and moved to positions
covering Villers-Bretonneux and the vicinity — Hangard to the
south and Hamel to the north. Carey's celebrated force of labour
units, signallers, pioneers, convalescents, drafts and the remnants
of certain units of the Fifth Army, was now in contact with the
enemy, and, as it proved, the real crisis had passed. This force
held its ground until April 1st, beating back a continuous series
of attacks with the aid of the Canadian machine gunners, who
moved about wherever the fight was thickest and constantly
frustrated attempts to break the line. Carey's command was
then disbanded, properly organized Australian and Imperial
troops having come up. Before leaving, Brigadier-General Carey
assured the Canadian officers that their machine guns had been
the backbone of the defence.

The machine gunners were withdrawn from the line on April
3rd and went to rest at Hebecourt. At that time the whole
of Captain Meurling's detachment of two companies totalled
only twenty-five men. They had not finished with the enemy
in front of Amiens, however. On the following day they were
hurriedly sent forward to Villers-Bretonneux and Hamel to help
in repulsing another German attack. The attack was completely
crushed, Lieut. Black doing particularly severe execution with
four armoured cars against the enemy's battalions assaulting
the Bois de Hamel. On April 8th the brigade was finally relieved.
It then returned to the Canadian Corps, having received the thanks
of every British officer, from subaltern to Corps Commander,
with whom it came in contact.

The moral effect of the appearance of these cars on exhausted
English infantry and triumphant Germans alike was very great,
and helped to spread confidence among their friends and panic

THE WINTER OF 1917-18 195

among their foes. The murderous fire with whieh they met all
hostile advanees completed it. They could not have done better
work or played a more important part.

While the First Canadian Motor Machine Gun Brigade was
thus engaged, the rest of the Corps was not standing by inert
and unconcerned. On March 24th the Second Canadian Division
was ordered to move into G.H.Q. Reserve at Villers Chatel and
north of Arras, prior to joining the Third Army with a view
to checking the enemy's advance. The Third Canadian Division
at the same time released the Sixty-second (Imperial) Division
for service in the operations by extending its front and taking
over the line of its neighbour. The Fourth Canadian Division,
moved hurriedly up from reserve, on the same day completed
the relief of the First Canadian Division in advance of Hill 70.
The latter formation then concentrated around Chateau de La
Haie in reserve.

On March 25th the divisional artillery of the Second Division,
en route to Camblain I'Abbe, was checked before it left Frevin
Capelle and ordered to await further instructions. By that time
the whole of the division were standing to arms ready to go
wherever they might be needed. On the following day they
moved up to Basseux.

At midnight the First Canadian Division, urgently needed
to aid exhausted Imperial troops to the south, took their places,
every man except those who normally moved by horse, wagon
or cycle, in convoys of omnibuses bound for a destination un-
known. They reached the area in the vicinity of Henu and
Couin, west of the centre of the Third Army front as it extended
now between Bapaume and the River Ancre. They were in the
act of leaving the buses — about half the vehicles had been
unloaded — when orders were suddenly received to re-enter the
convoys and proceed at once to the area around Wanquentin, about
eight miles due west of Arras, with headquarters at Fosseux,
prior to relieving troops in the line the following day. It
appeared that a new attack had developed and fresh battalions
were urgently needed.

Accordingly the division was diverted, and had concentrated
in the required area by noon on March 28th.

Two Canadian divisions were now under the orders of the Third
Army ready to enter the battle — the First and the Second
Divisions. Yet another — the Third — had passed out of Canadian
Corps control on the same day as the division came under the
control of the Eighteenth Corps.

On March 29th the First Canadian Division completed the
relief of the Forty-fourth (Imperial) Brigade of the Fifteenth
Division holding the front from just north of Neuville-Vitasse

196 THE CANADIANS IN FRANCE

to the Arras-Cambrai Road. Tiie next day the Second Canadian
Division completed the reUef of the Third (Imperial) Division
from Neuville-Vitasse south to Boisleux-St. Marc. These divisions
now came under the control of the Seventeenth and Sixth Corps
respectively.

The line for which Canadians were responsible had been
gradually shifting south. The Fourth Canadian Division, having
been relieved by the Forty-sixth (Imperial) Division near Lens
on March 29th, finished relieving the Fifty-sixth (Imperial)
Division on the following day on the front immediately opposite
Gavrelle and Oppy. These moves placed the whole front of
the First Army south of the Souchez River under the control
of the Canadian Corps. The Eighteenth Corps had gone out
to a hard-won rest, so the Third Canadian Division again reverted
to its own Corps. This series of rapid reliefs, very dull to read
of and duller still to carrj^ out, involving continuous hard work
for all concerned, had the effect of setting free for action on other
parts of the front a large number of Imperial divisions.

While the movements described were in progress the Canadians,
in consequence of the precarious salient in v/hich the enemy's
advance in the South had placed them, were obliged to withdraw
their whole front to a maximum depth of about one mile, from
their positions facing Mericourt and Acheville, and in the vicinity
of Arleux, Oppy and Gavrelle. The withdrawal hinged on
Avion. It was carried out successfully and without hostile
interference.

An important change in organization was completed on April
3rd, when all the Pioneer battalions and Field Companies of
Canadian Engineers v/ere formed into brigades, each division
having one of these, commanded by the Chief Engineer of the
division and made up of three battalions. Under this arrange-
ment, which proved its value to the hilt in operations which
followed, the units and their commanders were as under :

First Canadian Engineer Brigade, Lieut. -Col. H. F. Hertz-
berg, M.C., made up of the First Canadian Engineer Battalion,
Lieut. -Col. H. C. Walkem, Second Canadian Engineer Battalion,
Major J. M. Rolston, and Third Canadian Engineer Battalion,
Lieut.-Col. E. Pepler ; Second Canadian Engineer Brigade,
Lieut. -Col. S. H. Osier, D.S.O., comprising the Fourth Canadian
Engineer Battalion, Major H. D. St. A. Smith ; Fifth Canadian
Engineer Battalion, Lieut.-Col. C. W. Allan, D.S.O., and Sixth
Canadian Engineer Battalion, Major C. B. Russell ; Third
Canadian Engineer Brigade, Lieut.-Col. J. Hauliston, composed
of the Seventh Canadian Engineer Battalion, Lieut.-Col. W. B.
Kingsmill, D.S.O. ; Eighth Canadian Engineers Battalion,
Major E. J. C. Schmidlin, M.C, and Ninth Canadian Engineer

THE WINTER OF 1917-18 197

Battalion, Major N. R. Robertson ; the Fourth Canadian Engineer
Brigade, Lieut. -Col. W. L. Malcolm, was composed of the Tenth
Canadian Engineer Battalion, Major W. P. Wilgar, Eleventh
Canadian Engineer Battalion, Major H. L. Trotter, D.S.O., and
Twelfth Canadian Engineer Battalion, Licut.-Col. J. T. C.
Thompson.

Minor raiding activity, great artillery action and much digging
kept the Canadians busy during the first week of April. Small
clashes with the enemy occurred every night. Our guns took
advantage of the exposed positions, in which the check of the
German advance had left the hostile batteries, to shell them heavily.
On one occasion over ten thousand rounds of gas shell were fired
in one " shoot," resulting in a marked decrease in the liveliness
of the German artillery. All the men available, including drafts,
were used to dig new trenches and keep old ones in repair. This
was particularly urgent on the fronts of the First and Second
Divisions, where a new line had to be constructed at the edge
of the high-water mark of the enemy's tidal wave.

On April 7th two men of the Twenty-fifth Battalion, Corporal
C. A. Patriquin and Private J. H. Gardner, went out hunting
in No Man's Land. They encountered a German machine gun
nest, jumped in among the crew of five and took them prisoner.
They then returned to their trenches in triumph, driving their
captives, who carried the machine gun before them.

On April 8th the First Canadian Division relieved the Fourth
(Imperial) Division astride the Scarpe, having handed over
the front it held north of Neuville-Vitasse to the Fifty-sixth
(Imperial) Division.

On April 11th the storm of battle, forever playing up and
down the Canadian front, leaped to the portion of the line held
by Brigadier-General J. M. Ross, Fifth Brigade, in front of
Neuville-Vitasse. That day witnessed a powerful effort on the
part of the Germans to take what was left of the village. The
attack was the last lightning-stroke of the tempest which had
forced back the British line in March, and a form of accompani-
ment to that new tempest now in full flood in Flanders.

After a short and extremely violent bombardment the first
attack was delivered under an intense barrage at 4.35 a.m.
against the Twenty-second Battalion, Lieut. -Col. T. L. Tremblay,
C.M.G,, D.S.O., and the Twenty-fourth Battalion, Lieut. -Col.
W. H. Clark-Kennedy, C.M.G., D.S.O. The attackers numbered
eighty and came on in waves with great determination. The
fire of the Canadian rifles and Lewis guns met them, scattered
them, and drove back the remnant into the gloom whence they
came. At 9.15 a.m. the attempt was repeated, in spite of the
very heavy casualties already suffered, and the Germans, who

198 THE CANADIANS IN FRANCE

numbered about fifty, succeeded in occupying the position
normally held by a post of the Twenty-second Battalion, the
garrison of which had withdrawn for the moment to escape
the enemy's barrage. Lieut. Gelineau, of the battalion of French-
Canadians, grasping the situation instantly, at once led a counter-
attack, which retook the post and caused considerable loss to
the enemy. The Germans who survived fled to their own lines,
and in doing so were caught in our barrage — which never ceased
to lend its powerful aid to the harassed infantry — and many
died there.

For the third and last time the enemy attempted to achieve
their aim at 2 p.m. that day. The left company of the
Twenty-fourth Battalion was again attacked at that hour. The
Germans managed to penetrate between two advanced posts.
Savage fighting with grenades followed, and as a result the
Germans were all accounted for and the line was re-established.

There was no more activity on the Fifth Brigade front that
day, but the hostile artillery fired heavily and steadily during
the night, as if enraged at the failure of the infantry.

It was quite obvious that the Germans had intended to take
Neuville-Vitasse and, once taken, to keep it, for they all carried
two water-bottles and extra rations to sustain them during
the period of consolidation.

During the next few days several important adjustments of
the Canadian front were made. On April 12th the Corps ex-
tended its left and took over the front hitherto held by the Forty-
sixth (Imperial) Division. The Corps Commander thereupon
became responsible for the whole of the line from the Broken
Mill, south of the River Scarpe, to Chalk Pit Alley, near the
Chalk Pit on Hill 70. This covered a distance of over twenty
miles of front line and represented the widest front held by
Canadian troops during the war.

April 16th witnessed a fine piece of work by the Nineteenth
Battalion, Lieut.-Col. H. C. Hatch, D.S.O., holding the extreme
right of the Canadian line.

At about 9 a.m., following an intense bombardment, the
enemy attacked and captured two hundred and fifty yards of
the front line of the First King's Liverpool Regiment, on the
right of the Nineteenth Battalion. As a result, the flank of the
Canadians represented by " A " Company, under Captain M. C.
Roberts, was left " in the air." Captain Roberts proceeded to
act with promptitude. The lost trenches were not his affair,
but his flank was in danger. He accordingly launched a counter-
attack with one platoon commanded by Lieut. Borthwick. The
latter led his platoon in a dashing manner, until killed, and
they retook one hundred and fifty yards of the English trenches,

THE WINTER OF 1917-18 199

together with a few prisoners. This they proceeded to hold
until noon, when a platoon of the Liverpools arrived and took
over the trenches. The Nineteenth Battalion now lent two
platoons of " C " Company to the Imperial battalion, who
counter-attacked during the afternoon and recaptured the rest
of the line.

The combination between the two battalions thus resulted
in a complete restoration of the English positions.

The big raid of the season came on April 28th, and was made
by the Third Brigade, those veterans in the art. It was carried
out by the Fourteenth Battahon, Lieut. -Col. D. Worrall, M.C.,
on the right, and the Sixteenth Battalion, Lieut. -Col. C. W. Peck,
D.S.O., on the left. The main raid covered a total front of six
hundred yards and penetrated to a depth of four hundred yards.
The raid was made under cover of the usual " box " barrage
provided by artillery, trench mortars and machine guns, and
was made in two distinct parts — " A " Raid by the Fourteenth
Battalion, and " B " Raid by the Sixteenth Battalion.

Besides the main raid, separate subsidiary raids, known as
" C " and " D," were made at the same time on posts five hundred
and a thousand yards respectively to the north of the main attack.
These minor actions were entrusted to the Sixteenth Battalion.
Each battalion employed one company.

At 1 a.m. the barrage started and the raiders advanced. A
cloudy night had assisted the assembly, and the Fourteenth
Battalion broke into their objectives undetected. The first
objective was captured on time, with plenty of fierce fighting.
Numerous prisoners and machine guns were taken and the
bayonet was freely used. A number of dugouts were bombed
and destroyed.

Lieut. G. B. McKean, in command of " E " group of the
Fourteenth Battalion, met with a particularly desperate resis-
tance, but dealt with it in such fine style that he was subsequently
awarded the Victoria Cross.

The party he commanded was held up by a block in a com-
munication trench and came under a most intense machine gun
fire while pelted with innumerable bombs. The block was held
by two Germans, strongly wired all round and covered by a
machine gun within thirty yards. Disregarding the concentrated
fire raining about him, Lieut. McKean ran forward, got through
the wire and leaped on top of one of the men holding the block.
After a desperate struggle he shot the man dead with his revolver,
and similarly disposed of another man who rushed at him with
fixed bayonet. The machine gun he silenced, and then, when
bombs had come up, he led the attack on a second block. This
he rushed, killing two and capturing four of the garrison. The

200 THE CANADIANS IN FRANCE

remainder fled, taking a machine gun with them into a dug-
out. Lieut. McKean, still under the heaviest fire, proceeded to
destroy the dugout and with it the men inside.

The Sixteenth Battalion's men, under Captain Scroggie, M.C.,
were at this time in the thick of it. Just before the hour of
assault they were discovered, and a heavy fire was opened on
them as they lay within eighty yards of the enemy's outposts.
They endured the fire without flinching, and at the hour appointed
rushed forward. On the front of the main raid only two machine
guns put up any resistance, and these were quickly silenced.
Corporal Langtry was responsible for accounting for one, which
he did by killing the whole crew, single-handed, with the
bayonet.

After the barrage had rested for twenty minutes on the
second objective, the shell fire lifted and all the raiders of the
brigade pushed on to that objective, a trench full of deep dug-
outs two hundred yards ahead. All the dugouts were bombed
and destroyed and more prisoners fell into our hands. Where
the enemy refused either to surrender or leave the dugouts
they were killed without ceremony. On the Sixteenth Battalion
front Lieuts. Gibson and Tuxford had scaled an embankment
fifteen feet high in dashing style in order to lead their men to
the second objective.

■ " C " and " D " Raids were accomplished with equal success.
Lieuts. Cameron and Mclvor led " C " Raid and drove the enemy
before them, both being wounded as they did so. Lieut. Thomson,
leading *' D " Raid, was killed, but his men pressed on, took a
machine gun and destroyed post and garrison, thus avenging
their leader's death.

Their work accomplished, the raiders all withdrew. They
had achieved a notable success. The Fourteenth Battalion had
taken twenty-four prisoners, two machine guns and a trench
mortar, while the Sixteenth Battalion secured twenty-eight
prisoners — including an officer — and three machine guns. Eighty
dead had been counted in the trenches and a reliable estimate
placed the enemy's total casualties at two hundred. All this
had been done by less than three hundred Canadians at a cost
to themselves of only thirty-three casualties.

A notable feature of the raid was the readiness with which
the enemy in the open surrendered as soon as their officers were
killed.

On the following day a raid by the Fourth Brigade, with
five officers and one hundred and fortyfive men of the Nine*
teenth Battalion, Lieut.-Col. Hatch, and four officers and one
hundred men of the Twenty-first Battalion, Lieut. -Col. E. W.
Jones, D.S.O., brought excellent results. The raid was made

THE WINTER OF 1917-18 201

at 2 a.m. on a front of a thousand yards and penetrated to the
unusual depth of a thousand yards.

The advance was made under a dense barrage and gained all
its objectives. The Nineteenth Battalion, led by Lieut. Waldron,
M.C., and Lieut. Steward, attacked on the right and disposed
of all opposition with the bayonet. Six prisoners fell into their
hands, together with a machine gun. They accounted for at
least twenty of the enemy and lost only eleven themselves, all
of whom were wounded.

With the Twenty-first Battalion, under Major H. W. Cooper,
results were similar. One party, by smart work with rifle-
grenades, silenced a machine gun which was firing on the Nine-
teenth Battalion and captured the gun and the crew. Another
party, led by Lieut. Currie, M.M., broke through the strong wire
guarding a German post of six men, covering their movements
with a shower of grenades, and killed or wounded all who resisted.
Elsewhere machine guns and Germans were overpowered and
the covering party of the raiders had an opportunity to break
up a large body of Germans with small-arm fire, causing many
casualties. The total losses of the battalion amounted to fifteen,
all wounded.

By 2.45 a.m. the raiders were back in their own trenches,
with ten prisoners and four machine guns as trophies.

This ended the activity of April. Other forms of activity,
however, continued as they always did, being as necessary to
the life of an army in the presence of the enemy as breathing
to the men who held its lines. Patrol fighting, sniping, wiring,
trench maintenance, the ceaseless fire of artillery and machine
guns, and all the manifold industry of the non-combatant went
on. The Canadians were continuing to live up to their record
in all these things. In sniping, for example, they stood as high
as ever. Lance-Corporal H. Norwest, a Cree Indian of the Fiftieth
Battalion, since landing in France with his battalion, had so
excelled himself as a sniper that at this time he claimed one
hundred and one observed hits, each representing a German
certified by watchers as falling a casualty to his sure aim.

May came and the winter had gone. Spring had arrived.
The poppies were breaking in crimson pools along the dusty
flanks of Vimy Ridge. The woods of Chateau de La Haie were
clouding with green, the sun was drying the mud in the trenches,
the birds sang in the ruined skeletons of the mines. The end of
another winter had come, too, for the Canadian Corps — the
long winter of defensive tactics. Thenceforth they were to know
only the joy of offensive action, rising from victory to victory,
until the autumn brought respite to a broken and routed enemy.

The German assaults were not yet over. But Marshal Foch

202 THE CANADIANS IN FRANCE

had got the measure of his foes and was merely waiting for the
final effort before he struck. Men in high places were beginning
to think of the counter-attack. It was a right won by the
Canadians in years of battle that they should be in the forefront
of the counter-attack when the hour came.

Before they could be ready for this they needed rest and
training — training as a Corps, as one machine, so that they
might glean all the latest knowledge of assault, practise what
they learnt, and be able to act as one man in the attack.

On May 3rd, to free the Canadian Corps for this training, the
Seventeenth (Imperial) Corps began to relieve it. The Third
Canadian Division and a portion of the Fourth Canadian Division
were relieved upon that day. By May 6th the First Canadian
Division had also been relieved. On the following day the rest
of the Fourth Canadian Division were relieved. The Corps
Commander then handed over the front, and Corps Headquarters
moved from Camblain I'Abbe to Pernes.

The Imperial Divisions which relieved the Canadians were
the Fifteenth, Twentieth, Fifty-first, Fifty-second and Fifty-
sixth.

Certain Canadian troops were left in the forward area for
the time being. These were the entire Second Canadian Division,
which was still in the trenches of the Sixth (Imperial) Corps
and could not be spared ; and the Third, Eighth and Tenth
Brigades, which remained behind to support the Ninth, Eleventh
and Seventeenth (Imperial) Corps respectively.

CHAPTER XIII

AMIENS

May-August 1918

The First, Third and Fourth Divisions on relief proceeded to
the recognized training areas of the First Army. The First
Division went to Wanquetin, Beaufort and the neighbourhood ;
the Third Division went to St. Hilaire, Auchel and Dieval ; while
the Fourth Division was assigned to Magnicourt, Monchy-Breton
and the vicinity.

These troops were in reserve to the First Army. After a
short rest they began the most strenuous and thorough period
of training ever spent by them in France.

It is not proposed to describe this training in detail or to
refer to any but the most important events which occurred at
this time. Let it suffice to say that it went by progressive stages,
from the individual to the section, from the section to the platoon,
thence to the company, and so on until the whole Corps, horse,
foot and guns, and all the auxiliary troops, had practised evolu-
tions together. Open warfare was the chief theme, for it was
hoped that open warfare was to be the rule. Aeroplanes, tanks
and armoured cars frequently took part in these manoeuvres.
Thus the many complicated parts of the machine gradually learned
to work in perfect harmony.

While the rest of the Canadians were engaged in preparing
for attack, the Second Division was still hard at it near Neuville-
Vitasse, holding the line and giving the Germans no rest.

One of their most successful raids took place at 12.45 a.m.
on May 22nd and was launched by the Thirty-first Battalion.
It had for its objective a series of posts in the portion of Neuville-
Vitasse held by the Germans.

The raid was carried out by two companies, Captain H. Norris,
D.S.O., commanding one and Captain Robertson, M.C., com-
manding the other. The companies were to converge, one from
the west and one from the north ; a party from the Fourth
Field Company, Canadian Engineers, accompanied the latter

203

204 THE CANADIANS IN FRANCE

with the object of destroying a concrete observation post and
dugouts near the ruins of the church.

A noteworthy feature of the operation was the care with which
every man had been assigned to a definite objective and the deter-
mination with which the allotted tasks were accomplished.

Bright moonlight, while causing some anxiety lest it should
betray the raiders, nevertheless facilitated their assembly, which
was completed without casualties. When the drum-roll of the bar-
rage boomed out, the men pressed forward with great eagerness.

Two parties which had been assigned objectives beyond a
barricade were unable to overpower it. Strong barbed wire
had been erected in front of the barricade, and the Canadians
crowding around it were swept by the cross-fire of machine guns.
After several gallant attempts to surmount the obstacle, Lieut.
J. O'Hara being wounded as he led his men to the assault, the
men were finally compelled to withdraw. Another party of
twelve men, with Sergeant Holmes in charge, in the meantime
rushed and destroyed a strong point, accounting for the garrison,
and then pushed on and attacked a machine gun post further
up the road. Captam W. N. Graham, leading another party,
consisting of twenty-five men, went through the rest of the raiders
and became heavily engaged in an exchange of bombs with the
enemy. A mad rough-and-tumble struggle took place and
Captain Graham was severely wounded.

As an incentive to capture Germans rather than to kill them
all — the latter being the more prevalent desire among the men —
a prize of ten francs had been offered in this company for every
prisoner secured. One man, carried away by the excitement
and being business-like as well as aggressive, leaped down among
the Germans and was heard to shout, as he pitched one bodily
up to his comrades, " My name is Mitchell and the ten francs
is mine ! "

Private Leadbetter, already wounded in the face, was attacked
by three of the enemy in this melee. One of them seized him by
the wrist, but in spite of this hindrance he shot all three dead
with his revolver.

When the work of Captain Graham's party had been accom-
plished, Sergeant MacNieve, now in charge, led them back to
our trenches. On the way a body of Germans attempted to cut
them off, but they turned tail when attacked with the bayonet.
Lieut. Barman had now passed through to the final objective.
The enemy took refuge in a shallow trench and shammed dead
in the manner of ostriches. Failing to respond to shouts or blows,
they were systematically shot. A party of twelve fled, but, perfect
targets in the moonlight, were cut to pieces by the prompt fire
of a Lewis gun.

AMIENS 205

Captain Robertson's men had now destroyed the concrete
observation post and dugouts near the church. They met with
little opposition. A machine gun was taken by smart work under
the covering fire of rifle-grenades and a number of the enemy
were bayoneted.

When the raiders withdrew they brought with them eleven
prisoners and a machine gun.

This success had been bought by hard fighting in the face
of strong opposition from many machine guns and from deter-
mined posts of infantry.

One or two other raids brought May to a close. The morning
of May 26th witnessed a smart piece of work by Corporal Kelly,
of the Eighteenth Battalion. Corporal Kelly, supported by a
small covering party, went out alone into the enemy's positions.
A German sentry he surprised, sprang upon and overpowered.
Two men who rushed to the rescue he shot. Then he returned
to our trenches with his prisoner. A party of fifteen Germans
followed at a discreet distance and were fired upon by our men,
with the result that six were hit.

On June 3rd yet another brilliant raid was launched by the
Second Division. The Twentieth Battalion, Lieut. -Col. H. V.
Rorke, D.S.O., was entrusted with the task of raiding the system
of trenches known as the Maze, south of Neuville-Vitasse. The
Twenty-ninth Battalion, Lieut.-Col. W. S. Latta, D.S.O., at the
same time raided the enemy's line of outposts along the Arras-
Bapaume Road. The artillery and machine guns covered the
raid with a barrage and zero hour was 12.45 a.m.

Two companies, each finding tAvo parties of one officer and
thirty men, all commanded by Captain A. A. Smith, carried
out the raid of the Twentieth Battalion. Prior to the raid
the enemy was alert and watchful, illuminating the night with the
glare of many flares and breaking the strained silence with the
tapping of machine guns. Twenty minutes of violent fighting
yielded thirteen prisoners, a machine gun and a trench mortar
to the Canadian marauders.

While this was in progress two companies of the Twenty-
ninth Battalion, " A," under Major W. N. McLean, M.C., on
the right, and " C," under Captain O. H. Hepworth, on the left,
had been busy along the Arras-Bapaume Road. The advance
here was on a front of five hundred yards to a depth of three
hundred. Prior to zero the Germans showed as much nervous-
ness as they had in front of the Twentieth Battalion and fre-
quently threw bombs into their own barbed wire. As soon as
the Westerners appeared from the darkness on the heels of their
barrage most of the enemy fled, carrying their machine guns
with them, to set them up again at a safe distance and harass

206 THE CANADIANS IN FRANCE

our men with fire. Those that stayed fought hard and required
considerable fighting to overpower.

Certain individuals excelled their fellows. For example,
Lieut. H. Jefferies rushed a hostile machine gun single-handed,
killing three of the men behind it. A naturalized Canadian,
Sergeant Bogichavich, enjoyed bombing a large tunnel full of
Germans greatly. A candle was burning at the bottom of the
shaft where the cowering Germans lay awaiting death. Sergeant
Bogichavich hurled his grenades into the tunnel, and, as he
described it later, " de candle, she go out."

At the appointed hour the Twenty-ninth Battalion's men drew
off, having bombed or destroyed all the dugouts they came across,
and brought with them six prisoners and two machine guns.

Casualties among the Canadians as a result of the operation
were very slight.

An enemy raid, though in itself unimportant, is noteworthy
because it earned for one of the Canadians a Victoria Cross. On
June 9th the Germans attempted to raid the Twenty-second
Battalion, Major A. E. Dubuc, D.S.O. An intense bombardment
heralded this effort. While the shelling was in progress, Corporal
Joseph Kaeble, in charge of a Lewis gun section in a front-line
post, stood at the parapet, his gun shouldered and ready, so that
he might open fire the moment the Germans, who were holding
positions a very short distance away, should appear on the scene.
All the Lewis gun section save one were disabled by the bombard-
ment, but Kaeble stood calmly awaiting the enemy's rush with
contempt of the danger of death. Then the barrage lifted and
fifty Germans advanced against him.

He at once sprang upon the parapet and, firing one magazine
after another from the hip, though wounded many times by shells
and bombs, he checked the enemy. Finally he was mortally
wounded and Ml back dWng into the trench. But ere he lost
consciousness he shouted out to his comrades, •' Keep it up,
boys ! Don't let them get through ! We must stop them ! "
and fired his last cartridges at the enemy, now in full retreat.
Later he died. But the post had been saved by his indomitable
spirit. Elsewhere the enemy were repulsed.

June 25th witnessed the star effort of the Second Canadian
Dix-ision before the curtain came down on their performance
at Nem-ille-Vitasse. The raid was carried out by the Twenty-
seventh Battahon. Lieut. -Col. H. J. Riley, D.S.O., and the
Thirty-first Battahon, Major E. S. Doughty, with a party of
Canadian Engineers. The usual barrage covered the raiders,
as well as a bombardment of oil and gas drums just before the
hour of advance.

The assembly ha\-ing been carried out without discovery, a

AMIENS 207

ground-mist hiding the men from x-iew, the barrage besran at
1.15 a.m. and the Canadians advanced. The Twenty-seventh
Battahon advanced on the right, and the front covered by all
the raiders was one thousand yards to a depth of four hundred.

The Twenty-seventh Battalion met very irregular resistance.
The right company found no enemy. The right of the company
next to it did likewise, but the left of the company had some
fighting and took some prisoners. " C " Company, third from
the right, became hotly engaged and rushed a number of machine
guns and small groups of Germans. In one case Corporal Chipman,
at the head of his men, destroyed the crew of a machine gun
and took the gun. Similar incidents occurred elsewhere. With
" B " Company, on the left, Lieut. Parker and his men met the
fiercest opposition, were heavily attacked by the enemy and all
became casualties except one man, Lieut. Parker himself being
several times wounded. On the left of the company Lieut.
Moring led a rush on a machine gun, and two of the crew were
killed and the gun captured.

All objectives of the Twenty-seventh Battalion were taken
and the tasks assigned to it were performed.

The Thirty-first Battahon had equally severe fighting. " A "'
Company on the right lost its commander. Captain P. B. R.
Tucker, early in the raid. A desperate and swaying struggle
ensued. The left of the company was fired on very heavily
by machine guns, which the mist concealed from the eyes of
the covering party told off to deal with such trouble. " D "
Company on the left fought its way to its objectives in the teeth
of terrific fixe. Four out of five of its officers were hit at the
beginning, Captain H. Xorris, D.S.O., being killed. The X.C.O.'s
took up their duties and carried on with great bravery and resolu-
tion. Sergeant Rodwell, leading the attack on a sunken road,
set a fine example to all around him. A number of Germans
in a hut fought furiously against his men. f nder heav-\- fire
the sergeant climbed on top of the hut and dropped a Stokes
bomb LQto it through a hole. This he followed up with several
hand-grenades. The resistance inside collapsed. Eleven dead
Germans were counted in the hut.

Before the raiders of this battahon fell back, Lieut. J. H.
Gainor. M.C., planted in a conspicuous position a Canadian flag
and left it there, a defiant slap in the face of the enemy. Tied
to the staff was a message, which, translated, ran :

To O.C. No. 10 Co., 3rd Bn. I.R.

Next time we raid vou we will go through to your Battalion H.Q. The
moral of your company is damned rotten.

While the raiders were withdrawing, Lieut. WiUiams, of the

208 THE CANADIANS IN FRANCE

Thirty-first Battalion, who had ah-eady rushed a post and killed
two Germans, discovered the crew of a machine gun about to
set up the weapon to fire on our men as they withdrew. He
promptly bombed the gun, destroying the crew, and captured it.

The net results of the raid were extremely satisfactory. One
officer and twenty-one men had been taken and some estimated
that one hundred Germans had been killed.

The term of the Second Canadian Division with the Sixth
(Imperial) Corps was now over. On the whole the men had
enjoyed their stay. Much praise had been bestowed upon them
for their long and successful harassing of the enemy. They left
the Imperials with a reputation higher than ever.

The Third Canadian Division completed the relief of the
Second Canadian Division on July 1st, the former coming
under the control of the Sixth (Imperial) Corps and the latter
joining its comrades in the training areas.

By this time the Canadian Corps had practically completed
its course of training. The occasion was celebrated by a great
athletic meeting at Tinques, known as the Corps Sports Spring
Championship, on July 1st — Dominion Day. At this gathering
His Royal Highness the Duke of Connaught, Sir Robert Borden
and twenty-five thousand spectators were present, including
representatives from nearly every formation in France.

Within a week the Canadians were again in the trenches
north-east of Arras. On July 12th the Fourth Canadian Division
completed its relief of part of the Fifteenth and the whole of
the Fifty-first (Imperial) Divisions on the left of the front. To
the south the First Canadian Division on the following day took
over the line held by the rest of the Fifteenth and part of the
Fifty-sixth (Imperial) Divisions. Finally, on July 14th the
Second Canadian Division finished relieving the rest of the Fifty-
sixth (Imperial) Division. On July 15th the Seventeenth
(Imperial) Corps handed over command of the line to Canadian
Corps Headquarters, which moved to Duisans for the purpose.

The tenure of the Second Canadian Division did not last long,
for on July 18th the First Canadian Division relieved them and
they went out to reserve in Harbarq, Hcrmaville and Ecoivres.

It will be noted that the return of the Canadians to the trenches
coincided more or less with the first blow of Marshal Foch's
counter-attack on the Marne. They were to stay in front of
Arras for a very short time and were then to move elsewhere
on a deadly errand. Secrecy did not permit any of them to
know this yet. Their presence at Arras had in it a purpose —
it misled the enemy.

During the fortnight ending July they maintained their
customary activity. Several raids on a small scale, notably

AMIENS 209

by the Forty-fourth Battahon on July 19th, the One Hundred
and Seeond and Fifty-fourth Battahons on July 22nd, the Forty-
sixth Battalion on July 27th, the Sixteenth Battalion on the day
following, and the Seventy-fifth and Eighty-seventh Battalions
on July 29th, served to show the enemy that the Canadians had
returned.

In addition to these raids, eaeh of which accounted for a
dozen or so Germans, secured two or three prisoners and an
occasional machine gun, a larger operation by the Second Brigade
on July 2Gth in the vicinity of Oppy inflicted severe loss.

The raid was launched at 9 p.m. by the Tenth Battalion,
Lieut.-Col. E. W. MacDonald, D.S.O., M.C., represented by five
officers and one hundred and forty- seven men under Major B.
Walker, and the Fifth Battalion, Lieut.-Col. L. P. O. Tudor,
D.S.O., with nine officers and two hundred and forty-two men,
commanded by Major C. K. L. Pyman. The frontage of the raid
was about one thousand yards, the depth about three hundred.
The assembly was carried out on the night before the raid
in a novel manner. The men took up positions in old dugouts
and shelters in No Man's Land and lay there concealed throughout
the following day. The fact that they were not discovered
in itself testified to the patience and keenness of the men,
especially as heavy rain fell throughout and added to their
discomfort.

At zero, after a long and anxious day, the artillery and machine
gun barrage commenced and the Second Canadian Light Trench
Mortar Battery began firing high explosive, intermingled with
smoke shell to conceal the advance. The men sprang out and
pushed forward rapidly. Owing to their assembly so close to
the objective, the raiders took the Germans in the first objective
completely by surprise. They fled, and the objective was taken
without opposition. In the second objective the Germans were
only turning out when the Canadians burst in upon them. Lively
fighting followed. Ten sappers of the Third Battalion, Canadian
Engineers, assisted the Fifth Battalion in its " mopping-up."
Lieut. W. J. Cogland, of the Fifth Battalion, led his men in this
difficult operation with great skill and courage. Lieut. T. B.
Chapman, of the same battalion, continued to command his party
although wounded.

The Tenth Battalion, which had the task of protecting the
right of the Fifth, had little luck and saw no Germans.

At 9.45 p.m. the withdrawal of the raiders began and was
safely accomplished. On counting heads, it was found that our
casualties totalled twenty-five. In return the Canadians had
taken seven prisoners and a machine gun and had inflicted heavy
casualties in killed and wounded on the enemy.

14

210 THE CANADIANS IN FRANCE

On July 23rd a conference was held at Corps Headquarters.
It dealt with a proposed offensive against Orange Hill, east of
Arras. Then, suddenly, the projected operation was cancelled
— as a matter of fact, there had never been any intention to
launch it.

It then became known that, when the Canadians were relieved
by the Seventeenth (Imperial) Corps at the end of the month,
they were to proceed to Flanders, there to take part in a great
offensive. Orders were issued by the Corps for the move.

Before the relief, however, the CorjDs Commander took into
his confidence his chief subordinates, who in their turn gave to
their brigadiers and their staffs an outline of what was actually
to happen. No word of the truth went to the units of the Corps.
These did not know the plan until they arrived in the area behind
the scene of action.

On July 30th the Seventeenth (Imperial) Corps began the
relief of the Canadians and finished it on August 2nd. The
Fifty-sixth (Imperial) Division and a portion of the Fifty-seventh
(Imperial) Division relieved the First Canadian Division, while
the rest of the Fifty-seventh with the Fifty-second (Imperial)
Division relieved the Fourth Canadian Division. The Second
and Third Canadian Divisions, being out of the line, were not
relieved, but had, in fact, already begun the moves which were
to take them to the battle-ground.

Advantage had been taken, too, of the presence of these
formations in the back areas to utilize them in the elaborate
fabric of deceit whereby the Germans were completely baffled.
A battalion from each of these divisions was sent up to Kemmel
and put into the trenches there. These troops, by making
their presence known to the enemy, through studied carelessness
in conversations on the telephone and other methods, gave the
impression that the whole Corps was either in the Belgian trenches
or about to enter them. All the wireless sets of the four Canadian
divisions were sent to Flanders, there to use Canadian code
calls to the edification of the German receiving stations. Casualty
clearing stations were transferred to the Second Army, as if in
readiness to receive the huge losses of a great offensive.

Later, the troops involved, having done their work and suc-
ceeded in entirely bewildering the German High Command,
returned post-haste just in time to join in the real encounter.

The reasons for these elaborate precautions were many, but
chiefly they were designed to mislead the enemy as to where the
actual blow was to fall. Thus surprise effect might be obtained
and the Germans, unconscious of the menace to the real objective,
might be prevented from strengthening the force holding that
objective. So successful were these measures and those of keeping

AMIENS 211

the men destined for the assault in the dark until the last possible
moment, that the Germans never reinforced their two weak
divisions astride the Luee and the British thunderbolt fell out
of a clear sky and overwhelmed them.

The movement of the Canadians to the assembly areas began
on July 30th, when Corps Headquarters moved from Duisans
to MoUiens Vidame, a small village fifteen miles west of Amiens.
This movement transferred the Corps from the First to the Fourth
Army. On the same day the Second Division concentrated in
the area about Cavillon prior to moving forward.

On the following day the Third Division concentrated about
Hornoy.

Immediately afterwards the First Division, on August 2nd,
also began to move southward, and with it the Fourth Division.

The majority of the Canadian troops moved by train to the
primary assembly areas west of Amiens, entraining at Frevant,
Petit Houvin, Ligny St. Flochel, Aubigny, Savy and Tinques.
The artillery, with the exception of the batteries of the First
Division, moved by road, as did the motor transport. The
Second and Third Divisions began then to advance in stages
towards the line, followed by the First and Fourth Divisions,
and utilizing a broad strip of country south of Amiens as billeting
areas en route.

All moves were carried out at night, in omnibuses for the
most part, so that no spying German eyes on the ground or in
the air might discover the vast flood of troops rolling steadily
forward to break their ramparts to atoms. By day the men
and horses lay hidden in woods and villages, traffic being cut
down to a minimum.

Meanwhile the Australian Corps, holding the line south-east
of Amiens astride the River Luce, gave no sign of coming battle.
Australians continued to hold this line until the night of August
7th. Then quietly they gave place to Canadians of the Third,
Fourth, Eighth and Ninth Brigades, w^ho came up in the calm
clearness of the summer night and took over the front of battle
for the morrow. The Germans heard and suspected nothing.

The Canadian Corps in its entirety had hitherto been in hiding
immediately behind the front. The First Division had concealed
in Boves and the great wood of that name the First and Third
Infantry Brigades, with the units affiliated to it and the divisional
artillery. The Second Infantry Brigade and attached troops
were then in the trenches just west of the front line known as
the Blangy system. In that system also had been hidden the
Sixth Infantry Brigade with its attached units, and the Fourth
and Fifth Infantry Brigades, also with the units attached to them,
were in reserve trenches close behind the line. The Second

212 THE CANADIANS IN FRANCE

Division's artillery were in Boves Wood, The Third Division,
meanwhile, were assembled, the Seventh Infantry Brigade in
Saleux, the Eighth in support behind the front line, the Ninth
in Boves Wood, all with their affihated troops, while the artillery
were also in Boves Wood. The Fourth Division also occupied
Boves Wood, with the Eleventh and Twelfth Infantry Brigades
and their attached units, as well as the artillery, and the Tenth
Infantry Brigade and affiliated troops were in Saleux.

Elsewhere in the vicinity were all the many auxiliary units,
heavy artillery, cavalry, cyclists, signallers, machine gunners,
engineers and medical men, supply columns and so forth, required
to complete the machinery of that mighty force. The feat of
transferring that great host, as large as Wellington's Peninsular
Army, secretly and in one week from Arras to the concentration
areas south-east of Amiens was one of the most outstanding
achievements of the Canadian Corps.

While the Canadian Corps waited in ambush the men were
busily preparing for the battle, the plan and the object of which
had been fully explained to them on their arrival in the Amiens
area. The details of this project were as follows :

After the launching of the first counter-attack of the Allied
Armies on July 18th, it was decided to develop these attacks
until they should involve the greater part of the front. To
accomplish the gathering of troops and the despatching of supplies
necessary it was imperative to improve the lateral railway com-
munications of the Allies, which the German onrush had broken
in many places. The portion of railway which the British Army
had been ordered to set free was that from Paris to Amiens.
In order to set the railway free it was decided that first the
line of the old Amiens defences between Le Quesnel and Mericourt-
sur-Somme should be taken, the River Somme being used as a
shield to the left flank. As a development, the attack was then
to press on towards Roye and include the capture of Chaulnes,
a valuable railway junction, which would have the effect of cutting
the communications of the Germans at Montdidier and Lassigny.
Thus at one blow we would win back one great railway line for
ourselves and take another from the enemy.

In addition to these more important results, several other
lesser but extremely desirable objects would be attained by such
a victory. The German defence line, which had cost so much
to attain and which the enemy had hitherto held successfully,
would be shattered, and with it any hope he might still cherish of
some day securing Amiens. The moral effect of this achievement
alone, upon our troops and upon his, following fast the heavy
blow of the recent Marne battle and accompanied by inevitable
• and very serious losses in men, guns and material, would be very

AMIENS 213

great. Finally, after suffering these losses, in themselves con-
siderable, the enemy would find himself faced with the prospect
of withdrawing his line on the flanks of the battle-ground or having
it overwhelmed by reason of the awkward position in which it
would be left. Thus a great part of the recent gains bought
at so high a price would fall into Allied possession again.

The Fourth Army, with the First French Army, on the right
was given the task of freeing Amiens. The British troops selected
were the Canadian Corps on the right, the Australian Corps in
the centre and the Third (Imperial) Corps on the left.

The force available for the attack of the Canadian Corps,
in addition to the troops actually belonging to the Corps, con-
sisted of the following : the Third (Imperial) Cavalry Division ;
the Fifth Squadron of the Royal Air Force ; the Third and Fourth
Tank Brigades and the Canadian Independent Force. The last-
named was under the command of Brigadier-General R. Brutinel,
C.M.G., D.S.O., and consisted of the First and Second Canadian
Motor Machine Gun Brigades (each containing five eight-gun
batteries of machine guns on armoured cars and motor-cycles),
the Canadian Corps Cyclist Battalion and a section of six-inch
Newton trench mortars mounted on lorries.

There were also assigned to the Canadians many heavy and
light guns which will be mentioned in due course. The Thirty-
second (Imperial) Division came under the control of the Corps
at a later stage in the operations.

This great army, numbering fifteen brigades of infantry alone,
which totalled approximately forty-five thousand bayonets,
besides an immense array of cavalry, tanks and guns, was to
commence its -attack on a front of seven thousand five hundred
yards. Such was the length of the line which, covering Thennes,
crossing the Luce south-west of Hangard, thence running west
of the village through the western portion of the wood of that
name, swept south of Villers-Bretonneux to cross the railway
a mile east of that town, and from which the Canadians were
to issue at the appointed hour. On emerging from the line they
had to secure three objectives. The first was called the Green
Line. It ran from a point in the front line east of Thennes,
parallel to the Amiens-Roye Road as far as Hollan Wood ; thence
in a generally northern direction along the eastern face of Hamon
Wood east of Courcelles, through Cancelette Wood to a point
east of the station at Marcelcave. The Red Line, the second
objective, on the right touched a hamlet called Maison Blanche,
the northern outskirts of Cayeux (on the Luce) in the centre,
and cut the railway three-quarters of a mile east of Guillaucourt
on the left. Beyond this was the third and final objective,
called the Blue Dotted Line j this line ran roughly parallel tq

214 THE CANADIANS IN FRANCE

and a few hundred yards west of a switch railway from Hangest
to Rosieres. The objective followed this line as far north as
the Caix-Vrely Road. Thence it went north to a point three
hundred yards east of the level crossing where the road from
Harbonnieres to Rosieres crossed the railway from Rosieres to
Amiens.

The greatest distance to be covered from the jumping-off
line to the first objective, and thence to the second objective,
and from that line to the third objective was in each case about
three miles. In all, then, the maximum depth of the advance was
to be nine miles. It was an immense penetration ; but when
the Blue Dotted Line was taken the whole of the Amiens outer
defences would be once again in Allied possession.

It was, of course, intended that the troops, having taken
these objectives, should push on towards Chaulnes as soon as
possible. No definite stages for the advance on Chaulnes, however,
could be laid down, as these depended entirely on the situation
as it stood when the time came to drive home that phase of the
battle. The Higher Command entertained the hope that the
troops might overcome the Amiens outer defences before midnight
on the first day of the operations. This was the maximum distance
which the stoutest infantry could be asked to cover in one
day. The Blue Dotted Line, then, was practically an unlimited
objective, for it would take all the courage, dash and endurance
of the British, going " all out," to secure it before midnight
brought August 8th to a close.

In this, the plan, from an Allied point of view, was unique.
No Allied troops, since the days of Loos in September 1915,
had endeavoured to penetrate, in one day, to the fullest possible
depth the territory held by the Germans in the West. It was
a bold scheme, for which only the best troops could be employed,
on account of the far-reaching consequences of failure. The
Canadians rejoiced, not only because they had been selected
for the task, but also because for the first time they were to be
permitted to do their utmost against the Germans.

These were the arrangements made for the attack. On the
right of the Canadian Line the Third Division was to advance
as far as the Red Line. In the centre, the First Division
ended its attack when it reached the Red Line. The Third
(Imperial) Cavalry Division was then to pass through and
secure the Blue Dotted Line, whereupon the First Division
would resume its advance with the object of assisting the
cavalry, if necessary, or of taking over the line v,'hen gained. On
the left the Second Division was to secure the Red Line and then
thrust forward its left to take an intermediate objective called
the Blue Line, which was a line about two thousand yards long,

<! CS

m.s5

216 THE CANADIANS IN FRANCE

runnin<^ roughly east and west from the railway to the centre of
the Red Line as held by the Second Division. This Blue Line
was really the southern portion of an objective assigned to the
Australians beyond the Red Line. As soon as the Second Division
was on this line the Third (Imperial) Cavalry Division, passing
through the First Division, as already stated, at the same time,
would move through them and secure the Blue Dotted Line.
The Second Division was then to follow up the cavalry with
the same object as that with which the First Division so
advanced.

The task given to the Fourth Division was to follow the First
and Third Divisions as far as the Red Line. It was then to push
through these divisions on that line and move in the wake of
the cavalry to the Blue Dotted Line.

Brigadier-General Brutinel's force was to operate along the
main road to Roye, aiding the battalions and the cavalry wherever
it might be necessary and lending its speed to the pursuit. To
the machine gun battalions and the trench mortar batteries no
definite task was allotted. They were to help the advance as
the situation might demand. The artillery, that all-important
arm without which the whole plan was impossible, were first to
provide a barrage until the advancing infantry passed beyond
the extreme range of effective field gun fire. The batteries were
then to follow the infantry and lend all possible support.

Such, in general terms, were the duties of the various for-
mations under Canadian control. The order in which they were
to operate was as follows :

The Third Division, attacking on the right, employed, on
the right, the Ninth Brigade, and on the left the Eighth Brigade,
for the attack on the Green Line. These brigades used, in the
case of the Ninth Brigade, on the right the Forty-third Battalion,
Lieut.-Col. H. M. Urquhart, D.S.O., M.C., in the centre the
One Hundred and Sixteenth Battalion, Lieut.-Col. J. R. Pearkes,
V.C, M.C., and on the left the Fifty-eighth Battalion, Lieut.-
Col. R. A. MacFarlane, D.S.O., while the Fifty-second Battalion,
Lieut.-Col. Sutherland, supported the whole. The Eighth Brigade,
to which was assigned a narrower front, used the First C.M.R.
Battalion, Lieut.-Col. B. Laws, D.S.O. The Fourth C.M.R.'s,
Lieut.-Col. W. R. Patterson, D.S.O., supported the battalion,
and the Second and Fifth C.M.R.'s, commanded by Lieut.-Col.
G. C. Johnston, D.S.O., M.C., and Lieut.-Col. W. Rhoades, D.S.O.,
M.C., respectively, followed in reserve. For the attack on the
Red Line the Seventh Brigade alone was employed, the Royal
Canadian Regiment, Lieut.-Col. C. R. E. Willets, D.S.O., on
the right, the Forty-second Battalion, Major R. L. H. Ewing,
P.S.O., M.C, in the centre, and the Forty-ninth Battalion, Major

AMIENS 217

C. T. Weaver, on the left, with the Princess Patricia's, Major
C. J. T. Stewart, D.S.O., in reserve.

To assist the division in its attack the Tank Corps provided
a large number of tanks, which were distributed among the
brigades, fourteen to the Eighth Brigade and twenty-eight to
the Ninth Brigade, for the attack on the first objective. The
Seventh Brigade was allotted six tanks for the assault on the
second objective, while all tanks surviving from the first objective
were also to assist this brigade.

The artillery covering this division consisted of the divisional
artillery of the Third and Fourth Canadian Divisions, together
with the Eighth Army Brigade, Canadian Field Artillery, the
One Hundred and Fourth and the One Hundred and Seventy-
ninth Army Brigades of Imperial artillery. The Fortieth Brigade
of Imperial garrison artillery provided the heavy guns to support
the attack.

The foregoing were the dispositions made by the Third
Canadian Division for the advance south of the River Luce.
On the north the assault was delivered by the First Division
with the following :

For the capture of the Green Line the Third Brigade was
employed, assisted by twenty-two tanks. The Sixteenth Bat-
talion, Lieut.-Col. C. W. Peck, D.S.O., attacked on the right,
the Thirteenth Battahon, Lieut.-Col. G. E. McCuaig, D.S.O.,
in the centre, and the Fourteenth Battalion, Lieut.-Col. D.
Worrall, M.C., on the left, supported on the right by the Fifth
Battahon, Lieut.-Col. L. P. O. Tudor, D.S.O., of the Second
Brigade, and on the left by the Fifteenth Battalion, Lieut.-Col.
C. E. Bent, C.M.G., D.S.O.

After the Green Line was taken the First Brigade, passing
through, was to assault the Red Line, supported by the surviving
tanks from the first objective and six fresh tanks. The Second
Battalion, Lieut.-Col. L. T. McLaughlin, D.S.O., advanced on
the right, the Third Battalion, Lieut.-Col. J. B. Rogers, D.S.O.,
M.C., in the centre, the Fourth Battalion, Lieut.-Col. L. H.
Nelles, M.C., on the left, and the First Battalion, Lieut.-Col.
A. W. Sparling, D.S.O. , followed in reserve to the whole.

To the task of following up and assisting the cavalry to the
Blue Dotted Line the Second Brigade was assigned. This brigade
attacked with the Seventh Battalion, Lieut.-Col. W. F. Gilson,
D.S.O., on the right, and the Tenth Battalion, Lieut.-Col. E. W.
MacDonald, D.S.O., M.C., on the left. The Eighth Battalion,
Major T. H. Raddall, D.S.O., supported them, and in reserve was
the Fifth Battalion, which reverted to the Second Brigade
after the taking of the Green Line. For tank support these
battalions had to rely on any roving tank they might encounterj

218 THE CANADIANS IN FRANCE

as these moiisters would be ranging the country at will by
that time.

The artillery supjiorting these battalions was as follows :
the First and Fifth Canadian Divisional Artillery and the Seventy-
seventh Army Brigade of Imperial field artillery. The heavy
guns of the Ninety-eighth Brigade of Imperial garrison artillery
also supported them.

The Second Canadian Division planned to carry out its attack
in a similar way to that of the First Division. For the advance
to the Green Line it employed the Fourth Brigade, with the
Nineteenth Battalion, Lieut.-Col. H. C. Hatch, D.S.O., on the
right, and the Eighteenth Battahon, Lieut.-Col. L. E. Jones,
D.S.O., on the left, the Twenty-first Battalion, Lieut.-Col. E.'
W. Jones, D.S.O., in support, and the Twentieth Battalion,
Lieut.-Col. B. O. Hooper, M.C., in reserve. The Red Line was
then to be carried by the Fifth Brigade, using the Twenty-sixth
Battalion, Lieut.-Col. A. E. G. MacKenzie, D.S.O., on the right,
the Twenty-fourth Battalion, Lieut.-Col. W. H. Clark-Kennedy,
C.M.G., D.S.O., on the left, the Twenty-fifth Battalion, Lieut.-Col.
J. Wise, M.C., in support, and the Twenty-second Battalion,
Lieut.-Col. T. L. Tremblay, C.M.G., D.S.O., in reserve. For the
assault on the Blue and Blue Dotted Lines in the wake of the
cavalry the Sixth Brigade was utilized, the Twenty-eighth Bat-
talion, Lieut.-Col. A. Ross, D.S.O., on the right, the Twenty-
ninth Battalion, Lieut.-Col. W. S. Latta, D.S.O., on the left,
the Thirty-first Battalion, Major E. S. Doughty, in support, and
the Twenty-seventh Battalion, Lieut.-Col. H. J. Riley, D.S.O.,
in reserve. As the Twenty-ninth Battalion swung round on
the Blue Line the Thirty-first Battalion was to pass through
and press on the attack with the rest of the brigade.

A large number of tanks supported the division, operating
with the same methods as those supporting the First. The
guns covering the advance were the Second Canadian and Twelfth
(Imperial) Divisional Artillery, and the One Hundred and Fiftieth
Army Brigade of Imperial field artillery. The Third Brigade
Royal Garrison Artillery (Imperial) provided the necessary heavy
artillery support.

The Fourth Canadian Division had a very different task.
It had, it is true, only one objective— the Blue Dotted Line—
and that was in open country, after the rest of the Corps had broken
the enemy's backbone. On the other hand, it was required to
advance to an immense depth on a very wide front, and liable
to meet the heavy counter-attacks and stiffening resistance of
the Germans as they recovered from the first shock.

The Eleventh and Twelfth Brigades were employed in this
advance. The Eleventh Brigade, on the right, used the Fifty.

AMIENS 219

fourth Battalion, Lieut.-Col. W. B. Carey, D.S.O., on the right,
the One Hundred and Second Battahon, Lieut.-Col. F. Lister,
D.S.O., M.C., on the left, the Seventy-fifth Battalion, Lieut.-
Col. C. C. Harbottle, D.S.O., in support, and the Eighty-seventh
Battalion, Lieut.-Col. K. M. Perry, D.S.O., in reserve. The
Twelfth Brigade attacked with the Seventy-eighth Battalion,
Lieut.-Col. J. Kirkaldy, D.S.O., on the right, the Thirty-eighth
Battalion, Lieut.-Col. C. M. Edwards, D.S.O., on the left, the
Seventy-second Battalion, Lieut.-Col. J. A. Clark, D.S.O., sup-
porting the former and the Eighty-fifth Battalion, Lieut.-Col.
J. L. Ralston, the latter.

Behind these brigades came the Tenth Brigade, in reserve,
the divisional machine guns and the divisional artillery, which,
after firing in the initial barrage, were to limber up and follow
their own infantry. Thirty-four tanks assisted the division.

Besides the heavy artillery allotted to the divisions, a great
number of guns — six brigades of Royal Garrison Artillery, three
six-inch batteries and a battery of twelve-inch guns — under
Corps control, was to cover the attack. These guns were to keep
down the fire of the enemy's guns. In the immense force of
artillery allotted to the Canadian line — totalling over four hundred
light and two hundred and forty heavy pieces — hope and pride
ran high. The majority of the guns were tied down to conven-
tional barrage work up to and, on the right, where the line was
nearer, beyond the first objective. Afterwards, however, they
were to be free to do their part in the open warfare which would
follow the breaking of the German defences.

On the night of August 7th the troops began to take their
places for the assault. The three leading divisions, moving out
of the positions where they lay concealed, assembled in areas to
a depth of three miles in rear of the front line. Behind them,
around the Bois de Gentelles and for a further three miles between
the main roads from Amiens to Villers-Bretonneux and Roye,
the Fourth Division assembled.

The artillery at this time completed its assembly, which had
commenced three days before. The tanks, which had been
concealed in Gentelles and Trouvilles Woods during the day,
moved forward to positions a thousand yards behind the line
from which the leading infantry were to start. During the
day Corps Headquarters had moved to Dury, whence they were
to direct the battle. Divisional Headquarters had also moved
to their battle stations, the First in the western end of the Bois
de Gentelles ; the Second just west of Blangy Wood ; the Third
to the Quarry at Domart and the Fourth to the eastern end of
the Bois de Gentelles.
i The night of August 7th was clear and mild, giving promise

220 THE CANADIANS IN FRANCE

of a fine, warm day to follow. The sky was ablaze with stars,
which gave a vague, uncertain light. Through the night came
the trampling of unseen hosts and the hoarse roar of the tanks
feeling their way forward. Big bombing machines flew up and
down over the German positions to drown the noise of the tanks,
which, on a still night, could be heard a great way off. This
they effectively did, for there was no alarm in the enemy's
territory.

At 2.10 a.m. the assembly was complete and there was silence.
An occasional gun flashed, but there was to be no preliminary
bombardment, no concentrated artillery fire to give away our
intentions before the hour came. So the random gun spoke, a
rifle cracked here and there, a machine gun hammered a note or
two, but all else was still.

At precisely 4.20 a.m., August 8th, the guns shattered the
dawn with a grand, united burst of stupendous thunder, and every-
where on the twenty-mile front between the Somme and the
Avre the British troops went forward. The hurricane broke
madly on the unsuspecting Germans and they were overwhelmed.

The Canadians, with the Forty-second French Division of
the Thirty-first Corps of the French First Army on the rigkt
and the Fifth Australian Division on the left, pushed forward
rapidly. The French attack did not start until 5.05 a.m., but
the Anzacs began to advance at the same time as the Canadians.

A heavy ground-mist hung in the valleys and along the rivers
as the attacking troops advanced, and did not clear up until
the sun had risen well above the eastern horizon. While in
one respect this aided our men, in that it hid them from the
enemy, in others it proved a great disadvantage, for it also screened
the Germans and the landmarks which the Canadians wished
to use as guides. Their long training, however, and their adhesion
to the compass as a means of keeping direction, prevented any
confusion. But some of the tanks lost their way, and conse-
quently were late when the attacks on certain objectives developed.
This was not surprising, for a tank at all times was an extremely
difficult creature to drive, and in a mist almost impossible to
keep in a straight course.

Nevertheless, tanks and infantry as a whole pushed forward
with speed and precision.

The German artillery was completely surprised by the power-
ful and unexpected bombardment, and from the first did not
stand a ghost of a chance. In many cases their batteries never
got into action at all, either because the rapid and accurate fire
entirely prevented the newly roused gun-crews from getting at
their guns or destroyed the crews before they could fire a shot'.
Jlere and there, as on the right of the Second Division, which wsts

AMIENS 221

bombarded comparatively heavily for an hour before zero and
a short time afterwards, or at Domart, where the bridge was
violently shelled, the reply was vigorous. But on the whole
it was weak and wild.

Pushing on resolutely, disregarding the presence of minor
groups of the enemy until they could be dealt with at leisure
and systematically enveloping the more formidable obstacles,
the attackers made rapid progress. The German resistance was
of a very irregular variety, but all efforts at defence were swamped
and the Green Line was taken everywhere on schedule time.

The Forty-third Battalion enveloped the large Dodo Wood
in fine style, entering the place, which was full of machine guns,
at 5.30 a.m. from the north, and finally clearing it after two
hours of hard fighting. Elsewhere the battalion, though at
first troubled by the mist, secured all its objectives within the
allotted time. Hollan Wood was secured after a brief struggle.

The One Hundred and Sixteenth Battalion at 6 a.m. encoun-
tered an attempt by the enemy to make a stand on the road from
Dodo Wood to Hangard, but turned the flank of the Germans
and soon overpowered them. Without much more difficulty it
stood triumphant on the Green Line by 7.30 a.m. The marshy
ground along the Luce gave the Fifty-eighth Battalion a good deal
of trouble, as it was covered with wire and swept by machine
guns. In spite of this, the battalion made extremely swift pro-
gress. Demuin they outflanked from four sides and Courcelles
fell into their hands a little later. The tanks, the terrific weight
of the artillery and the dash of the infantry proved such an
effective combination that great numbers of prisoners, machine
guns and guns were taken by this brigade with ridiculously small
casualties.

The First C.M.R. Battalion meanwhile had been keeping pace,
with their comrades on the right. Moving along the north bank
of the Luce, they quickly captured Hangard. Shortly after 8 a.m.
the battalion was in possession of its full share of the Green Line,
had established a bridgehead south of the river and pushed out
patrols to keep in touch with the Canadians on that side. This
was accomplished despite an eighteen-foot gap in the bridge
at Hangard, the men getting over as they could and under fire.
As an example of the efficiency of the Canadian Engineers it
may be mentioned that this bridge, together with that at Demuin,
which was also destroyed by the Germans, had been repaired by
11 a.m. and field guns were hurrying over it in the wake of the
infantry, now miles ahead.

The First Division covered the great distance between its
jumping-off positions and the Green Line in remarkably quick
time. An extremely strong system of trenches about half-way

222 THE CANADIANS IN FRANCE

to the objective constituted the enemy's main resistance Hne,
covering his gun-positions. Except on the right, he fought very
hard in this hne and showed httle or no inchnation to surrender.

It was not until they were nearing the road junction north
of Demuin that the Sixteenth Battahon encountered serious
resistance. Heavy casualties were caused at this point. The
defence was beaten out largely owing to the intrepid conduct
of Lieut. McLellan, the battalion scout officer, who crept up a
sunken road occupied by the German machine gunners and calmly
shot five of them dead with his revolver. A similar deed by
Private Sumner, who shot the whole crew of the machine gun
which offered resistance in Aubercourt, secured that village for the
battalion a little later. Thus bit by bit the enemy were gradually
jostled from ridge to ridge, abandoning many machine guns
among the large numbers of dead strewn over the ground. A large
quarry was stoutly defended by a hapless German brigadier
and his staff just before the Sixteenth reached the Green Line,
but the tanks quickly put an end to this and the brigadier and
staff were taken.

To the north the Thirteenth Battalion had a hard nut to
crack in Hangard Wood, but it was smartly enveloped with the
aid of tanks. A trench in the German main line of resistance
then offered a serious obstacle, but Stokes mortars and dogged
infantry finally carried it in triumph, numerous prisoners being
taken. Then, disregarding the desperate stand of the crews,
who fought frenziedly with pistols, rifles, rammers and point-
blank gunfire, the battalion pushed on and captured several
German batteries.

Morgemont Wood offered a violent opposition to the Fourteenth
Battalion, which had perhaps the hardest fighting of the Third
Brigade. When its teeth were drawn the wood yielded eight
machine guns and many prisoners. After overcoming further
strong machine gun fire a short distance ahead — the Third
Battalion, following close behind, lent invaluable assistance in
the silencing of these guns — the Fourteenth Battalion, emerging
from Morgemont Wood, came upon the enemy's main resistance
line. The Germans here were evidently made of stern stuff,
for they fought very hard. The Canadians at considerable cost
forced their way into a position whence they took the trench
in enfilade and the enemy raised the white flag. When our
men advanced to take the surrender, the rottenness of the German
character again showed itself, for a very heavy fire was at once
opened on them. Needless to say, when the Canadians returned
this with so fierce a fusillade that more white flags rose up, these
were disregarded. The garrison was exterminated and the
attackers pressed home their final assault.

AMIENS 223

During this advance light trench mortars proved extremely
useful against hostile machine guns, in several cases locating
these in the thick mist by the flashes alone.

In the attack on the first objective the Second Division met
strong resistance. As already mentioned, the Germans were
alert and were shelling this front before zero. Owing to the mist,
the tanks which were to assist this stage of the assault were so
delayed that the infantry had to go forward without them. Never-
theless the Fourth Brigade lived up to its record and took the
Green Line on time.

At first machine gun fire and shelling were very severe and
casualties were heavy. Lieut. -Col. E. W. Jones, D.S.O., com-
manding the Twenty-first Battalion, was wounded so severely
that he died shortly afterwards. The Eighteenth Battalion
encountered fierce machine gun fire in Morgemont Wood. In
spite of severe losses it helped the Fourteenth Battalion to over-
power this fire, Captain R. O. Rayward conducting this operation.
He also led his men to the capture of a battery of eight-inch
guns in the northern portion of the wood. Cancelette Wood
next succumbed to this battalion, great havoc being wrought
among the enemy in a ravine near the wood and among those
who attempted flight in preference to surrender. At 7.45 a.m.
the Eighteenth Battalion held all its objectives.

The Nineteenth Battalion an hour after the attack started
was held up on the left. Captain R. H. Bliss quickly organized
an operation for the silencing of the opposing strong point, which
was rushed and destroyed. At 6.30 a.m. the battalion, closely
supported by the Twenty-first Battalion, was in Marceleave.
Brisk fighting took place among the houses, and many prisoners,
including several senior commanders, and a number of machine
guns were secured. East of Marceleave many guns were taken,
the crews in most cases flying for their lives or, if they remained,
taking no action to defend themselves, being paralysed with
surprise and fear.

These were the chief incidents of importance in the capture
of the Green Line by the Corps. Scores of batteries were now
on the move. The first guns had limbered up and galloped after
the infantry within half an hour of zero, and soon after the Red
Line assault was launched — at 9 a.m., to be exact — all close
support batteries were on the move. Many of the captured
German guns, manned by special parties of British gunners,
had been slewed round by this time and were firing furiously
into the retreating troops they had been supporting shortly
before.

At 8.20 a.m. the battalions assigned to the assault on the
Red Line began their advance.

224 THE CANADIANS IN FRANCE

So mpid was the progress of the Seventh Brigade that it
was passing over Hill 104 by 8.30 a.m. The Royal Canadian
Regiment cleared Valley Wood and a co]3se named Wheelbarrow
Wood, and by 9,45 a.m. held all the objectives assigned to it.
The Forty-second Battalion, equally determined, rendered useless
the fire of a number of German guns by clever manoeuvring.
At 10 a.m. the battalion, with the Forty-ninth Battalion on the
left, had taken the Red Line.

The brigade received considerable assistance in its advance
from the tanks which had survived the attack upon the Green
Line. It met little resistance, on the whole, and machine guns
were the chief trouble. Once the German guns were in British
hands, the hostile artillery fire diminished greatly, and none of
the Canadian units attacking the second and subsequent objectives
was strongly opposed by German batteries.

The Independent Force, having rushed through the Green
Line, was soon at close grips with the enemy. It quickly formed
the desired link between the first and the second objectives.
The French were in difficulties at Mezieres, which proved ex-
tremely formidable and resisted stoutly. A platoon of the Royal
Canadian Regiment, under Lieut. J. W. Miller, had already
secured a footing in the eastern end of the village and were of
much assistance. A battery of machine guns commanded by
Captain W. T. Trench, of the Independent Force, hurried up
through intense fire and joined in the struggle for the village.
The effect of these guns was so great that Mezieres soon fell and
the French were able to proceed.

In the meantime the First Division was moving on irresistibly.
The Second Battalion captured Ignaucourt without great diffi-
culty, and the adjoining farms were quickly in their hands. East
of Ignaucourt a number of machine guns caused a check, but
dogged determination accounted for these and the valley south
of Cayeux was reached. Here direct artillery fire caused consider-
able loss. The guns were silenced in a short time, however,
and at 11 a.m. the battalion stood triumphant on the Red Line.
Cayeux was cleared with the bayonet.

The Fourth Battalion, on the left of the Second, crossed the
Luce under fire. When Lemaire Wood was reached very fierce
machine gunning caused a check, and the battalion worried its
way through this fire to the vicinity of Ruisseau Wood, its Lewis
guns covering every yard of the advance. At Ruisseau Wood
the enemy's machine guns developed an intense fire and it
became impossible to proceed. A tank was sent for, and one of
these friendly monsters arrived and gave its powerful aid. The
Wood was cleared and the battalion, passing on, helped to clear
Cayeux, and was soon on its objective.

AMIENS 225

The Third Battalion also encountered desperate resistance
at Lemaire Wood and in the vicinity of Stove Wood to the east.
While Lewis guns and snipers engaged the enemy, tanks and
reinforcements were sent for. Reinforcements arrived at 10.25 a.m.
and the advance went on slowly, heavily covered by Lewis guns.
The tanks, four of them, arrived twenty minutes later. The field
gun firing at point-blank range, the deadliest enemy of the tank,
instantly got into action and two of the tanks were destroyed.
Undeterred by the fate of their companions, the remainder
assaulted the German machine gunners with the greatest gallantry.
Within ten minutes the enemy broke in disorder. The advance
was then pressed home. All objectives were finally taken by the
Third Battalion at 11.30 a.m.

Too much praise cannot be given to the tanks of the Fourth
Tank Battalion assisting the First Division at this stage. Twelve
tanks survived the assault on the Green Line, and they joined in
the attack on the Red Line with fine courage and skill.

The Second Division meanwhile had been desperately engaged
at Pierret Wood, on the left of the line and west of Wiencourt.
The tanks had come up by this time. Tanks and infantry co-
operated to clear the Wood and it was eventually overpowered,
yielding over one hundred and fifty prisoners and a large number
of guns. After Pierret Wood fell the advance was thrust on
swiftly. The Germans fought hard in places, notably in small
woods and copses, and wherever they resisted caused severe loss.
In the villages, however, their defence was weak. Wiencourt
was taken by 9.20 a.m.; Guillaucourt half an hour later, and very
soon afterwards the Fifth Brigade could call the whole of the
Red Line its own.

The Canadian Corps, as a whole, stood on its second objective
by 10.30 a.m.

The hour had now come for the employment of the cavalry,
which had orders to take the Blue Dotted Line and, if possible,
to go on still further. They were assisted by the Third Tank
Brigade, mainly composed of whippets, or light tanks of great
speed. Immediately after the taking of the Red Line the cavalry
rode boldly forward through the Canadian infantry. It was
the first occasion during the war on which British cavalry on the
Western Front had been able to drive in an attack on a large
scale, and they made the most of it. They presented a magnificent
spectacle — five miles of horsemen covering a depth of one thou-
sand yards, the sun on their lances and sabres. The Canadians
cheered them, and they waved a reply and began to break into a
gallop. So they vanished with the whippets " into the blue,"
spreading the fear of death like wildfire in the broken ranks of
the enemy.

15

226 THE CANADIANS IN FRANCE

As soon as the horsemen had gone through it became the duty
of the infantry to press forward in their support. No definite
hour at which the battaUons were to move could be laid down.
They advanced as soon as it was possible to do so.

Among the first to advance was the Second Brigade of the
First Division, which followed hard on the heels of the cavalry.
Owing to the presence of the squadrons in front and the dis-
organization in the German lines the brigade had very little
resistance to overcome. Shortly after 1 p.m. they took over
Caix from the cavalry, who, with the tanks, had mopped up the
place two hours before, and established themselves on the final
objective. They lent very valuable aid to the troops on the flanks
by enfilading strong points, groups of Germans and hostile guns,
on the front of neighbouring divisions, which caused trouble.

The Fourth Division had a task of peculiar difficulty in getting
to the scene of its deployment. It was the only entire Canadian
division which had to cross the Luce River during the battle
before it could attack. In spite of the destruction of numerous
bridges the whole division, including transport, had crossed the
river by 10.30 a.m.

The infantry by that time were completing their assembly
along the Moreuil-Demuin-Courcelles Road, and orders were
issued for the advance from that line to begin at 12.10 p.m.
Accordingly, the division advanced at that hour, and within thirty
minutes had passed through the Third Division and were pushing
on after the cavalry.

It was inevitable that certain German units would stand fast
and put up a strong defence, especially as the first wave of terror
had by this time dissipated itself. This occurred on the front
of the Fourth Division and led to desperate fighting.

The Eleventh Brigade, advancing on Beaucourt, found that
the cavalry had gained a footing in the place after a severe
struggle. They had suffered heavily from machine gun fire
coming from Beaucourt Wood and from the direction of Fresnoy,
to the south. The Fifty-fourth Battalion arrived at a most
opportune moment and, advancing with great gallantry through
the village, finally secured it. They then pushed on to the
attack on Beaucourt Wood.

This evil spot was full of guns and machine guns, which
opened heavy fire on the advancing infantry. It had so far
resisted all efforts, and dead cavalrymen and horses, with the
shattered remains of several tanks spurting flames, provided
a bloody and terrible warning to those who would attempt to take
it. Disregarding these things, Lieut. -Col. Carey reconnoitred
the position and then courageously led an attack upon it, though
it was not on his front. Spasmodic fighting continued all around

AMIENS 227

the wood until the One Hundred and Second Battalion arrived.
This battalion at once hurled itself on the enemy, and at 4.30 p.m.
the wood was cleared. Over one hundred and fifty prisoners
were taken out of it.

The Seventy-fifth Battalion in the meantime had been engaged
with equal ferocity at Le Quesnel. Very intense fire of all de-
scriptions held up the battalion. The country here was flat and
entirely open, the villages of Le Quesnel and Fresnoy, which
commanded every yard of it, sweeping the ground with machine
guns. Fresnoy had not yet been taken by the French, and was
a thorn in the side of the Seventy-fifth Battalion for the greater
part of the afternoon. Eventually, the battalion succeeded in
establishing itself on the line from which it was originally intended
to take Le Quesnel. Here the battalion was left, with instructions
to push men into the village by twos and threes during the night,
should this be possible.

The Twelfth Brigade met with equally fierce resistance.
Peronne and St. Quentin Woods it secured with comparative
ease. As soon as the men emerged from these woods, however,
they came under terrific fire from the front and right. A large
quarry, the wood north-east of Beaucourt, a hospital on the right
flank and several other places proved to be strongholds filled
with machine guns. The Quarry was taken by a very fine piece
of combined action in which a company of the Seventy-eighth
Battalion, a field gun battery, several tanks and a six-inch mortar
co-operated.

The Seventy-eighth Battalion then pushed on and took its
objectives. Two companies of the Seventy-second Battalion
passed through them and drove home the final blow. In the
face of violent small-arm fire the battalion pushed its way to
the Blue Dotted Line and was in full possession of that line shortly
after 6 p.m.

The rest of the Twelfth Brigade, except for a certain amount
of machine gunning north of Cayeux, met little resistance and
was able to secure all its objectives. Before darkness brought
a close to that wonderful daj^ the whole of the Fourth Division,
except on the right, held the Blue Dotted Line. The achievement
was remarkable, for the majority of the men had marched ten
miLes since zero. Yet spirits were high, for the air was full of
victory.

It is impossible to exaggerate the gallantry of the tanks
which supported the Fourth Division and the cavalry. Out of
thirty-four tanks of the First Tank Battalion, only six got to
the final objective. In the fighting near Le Quesnel nine tanks
were put out of action by a battery firing over open sights. Only
one actually reached the village, and this had to retire.

228 THE CANADIANS IN FRANCE

The Independent Force did fine work during this stage of
the advance. Corporal C. G. Kirkham did particularly well.
The armoured car in which he was fighting came under severe
fire during the afternoon, when the Force was assisting the French
in the attack on Fresnoy, and the driver was wounded. Corporal
Kirkham thereupon took the wheel and drove the car remarkably,
penetrating the enemy's lines time after time through intense
machine gun fire and bringing back valuable information. He
drove the car four hours and enabled much loss to be inflicted
on the enemy.

The Independent Force fulfilled its duty of protecting the
Canadian right, assisting the cavalry and acting as a link between
the horsemen and the French in a remarkable manner.

While the Fourth Division Avas desperately engaged, the Second
Division was in the progress of securing its final objectives with
the Sixth Brigade. This brigade, passing through Marcelcave
shortly after midday, launched its attack at 4.30 p.m., and,
under a certain amount of shell fire, passed through the Ninth
Hussars on the Blue Line and secured its objective.

Thus ended the greatest day in the history of the Canadian
Corps as a unit of shock action, and one of the most brilliant
attacks in the annals of Allied arms. The battle-line that night,
as held by French and British, included the villages of Plessier,
Fresnoy, Caix, Harbonnieres and Morcourt, and in many places
lay over a mile to the east of these hamlets. Nearly seventeen
thousand prisoners and over four hundred guns, besides vast
stores of ammunition and material, had been taken. The front
line of dawn on August 8th was now nine miles behind the fore-
most of the Allied outposts. Practically every inch of ground
and every aim to which the British had aspired Avas reached. For
the first time in the history of the war on the Western Front
British cavalry had achieved a great offensive success. For
the first time since Loos, Allied infantry were allowed to go forward
to the limit of their desire, and well they had borne themselves.
In surprise and thoroughness and dash the victory was complete.
The Canadians had performed their full share in the operations
and reaped the full fruits of their victory. Nearly four thousand
prisoners, hundreds of guns and enormous numbers of machine
guns had fallen into their hands. Their advanced troops lay
that night with the old Amiens outer defences in their possession,
tired and chilled, but happy.

Mention should be made of the actions Avhich later were
recognized by the bestowal of Victoria Crosses. Two of these
were won by the Thirteenth Battalion in their advance to the
Green Line. Corporal James H. Good accomplished many heroic
deeds against hostile machine guns. Three of these he rushed

AMIENS 229

single-handed, under very heavy fire, killed many of the crew,
and captured the rest as well as the guns. Later on, in the
attack on the enemy's guns, he led three of his comrades to
the attack on a battery of 5-9's. The gunners fought desperately,
firing point-blank at the indomitable quartet, but Corporal
Good and his friends quickly overpowered them, capturing three
guns and the remnants of the crews.

Private John Bernard Croak distinguished himself greatly.
In the early stages of the attack he went hunting by himself,
found a machine gun in action and bombed it with such fury
that gun and crew became his captures. He then rejoined his
platoon, although wounded, and went with it to the attack. Shortly
afterAvards a machine gun nest in a trench was encountered.
Private Croak led a magnificent charge under heavy fire, was
first into the trench, and was largely instrumental in killing or
capturing the whole garrison, three machine guns being taken.
The bayonet came into its own in this episode. Then Croak
was severely wounded and soon his gallant soul passed
away.

Corporal Harry Bedford Miner, of the Fifty-eighth Battalion,
was another who won the Cross on August 8th, but gave his
life as he did so. Early in the advance he received several severe
wounds, but he resolutely refused to leave his men. The attack
proceeded and Corporal Miner went with it. A German machine
gun soon gave him an opportunity. He dashed forward alone,
killed the whole of the crew, and turned the gun on the retiring
Germans. Later, assisted by two men, he attacked and put
out of action another machine gun. Finally, he attacked an
enemy bombing post single-handed, and in a desperate fight killed
two of the Germans and put the rest to flight. But in this
encounter he received a fatal wound and died before sunset.
His memory remains, for it cannot die.

These are but typical examples of the feats by individuals
that made the advance of August 8th possible.

The alarm of the Germans showed itself throughout the hours
of darkness following the taking of the Amiens outer defences.
Everywhere the eastern sky glared and thudded with the explosions
of abandoned German ammunition dumps and was shot with
flames from blazing camps, villages and rolling stock. The hostile
transport and guns and masses of men streamed all night long
over the country in full retreat for the Somme, harassed at every
step by Allied aircraft.

The British generals had no intention of allowing the oppor-
tunity presented by this flight to slip through their fingers.
While the night went on orders were being rapidly issued for
the resumption of the advance on the morrow, towards Chaulnes

230 THE CANADIANS IN FRANCE

and Roye, thrusting back the enemy in the general direction
of Ham.

The first step to be taken was the subjection of Le Quesnel,
which hitherto had resisted the attempts of the Eleventh Brigade
to dribble men into it. The Third Division, which yesterday's
attack had left on the Red Line, but which during the afternoon
and evening had reorganized and j^repared for a new advance, was
then to pass through the brigade and attack the villages of Folies,
Bouchoir, Parvillers, Le Quesnoy and Damery. On their left
the First Division, shifting its whole front southward, was to
advance on Beaufort, Warvillers, Rouvroy and Fouquescourt,
after it had passed through the Twelfth Brigade. The Second
Division, on the left of the First, was to resume the advance and
capture Vrely, Rosi^res, Meharicourt, Maucourt and Chilly.

At the same time the French on the right were to secure
Andechy, while the Fifth Australian Division on the left were to
take Lihons, Framerville and Mericourt.

The Canadians were still to have the assistance of the In-
dependent Force, which was to continue to operate along the
main Roye road and thence along the main road to Noyon, if
possible. They were also to be assisted by all the remaining
tanks of the Fourth Tank Brigade. Each division was to be
covered by its own artillery, a battery of sixty-pounders and
one of six-inch howitzers.

The general idea of the advance was a movement in support
of the cavalry, who, as soon as the infantry relieved them on the
Blue Dotted Line, had pushed forward anew. Owing to the
extremely stiff resistance of the enemy, the cavalry made little
progress and the attack became an infantry operation, which was
somewhat aided by the presence of scattered groups of cavalry
which had secured a footing here and there in front.

While this was going on the Fourth Canadian and Thirty-
second (Imperial) Divisions were to remain in reserve, covered
by their own guns and all others not mentioned as supporting
the advance, and consolidate the Blue Dotted Line. This line
was to be maintained as a position on which the attacking troops
could retire if compelled to do so. The Thirty-second (Imperial)
Division, which had marched from Amiens on the previous day,
was now under the orders of the Canadian Corps and moved early
in the morning to the Blue Dotted Line.

In accordance with this scheme the Seventy-fifth Battalion
attacked Le Quesnel at 4.30 a.m. on August 9th, and an hour
later was in full possession. The battalion then pushed on and
captured Quesnel Wood. All resistance was finally stamped out
and touch gained with the Eighty-seventh Battalion at 11 a.m.
The main attack was to be resumed by 10 a.m. Owing,

AMIENS 231

however, to unavoidable delays, caused by the necessity of carrying
out minor repairs, replenishing with fuel and ammunition and
reorganizing, the tanks were not able to arrive in time to start
the advance at that hour. It was not until considerably later
that the new attack began.

To deal first with the Eighth Brigade, carrying forward the
thrust of the Third Division. The Fifth C.M.R. Battalion,
Lieut. -Col. Rhoades, attacked on the right, and the Fourth C.M.R.
Battalion, Lieut. -Col. Patterson, on the left, supported by seven
tanks. At 2 p.m. these battalions passed through the Eleventh
Brigade, holding the wood south of Le Quesnel, and went into
action.

The Fifth C.M.R.'s, assisted by four tanks, came under very
heavy machine gun fire soon after starting. Fine work by the
tanks soon quelled the trouble and the advance went on. The
French on the main road to Roye met with very fierce resistance,
but two tanks went to the rescue at this point also and over-
powered the enemy. The battalion pressed on, occasionally
meeting and destroying nests of German machine guns. By
4.20 p.m. Folies was in their possession, as well as the Beetroot
Factory south of the place, and our men were on the road leading
from the village to Arvillers. The French, who had suffered
heavily, were not yet in possession of Arvillers. Three hundred
of the enemy, perceiving the menace of the Canadians on the
north, now fled out of the village towards Erehes.

It was evident that the place was held in great strength,
for even then the French were unable to take it, though they could
be seen pushing on boldly on the right of it. By 5 p.m. Bouehoir
was taken, and the battalion continued to advance until it was
looking into Le Quesnoy, a short distance ahead. It was now
found necessary to check the advance.

The tank and the Canadians, combined with the continuous
pressure of the French, had their effect shortly before 6 p.m.
The enemy had been streaming out of Arvillers steadily, and the
village fell into the hands of the attackers at that hour. Shortly
afterwards the French outposts were in position five hundred
yards in front of it.

The Fourth C.M.R. Battalion's advance was greeted with a
most intense machine gun fire and heavy shelling. Anti-tank
guns opened fire with deadly effect on the three tanks assisting
the battalion and put two out of action. The third tank escaped,
and rendered excellent assistance during the afternoon. Moving
forward steadily, the battalion destroyed the German machine
guns which faced them and were soon encircling Folies, in con-
junction with the Canadians on the right. Most of the enemy
fled at the approach of the attacking troops. Ere dusk the

232 THE CANADIANS IN FRANCE

battalion had reached the hne held by the Fifth C.M.R.'s and
was in touch on both flanks.

At 1.10 p.m. the First Division's attack was resumed, the
First Brigade advancing on the right and the Second Brigade
upon the left.

The First Battalion attacked on the right of the First Brigade.
Soon after passing through the Fourth Division it came under
intense fire from the woods and the high ground on its right.
Its right company immediately attacked the machine guns in
these positions, in conjunction with the Eighth Brigade, and then,
pushing on, helped them to take Folies. In the meantime, the
remainder of the battalion was strongly engaged at Beaufort.
The Second Battalion, attacking on the left, joined it in the
assault, and together they swept the village clear of the enemy,
taking a number of prisoners. The First Battalion then drove
home its blow to a system of trenches just east of the village,
converged upon it, and thrust the Germans out with the bayonet.

The Second Battalion, before attacking Beaufort, had over-
powered a most stubborn resistance, the enemy making a stand
successively in a trench system west of Beaufort Wood, in the
wood, and finally in the streets of the village. The defence mainly
consisted of machine guns, but the tanks, those sure destroyers
of such weapons, assisted the Canadians so well that it was
quickly shattered. The battalion debouched from the village,
swept away a gathering counter-attack east of it, and by 4 p.m.,
in spite of considerable shell fire and a staunch resistance, took
Marmites Farm. On advancing from the Farm, they met heavy
machine gunfire from Rouvroy and the small woods in the vicinity.
Two tanks cleared the woods and the battalion forced its way
into Rouvroy, smashed the enemy's resistance in the northern
portion, and halted with its line half a mile beyond.

After the First Battalion halted east of Beaufort the Fourth
Battalion, which had closed the gap caused by the deflection of
a company of the First to Folies, went on in the direction of
Rouvroy. Very heavy fire from all directions caused a check
when the line of the Folies-Warvillers Road was reached. Even-
tually the battalion reached a position south-east of Rouvroy
and penetrated the southern portion of the village.

At this stage, the whole of Rouvroy not being yet in our
hands, the Third Battalion from reserve was launched into the
attack. It began its advance shortly after 7 p.m., and two hours
later had cleared the entire village.

The Second Brigade had commenced its attack at 1 p.m.
Before the attack it was intended that the Seventh and Tenth
Battalion, holding the line, should support the Fifth and Eighth
Battalions, which were to make the advance. As it was necessary

AMIENS 23a

for the brigade to start its assault from a line two thousand yards
to the south of that held by the brigade after the fighting of the
day before, and the Seventh and Tenth Battalions could not be
disengaged till the Second Division had passed through them, the
Fourteenth Battalion was assigned the duty of supporting the
attack on the left while the Fifteenth Battalion did so on
the right.

The Fifth Battalion, advancing on the right without the
support of artillery or tanks — the latter had not yet arrived —
made rapid progress, advancing over growing crops under very
heavy machine gun fire in most gallant fashion. Warvillers and
the woods around it were taken without serious opposition and
the battalion resumed its advance. A number of machine gun
nests along the wood from Rouvroy to Vrely caused trouble,
but these were soon destroyed with the help of the tanks, which
had now appeared. The battalion then pressed on and reached
a continuation of the line held east of Rouvroy.

A Victoria Cross was won by Sergeant R. L. Zengel, of this
battalion, during the day's advance. This most gallant N.C.O.
first rushed and disposed of a machine gun on the right of the
battalion, killing an officer and the operator of the gun and
scattering the crew. This action he performed alone and under
intense fire. Later, as the battalion passed into the zone of
the Germans' greatest resistance and it became necessary to resort
to covering fire, the sergeant directed the fire with such skill
that the whole battalion was able to press on. Soon afterwards
he was rendered unconscious by a shell, but w^hen he recovered
he insisted on resuming his duties and leading his men.

His example and devotion were an inspiration to all he came
in contact with.

In the meantime, the Eighth Battalion on the left had been
steadily making headway under diabolical fire, overcoming nest
after nest of machine guns in a dogged and determined manner
worthy of great admiration. A large wood gave much trouble,
but it was dashingly cleared in a bloody and costly struggle.
The place yielded no less than three hundred prisoners and a large
number of machine guns. After reorganizing, the battalion pushed
on. Then a temporary halt was caused at one point. Major
T. H. Raddall, D.S.O., commanding the battalion, went over to
investigate and was instantly killed as he went.

Made, if possible, more determined by the loss of this gallant
leader, the battalion continued its advance. Serious opposition
then developed in a large wood north of Warvillers, the mill
north-west of the village, the western houses of the village and
among clumps of trees around it. Bit by bit, with the assistance
of a company of the Fourteenth Battalion, the battalion battered

234 THE CANADIANS IN FRANCE

its way over these lairs of death. One by one the nests were
destroyed, and at last these Western men gained a line on the
left of the final position of the Fifth BattaUon.

The Eighth by this feat accomplished one of the finest deeds
of the day and one of the first of the Amiens battle. Before
sunset, fifteen officers and four hundred and twenty men had shed
their blood for the honour of the battalion on that day.

Two Victoria Crosses were won by the battalion during this
advance. Corporal Alex. Brereton dashed forward alone to
attack a machine gun which opened fire on his platoon. He
got in among the crew, heedless of the intense fire, shot one of
the gunners and bayoneted a second who made an attempt to
operate the gun. So great an effect did this individual daring
produce that nine other Germans instantly surrendered to him.
At a later stage in the attack machine guns again gave trouble.
Unhesitatingly, and again in terrific fire, Corporal Brereton rushed
forward alone. Five nests of these vipers of steel were firing
when he sprang into their midst. He exterminated them all.
Corporal Frederick George Coppins was the second winner
of the Cross, and never was it gained more bravely. Accompanied
by four other men, he made a rush upon several machine guns
under intense fire. There was no cover and the fire was rapidly
annihilating his platoon. All Coppin's companions were killed
in their heroic charge and he himself was severely wounded.
Nevertheless, he pushed on alone, and killed the operators of the
first machine guns he reached. Four others gave in to him.
Thus he silenced the guns and saved the platoon. His officers
tried to persuade him to leave the action, as his wound was
dangerous, but he refused to do so until the end of the advance
for the day.

The Second Division in the meanwhile had been advancing
steadily. The Fifth Brigade advanced on the right, the Sixth
upon the left.

The Fifth Brigade employed the Twenty-fifth Battalion on
the right, the Twenty-second Battalion on the left and the Twenty-
fourth Battalion in support. The Twenty-fifth, advancing
shortly after 10 a.m., met with considerable artillery fire as well
as the concentrated effort of several machine guns. They went
on advancing and fighting heavily. Two himdred and fifty
Germans gave in to them in the enemy's outpost position. Then
they took Vrely, assisted by the Twenty-second Battalion, and
also a wood to the right of it. There was hard fighting in the
wood, " D " Company losing all its officers. They made further
progress and Meharicourt fell into the hands of the brigade without
much resistance by 5 p.m.

The Twenty-second Battalion did equally good work, driving

AMIENS ^S5

the enemy from position to position with do^yged courage and
taking the soutlicrn portion of Rosi^res in conjunction with the
Sixth Brigade.

It was in this advance that the Twenty-second BattaHon lost
a most gallant officer, Lieut. John Brillant, who was subsequently
awarded the Victoria Cross for his magnificent work in the battle.
Lieut. Brillant had been indefatigable throughout the operations.
Shortly after zero on August 8th, a machine gun which had not
been mopped up held up the left flank of his company. He im-
mediately rushed and captured the gun, killing two of the crew.
He was wounded, but he resolutely refused to leave his men.
On the following day, in the fighting just described, his company
was again held up. He at once organized and led an attack on
the enemy's position, with magnificent success, fifteen machine
guns and one hundred and fifty prisoners being taken. This
feat was accomplished by the remnants of two platoons inspired
by his dash and bravery. Lieut. Brillant alone killed five of
the enemy.

Although again wounded, he again declined to leave the
men. Thus it was that, when his company once more came
under fire, this time from a field gun firing at them over open
sights, he led an attempt to take the gun. They had covered
six hundred yards when he was wounded for the third time. But
still his great spirit would not admit failure. He struggled on
another two hundred yards. And then he at last fell senseless,
to die a short time later.

The Sixth Brigade attacked with the Thirty-first Battalion
on the right and the Twenty-ninth Battalion on the left, the
Twenty-eighth Battalion supporting the whole. They were covered
by a light artillery barrage provided by the Fifth Brigade of
Canadian Field Artillery. The Fifteenth AustraUan Brigade
attacked at short notice to protect the left of the brigade.

At 11 a.m. the attack began. It was thrust home across an
open plain through terrific fire. The German machine guns, as
usual, were everywhere — in the Railway, in a big dump in Rosieres
Station, in the houses of the village and the church tower. The
brigade advanced with great dash in the face of this iron resistance.

Tanks co-operated in the attack of the Second Division and,
though nearly all were destroyed, did very gallantly.

The Twenty-ninth Battalion, having toiled forward through
heavy shelling and much fire from the left, the Sixth Brigade
was at length in a position to assault Rosieres. The Ninth
(Imperial) Cavalry Brigade, with a number of whippets, having
helped to quell the resistance on the left, and the right flank being
securely in touch with the Fifth Brigade, the advance on the
village was made at 1.30 p.m. The place was cleared without

Successive Sfaoes of Car.scs'/'s/y Advances' Aug. 9- IT Indus.

Figures indicsfe . \ /
'^ r^SpscHve' Diy/siohi

BATTLE OF AMIENS.
Canadian operations, August 9-17, 1918.

AMIENS 287

great difficulty, a tank lending extremely effective aid. In-
numerable machine guns were taken, the Thirty-first Battalion,
which had been reinforced by a company of the Twenty-eighth
Battalion for the assault on Rosieres, removing three from the
church tower.

After leaving the eastern side of the village the brigade en-
countered terrific machine gun fire, and the enemy, who had just
emerged from an omnibus park a short distance away, counter-
attacked with great violence. It was evident that these troops
had been in the course of hurrying up to oppose the Canadians
when the new advance compelled them to tumble out of the
buses with their enemies in sight. Fierce and swaying fighting
followed, during which another company of the Twenty-eighth
Battalion reinforced the centre of the line. The Germans were
driven off by infantry fire and the Sixth Brigade pushed on again,
the Twentj^-ninth Battalion securing another one hundred and
fifty prisoners. The line finally halted for the night along the
road from Meharicourt to Rosieres.

This fighting of the Sixth Brigade was among the hardest of
the day. As an example of the enemy's machine gun resistance
alone it should be stated that the brigade took two hundred
machine guns during the day.

Dusk was now at hand, and it was necessary to call a halt
for the night. The line was adjusted in places to make it straight ;
here and there troops were relieved or reinforced. The Canadian
line then lay just west of Le Quesnoy and included Rouvroy,
Meharicourt and Rosieres. This represented an advance of
three miles on a front of six miles. Much had been achieved.
The infantry had overcome a very powerful and gradually stiffening
defence with little artillery or tank support.

The Fifth Brigade, in the wounding of Brigadier-General J. M.
Ross, D.S.O., sustained a serious loss in the afternoon. Lieut. -Col.
Tremblay, C.M.G., D.S.O., of the Twenty-second Battalion,
took command of the brigade, while Major Dubuc took over the
battalion.

Preparations were now in hand for a resumption of the un-
relenting pressure on the morrow. The following was the scheme
of operations.

The Third Division was first to attack and capture Le Quesnoy
with the Eighth Brigade early in the morning. The Thirty-
second (Imperial) Division was then to advance through them
and carry on the attack, while the Fourth Division, moving through
the First and Second Divisions, was to advance on the left. On
the right of the Canadian Corps the French were to capture
Andechy and Villers-les-Roye, while the Australians on the left
again attacked Lihons.

238 THE CANADIANS IN FRANCE

In addition to its own artillery, the Thirty-second (Imperial)
Division was covered by the Fifth Canadian Divisional Artillery
and the Eighty-sixth Mobile Brigade of Royal Garrison Artillery ;
and the Fourth Division was supported by the One Hundred and
Fourth and One Hundred and Seventy-ninth Army Brigadejs
of Imperial field artillery, together with the Twenty-ninth Mobile
Brigade of Royal Garrison Artillery, in conjunction with its own
batteries.

Two and a half companies of tanks were to support the
Fourth Division and two companies the Thirty-second (Imperial)
Division. These were to be supplied by the Fourth Tank Brigade.

At 6 a.m. the Independent Force was to be withdrawn. The
cavalry had already gone. This marked the end of the rapid
advance of the previous phases. The British were now confronted
by the old French and German front lines, which required strong
fighting on the part of the infantry to overcome.

The main advance was to be resumed at 8 a.m., but, if conditions
were not favourable at that hour, was subject to postponement.

While the leading divisions advanced, the divisions left behind
— the First, Second and Third — were to consolidate the line
reached the night before as a position on which the attackers
might retire in the event of a successful German counter-attack.
Arrangements were made to cover the line with all the remaining
artillery of the Corps.

The main objective was the general line of the Railway
between Roye and Chaulnes. The Canadian front extended from
west of Gruny to the Chaulnes-Amiens Railway. The Thirty-
second (Imperial) Division's objectives included Damery, Parvillers,
Fresnoy and La Chavette. The Fourth Division was to secure
Fouquescourt, Maucourt, Chilly, Fransart, Hattencourt and Hallu.
It was realized that the resistance of the enemy might prevent
the taking of these objectives in their entirety.

At 4.20 a.m. the Second C.M.R. Battalion, having been con-
veyed from Quesnel Wood to the assembly position by motor
transport of the Independent Force, attacked Le Quesnoy with
great dash. Four tanks, which arrived soon after the advance
began, rendered much assistance. The enemy fought desperately
with machine guns, striving to gain time to strengthen his 1916
positions, now so closely menaced. Tanks and infantry beat
down their fire, and at 7.30 a.m. the village was ours. The First
C.M.R. Battalion, which had followed up the leading unit closely,
then advanced through them, and at 9.30 a.m. wrested from the
enemy his trenches north of Le Quesnoy. A line east of the
village was consolidated and the Thirty-second (Imperial) Division
prossed this line and carried on the attack.

The leading troops of the division advanced at 9.45 a.m.

AMIENS 239

The men had marched a great distance since the beginning of
the battle. But they attacked with all the ardour of fresh bat-
talions. Through a terrible machine gun fire from numerous
weapons concealed in that broken ground, they forced their way
forward over ruined trenches and belts of old wire tangled with
vegetation. At the end of the day, despite severe losses, they
had carried their line to the western outskirts of Damery and
Parvillers.

The Fourth Division was unable to commence its advance
until 10.15 a.m. At that hour, however, nineteen tanks being
available, the attack was launched under an artillery barrage.

The Tenth Brigade attacked on the right, employing the
Forty-fourth Battalion, Lieut. -Col. R. D. Davies, D.S.O., on the
right, and the Forty-sixth Battalion, Lieut. -Col. H. J. Dawson,
D.S.O., on the left, supported respectively by the Forty-seventh
BattaHon, Lieut.-Col. H. L. Keegan, D.S.O., and the Fiftieth
Battalion, Lieut.-Col. L. F. Page, D.S.O. The attack made
rapid progress at first, but as the brigade entered the zone of the
old French " Somme Defences," laced with trenches and barbed
wire, furious machine gun fire from Maucourt and Fouquescourt
caused a check. The Forty-sixth Battalion pushed on a short
time afterwards and by 4 p.m. had secured possession of Maucourt.
The enemy in the village fought hard, but were finally overpowered,
two field guns, several machine guns and a number of prisoners
being taken in the village.

In the meantime, the Third Brigade of Canadian Field Artillery
and the One Hundred and Seventy-ninth Brigade of Imperial
Artillery had come up and taken up a position to cover the
Forty-fourth Battalion more effectively. At about 3 p.m.
this battalion, strongly covered by these guns and assisted by
the Forty-seventh Battalion, as well as three tanks, resumed
its attack with great dash. Until the artillery were able to beat
down the fire of the hostile guns the tanks had been unable to
cross the Maucourt-Rouvroy Road. This had deprived the
infantry attacking Fouquescourt of their assistance. Now that
the artillery had come up, the tanks were able to advance. By
5 p.m. the village was in the hands of the Tenth Brigade.

The hour had now arrived for the support battalions to carry
on the attack. The Fiftieth Battalion on the left accordingly
passed through the Forty-sixth Battalion at 7 p.m. Pressing
forward under cover of their own fire, they reached the Railway
west of Hallu and gained touch with the Twelfth Brigade upon
the left. The Forty-seventh Battalion, advancing on the right,
was unable to get so far. The Fiftieth Battalion was therefore
compelled to throw back its flank to connect the line. So at dark
that night the brigade held Fouquescourt and Maucourt.

240 THE CANADIANS IN FRANCE

The Twelfth Brigade, on the left of the Tenth, employed on
the right the Seventy-second Battalion, supported by the Eighty-
fifth Battalion, and on the left the Seventy-eighth Battalion,
with the Thirty-eighth Battalion in support.

The Seventy-second Battalion, advancing on Chilly, en-
countered fierce machine gun fire from Maucourt as soon as they
emerged from Meharicourt. The enemy also fired upon the
advancing men from in front, but this opposition was resolutely
mastered. At 12.30 p.m. the battahon carried Chilly at the point
of the bayonet, having driven the enemy into the place in disorder.
The Eighty-fifth in the meantime had cleared the Germans out
of a powerful system of trenches on the left. The two supporting
battalions now swept forward, passed through the foremost
battalions, and fought on. The Seventy-eighth Battalion at
2 p.m. had crossed the railway west of Hallu and captured the
village. The Thirty-eighth Battalion, continuously lashed by
flanking fire from the Australian area, fought hard and finally
held all the German trenches along the road from Chilly to
Lihons.

Though much had been gained, the situation on the divisional
front was somewhat serious, owing to the havoc created by the
enemy's machine gun fire. The Seventy-eighth Battalion had
both flanks " in the air." The Thirty-eighth Battalion was
exposed to very heavy fire from Lihons. Between this battalion
and the Seventy-second Battalion a large gap existed. And the
enemy was still holding out in groups in several places behind
the advanced line.

The Germans, too, were beginning to counter-attack, a sign
of increasing stability. At 3.30 p.m. a strong attack was
delivered against the Seventy-second Battalion. It was repulsed
when it had got to within fifteen yards of one j^ortion of the
line. Yet another attack developed at 7.30 p.m. The Germans
advanced with great boldness around the exposed left of the
Seventy-eighth Battalion. They were nearing the north-eastern
corner of Chilly when Lieut. -Col. Kirkaldy, gathering together
every available man of his headquarters, checked the German
onrush and hurled them back in confusion.

Darkness at last came down upon a day of very severe fighting.
The line was adjusted here and there during the night. As a
result of the day's effort, the Canadian outposts then stood in
the western outskirts of Damery and Parvillers, where the Thirty-
second (Imperial) Division was stationed ; Fouquescourt, the
western outskirts of Hallu and the trenches north-west of that
village as far as the Amiens-Chaulnes Railway were also in
Canadian hands. The attack had penetrated to an average
depth of two miles, and on the left, where the Twelfth Brigade

AMIENS 241

had fought so stubbornly, a penetration of nearly three miles
had been realized.

The day provided proof that the enemy was recovering from
the blow dealt with such deadly effect in the earlier stages of
the battle. The old trench area, difficult for tanks and im-
passable to cavalry, was ideal from a defensive point of view.
It was the intention of the Higher Command to resume the advance
on the following day. But no attemjDt was to be made to capture
a distant objective. The purpose of the renewed offensive was
to carry the Allied line through the trench area before the ever-
increasing resistance of the Germans rendered the task too difficult.

Early on the morning of August 11th orders were issued
for a resumption of the advance due east to the Somme between
Offoy and St. Christ. Shortly after noon, however, they were
cancelled, as the enemy's resistance was strengthening everywhere,
and the Thirty-second (Imperial) Division and Fourth Canadian
Division, holding the line, were instructed to continue organizing
the position for defence and to prepare to continue the advance
some days later.

These instructions were not put in force a moment too soon,
for the enemy at once began a number of fierce counter-attacks.
Hallu was bombarded very heavily at 10 a.m., and shortly
afterwards the Fiftieth and Seventy-eighth Battalions met a
furious advance of German infantry. The attacks were driven
off with the heaviest loss. The Seventy-eighth Battalion, holding
Hallu, had withdrawn to the railway west of the village, but
maintained its outposts in the village throughout, hoping that
the advance was to be resumed. The battalion's flanks were
still exposed. It had been impossible to gain touch with the
neighbouring units during the previous night.

Many other counter-attacks were delivered against the bat-
talion all day, and the villages of Chilly, Maucourt and Hallu
were violently shelled, but the men never budged. In the hours
of darkness, however, the battalion was instructed to fall back
to a position five hundred yards east of Chilly, as, the operations
being postponed for the moment, the value of the exposed line
at Hallu had decreased.

The Thirty-second (Imperial) Division, though the general
advance had been abandoned, was instructed to secure Damery
during the day, in order to improve the position on the right.
Desperate fighting took place, but, in spite of the greatest deter-
mination and courage, the division was unable to take the village.

Elsewhere on the Canadian front the day was spent in filling
in gaps in the line. Fine weather still continued and aided such
adjustments.

Another officer who was later deemed worthy of the Victoria

16

242 THE CANADIANS IN FRANCE

Cross, Lieut. James Edward Tait, M.C, of the Seventy-eighth
Battahon, gave up his hfe in the fierce fighting encountered by
his unit on August 11th. During the previous stages of the
battle he had done magnificent work. On the first day, when
his company was swept by terrific machine gun fire, he steadied
it, regardless of his own safety, and led it on again through the
tempest. One of the hostile machine guns he attacked alone,
bayoneting the gunner and taking the weapon, which had been
causing much loss. He it was who led the company that took
the Quarry near Beaufort, on the same day, with a great number
of machine guns.

The counter-attack against the battalion on August 11th
found him rallying and steadying his men and directing the
defence with much courage, though he was mortally wounded
by a shell. And so he died, leading his company.

On August 12th the Thirty-second (Imperial) Division, which
had suffered many casualties, was relieved by the Third Canadian
Division. And now the fighting that occurred throughout the
remainder of the Canadian operations beyond Amiens became
confined to the front of that division. Here the troops undertook
a series of strong local attacks with the object of driving the
Germans out of their 1916 line. North of Parvillers practically
all these trenches were already in our hands.

Covered by an artillery barrage, the One Hundred and Six-
teenth Battalion attacked at 8 p.m. Middle and Square Woods,
south-west of Parvillers. All objectives were gained.

While this was going on the Seventh Brigade had been fighting
in the trenches around Parvillers. The Princess Patricia's
attacked from a position in the old German trenches west of
Middle Wood, while the Forty-second Battalion and a company
of the Royal Canadian Regiment attacked from the west and
north of the village. The whole of the brigade had Parvillers
as an ultimate objective and bore down upon it in a converging
assault.

The Princess Patricia's, with the assistance of some of the
Forty-ninth Battalion, succeeded in getting into the village.
The enemy, who fought for the village with great skill and much
determination, then counter-attacked them on both flanks, and
the battalions were driven just bej'^ond the western and southern
outskirts. At the same time the One Hundred and Sixteenth
Battalion was violently assailed and lost its hold on Middle
Wood.

On the west and north two companies of the Forty-second
Battalion and the company of the Royal Canadian Regiment
already referred to were hotly engaged. The former attacked
from south of Fouquescourt, the latter from wost of Parvillers,

AMIENS 243

Their objective consisted of the old German front Hne between
the two villages.

The attack of these battalions began at 7.30 p.m. The
Forty-second Battalion greatly distinguished itself by its deter-
mined and irresistil>le advance. The enemy at first were taken by
surprise and fought badly, but as the bombers got nearer to Par-
villers their resistance stiffened. Through this stubborn defence
the Forty-second battered their way in the old trench-warfare
style. In this way the battalion fought as far as the main road
from Parvillers to Rouvroy and then to Black Wood, not far
beyond. At about 9 p.m. the two leading companies were each
reinforced by a company of the Forty-ninth Battalion.

After dark the enemy counter-attacked the Forty-second
Battalion repeatedly, but nothing could shake their hold from the
trenches they had won.

Private Thomas Dinesen, of the Forty-second Battalion, w^on
the Victoria Cross in the furious struggle north of Parvillers,
Dinesen set a truly marvellous example of courage and spirit.
Single-handed he rushed and put out of action hostile machine
guns five times in succession. Altogether he killed at least
twelve Germans with bombs or the bayonet.

On the rest of the Canadian front, despite vigorous shelling
of most of the villages, nothing of importance occurred. The
night brought up the Second Canadian Division to the relief
of the Fourth Canadian Division. At 5.30 a.m. on August
13th the relief of the Tenth Brigade was completed, except for
the Forty-sixth Battalion, which remained in the line until the
follov/ing night. The Twelfth Brigade remained in the line also,
pending relief. Strenuous fighting went on during the whole
of August 13th on the Third Division front. The jaws of the
trap were close around Parvillers, and the Seventh Brigade spent
the day tightening the grip.

The enemy started the round by a violent attack on the
One Hundred and Sixteenth Battalion east of Middle Wood.
The attack was made early in the morning, and once more, after
a fierce defence, the battalion was compelled to abandon the wood
and fall back to a trench four hundred yards south-west of it.

At 6.30 a.m., following fifteen minutes' hurricane bombardment,
the Princess Patricia's on the right and the Forty-ninth Battalion
on the left attacked Parvillers from the west and north. The
attack was a complete success. The battalions established a
line from the Rouvroy-Parvillers Road through the western
outskirts of the village and patrols were at once pushed through.

At noon, however, the enemy counter-attacked with great
strength. After a desperate struggle, lasting throughout the
afternoon, the Canadian patrols were driven back to the line

244 THE CANADIANS IN FRANCE

won in the morning. This hne in itself represented a substantial
gain, and here the enemy was checked and the hold on Parvillers
retained.

During the morning, too, the Germans attacked the right of
the Princess Patricia's with great fury. The fighting was very
severe and the battalion was compelled to give ground a little.
But great havoc was wrought among the enemy, who advanced
recklessly to the attack across the open in column of route. The
amount they secured was far exceeded in value by the price
they had paid*

Later, at 7.30 p.m., the Forty-second and Forty-ninth
Battalions launched a minor attack which succeeded in gaining
the objectives desired, after a hard struggle.

The many desperate counter-attacks gave Sergeant Robert
Spall, of the "Princess Pat's," the opportunity of winning the
Victoria Cross. The enemy counter-attacked his isolated platoon.
He held them off with a Lewis gun, which he operated alone from
the parapet of his trench in terrific fire, until he could get the
platoon into a more favourable position. Then, pending the
arrival of reinforcements, he again took up his stand on
the parapet and single-handed held the enemy off with a second
Lewis gun. Eventually they killed him. But by that time he
had beaten off the attack and the platoon was safe. Sergeant
Spall deliberately gave his splendid life for the men he com-
manded.

Night passed, and on August 14th the enemy's artillery fire
increased. It was now quite evident that the Germans had
recovered from the stupendous blow which had been dealt them
and were once more holding a well-organized position backed
with a strong array of guns. But the Third Division was deter-
mined to complete its conquest of Parvillers and Damery.

So at 11 p.m. the Royal Canadian Regiment went through
the Princess Patricia's and the Forty-ninth Battalion to finish
it. At 3.40 a.m. on August 15th, after severe fighting, the village
was entirely wrested from the enemy. At the same time the
One Hundred and Sixteenth Battalion to the south, determined
to secure its prize, advanced and took Middle Wood and the
trenches in its vicinity. The wood never changed hands again.
The Fifty-second Battalion of the Ninth Brigade now attacked
to end the long struggle around Damery. At 9.30 a.m. it advanced
against the village, well covered by artillery and machine guns,
while the French to the South assaulted Damery Wood and the
Bois en Z. Complete success crowned all these efforts. After
a brief fight with German machine gunners in the ruins, Damery
was entirely taken by 11 a.m.

It was to be expected that the Germans would make a powerful

AMIENS 245

attempt to win back the village. During the afternoon they
hurled three battalions against it. There was a desperate melee
between Canadians, French and Germans. But at the end of it
the Germans drew back, having gained not one inch of ground
and having lost one hundred and fifty prisoners to the Canadians,
besides a great number of dead and wounded.

The northern front of the Corps remained quiet, and during
the morning the Second Division was able to complete its relief
of the Fourth Division. This left the Third and Fourth Divisions
in the line.

August 15th brought to a culmination the very hard battling
of the Third Division in the old German trench system. It had
been a strenuous and costly time, but much valuable ground was
secured. The Seventh Brigade, in particular, did great work.
This brigade cleared a labyrinth of intricate trenches covering
a front of three thousand yards to a depth of two thousand,
overcoming by fierce hand-to-hand fighting with bomb and bayonet
an admirably placed and determined foe.

The First Canadian Division now came forward and relieved
the men holding Damery and Parvillers, and on the same day —
August 16th — the Tenth Brigade began the relief of the Second
Canadian Division by the Fourth Canadian Division. In spite
of an incessant and ever-growing German gun fire an excellent
gain of ground was secured upon that day. With a view to
improving the line before undertaking further operations, the
Canadian patrols pushed out into the territory to the east. Ere
night fell the whole line as far as a point about one mile south
of Chilly on the north and the western outskirts of Goyencourt
on the south had been advanced to an average depth of half a
mile. These little bodies of men from the Ninth Brigade, before
they were relieved, and the Third, Tenth and Fifth Brigades
accomplished this substantial gain, taking the villages of La
Chavette and Fransart in their progress. The Germans did not
resist very strongly.

The next two days, apart from the completion of the relief
of the Second Division by the Fourth Division on August 17th,
witnessed little of importance in the battle-zone. On August
19th the Second and Third Divisions commenced to move away
from the Amiens area, and Corps Headquarters from their battle-
positions in the newly captured zone moved back to Dury, prior
to going further afield.

The First and Fourth Divisions quickly followed the remainder
of the Corps. On August 21st the former was relieved by the
One Hundred and Twenty-sixth French Division, and by August
24th was concentrated between the Rivers Celle and Avre, with
headquarters at St. Fuscien. The Fourth Division followed on

^46 THE CANADIANS IN FRANCE

August 25th, being relieved by the Thirty-fourth and Thirty-
fifth French Divisions and concentrating on relief around Gentelles
Wood, with headquarters at Sains-en-Amienois. The artillery,
with the Eighth Army Brigade, C.F.A,, was in the Luce Valley.

On August 25th the two divisions and all the troops of the
Corps still left in the south began to leave the vicinity of Amiens
• — not for a rest, as one might have supposed, but to join issue
with the enemy again on another portion of the front.

And so ended Amiens, the greatest isolated victory to the
credit of Canadian arms.

What was achieved by this action ? In five days Amiens
and its railway had been freed. Four hundred tanks, thirteen
British infantry and three British cavalry divisions (in the British
infantry one includes, of course, Canadians and Australians)
and an American division operating with the Third (Imperial)
Corps, had met and utterly shattered twenty German divisions.
Twenty-two thousand prisoners and over four hundred guns
fell into Allied hands. The line was advanced a distance of over
twelve miles from the positions held at 4.20 a.m. on August 8th.
Above all, a great moral victory had been won. The Germans
had been taught that the British Armj'^ had recovered from its
wounds of the earlier part of the year. The Allies had been shown
that it was possible for British troops to surpass the greatest
achievements of the enemy in open warfare.

For the Canadians, of these totals may be claimed ten
thousand prisoners, nearly one hundred and seventy guns, a
thousand machine guns and over a hundred trench mortars,
besides huge masses of other material. They had freed over sixty
square miles of territory, though territory mattered little compared
with the removal of the menace to Amiens and the cutting of
the German railways at Chaulnes and Roye. They had been the
point of that sword of flame and steel which pointed out the road
to victory for the rest of the British Army. The price of this
success in Canadian casualties was exceeded by the number of
prisoners taken from the enemy.

People may ask, why was it not possible to achieve these
things before ? The answer is this : the Germans at Amiens
did not stand in those deadly fortresses of trench and wire Avhich
they had been wont to hold in all the fighting of previous years,
but on what was at best a temporary and improvised line. But
the answer is greater than that. The Canadians achieved these
things because they had never before been as highly trained or
as efficient a military force as they were at dawn on August
8th. The enemy, on the other hand, for the first time was on
the edge of the precipice of utter defeat.

CHAPTER XIV

CAMBRAI

August-October 1918

After the Battle of Amiens the greater battle of the Western
Front began. Mile after mile of line, division after British
division, became involved. And soon that great strategic counter-
attack, of which men had dreamed and for which they had
yearned so long, was in full swing, driving back the hosts of evil
into the country whence they came.

The attack spread gradually northward, beating in the German
lines so that they collapsed like ramparts of cards, each of which
brings down the one beside it as it falls. On August 21st the
fighting reached the Third Army front, and as these troops
advanced, the time came for the First Army to join the forces
pressing irresistibly against the enemy.

The right of the First Army lay around Arras, and it was
this portion of the line which was now to be involved. No
British battalions knew that country better than the Canadians,
who had held it during many weary months of the earlier part
of the year. Thus it came about that as soon as they returned
from their adventure south of the Somme they were put into the
line at Arras, before the Germans realized they had returned,
before the gun fire of the Amiens operations had ceased to sound
in their ears, and ordered to attack the enemy.

The return to Arras was accomplished as secretly as the
departure had been. The Corps made use of the sidings at
Longueau, Boves, Saleux, Baconel, Prouzel and other small
places south of Amiens. There was a special pride in the use
of these railways, for were they not the lines freed from the enemy
by the valour of Canadian troops and made usable by battalions
of railwaymen from Canada ? A large number of the men, also,
were moved by omnibus, and guns and transport moved by road.

By August 21st the Second Canadian Division was in the area
around Arras. They were followed by Corps Headquarters,
which moved from Dury to Hauteeloque on August 22nd, and the

847

248 THE CANADIANS IN FRANCE

Third Canadian Division to billets south-east of Arras on the
same day. August 26th found the First Canadian Division there,
and on August 28th the Fourth Canadian Division were also
concentrated in that area. By that time all Corps Troops had
returned to the villages around the old Artois town and all
the Canadians were ready to do battle beside the Scarpe — •
in fact, the Corps on that date was locked fast in a death-
grapple with the enemy along the road to Cambrai.

The transfer of the Canadians into the Arras line began on
August 23rd, when Corps Headquarters took over from the
Seventeenth (Imperial) Corps at Noyelle Vion the control of the
sectors then held by the Fifteenth and Fifty-first (Imperial)
Divisions. On the following day the Second Canadian Division
on the right and the Third Canadian Division on the left com-
pleted their relief of the Fifteenth (Imperial) Division.

When these moves were completed the Fifty-first, that
celebrated division from the Highlands of Scotland, held the
trenches north of the river Scarpe and had passed under Canadian
control. South of the Scarpe were the Canadians.

At 3 a.m. on August 26th these divisions struck the German
line with a shock of thunder and began the long series of struggles
which were to carry the Canadians into Cambrai little more than
a month after.

In some quarters this first battle was spoken of as the Battle
of Arras. It was not the Battle of Arras, for only the fact that
Arras was behind it connects the city with the battle. It was
the preliminary stage of a gigantic operation that had as its
main object the destruction of the German Army, beside which
all else mattered little. But because this operation went by
successive phases to the gates of Cambrai, in itself a distant and
ambitious objective, Cambrai it should be named. The word
stands more for the havoc wrought among the Germans than
any greatness to be found in the taking of a city.

The town was over twenty miles away when the Canadians
assembled in the moonlight on August 25th, and many formidable
obstacles had to be overcome before they held the city in their
hands. First there was the deep and terrible trench system now
occupied by the enemy's outposts and covering a belt of country
several miles deep. Then there was the Drocourt-Queant Line,
famous the world over and deemed impregnable by the German
High Command. Here the main artificial defences of the Germans
ended, though trenches and wire lay athwart the country to the
east in places. But then there was still the Canal du Nord,
an admirable natural line backed by Bourlon Wood and other
places of evil memory, and all very strong positions. Finally
there was the deep and wide Canal de I'Escaut, with high ground

CAMBRAI 249

on both sides and full of water. The whole of the land in between
these main features was rolling prairie-like country, a territory
of ridges, villages and small woods, each capable of prolonged
defence by resolute men.

On August 2Gth the Canadian Corps set out to capture" the
enemy's front-line system. The operation was one which it
would take several days to accomplish, for the distance to be
covered before the Drocourt-Queant Line was reached was over
twelve thousand yards. Had the German defences been similar
to those on the Amiens front, it might have been possible to take
this ground in one day. But they were totally different. The
Amiens line was an improvised one, the work of two or three
months on territory which the enemy had not held before the
March offensive. The country east of Arras, however, had always
been slashed with trenches, and the enemy had held the greater
part of it since 1914. As a final difficulty, the old 1916 line was
joined by the famous Hindenburg Line at this point, and the
hinge of the two systems consisted of one of the most complicated
trench areas on the Western Front. Moreover, this sector was
naturally very strong.

The most outstanding obstacles on the Canadian Corps front
were the trenches. First there was the front-line system, averaging
two thousand yards deep. Then, on the right, there was the
northern end of the Hindenburg Line. From the Hindenburg
Line various reserve lines ran northward, roughly parallel to
the front-line system. Around Monchy-le-Preux, to the Hinden-
burg Line in the south and the River Scarpe in the north, a maze
of trenches, bewilderingly complicated, formed a terrible barrier.
When this had been taken there was still on the right the double
line of trenches called the Vis-en-Artois Switch, which ran from
the village of that name to join the Drocourt-Queant Line north
of Hendecourt. All the rest of the territory on the Canadian
Corps front as far as the Drocourt-Queant Line was covered with
trenches.

The majority of the systems above described were guarded
by belts of barbed wire, in some cases over fifty yards wide ;
many dugouts and machine gun emplacements, tunnels and
concrete pill-boxes added to the strength of the area. It is
true that some of the trenches were shallow, half-completed
portions of the defences. Even these, however, might be rendered
dangerous, provided the artillery attack was not abnormally
heavy.

Very powerful natural positions, such as Orange Hill, west
of Monchy-le-Preux, and Wancourt Tower Ridge, east of Wan-
court, added to the strength of the enemy's defences. Orange
Hill was an ugly, gnarled mass of rock and chalkland, slit by

250 THE CANADIANS IN FRANCE

formidable valleys and ravines, interlaced with trenches and
commanding the country for miles around. The Scarpe on the
north and the River Cojeul on the south provided it with powerful
flank defences. Altogether it was a position which a few deter-
mined men with machine guns could render almost impregnable.
The British knew its strength to their cost, for many gallant lives
had been lost in the taking of it in 1917.

Such was the German forward system of defence which the
Canadians attacked on August 26th on a front of nine thousand
yards. The left of the attacking Canadians rested on the
River Scarpe west of Feuchy, the right lay south of Neuville-
Vitasse.

For the first day's operation three objectives were assigned.
The first objective ran along a strong line of German trenches
about two thousand yards east of the Canadian front line. The
second objective, about one thousand yards beyond the first,
ran roughly north and south, also in a line of German trenches,
across the Corps front, and lay a short distance west of Guemappe
and Monchy. This objective included the capture of Orange
Hill. No final objective was definitely laid down, but after
the taking of the second objective the Corps was to exploit
its success in a generally eastern direction, taking Guemappe,
Wancourt Tower Ridge and Monchy.

The Fifty-first (Highland) Division, north of the Scarpe,
had no set task to perform. After the Canadian attack had
started, at 9 a.m., to be exact, this division Avas to follow up
any retirement north of the Scarpe resulting from progress to
the south, and was to protect and keep up with the Canadian
left as it advanced.

The Third Canadian Division was allotted the task of over-
coming the enemy's defences from the Scarpe to a line running
roughly east and west just south of Monchy. For this it employed
the Eighth Brigade, and planned to envelop Orange Hill and
Monchy by a powerful movement from the north, with a minor
one from the south. When Monchy had fallen the division became
responsible for following up the Canadian success between the
Scarpe and the Arras-Cambrai Road as far east as the western
outskirts of Boiry-Notre Dame. The first phase of the division's
operations ended with the fall of Monchy, the second with the
seizure of the fringe of Boiry. The role of the Second Canadian
Division in the first phase was to attack from the right of the Third
Canadian Division southwards, securing possession of Wancourt
with patrols and carrying the line thence to the south of Monchy.
In the second phase it was to synchronize its advance with the
movement of the Third Canadian Division, capture Guemappe
and the Wancourt Tower Ridge, pushing beyond these positions if

Canadian Progress

w'itti dates.

CAMBKAI.

Canadian operations e^st of Arras, August 26-31, 1918.

252 THE CANADIANS IN FRANCE

possible. The Sixth Brigade on the right and the Fourth Brigade
on the left were assigned the tasks of the day.

The operations on the Sixth Brigade front were carried out
in a somewhat novel manner. This brigade had to attack in
a north-easterly direction along the valley west of Waneourt.
The valley was very strongly defended by trenches, not only
in the low ground, but along the ridges commanding it. Cour-
ageous and well-placed machine gunners could make the advance
of the brigade impossible.

The initial advance therefore was to leave the valley severely
alone. The Fourth Brigade on the north and the Imperial
troops attacking on the south were to move forward, leaving
the Sixth Brigade behind in its jumping-off line. No attempt
was to be made to clear the enemy from the valley at this time,
but, as the troops on either side advanced, they were to form
defensive flanks facing this pocket of Germans, so that the latter
would be penned in, unable to take the British in the rear. When
the second objective had been secured by the advancing line,
the enemy facing the Sixth Brigade would find themselves virtu-
ally surrounded. The Sixth Brigade was then to push forward,
converging on the positions from north and west. The dullest
German could see that such a situation was hopeless and that
there was left for him only surrender or death.

These bold plans succeeded completely, and their story will
be told in detail in the narrative of the day's operations.

The Canadian divisions were covered by their own artillery,
augmented by Imperial guns. As there had not yet been time
to concentrate the whole of the Canadian artillery east of Arras,
the number of guns was light. Machine guns of the divisions
provided a barrage in the opening stages of the assault, and others
accompanied the infantry to lend support as necessary. The
cars and cycles of the Canadian Motor Machine Gun Brigades
were concentrated on the Arras-Cambrai Road ready and waiting
for a summons. A few tanks had been secured, but the majority
of the infantry had to attack without them.

Handicapped, then, by the unavoidable shortage of tanks
and with an unusually light array of guns behind them, but with
hearts and courage high, the Canadian infantry gathered in their
positions west of the German lines. On the Second Division
front the Sixth Brigade had a difficult assembly to carry out.
On the night of the assault they had to yield up a thousand yards
of their front to the north, the Fourth Brigade taking this over.
They had then to concentrate on their shorter front before the
hour of advance. This they successfully accomplished.

Rain fell steadily during the early part of the night and
made the assembly of the attacking troops somewhat difficult,

CAMBRAI 253

but at 2.30 a.m. on August 26th the last man was in his place.
By that time the moon was shining faintly from a troubled sky.
At 3 a.m. pandemonium succeeded silence. The barrage kindled
blinding and tumultuous fires in the east, where lay the quiet
outposts of the enemy, and, with the Fifty-second (Imperial)
Division on their right, the Canadians pressed forward, a tide
of khaki and gleaming steel, on the heels of the barrage.

The infantry drove home their blow with great swiftness
and precision. The German resistance as far as the first objective
was comparatively weak. Prisoners explained this by stating
that the bulk of the German forces had withdrawn to a depth
of two thousand yards twenty-four hours before, leaving few
men to hold the abandoned positions. They also said that
they were expecting the attack. As the enemy fought desperately
for Monchy, Guemappe and Wancourt Tower Ridge, there may
have been some truth in these assertions. In any case, the
Canadians made such rapid progress that they held all their
first objective by 6.20 a.m.

The Third Division, attacking the vast bulk of Orange Hill,
without tank support, covered by a barrage lifting one hundred
yards in three minutes, quickly surrounded it and conquered
its bewildered garrison. The Fifth C.M.R. Battalion, Lieut.-Col.
W. Rhoades, D.S.O., M.C., attacked it on the south, while the
Fourth C.M.R. Battalion, Lieut.-Col. W. R. Patterson, D.S.O.,
after following the Second C.M.R. Battalion, Lieut.-Col. G. C.
Johnston, D.S.O., M.C., wheeled to the right and encircled it
from the north. Meanwhile the Second C.M.R. Battalion went
on, pressing back the enemy along the southern bank of the
Scarpe. The Germans on the Hill, gazing down in confused
panic at these battalions creeping round them like grim waves
of an unbounded sea, offered a certain amount of resistance,
firing their machine guns and sending up their coloured lights
in an endless prayer to their artillery. The answer of their guns
was a mere shadow of the weight and power of the British barrage
fire. The defence of the enemy was broken. In the dim moon-
light the last German machine guns on Orange Hill and down
by the river were silenced by the bombs and rifles and bayonets
of the " moppers-up." Less than an hour after the attack the
Eighth Brigade had carried the Hill and were in touch along their
first objective.

The First C.M.R. Battalion, Lieut.-Col. B. Laws, D.S.O.,
now advanced through the Second and Fourth C.M.R. Battalions
and moved to the attack on the second objective with the Fifth
C.M.R. Battalion, which continued to push forward on the
right. The enemy offered some opposition with machine guns
and snipers, but these were dealt with and gave no more trouble.

254 THE CANADIANS IN FRANCE

7.30 a.m. found these battalions in possession of the second
objective.

Most of the artillery supporting the Third Division was now
on the move forward. While the infantry were still fighting
for the second objective, these guns were flashing from the western
slopes of Orange Hill.

In the meantime the Fourth Brigade, attacking on a front
of two thousand yards, had also secured its objectives. The
Twenty-first Battalion, Lieut.-Col. H. E. Pense, M.C., attacking on
the right, the Twentieth Battalion, Lieut.-Col. B. O. Hooper, M.C.,
on the left, with the Eighteenth Battalion, Major J. A. Macintosh,
in support, and the Nineteenth Battalion, Lieut.-Col. L. H. Millen,
D.S.O., in reserve, had carried all before them. The two leading
battalions were each assigned three tanks of the Ninth Tank
Battalion, while another trio from the same battalion accom-
panied the Eighteenth Battalion.

The troops met little opposition at first. The Twenty-first
Battalion encountered its first serious obstacle in Nova Scotia
Trench, a powerful line five hundred yards west of the first
objective. Here a number of machine guns fought strenuously.
But Lewis guns Avere quickly rapping out bullets around them,
and under cover of this fire and a shower of rifle-grenades the
trench was rushed and taken, together with all the machine guns
and many prisoners.

The advance was then resumed and the whole brigade bore
down on its second objective. The Twenty-first Battalion met
a defence of temporary firmness in a trench called Southern
Avenue, running north from Wancourt. In this trench some
stout-hearted Germans rallied the shaken infantry, backed by
three field guns close by, to make a stand. Through annihilating
point-blank fire from guns, rifles and machine guns, the New
Brunswickers carried the trench at the point of the bayonet.
Twenty gunners and three guns, as well as a number of infantry,
were captured, and the battalion seized its objective.

The Twentieth Battalion, on emerging from the first objective,
overcame several machine guns which opposed them. Three
field guns, hidden among ruins just north of the cross-roads
where the track from Monchy to Wancourt joined the road
from Arras to Cambrai, then opened fire upon the battalion.
This battery was surrounded and silenced. No further trouble
was encountered until the second objective was almost reached.
A number of machine guns placed on both sides of the Arras—
Cambrai Road then held up the advance. One of the tanks crawled
forward and beat the life out of the guns along the southern
side. As it heaved its great body over the road to deal with
the weapons to the north, a German shell struck it and destroyed

CAMBRAI 253

it. Enough had been done, however, to enable the advanee to
proceed. The Twentieth swept up, silenced the machine guns
north of the road, and taking their objectives, began to con-
sohdate.

When the Fourth Brigade advanced to take its second
objective the Sixth Brigade Avent forward. At that time the
defensive flank protecting the Fourth Brigade from attack from
the Wancourt Valley was in position. This flank was formed
b}^ the Twenty-seventh Battalion, Lieut.-Col. H. J. Riley, D.S.O.,
from about one mile north of Wancourt, where it joined the
right of the Fourth Brigade, to a point twelve hundred yards
east of the old Canadian front line north of Neuville-Vitasse.
The remainder of the flank to the old front line was formed by
a company of the Twenty-ninth Battalion, Lieut.-Col. H. S.
Tobin, D.S.O.

The forming of this defensive flank was accomplished by
the Twenty-seventh Battalion's co-operation with two companies
in the advance of the Fourth Brigade. The rest of the battalion
followed, and after them came the company of the Twenty-
ninth Battalion detailed for this duty. As they advanced they
swung round until the whole formed an unbroken line from the
first objective to Neuville-Vitasse, facing south.

Then came the hour of the Sixth Brigade's advance, syn-
chronizing with the advance of the rest of the Corps to the
second objective. The two leading companies of the Twenty-
seventh Battalion wheeled down into the Wancourt Valley,
pivoting on the right of the Fourth Brigade and changing front
from south to east as they moved. The Twenty-eighth Bat-
talion, Lieut.-Col. A. Ross, D.S.O,, adv^aneed at the same time
from its assembly position south of Neuville-Vitasse in a north-
easterly direction and came up on the right of the Twenty-seventh.
The remainder of the troops hitherto forming the defensive flank
— the rest of the Twenty-seventh Battalion and one company
of the Twenty-ninth Battalion — moving practically due south,
went into the valley and " mopped-up."

There was some resistance from isolated German machine
guns, but on the whole the enemy surrendered freely. Many
prisoners fell into the hands of the Twenty-seventh Battalion, the
company attacking on the right securing one hundred and thirty.

Having taken the first objective, when the rest of the brigade
had assumed positions in rear of that line, the Twenty-seventh
and Twenty-eighth Battalions resumed the advance. By 9 a.m.
they held the second objective, patrols had taken Wancourt
and our men were across the Cojeul River. Before noon touch
was gained with the Fourth Brigade on the left.

The attack of the Sixth Brigade was made almost entirely

256 THE CANADIANS IN FRANCE

without a barrage. Thanks to the terror inspired in the hearts
of the enemy by the successes on the flanks, and thanks to the
skill and dash with which the brigade carried out its complicated
manoeuvres, it was an unqualified success.

The whole Corps was now on its second objective and con-
solidating.

Having taken the second objective, the First and Fifth
C.M.R. Battalions lost no time in attacking Monchy. The
village, like Orange Hill, was taken by a turning movement.
The first C.M.R. Battalion attacked it from the north and the
Fifth C.M.R. Battalion advanced against it from the west, the
two battalions meeting in the village and finally forming a line
east of the place, the First C.M.R. 's with their left flank thrown
back along the Scarpe and the Fifth C.M.R.'s, on the right, in
touch with the Twentieth Battalion on the right.

The whole operation was carried out with great speed and
precision. The first Canadians entered the village at 7.30 a.m.,
and the whole place was in their hands half an hour afterwards.
Little resistance was met with in Monchy itself. The enemy had
fled from it and was shelling it heavily. But on the flanks groups
of machine gunners gave trouble until the gunners fled or were
overpowered.

It was during this fighting that Lieut. Charles Smith Ruther-
ford, M.C., M.M., of the Fifth C.M.R. Battalion, won the Victoria
Cross for an extraordinary exhibition of cool daring. This
officer, some distance ahead of his men, perceived a large body of
Germans standing outside a pill-box. He nonchalantly summoned
them with a wave of the arm to come to him. Apparently
amused at this, the Germans shook their heads and summoned
him in their turn. Coolly waving his revolver, Lieut. Rutherford
complied. On arriving at the pill-box he was politely invited
to enter. This he as politely refused. Then, waving the revolver
to emphasize his points, he persuaded the Germans that they
were surrounded and advised them to surrender. They gave
in accordingly, two officers and forty-three men with two machine
guns, and he took the surrender alone. Another German machine
gun was firing on our men from a nearby position. At the
request of Lieut. Rutherford one of the officers ordered the gunner
to cease fire, which he did. At this stage, when things were
getting critical, support arrived, and Lieut. Rutherford's prisoners
were taken over by his men.

Later on this officer took charge of a Lewis gun section and
with them captured another pill-box, with a further thirty-five
prisoners, enabling the advance to go on.

It is doubtful if courage and the quality known to Canadians
as *' nerve " have ever achieved greater results.

CAMBRAI 257

At 9 a.m. the Fifty-first (Highland) Division advanced north
of the Scarpe. The enemy, threatened by that sword thrust
into their Hnes to the south, had fled, and during the day, with
little opposition, the Scots took Roeux Chemical Works and
Gavrelle, and pushed up into line with the Canadians.

With Monchy in our hands, the hour of the Seventh Brigaed
had come. The brigade had followed in the wake of the Eighth
Brigade in the early part of the battle, and was waiting among
the guns on Orange Hill. It now advanced and deployed for
the attack.

The Royal Canadian Regiment, Lieut.-Col. C. R. E. Willets,
D.S.O., advanced on the right and the Princess Patricia's, Major
C. J. T. Stewart, D.S.O., upon the left. The Forty-ninth Battalion,
Major C. T. Weaver, was placed in a position to the north of the
Princess Patricia's, to protect their left from attack from Pelves
or that vicinity. The Forty-second Battalion, Lieut.-Col. R. L. H.
Ewing, D.S.O., M.C., were held in brigade reserve to deal with
any emergency.

The brigade's advance was covered by the artillery, which
rendered fine support from its new positions. Two tanks were
assigned to each of the leading battalions. As they had to
come up from the rear, however, the tanks allotted to the Princess
Patricia's did not catch up with them until the qlose of their
advance. Those which were to accompany the Royal Canadian
Regiment were put out of action near Monchy and the battalion
advanced without them. Tank support was therefore negligible.

The brigade passed through the Eighth Brigade at 11 a.m.
and advanced due east, with their general objective a north and
south line through Boiry-Notre-Dame. As they advanced they
were to fling back their left to the Scarpe, where the line from
which they started touched the river.

The enemy held the trenches east of Monchy in great strength.
This belt of trenches, over a mile deep, and guarded by scattered
lines of wire, was crammed with German machine gunners.
As the long waves of men came forward these weapons began
to fire. Through this, the waves came on. About fifteen
minutes after the launching of their attack, the enemy's intense
machine gun fire checked the Royal Canadian Regiment a
thousand yards east of Monchy, where it took up positions in
the labyrinth of trenches.

A short time afterwards the Princess Patricia's, having
stormed nest after nest of machine guns, were also checked.
The battalion at that time had pressed into and through the
Bois du Sart, a large wood two thousand yards east of Monchy,
and held Faction Trench, north-east of the Wood. Beyond
this they could not go ; the battalion was already far in advance

17

258 THE CANADIANS IN FRANCE

of the general line held by our troops. The enemy was holding
the Bois du Vert, south of the battalion, and Jig-Saw Wood,
north-east of them, and his innumerable machine guns crackled
like flame in their hiding-places among the scattered trees. The
battalion were in a dangerous situation, exposed to a converging
attack from flank and rear.

The two tanks assigned to the battalion now came forward
and, gliding through the gusts of fire beating on their iron hides,
bore down on the machine guns holding up the men in Faction
Trench. The watchful anti-tank guns saw them, and opened
fire over open sights and destroyed them. At 5.40 p.m. it was
evident that the advance of the Seventh Brigade had reached
its limit.

The Second Division shortly after 1 p.m. withdrew all its
men north of the Arras-Cambrai Road, as, in accordance with
the adjustments of boundaries set in force after 11 a.m., they
were no longer responsible for the ground north of the Road.
The Third Division, to close the gap between the Seventh Brigade
and the Second Division caused by this withdrawal, sent up the
Eighth Brigade. The Eighth Brigade then took up positions
from the Road northwards, and the Forty-second Battalion, in
reserve near Monchy, was ordered to attack Factory Trench,
running north and south between and slightly in advance of the
Road and the Bois du Vert. At the same time it was to clear
all the intervening maze of trenches south-east of the village.
After very hard fighting against an ever-increasing resistance
the battalion reached a line between the Road and the Bois du
Sart, to the south-east of the latter, of which the Germans still
retained possession.

The Second Division, after taking its second objective, en-
deavoured to capture Guemappe. The Eighteenth Battalion,
passing through the leading units of the brigade, advanced to
the attack, but was checked by intense machine gun fire before it
reached the village.

The Sixth Brigade in the meantime was preparing to resume
the advance with the object of capturing the Wancourt Tower
Ridge. This was a long spur of naked land running north-east
and south-west a thousand yards south-east of Wancourt, beyond
the Cojeul River, and formed a portion of the heights rising on
either side of that little stream. It was laced with many trenches
providing excellent fire-positions for the enemy, and some of these
were protected by barbed wire.

The brigade was allotted as an objective Egret Trench and
its continuation to right and left. Possession of this trench would
carry the line to the eastern face of the Ridge, with observation
over a large tract of country. The left of the brigade was to

CAMBRAI 259

move along the Cojeul. At the same time the Fourth Brigade
was to advance its hne in conformation on its whole front between
the Cojeul and the Arras-Cambrai Road.

At 4.30 p.m., covered by a shrapnel barrage provided by
guns now in position in the valleys near our old front line, the
Twenty-eighth Battalion on the right and the Twenty-seventh
Battalion on the left moved out to the attack. They were
each supported by a company of the Twenty-ninth Battalion.

The advance swept up the slope of the Ridge through fearful
machine gun fire, against which tanks, had there been any, would
have proved extremely useful. There were no tanks. The men
made the best of it, and relied on their oAvn courage and fortitude
for victory. Fortunately the machine gun fire, perhaps on
account of panic among the gunners, was high and ineffective
until the men topped the crest of the Ridge, and our losses were
not very heavy. But as soon as the line of Canadians rose along
the skyline they were swept by murderous machine gun fire. It
came from a position called The Nest, in the centre of the attack,
from the many trenches beyond the brigade right and from the
front and the left, all at very short range.

Despite this terrible opposition, the battalion took The Nest
after a deadly struggle, while the right company of the Twenty-
eighth Battalion turned aside, toiled through the hail beyond
their flank, and throttled the fire of the guns at that point. At
the same time the Twenty-seventh Battalion, bursting through
thick wire, stormed into Egret Trench and two other trenches,
called Stag and Duck respectively, to the west of Egret. The
Germans fought desperately, firing at the men in the wire and
then closing with them hand-to-hand when they got into the
trenches. The Twenty-seventh shot, bayoneted and brained
the resistance out of them and took the position.

Egret Trench, however, was found to be very shallow and
afforded little or no protection from the devastating German
machine gun fire, which took it in enfilade and swept it from end
to end. The battalion was forced to drop back a little out of
the trench. The Sixth Brigade then held Crow Trench, The Nest,
Wancourt Tower and Duck and Stag Trenches. Though not
the line of the objective, this was practically the same. It ran
along the top of the Ridge and commanded all the country held
by the enemy.

At 5 p.m., while the Sixth Brigade was enduring the galling
fire along the slopes beyond the Cojeul, the Eighteenth Battalion,
in accordance with the plan, advanced to conform the line of
the Fourth Brigade with that to the south. It was entirely
successful, and took Guemappe with comparatively light casualties.
After dark it gained touch on both flanks and dug in.

260 THE CANADIANS IN FRANCE

The approach of night now called a temporary halt to the
operations of the Second Division. Shortly before 6 p.m. the
enemy endeavoured to counter-attack the Sixth Brigade. The
counter-attack was broken up and driven off.

The Germans, apparently recognizing the uncomfortable
position of Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry in the
Bois du Vert, at 6.30 p.m. launched a powerful converging assault
from the Bois du Vert and Jig-Saw Wood. The counter-attack
was beaten back by the fire of every weapon in range, with severe
loss. The Canadian artillery did excellent work, especially
against the attack from Jig-Saw Wood.

It was recognized that the Princess Patricia's were in too
exposed a position. After the counter-attack had been defeated
they were withdrawn, without molestation, from the Bois du
Vert. At 7.30 p.m., then, the line of the Third Division ran in
a northerly direction from the Arras-Cambrai Road half-way
between the Bois du Sart and Monchy, with the left thrown back
to the Scarpe, the line in this sector facing, and a thousand yards
west of, Pelves. The Fifty-first were in touch upon the left at
Roeux.

Further south, when dark fell, the Second Division held
Guemappe and Wancourt Tower Ridge. Before midnight the
Twenty-eighth Battalion captured Grey Street, a trench six
hundred yards long and slightly in advance of Crow Trench.
One hundred prisoners were taken in the trench and the right
of the brigade was made secure.

This ended the fighting of the day, a day of hard battling
in strong and tenaciously held positions. Much had been achieved.
The greater part of the German forward system was in our hands,
the line having been advanced to an average depth of six thousand
yards. There were also in our hands two thousand Germans
and a number of guns, with a large quantity of machine guns.

On the following day the operations were resumed at dawn.
The Third Division employed the Ninth Brigade, passing it
through its comrades east of Monchy. The Second Division
employed the Fourth and Fifth Brigades, the former passing
through the Sixth Brigade, which was then Avithdrawn into
reserve.

The general plan of operations for the day involved a con-
siderable advance. The Second Division was to attack at 4 a.m.
in a south-easterly direction, with the Sensee River as an immediate
objective. The division was then to push on if possible and break
through the Fresnes-Rouvroy Line and the Vis-en-Artois Switch
until within striking distance of the Drocourt-Queant Line. The
Third Division, beyond the Arras-Cambrai Road, was to resume
its advance with the object of capturing the Bois du Vert, Bois

CAMBRAI 261

du Sart, Boiry-Notre-Dame and Artillery Hill, north of Boiry.
It was to conform to the attack of the Second Division, advancing
about an hour later and exploiting any success it might gain as
opportunity offered.

The attack of the Corps was covered by the usual type of
artillery creeping barrage and by machine guns. Sixteen tanks
of the Fourteenth Tank Battalion were equally divided among
the Fifth and Ninth Brigades.

It was found necessary to postpone the advance of the Second
Division until 10 a.m., in order to permit final preparations to
be completed. The Third Division, however, attacked at 4.55
a.m. as arranged. The advances of the Corps upon August 27th
were therefore made in two distinct parts. The Third Division,
during the advance of the Second Division, awaited orders to
conform to them.

To deal with the attack of the Third Division. During
the night adjustments had been made along the front, and the
Eighth Brigade now held the line from the Arras-Cambrai Road
to the Bois du Sart, while the Seventh Brigade held from the
Bois du Sart northwards. To Brigadier-General D. M. Ormond,
D.S.O., commanding the Ninth Brigade, were loaned two bat-
talions, one from each of the other brigades of the division. These
were the Forty-ninth Battalion, Major C. T. Weaver, and the
Second C.M.R. Battalion, Lieut.-Col. Johnston.

The Fifty-second Battalion, Lieut.-Col. W. W. Foster, D.S.O.,
attacked on the right with the Bois du Vert as its objective.
The Fifty-eighth Battahon, Lieut.-Col. R. A. MacFarlane,
advanced on the Bois du Sart on the left. When the Bois du
Vert was taken, the One Hundred and Sixteenth Battalion,
Major Sutherland, was to press through the Fifty-second Battalion
and capture Boiry. The Forty-third Battalion, Major W. K.
Chandler, D.S.O., was held on the right, ready to advance in
conjunction with the Second Division at 10 a.m. Behind this
battalion was the Second C.M.R. Battalion, prepared to support
the Forty-third or go through them to exploit any success
obtained. The Forty-ninth Battalion was in reserve.

So at 4.55 a.m., with dawn flushing the sky beyond their
objectives and the lightning of the barrage mingling with the
dawn and the glow of the troubled stars, the Ninth Brigade went
forward. The German barrage came down fairly heavily five
minutes after ours, but their machine gun fire, as ever, was the
most formidable. It was particularly heavy on the left, but it
was heavy everywhere and caused many casualties. The tanks
proved of little use to deal with the menace, for they were quickly
disabled one after another by anti-tank guns.

Nevertheless, our men made dogged and steady progress.

262 THE CANADIANS IN FRANCE

At 6.50 a.m. they had driven the enemy out of the Bois du Vert
and the Bois du Sart, held a portion of a strong point called the
Green Work south of the Bois du Sart, and were in Hatchet
Wood to the north of the Bois du Sart. The Germans delivered
a prompt and vigorous counter-attack against our patrols in
Hatchet Wood and drove them out, gaining slight footing in
the Bois du Sart. A company of the Fifty-eighth Battalion as
promptly counter-attacked in turn and hurled the Germans
out again, the whole of the Bois du Sart being cleared by 7.30 a.m.

Half an hour later large numbers of the enemy were seen
moving up to reinforce Artillery Hill, which was still holding
out. Our artillery shelled these parties heavily and the enemy's
guns retaliated on our men, causing some loss. Brigadier-
General Ormond thereupon despatched a company of the Forty-
ninth Battalion to reinforce the Fifty-eighth Battalion and a
company of the Second C.M.R.'s to help the Fifty-second and
One Hundred and Sixteenth Battalions. These companies
strengthened the line and replaced losses.

At 9.30 a.m. the brigade had completed the capture of Green
Work and also held Vert Work, east of the Bois du Vert. This
was accomplished by the One Hundred and Sixteenth Battalion,
which had attacked Boiry and Artillery Hill with the greatest
gallantry earlier in the day, but had been unable to secure them.
Major Sutherland was now engaged in organizing a new attack.
He was killed by machine gun fire while at this work, after having
set a high standard of courage and determination.

At 10 a.m. the Canadian guns to the south broke into intense
fire and the Second Division attacked. The Forty-third Bat-
talion, as arranged, went with them. The Germans obligingly
chose this hour for a counter-attack on the Fifty-second Bat-
talion. They were driven off with much loss, and their remnant
was pursued into the barrage covering the attack of the Forty-
third Battalion, where it was destroyed.

The One Hundred and Sixteenth Battalion, now commanded
by Major A. W. Pratt, resumed its attack on Boiry and on
Artillery Hill at 12.10 p.m. under cover of a new barrage. At
first the advance progressed well and the battalion beat its way
forward steadily through the fire of the enemy's machine guns.
Later, however, as our barrage slackened off and the strength
of the men ebbed and the losses mounted, a check occurred, and
the enemy's machine gun fire swelled to a withering fierceness
in which no man could live. The battalion, much weakened,
dropped sullenly back to their line in Vert and Green Works,
whence they started.

The Second Division launched its new attack at 10 a.m.
under cover of a barrage. This division had spent an active

CAMBRAl 263

night. The Eighteenth Battalion had advanced the hne of
the Fourth Brigade at 10 p.m., sending one company into Rake
and Cavalry Trenches, east of Guemappe. During the night,
too, the Twenty-seventh and Twenty-eighth Battalions once
more attacked Egret Trench, working independently of one
another. The trench was rushed and many prisoners were taken.

Under cover of this fighting the attackers prepared for action.
Eventually, after many difficulties the assembly was complete
and the advance began. The Fifth Brigade, attacking from the
line held by the Sixth Brigade, employed the Twenty-sixth Bat-
talion, Lieut.-Col. A. E. G. MacKenzie, D.S.O., on the right,
the Twenty-fourth Battahon, Lieut.-Col. W. H. Clark-Kennedy,
C.M.G., D.S.O., in the centre, the Twenty-second Battalion,
Major A. E. Dubuc, D.S.O., M.C., on the left, and the Twenty-
fifth Battalion, Major C. J. Mersereau, in support. The Fourth
Brigade attacked on its old front with the Nineteenth Battalion,
Lieut.-Col. L. H. Millen, D.S.O., on the right, the Eighteenth
Battalion, Major Macintosh, on the left, the Twentieth Battalion,
Lieut.-Col. B. O. Hooper, M.C., in support, and the Twenty-
first Battalion, Lieut.-Col. H. E. Pense, M.C., in reserve.

It was, of course, broad daylight when the division attacked,
and the men were greeted with dreadful machine gun fire as soon
as they appeared. The German artillery rained shells, including
gas, on the advancing troops, especially against the Twenty-
fourth Battalion. But the whole array went on majestically
through the hell of bullets and shrapnel. A thousand yards
from its jumping-off line in Crow Trench, the Twenty-fourth
Battalion reached Mallard Trench and captured a large number
of trench mortars, machine guns and prisoners there. These
weapons had caused the battalion much loss. The fire of the
machine guns against the Fifth Brigade slackened somewhat,
but the fury of the enemy's artillery increased. The brigade
struggled on against this, and the two southernmost battalions
swept into and over the Sensee River, in which only a little water
was flowing. Cherisy was found empty by the Twenty-fourth
Battalion and they occupied the ruined village.

After half an hour's bombardment of Occident Trench the
Twenty-sixth and Twenty-fourth Battalions resumed their
advance. Occident Trench, east of Cherisy and running parallel
to the western side of the Fontaine-lez-Croisilles-Haueourt Road,
was taken by the Twenty-fourth Battalion and the two battalions
crossed the road. Here the Twenty-sixth Battalion was checked
by very heavy machine gun fire and dug itself in. The Twenty-
fourth Battalion, under the inspiration of its heroic commander,
who was ever at the danger-point, went on still. It was not
until the battalion reached the fringes of the dense wire guarding

264 THE CANADIANS IN FRANCE

the Fresnes-Rouvroy Line six hundred yards beyond Occident
Trench that it was checked. Here exposed flanks and dreadful
machine gun fire caused a halt and compelled the battalion to
dig in. It was then several hundred yards in advance of the
troops on either side.

At that time all the tanks had become casualties.
Meanwhile the Twenty-second Battalion was consolidating
along the west bank of the Sensee. It had suffered severely,
many officers being among the casualties. No less than three
senior officers — Major A. E. Dubuc, D.S.O., Major J. H. Roy,
M.C., and Major A. G. Routier, M.C. — were wounded and twelve
other officers had fallen. But the battalion had taken a very
heavy toll among the enemy.

The Fourth Brigade had also been checked on the west bank
of the Sensee by very severe fire from a series of works east of
the Vis-en-Artois Switch. In the whole of its advance it had
been most doggedly opposed and had inflicted very severe
casualties. The Eighteenth Battalion, assisted by the Forty-
third Battalion, made fine progress, advancing over three
thousand yards during the day. Between them they captured
Vis-en-Artois, the Forty-third crossing the Cojeul River under
heavy fire for the attack on the village.

The German infantry and artillery manoeuvred with reckless
daring throughout the afternoon. The infantry continually
reinforced the troops opposite the Second Division by moving
across the open. Several guns came into action against our
advancing troops fi-om Upton Wood, less than a thousand yards
from the line finally reached by the Twenty-fourth Battalion.
Our artillery silenced the guns and caused many casualties amongst
the enemy infantry.

When darkness settled on the weary and blood-stained
battalions of the Canadian Corps, a notable day's work had been
completed. The line then ran along the eastern side of the
Fontaine-lez-Croisilles-Haucourt Road to the wire on the western
side of the Fresnes-Rouvroy Line ; thence north to the Sensee
and along the Sensee east of Vis-en-Artois. It then ran back
in a north-westerly direction to the Green and Vert Works, the
Bois du Sart, and so to the Scarpe River on the western outskirts
of Pelves. The line of the Canadians had moved forward three
thousand yards.

The Fifty-fii:st (Highland) Division had kept pace with the
attack during the day by moving along the northern bank of the
Scarpe.

On August 28th the Canadians again advanced, maintaining
with untiring ardour their relentless pressure on the enemy.
The Second Division once more employed the Fourth and Fifth

CAMBRAI 265

Brigades, while the Third Division, gathering itself together for
its final blow, utilized elements of all its infantry. The attack
was made under an artillery barrage, but without tanks. The
tanks had been withdrawn for reorganization — those that had
not heroically sacrificed themselves in previous action. The
entire attack was in the nature of the last effort of two determined
divisions following forty-eight hours of bitter fighting.

The Third Division was again the first to advance. During
the previous night the division had adjusted its battalions for
the morrow's assault. The Eighth Brigade, with the Forty-
third Battalion, which was too closely engaged to remove, were
now responsible for the front between the Arras-Cambrai Road
and the Cojeul River. From the river to the Bois du Sart the
Ninth Brigade, with the Fourth C.M.R. Battalion, held the line.
Beyond the Bois du Sart to the Scarpe was the Seventh Brigade.

To the Eighth Brigade was allotted the task of capturing
Seventy Ridge, west of Remy, Remy and Remy Wood, north of
the village. It was then to swing southwards across the Sensee
River with the object of capturing St. Servins Farm, about
one thousand yards south of Remy. To the Ninth Brigade were
assigned the objectives of Boiry and Artillery Hill, against which
they had striven in vain the day before. The Seventh Brigade
was to take Pelves and Jig-Saw Wood. The average depth of
the advance was to be one mile, starting on a front of seven
thousand yards. It is worthy of note that this was double the
front held at dawn on August 26th.

Owing to the comparatively small number of guns available
for barrage work, arrangements were made for the artillery
allotted to the division to cover each brigade in turn, the attacks
of each brigade following one another from north to south. This
method of rendering artillery support proved entirely successful,
for all objectives were taken. The tired troops rose to the occasion
nobly, enveloping their objectives with great dash and precision.

At 5 a.m. the first advance was made when the Forty-ninth
Battalion carried Pelves and the trenches south of it with little
difficulty. Then at 11 a.m. the Princess Patricia's on their right
and the Forty-second Battalion further south joined in the advance,
and all three battalions attacked Jig-Saw Wood. At the same
hour the Ninth Brigade attacked its objectives on the right of
the Seventh Brigade. The Canadian artillery concentrated all
its efforts on providing an adequate barrage to cover the infantry.
The result was that a dense and most effective gun fire supported
the battalions, which made rapid progress.

On the left, the enemy's artillery, greatly disorganized by
its hasty retreat before the British onslaught, proved to be
capable of only scattered and ineffective fire, and, as usual,

266 THE CANADIANS IN FRANCE

machine guns gave the greatest trouble. Though heavily en-
filaded from the left, the Seventh Brigade quickly completed
its work and cleared Jig-Saw Wood.

The Ninth Brigade employed the Fourth C.M.R. Battalion
on the right. On the left of that battalion was the Fifty-second
Battalion, and on their left the One Hundred and Sixteenth
Battalion. On the left of the latter was the Fifty-eighth Battalion,
supported by two companies of the Royal Canadian Regiment.
In the face of extremely heavy cross-fire from machine guns in
Boiry and on Artillery Hill, and under violent bombardment
from the German artillery, which were here not only prompt
but efficient, the brigade proceeded to envelop its objectives
by a turning movement from the south-east.

The whole brigade pressed over the Fresnes-Rouvroy Line
north and south of Boiry, and the Fifty-eighth Battalion began
to encircle Artillery Hill. By 11.45 a.m. the remainder of the
brigade was sweeping round the village. The Fifty-eighth
Battalion at 1.80 p.m. had succeeded in overcoming the greater
part of their objective, with over two hundred prisoners. At
8 p.m. the whole brigade had performed its task, and Artillery
Hill and Boiry were firmly in Canadian hands.

At 12.30 p.m. the Eighth Brigade launched its attack. The
Forty-third Battalion attacked upon the right and the Fifth
C.M.R. Battalion on the left.

The Forty-third Battalion advanced to attack Remy village
and Remy Wood along Seventy Ridge. Through very heavy
fire they carried their line forward with a rush, cleared the whole
of the ground on their front west of the Sensee River and took
all their objectives. The battalion at 1.20 p.m. had driven the
enemy out of Haucourt Wood, captured the greater part of
Remy, swept up Remy Wood, and were in position to the east
of it.

The Fifth C.M.R. Battalion on the left made equally swift
progress. Following a severe gas bombardment, the battalion
crossed the Cojeul River. At 1.50 p.m. it advanced, the artillery
lifting from the front line of the Fresnes-Rouvroy Line to let
them in. The wire guarding the trench proved little obstacle,
being old and well cut. The rush was admirably covered by the
battalion's Lewis guns, which riddled two resisting machine guns
into shreds and filled the line with dead. After bombing the
dugouts, the battalion pressed on to the support line and overcame
a powerful resistance there. By 1.15 p.m. they held the line
on all their front, patrols went out, and touch was established
with the flanks.

The Second Division, south of the Arras-Cambrai Road, had
now launched its attack. The objectives assigned to the division

CAMBRAI 267

were, first, the Fresnes-Rouvroy Line, and second, the Drocourt-
Queant Line as a goal of exploitation. The night on the
front had passed quietly on the whole, and zero hour found
the remnants of the battalions somewhat rested, and eager, in
spite of their weakness, to close once more with the enemy.

The brigades employed by the division were the same as
before. The Fifth Brigade attacked with the units it had used
on the previous day. On the Fourth Brigade front, however,
the Twenty-first Battalion, Lieut, -Col. H. E. Pense, M.C., on the
right, and the Twentieth Battalion, Lieut. -Col. B. O. Hooper,
M.C., on the left, advanced through the attackers of the day
before, the Nineteenth Battalion thereupon going into support
and the Eighteenth Battalion into reserve.

After a strong bombardment by heavy artillery the division
attacked at 12.30 p.m. under cover of a field gun barrage. The
general direction of advance was parallel to the Arras-Cambrai
Road and the frontage about four thousand yards, of which the
Fourth Brigade covered about seven hundred.

The Germans had resolved to guard the Drocourt-Queant
Line to the last. They attached extraordinary importance to
this system, because it was not only very strong but also repre-
sented the last well organized trench line left in their possession.
With troops which had been steadily reinforced during the night
the enemy had prepared a powerful machine gun defence com-
manding all the country in front of the German positions.

When the Canadians emerged from their assembly places and
attacked, the German machine gunners flayed them with a
dreadful fire. Their riflemen added their share and so did their
artillery. Through and into this appalling opposition the
thin waves advanced, and though many gallant men went down,
those that lived went on.

On the right the Twenty-sixth Battalion pushed its right
flank forward twelve hundred yards, and its left flank reached
a point eight hundred yards in front of its jumping-off position.
Lieut.-Col. MacKenzie was in the forefront of their attack. When
for a moment there was a check, he advanced to call on his
men for another attempt and was killed. Captain H. G. Wood,
M.C., took temporary command and carried on the attack. The
Twenty-fourth Battalion and the Twenty-second Battalion by
dint of herculean effort won to the wire guarding the Fresnes-
Rouvroy Line. Further to the left, the Twenty-first and
Twentieth Battalions struggled over a terrain of banks and
sunken roads full of machine guns and also reached the wire
along this line.

With its men in front of the Fresnes-Rouvroy Line, the
Second Division was definitely checked. The enemy, in the

268 THE CANADIANS IN FRANCE

trenches and behind, set the wire and the country in front ablaze
with fire. But the men looked straight into the eyes of death
glaring out of the trenches, and again and again fought through
the wire to close with the machine gunners, who killed them.

All afternoon they strove to get forward, led by their
ofRcers. Major J. P. Vainer, M.C., Major J. P. Archambault,
D.S.O., Captain W. E. Morgan, M.C., and seven other officers
of the Twenty-second Battalion were wounded, urging their men
on to fresh assaults, and inspiring them all to fight, to suffer,
to die but not give in.

Lieut.-Col. Clark-Kennedy, of the Twenty-fourth Battalion,
was the shining light in those grim hours. Though wounded
early in the advance, he insisted on directing his men from a
shell-hole, and there, despite intense pain and serious loss of blood,
he remained until 5.80 p.m., when the situation had quietened
and he permitted the stretcher-bearers to remove him. Lieut.-
Col. Clark-Kennedy received the Victoria Cross later for his
magnificent leadership during the desperate fighting of August
27th and 28th.

Eventually the division established a line slightly west of
the Fresnes-Rouvroy Line, with posts in the Vis-en-Artois
Switch near the Fontaine-lez-Croisilles-Haucourt Road, and
thence three hundred yards beyond, and parallel to, the Sensee
River as far as the Arras-Cambrai Road.

The day's operations had realized a substantial gain for
the Canadian Corps. At the close of the advance the line had
reached the fringe of the Fresnes-Rouvro}'- Line. North of
the Arras-Cambrai Road our troops were on the Sensee, had
probed the outskirts of Haucourt, held Haucourt Wood and part
of Remy and Remy Wood, beyond the Fresnes-Rouvroy Line.
Boiry, Artillery Hill and Pelves were securely in our hands further
to the north. On the whole Corps front, notAvithstanding the
violent resistance by the enemy, an average advance of a thou-
sand yards had been realized, the achievement of very tired but
indomitable troops.

The enemy delivered two powerful counter-attacks in the
evening, as the battalions were settling down for the night,
one against Artillery Hill at 6 p.m., and the other against our
posts in the Vis-en-Artois Switch at 7.45 p.m. Both were
beaten off.

And now it was deemed expedient to relieve the men who
had hitherto borne the brunt of the great battle east of Arras.
They had accomplished a great deal. They had carried the
Canadian line forward over ten thousand yards of trench-scarred,
shell-pocked country — a country of naked, formidable ridges
strewn with barbed wire and with enemies lying in wait behind

CAMBRAI 269

every favourable bit of cover and fighting desperately when
the time came. In their assault they had taken over three
thousand prisoners and fifty guns, besides innumerable small
arms and much material, and had killed great numbers of the
enemy. Finally, they had broken through the greater part
of the German forward defence system. The relieving troops
had only two thousand yards of ground to cover before they could
batter in the Drocourt-Queant Line. It should not be forgotten
that all this was done by divisions which had been furiously
engaged at Amiens less than a fortnight before.

During the night of August 28th the First Canadian Division
moved up from the ruins of Arras and relieved the Second Canadian
Division. At the same time the Fourth (Imperial) Division,
which had been attached to the Corps, relieved the Third Canadian
Division. A force of machine gunners, dismounted cyclists
and other troops of that type, under the command of Brigadier-
General Brutinel, and styled Brutinel's Brigade, relieved the
left sector of the Third Canadian Division and formed a defensive
flank south of the Scarpe. The relieving divisions brought in
their artillery with them to swell the strength of the Canadian
and Imperial guns already in action.

The new arrivals were ordered to clear the enemy out of
the ground intervening between them and the Drocourt-Queant
Line. This they immediately proceeded to do. August 29th
was devoted to the relief of the left sector of the Fourth (Imperial)
Division by the Eleventh (Imperial) Division, and the Fifty-
first (Imperial) Division reverted on the same day to the Twenty-
second (Imperial) Corps north of the Scarpe. On the following
day Brutinel's Brigade thrust forward the left flank of the Corps
and the Fourth (ImiDerial) Division succeeded in establishing
posts in Haucourt and pushing further into Remy.

At 4.40 a.m. on August 30th, to bring forward the Canadian
right, the First Canadian Division attacked the Fresnes-Rouvroy
Line, the Vis-en-Artois Switch and Upton Wood, south of the
junction of these lines. The attack was made by Brigadier-
General Griesbach's First Brigade and w^as a complete success.
It was a most ingeniously planned operation.

The Seventeenth (Imperial) Corps had recently captured Hende-
court, to the right front of the Canadian objective. This enabled
the brigade to carry out its main assault from the south. The
First Battalion, Lieut. -Col. A. W. SparHng, D.S.O., assembled
immediately north of Hendecourt and advanced in a northerly
direction straight towards the Vis-en-Artois Switch, with the
support line of that system as its finaj objective. The Second
Battalion, Lieut. -Col. L. T. McLaughhn, D.S.O., on the left and
slightly in rear of Lieut.-Col. Sparling's command, advanced

270 THE CANADIANS IN FRANCE

up the front and support trenches of the Fresnes-Rouvroy Line.
The Third Battalion, Lieut.-Col. J. B. Rogers, D.S.O., M.C.,
advanced from the west and north along the communication
trenches leading into the Fresnes-Rouvroy Line and the Vis-
en-Artois Switch and joined hands \vith the others. On
completion of the operation the Canadian hne ran along the
Hendecourt-Dury Road and the support trench of the Vis-en-
Artois Switch to connect the new front with the troops on the
flanks. Upton Wood and Upton Quarry were surrounded
and could be dealt with at leisure.

An artillery barrage was provided to cover each battalion
and to enclose the whole area, and a smoke screen was released
to hide the advance from the Germans on the flanks. The
barrage was a marvel of intricate and accurate gunnery. The
attack, coming from a new quarter and in a new fashion, had all
the advantage of surprise.

At 4.40 a.m. the intense barrage started. The enemy holding
the objectives were taken completely by surprise, not being
prepared for an attack from the rear or able to adjust their
defence to meet the unexpected. Large numbers of them were
taken. As the First Battalion advanced it protected itself from
attack from the east by wheeling men into position facing that
direction. Less than an hour after the commencement of the
attack the battalion held all its objectives, and at 7 a.m. the
whole brigade had achieved its purpose. It had been opposed
throughout by heavy machine gun fire from the flanks.

The enemy, when he had recovered from his surprise, en-
deavoured to retrieve the situation by a counter-attack. At
1 p.m., covered by a barrage, German troops attacked from the
east and north-east. Lieut.-Col. McLaughlin organized an im-
mediate counter-attack and checked the enemy. Between 4
and 5 p.m. the Fourth Battalion, Major G. G. Blackstock, was
sent up from reserve, and this battalion stamped out the last
spark of resistance in Upton Wood and assisted in regaining the
positions the Germans had taken. At 10 p.m. all gaps in the
line had been filled, all objectives were once more secure. Over
three hundred and fifty prisoners and nearly one hundred machine
guns had been taken in this perfect example of modern infantry
and artillery tactics, a figure which was only slightly exceeded
by the total casualties of the brigade. And the men who died
in previous attempts to carry the Fresnes-Rouvroy Line and
the Vis-en-Artois Switch were amply avenged.

At 3 p.m. the Third Battalion made an effort to capture the
strong point known as Ocean Work, beyond the northern end of
the Vis-en-Artois Switch, but machine gun fire from all sides and
a heavy artillery bombardment prevented them from doing so.

CAMBRAI 271

On August 31st Ocean Work was taken by the Eighth Bat-
talion, Major A. L. Saunders, M.C. The battalion attacked with
two companies under an artillery barrage at 5 a.m., and at 6
a.m., despite heavy machine gun resistance, had secured all its
objectives. Captain J. Boswell and Lieut. George, commanding
the attacking companies, were both wounded in the operation.

Thus ended August 1918, the most successful month in the
history of the Canadian Corps. In that period the Canadians
had taken thirteen thousand five hundred prisoners, two hundred
and sixty guns and two thousand machine guns. Vast casualties
had been inflicted on the enemy. Over one hundred square
miles of France had been freed from the invader. All this
had been achieved at the relatively small cost of twenty-one
thousand casualties, of whom the great majority were slightly
wounded.

During the hours that ushered in September, the Fourth
Canadian Division, taking over positions astride the Arras-
Cambrai Road from the First Canadian and Fourth (Imperial)
Divisions, entered the arena.

The early hours of September 1st witnessed the final actions
of the First Canadian Division in its campaign of clearing the
country west of the Drocourt-Queant Line.

The attack was carried out by Brigadier-General J. S. Tuxford's
Third Brigade, with the co-operation of the Second Brigade.
On the right the One Hundred and Seventy-first Brigade of
the Fifty-seventh (Imperial) Division assaulted Hendecourt,
around which there had already been much fighting, at the same
time. The Third Brigade attacked Hendecourt Chateau Wood
on their right. Crow's Nest and, on the left, Hans Trench. With
them the Fifth Battalion, Lieut.-Col. L. P. O. Tudor, D.S.O.,
advanced upon Orix and Opal Trenches, which formed a portion
of the Vis-en-Artois Switch not yet in our hands.

The coveted positions were extremely formidable. Hende-
court Chateau Wood was filled with machine guns. So was
Crow's Nest, a strange hummock of earth, stones and shaggy
trees. Hans Trench was also strongly held, and Orix and Opal
were equally powerful.

At 4.50 a.m. the brigades attacked, the Fifteenth Battalion,
Lieut.-Col. C. E. Bent, D.S.O., on the right, supported by the
Sixteenth Battalion, Lieut.-Col. C. W. Peck, D.S.O., and the
Fourteenth Battalion, Lieut.-Col. D. Worrall, M.C, supported
by the Thirteenth Battahon, Lieut.-Col. A. E. McCuaig, C.M.G.,
D.S.O., on the left. Covered by a creeping barrage and under
very heavy artillery and machine gun fire, the battalions made
sure and swift progress. An hour after zero the whole of our
objectives were in our hands.

272 THE CANADIANS IN FRANCE

Following the capture of the objectives, the enemy counter-
attacked repeatedly. At 11.30 a.m. he advanced in great
force against the right of the Fifth Battalion, gained a footing
between the battalion and the troops to the south, and forced
them slowly to give ground. At 1 p.m. the Fifth counter-
attacked, and by 4 p.m. had wrested all the enemy's gains out of
his grasp. At 6 p.m. the Germans massed again, and shortly
afterwards counter-attacked on the Fifth Battalion and on the
Seventy-second Battalion, Lieut. -Col. J. A. Clark, D.S.O., holding
the line to the north of them. The Seventy-second Battalion
hurled back the Germans before they reached their outposts.
The Fifth Battalion, after the enemy had gained a slight footing,
drove them out once more, and by midnight the last yard of the
lost ground had been retaken.

The Fourth Division's infantry in the meantime had been
heavily engaged. Coming into the line on August 81st, the
Twelfth Brigade of necessity attacked at dawn on September
1st before they had been able to learn the peculiarities of the
sector. The Seventy-second Battalion and the Eighty-fifth
Battalion, Major M. I. Millar, on its left, fought all day in the
country between the northern portion of the Buissy Switch
and the Arras-Cambrai Road. In spite of repeated counter-
attacks by the enemy, the brigade had established a good jumping-
off line by 6.30 p.m. At that time large numbers of Germans
were still holding out in the vicinity of the Road, within the
jumping-off line, but it was decided to leave them there until
the hour of the main attack, when they would soon fall victims
to tanks and infantry.

This brought to a close the fighting of the Canadians prior
to their new offensive.

Frequent small counter-attacks were delivered against the
Third Brigade during the day, but all were repulsed. It was a
day of hard conflict in fierce shell and machine gun fire, as had
been all the days preceding while the divisions were battering
their way up to the Drocourt-Queant Line. The Germans —
when they did not surrender tamely — opposed them bitterly.
Was not that Line they were guarding the inner wall of the
fortress on which depended everything, including their hope of
Victory ?

And now the Canadians were on the threshold ! Already
they were nearly half-way to Cambrai. Their guns were roaring
like lions outside the Drocourt-Queant Line, yearning for their
prey. The iron blows of their fury thundered upon the quivering
door incessantly. Behind the ramparts the German General
Staff was white with fear, for in that clamouring storm they read
their doom and the doom of the Central Empires. On the night

CAMBRAl 278

of September 1st, in intense darkness, the hosts of the British
Armies were marshalling for the storming of the Line.

What was this Drocourt-Queant Line on which the Germans
staked their hopes, which the world had given a legendary power ?
It was the northern extension of the vaunted Hindenburg Line,
and, as its name implies, it ran from Drocourt, in the north,
half-way between Lens and Douai, to Queant, in the south, near
Bullecourt of evil memory. It was intended as a line upon which
the enemy could fall back in the event of the Hindenburg Line
near Arras being lost to him, a contingency which finally had
come to pass. The system consisted, throughout its length, of
a front line, with an immediate support line three hundred yards
away, and, five hundred yards beyond that, a second line which
was called the support line because it was meant to hold the
troops assigned to support duties, as distinct from those holding
the front line itself. Many communication trenches connected
the line, and there were numerous subsidiary trenches and great
belts of red barbed wire guarding the whole. It was admirably
sited, with all the devilish cunning of the German High Command.

On the Canadian front it covered the three large villages
of Cagnieourt, Dury and Etaing. The northern half of the line
on that front, beyond the Arras-Cambrai Road, had a very
formidable system of trenches lying a thousand yards to the
west of it, a buffer which the assailant had first to storm. South
of the Arras-Cambrai Road there was the Buissy Switch, also a
double system of equally formidable trenches. The Buissy
Switch covered Villers-lez-Cagnicourt and ran on south to
Buissy and so to join the Hindenburg Support Line. The
Switch was a system into which the enemy might retire if
someone burst in at the junction of the Hindenburg with the
Drocourt-Queant Line.

But, though these switch lines made the general task more
difficult, the real obstacle was the Drocourt-Queant Line itself.
It had innumerable dugouts for the reception of its intended
garrisons, huge, gloomy tombs fitted with electric light and bunks.
It had tunnels joining the dugouts which could hold hundreds
of men. Innumerable machine gun emplacements dotted it,
placed by the same diabolical genius which planned the trenches
and the wire. The entire system was the work of years — years
of patient toil by driven droves of Germans. For years it had
waited there, untenanted and silent, until the hour of need which
those who built it never thought would come.

And now the dugouts were filled with breathless men and
the emplacements were manned and the whole world waited to
learn if the Line would prove impregnable. The hour of need
had come. The Canadians were upon the threshold,

18

274 THE CANADIANS IN FRANCE

In the operations v/hich were about to begin the Corps had
been allotted a peculiar and honourable role. The German
defences now before the Third and First Armies were of varying
strength. The Third Army, rejDrescnted by the Seventeenth
Corps on the immediate right of the Canadians, was confronted
with a terrible mass of trenches, the Hindenburg Front and
Support Lines, the Drocourt-Queant Line and the great hinge of
these two systems, all positions which should prove appallingly
costly to take by frontal attack. The First Army, represented
by the Canadians, though faced by the Drocourt-Queant Line
and its subsidiary trenches, had before it no obstacle approaching
the power of those to the south.

It may therefore be seen that the Line were best assaulted
on the Canadian front. A successful " break-through " in that
section, followed by a rapid advance eastwards astride the Arras—
Cambrai Road, would take all the formidable positions on the
front of the Seventeenth Corps in enfilade and, eventually, in
the rear. The enemy holding these positions would then be faced
with the alternative of retiring or being surrounded. Even if
he fought, the presence of the Canadians on flank and rear
would weaken his resistance to the Seventeenth Corps, who
would be able to attack him with a reasonable chance of
success.

The plan outlined above was that on which the forthcoming
battle was based. To the Canadians was allotted the task of
breaking in the Drocourt-Queant Line. As soon as they had
achieved a breach, the Seventeenth Corps and the Canadian
reserves were to pour through and exploit the situation. But
until the Canadians had broken in, not one Imperial division was
to attack the Line. The Corps was the battering-ram for blasting
a way into the fortress to admit the besiegers. The whole opera-
tion depended on their valour, skill and endurance.

The manner in which the Canadian Corps proposed to carry
out the difficult duty assigned to it was as follows :

The First Canadian Division on the right, with two brigades
— the Second and Third — the Fourth Canadian Division in the
centre, also with two brigades— the Tenth and Twelfth — and the
Fourth (Imperial) Division with one brigade on the left, were
to take the first objective. The advance to the second objective
was to be made by the same brigades, in the case of the First
Canadian Division. The Fourth Canadian Division was to take
the second objective with the Twelfth Brigade, the Eleventh
Brigade, which would pass through the left of the Twelfth Brigade
on the first objective, and the Tenth Brigade. The Fourth
(Imperial) Division was to employ a fresh brigade for this advance.
Following the capture of the second objective, the First Brigade

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Brif-ish
*ObJecf/ves — . • .— ,

THE DROCOURT-QUEANT LINE.
Canadian operations, September 2-3, 1918,

276 THE CANADIANS IN FRANCE

of the First Canadian Division was to exploit the success of the
division towards the Canal du Nord.

The first objective thus assigned to the Canadian Corps
rested, on the right, upon the Support Line of the Drocourt-
Queant System south of Cagnicourt. From this point it ran
northwards from the eastern outskirts of Cagnicourt to the
north-western outskirts of Villers-lez-Cagnicourt. Crossing the
Arras-Cambrai Road, it then ran along the eastern face of Mont
Dury, south of the village of that name, then east of Dury itself
to Prospect Farm, in the Drocourt-Queant Line, a mile to the
north. Thence it turned westward and so to its left extremity
at Eterpigny.

The second objective rested, on the right, at the point where
the Queant-Marquion Railway crossed the Cagnicourt-Inchy
Road. It ran along the Railway as far as the Buissy Switch,
around the western outskirts of Buissy, thence to the Arras-
Cambrai Road north of Baralle. Crossing the road, it passed
through the outskirts of Sauchy-Cauchy, west of the Canal du
Nord, around the eastern and northern edges of Ecourt St. Quentin
and the Bois de Recourt and so, in a wide curve, to join the
first objective near Prospect Farm.

The third objective, from the Arras-Cambrai Road at the
crossing-point of the Marquion-Bourlin Railway, ran north to
Oisy-le-Verger, thence through the Bois du Quesnoy to the
northern edge of Palluel, along the southern lip of the swamps
to Lecluse, and thence followed the Sensee River to a point north
of Eterpigny. When this objective was taken our men would
have penetrated a further four thousand yards, having crossed
the Canal du Nord, captured the trench systems east of the
Canal — known as the Canal du Nord Line and the Marquion
Line — and the villages of Buissy, Baralle, Marquion, Sauchy-
Cauchy, Cauchy-Lestree, Oisy-le-Verger, Palluel, Lecluse and
Etaing. Their outposts would hold all the high ground immedi-
ately east of the Canal. By that time the Canadian Corps would
be twelve thousand yards beyond the line from which it started
in the morning. This was to be accomplished by the diverging
movement of the reserves, fighting outwards from the first
objective.

The whole operation was to be carried out in a swift rush,
sweeping the enemy out of the objectives before he recovered
from the shock of the encounter and carrying the line over the
Canal du Nord in the early afternoon.

Two Companies of Mark V and Mark V Star Tanks, of the
Third Tank Brigade, were assigned to each attacking division.
An Independent Force, under Brigadier-General Brutinel, con-
sisting of the Tenth Hussars, part of the Canadian Light Horse,

CAMBRAI 277

the Canadian Corps Cyclist Battalion, six armoured cars of the
Seventeenth Tank Battalion and the two Canadian Motor
Machine Gun Brigades, were held in reserve at Wancourt.

All the divisional artillery of the Canadian Corps, and prac'
tically every other light and heavy gun it owned, supported the
attack. These field guns provided a creeping barrage as far as
the first objective and then limbered up and got into position
to cover the further advances of the various brigades to which
they were allotted. The heavy artillery fired steadily on trenches,
strong points and bridges beyond the field artillery barrage.
The gunners had been busy cutting wire since August 30th in
anticipation of the new assault.

The Canadian machine gun battalions covered the advance
of the infantry with barrage fire as far as the first objective.
Afterwards, those machine guns which came behind the infantry
were to lend their aid where possible.

Zero hour was 5 a.m. on September 2nd,

It was a dark night, and drizzling rain fell intermittently
while the men assembled for the attack. Our guns fired spas-
modically, in claps of thunder which drowned the clank and rumble
of the tanks. The enemy replied vigorously now and then,
with high explosive or barking gusts of shrapnel. These bursts
of activity testified to his nervousness. Machine guns tapped
restlessly, and there was an occasional sound of bombing from
the front, where fighting was still in progress at disputed points
in the jumping-off line.

At dawn the world seemed to burst asunder. The intense
barrage awoke, a thing of dreadful clamour and violent lightning.
The Canadian infantry swept forward, on their right the Fifty-
seventh (Imperial) Division, on their left the Fourth. It was
5 a.m., and the hour of doom for the Drocourt-Queant Line,

The reply of the German artillery was prompt and fairly
heavy, but fortunately their shells fell behind most of our men.
Heavy machine gun fire greeted our men everywhere. The enemy
fought poorly in the first stages of the day's fighting, though
here and there some stout groups resisted sternly. The advanced
positions were overwhelmed. At 8.50 a.m. the whole of the
Drocourt-Queant Line and the Drocourt-Queant Support Line
were in our hands, burst in as if they were built of glass. At
9.15 a.m. the Canadian Corps had gained all its first objective.

The attack of the First Division on the first objective was
carried out by three battalions — the Sixteenth Battalion, Lieut. -
Col. C. W. Peck, on the right, and the Thirteenth Battalion, Lieut.-
Col. J. E. McCuaig, C.M.G,, D.S.O., on the left, attacking on the
Third Brigade front, while the Seventh Battalion, Lieut.-Col.
W. F. Gilson, D.S.O., attacked on the front of the Second Brigade,

278 THE CANADIANS IN FRANCE

Great numbers of Germans, evidently thrust blindly into the
Drocourt-Queant Line and the positions west of that line, were
encountered. They were so numerous that in many places they
greatly outnumbered the attackers. But on the Third Brigade
front they were completely submissive, and the majority of them
gave in without a murmur and went white-faced to captivity.

On the Second Brigade front the Fifth Battalion, holding
the line, was still fighting with the enemy when the Seventh
Battalion pushed through them to begin the advance. The
Seventh Battalion took up the fight and pressed on into the masses
of terrified Germans. The ground was strewn with grey corpses
— the toll of the merciless artillery — and every shell-hole seemed
to hold a living enemy. By the time our men reached the
Drocourt-Queant Line the hostile resistance had almost collapsed,
for the tanks were then in front of the infantry, and the mere
presence of these monsters subdued the foe. Six hundred prisoners
fell into the hands of the Seventh Battalion in their triumphant
advance. Much of their success was due to the magnificent
gallantry and determination of Private Walter Leigh Rayfield.
Well in advance of his company, he began the day by rushing
a trench of Germans, killing two of them with the bayonet and
capturing ten others. Later on, when a hostile sniper began
to cause heavy causalties, he discovered the man's position and
engaged him under very severe rifle fire. Then he proceeded
to rush the trench where the sniper had been, where he so
terrified the Germans that thirty of them surrendered to him.
But he was not satisfied with this. One of his comrades was
lying badly wounded on ground heavily swept by machine
guns. Rayfield at once went to the rescue and succeeded in
bringing him into safety. He was awarded the Victoria Cross.

The Fourteenth Battalion, Lieut.-Col. D. Worrall, M.C.,
went through the Thirteenth Battalion as had been arranged
and cleared Cagnicourt in dashing style. Large forces held the
village, but they were absolutely overwhelmed — so much so that
an entire battalion was taken, as well as a German Staff Officer
who had not the time to escape. Several batteries in and around
the village were also captured, the crews being shot down or rushed
with the bayonet.

On the front of the Fourth Canadian Division this phase of
the operations met with equal success. The division attacked
with the Seventy-second Battalion, Lieut.-Col. J. A. Clark, D.S.O.,
on the right, the Thirty-eighth Battalion, Lieut.-Col. C. M.
Edwards, D.S.O., in the centre, and the Eighty-fifth Battalion,
Major Millar, on the left, on the front of the Twelfth Brigade.
The Tenth Brigade, Brigadier-General R. J. F. Hayter, on the
left of the Twelfth, employed the Fortyrseventh Battalion,

CAMBRAI 279

Lieut.-Col. H. L. Keegan, on the right, and the Fifteenth BattaHon,
Lieut.-Col. L. F. Page, D.S.O., on the left. The Twelfth Brigade
attacked on a front of fifteen hundred yards, the Tenth on a
front of one thousand.

At 7.30 a.m. the Twelfth Brigade, on the right, was in
possession of all its first objective — an extremely rapid piece of
work. The Eighty-fifth Battalion, waiting for the help of the
tanks to master the group of Germans still holding out in their
jumping-off line, were compelled to attack them alone, as the
tanks were delayed. Half their casualties were caused here.
Many strong points— notably two garrisoned by thirty and forty-
five Germans respectively — were on the wrong side of the initial
barrage, which missed them, and the battalion was obliged to
overpower these without aid also. They succeeded, by dint of
streimous and determined effort, and captured eighteen machine
guns in doing so. Then they pushed on and arrived on their
objectives on time.

As elsewhere, the Germans holding the Drocourt-Queant
Line, though numerous, showed little inclination to fight and
betrayed their masters by tamely giving up the system.

The Tenth Brigade also passed quickly forward. Contrary
to the experience oi other Canadians, this brigade found that
the Germans facing them were inclined to fight very hard, until
the tanks were glaring into their positions and the bayonets
of the assaulting troops were at their throats. They and their
machine guns were very numerous.

Private Claude J. P. Nunney, M.M., of the Thirty-eighth Bat-
talion, in this fighting completed the exhibition of zeal and courage
which later gained for him the Victoria Cross. On the previous
day, during the swaying struggle for a jumping-off position,
the Thirty-eighth Battalion, near Vis-en-Artois, was heavily
counter-attacked under an intense barrage. Private Nunney at
once sallied forth on his own initiative, and, going through the
fury of shell fire, visited all the outposts of his company, en-
couraging his comrades, with such success that the attack was
completely beaten off. When the battalion moved out against
the Drocourt-Queant Line he was ever foremost in the advance,
accounting for many Germans single-handed. He was severely
wounded during the day.

When the Tenth Brigade was in possession of the Drocourt-
Queant Line the Forty-sixth Battalion, Major J. S. Rankin,
D.S.O., pressed forward to carry the Drocourt-Queant Support
Line and the village of Dury by assault. After taking the Support
Line, they were arrested in their advance by very heavy machine
gun fire from the southern outskirts of the village. By a skilful
^nd daringly executed tunning mpvement t|ie resisting Gemiaps

280 THE CANADIANS IN FRANCE

were forced to surrender, one hundred and twenty strong, with
nine machine guns.

All opposition thereupon ended, and Dury was taken with
over one hundred prisoners more. The Area Commandant of
the district and his assistant were among them, much to their
disgust and the huge delight of their captors — hauled from their
beds, it was said.

The Fourth (Imperial) Division on their left made equally
certain progress and captured their first objective in good time.

The whole Canadian Corps v.as thus upon its allotted line
and the first phase of the operation was complete. Much of the
success gained was due to the tanks, which wiped out many points
of resistance, spread panic among the Germans and rolled passages
through the dense wire of the Drocourt-Queant Line to admit
the infantry. The artillery, too, had provided a powerful and
most effective barrage. Their teams were now hooking in every-
where and beginning to drag the guns through shell fire to places
from which to su^^port the renewed advances.

Between 8.30 a.m. and 9.30 a.m. the attacking waves began
to move forward towards the second objective, each brigade
launching its fresh effort as soon as possible after the first objective
had been made secure. The fire of the German artillery had
slackened — probably because their gunners were getting their
weapons into safer positions to the east. The machine gun
defence stiffened, especially astride the Arras-Cambrai Road.
The renewed attack was faced with the enemy's second system
of defence, consisting chiefly of vast numbers of machine guns
and judiciously placed anti-tank guns, against which progress
was extremely difficult.

The Third Brigade, in their fresh attack, employed the Fifteenth
Battalion, Major Girvan, on the right, and the Fourteenth Bat-
talion, which had already taken Cagnicourt, on the left. The
Fifteenth Battalion had been following closely behind the Six-
teenth Battalion, and now passed through it and went straight
on in a south-easterly direction, its right on the Cagnicourt-Inchy
Road. The Fourteenth Battalion advanced to the attack on the
Bois de Loison, with the Thirteenth Battalion close in rear, to go
through the leading troops when the Bois was taken and capture
the Buissy Switch by rolling it up from the left.

The Fifteenth Battalion had to pass, on its way towards the
second objective, a large wood known as the Bois de Bouche,
north of the road to Inchy. This wood was full of machine guns,
which opposed a most determined and desperate resistance.
Troops in the Bois de Loison and Villers-lez-Cagnicourt also swept
the battalion with merciless enfilade fire. On the right the Sixty-
third (Royal Naval) Division, to which had been assigned the

CAMBRAI 281

task of taking the second objective of the Seventeenth Corps,
was meeting similar opposition on the high ground to the south-
west. The machine gunners facing the Naval Division also swept
the Fifteenth Battalion with fire. Thus it will be seen that the
battalion was raked by machine guns from left and right and
front and rear.

It was quite impossible to make rapid progress through this
terrific fire. But progress was made — slow, painful and costly,
every yard marked by a trail of blood. The Third Battalion,
Lieut. -Col. J. B. Rogers, D.S.O., of the First Brigade, following
the Fifteenth Battalion with the object of passing through to
a fresh attack when the second objective was taken, became
involved in the fighting and added its weight to the struggle.
Lieut.-Col. C. W. Peck, D.S.O., observing the difficulty on the
right, having reorganized his Sixteenth Battalion after its initial
advance, led his men personally into the fury of machine gun
fire on the immediate flank and flung them to the rescue. There
was a large trench — the southern end of the Drocourt-Queant
Line — from which the enemy were firing intensely upon the Naval
Division and the Canadians. The Sixteenth Battalion closed
with these Germans and overpowered them.

Lieut.-Col. Peck was largely responsible for the final success
of the advance in this quarter. He was quick to grasp the
situation, give the tanks their orders and organize his new attack,
which lent immense aid to the Naval Division and the Fifteenth
Battalion. Through the whole of these operations he exposed
himself recklessly, directing his men under terrific fire. Later,
he was awarded the Victoria Cross for his superb leadership and
valour.

It was in the course of this fighting, too, that Lance-Corporal
Henry Metcalf, of the Sixteenth Battalion, displayed magnificent
courage and won the Victoria Cross. Under the intense fire of
the German machine guns he rushed to a passing tank and
explained the situation. Then, holding a signalling flag in his
hand, he led the tank along the trench, giving it directions by
waving the flag. The enemy, astonished at his daring, concen-
trated every effort on his destruction. But by a miracle and his
own bravery he guided the tank through it all, and one by one
the tank stamped out the points of resistance. Later on, Metcalf
was wounded, but he would not leave the line until ordered to
do so.

Great numbers of prisoners were taken by the battalion in
this struggle.

The Royal Naval Division sent a battalion — the Drake — to
help at the Bois de Bouche. This battalion advanced with great
gallantry and flung its weight into the scale. With the aid qf

282 THE CANADIANS IN FRANCE

the Third Battalion and the Sixteenth and the Naval unit and
the surviving tanks, the Fifteenth Battalion finally carried the
Bois de Bouche shortly after noon, with many prisoners and
machine guns. In the hours that followed they pushed on to
the Buissy-Queant Road south-east of the Bois and there halted,
worn with their desperate effort. The Third Battalion went
through them to the second objective, along the Railway, which
was reached towards dusk. At the same time the Naval Division
came up on their right along the Railway.

The fighting experienced by the rest of the Third Brigade
was equally fierce and exhausting. The Bois de Loison resisted
the Fourteenth Battalion frantically, and German guns trapped
in the neighbourhood of Villers-lez-Cagnicourt, scarcely more
than a thousand yards away, fired on them heavily from the left,
causing severe casualties and destroying several tanks. Machine
guns also poured their fire into them from that village and from
the Bois de Loison and the Bois de Bouche. They persisted
sternly. The greater part of the resistance in the Bois de
Loison had been overpowered and the Wood taken at 11 a.m.

It was now the business of the Thirteenth Battalion to go
on, through the Fourteenth, and attack the Buissy Switch.
Owing, however, to the furious fighting still in progress on the
left, where the Second Brigade had encountered strong opposition
and was not yet as far forward as the Third Brigade, the battalion
had been compelled to take up a line facing north on the left
to ward off any attack from the front of the Second Brigade.
Captain Brewer, of the Fourteenth BattaHon, led his men into
the Switch as soon as the Bois de Loison had been taken. With
this Canadian foothold to aid them the Thirteenth Battalion
then made a determined effort to carry out its original role, but
was held up by terrific fire from the left as soon as it began to move.

The Second Brigade, as already implied, all this time was
fighting most desperately. Soon after emerging from the first
objective, at 8.45 a.m., the advance of the brigade was held up.

To the Tenth Battalion, Lieut. -Col. E. W. MacDonald, D.S.O.,
M.C., had been assigned the task of capturing the second objective.
At 8.45 a.m., a short distance beyond the first objective, with
all its attendant tanks out of action, its left exposed, the enemy
flooding it with the fire of numerous well placed machine guns
and bombarding it with guns and trench mortars over open sights,
the battalion was checked with severe loss.

Nevertheless they had no thought of giving up the advance.
Major Bingham and a party of men of the battalion proceeded
to bring a group of captured guns into action. Then the Sixth
Battery, Canadian Field Artillery, took charge of these weapons,
and with their own ^uns provided a hastily arranged barrage.

CAMBRAI 283

while a Canadian machine gun battery chimed in. Supported
by this aid, the battahon slowly but surely forced its way forward.
With infinite effort, the wood west of Villers-lez-Cagnicourt
and the southern trench of the I3uissy Switch to the right of the
village were taken, with eighty prisoners and eight machine
guns. The company on the left in the meantime proceeded to
envelop the Factory on the Arras-Cambrai Road north of the
village. The sunken road leading from the Factory to Villers-
lez-Cagnicourt was first rushed, Lance-Corporal Holmes having
silenced the enemy's machine guns with a Lewis gun from an
exposed position in advance. They then enveloped the Factory,
and took from it and the vicinity — the sunken road and elsewhere
— seventy-three prisoners and four machine guns. At 4 p.m.
they held a line to the east.

This aided the attack on Villers-lez-Cagnicourt, which was
now in progress, driven home by the centre company and some
men of the left company taking it in the rear. All this fighting
was of a most furious and bloody character, for the battalion was
opposed by greatly superior forces of Germans, who defended
themselves with the courage of despair.

It was 4 p.m. when the struggle just described came to a close.
At 6 p.m., under a barrage, the battalion renewed its advance,
working south-eastwards along the Buissy Switch. Wild fighting
took place, especially in the sunken road east of Villers-lez-
Cagnicourt and in the northern trench of the Switch, the enemy
resisting very stubbornly by heavy bombing and the fierce fire
of machine guns. This checked our men for a time, but with
indomitable spirit — the spirit wherein lies the secret of our final
victory — they renewed their advance. In conjunction with
the attack in the southern portion of the Switch, where the
companies on the right were fighting hard, assisted by the Third
Brigade, a swift rush was made. The Switch was turned into
a shambles — over two hundred dead Germans were counted after-
wards. Completely routed, the defence broke down at last. The
Seventh Battalion secured over one hundred and twenty prisoners
and numerous trench mortars and machine guns in this final
phase of the attack on the Buissy Switch.

To the First Battalion, Lieut.-Col. A. W. Spading, D.S.O.,
and the Fourth Battalion, Major G. G. Blackstock, much of the
success of the fighting around Villers-lez-Cagnicourt is also due.
These battalions, following the Second Brigade, perceived the
opposition they were encountering and sent men up to assist,
which they did with the utmost ardour, not only at Villers-lez-
Cagnicourt, but also in the Buissy Switch.

As already stated, the Third Brigade had joined in the assault
in the Buissy Switch. The Thirteenth and Fourteenth Battalions

284 THE CANADIANS IN FRANCE

cleared the Switch upon their front. At 11 p.m. the Eighth
Battahon, Major A. L. Saunders, M.C., passed through the units
holding the Buissy Switch on the front of the Second Brigade
and established outposts along the forward slopes well in front
of the Switch.

The First Brigade, which was to have exploited the Canadian
success beyond the Switch, had not the lateness of the hour
intervened, now relieved the Third Brigade, which proceeded
into reserve. All the First Brigade battalions which had fought
so well with other brigades were extricated and concentrated
with their own.

Sergeant Arthur George Knight, of the Tenth Battalion,
played a magnificent part in the terrific conflict of his unit with
the enemy. Sergeant Knight, leading a party of bombers, was
personally responsible for overpowering a temporary check.
Alone he rushed forward and bayoneted the crews of several
machine guns and trench mortars, putting the rest to flight.
He then brought up a Lewis gun and played havoc with it among
the retreating Germans. In subsequent operations this heroic
N.C.O. killed three more and captured twenty, quite alone.
Still later, he completely put to flight another party which
attempted to resist his platoon. Then he was fatally wounded,
and on September 3rd he died, after as gallant a period of service
as any man might offer. Sergeant Knight w^as awarded the
Victoria Cross.

The fighting of the Fourth Canadian Division in the advance
beyond the first objective was equally strenuous. Shortly after
8 a.m. the battahons which were to take the second objective
began their advance. These were the Seventy-eighth Battalion,
Lieut.-Col. J. Kirkaldy, D.S.O., of the Twelfth Brigade, on the
right ; in the centre the Eleventh Brigade, employing the Fifty-
fourth Battahon, Lieut.-Col. W. B. Carey, D.S.O., on the right,
the Seventy-fifth Battalion, Lieut.-Col. C. C. Harbottle, D.S.O.,
in the centre, and the Eighty-seventh Battalion, Lieut.-Col.
K. M. Perry, D.S.O., on the left. In reserve to this brigade
was the One Hundred and Second Battalion, Lieut.-Col. F. Lister,
D.S.O., M.C. On the Tenth Brigade front was the Forty-fourth
Battahon, Lieut.-Col. R. D. Davies, D.S.O.

As these battalions topped the rising ground between the
Drocourt-Queant Line and the Support Line, they came under
the most intense machine gun fire ever experienced by the division.
The battalions reached and held the Villers-lez-Cagnicourt-
Dury Road between the Arras-Cambrai Road and Dury, but
further forward they were unable to go. The terrific fire from
Villers-lez-Cagnicourt, which, of course, was still in German
liands, the absence of tanks and the overpowering tempest

CAMBRAI 285

that thrashed the lines from in front rendered further advance
impossible.

The Independent Force, moving along the Arras-Cambrai
Road according to orders, did their utmost to relieve the situation,
but without avail. Three armoured cars and two lorries containing
six-inch mortars endeavoured to surmount the crest and were
instantly put out of action.

Captain Bellenden Seymour Hutcheson, Canadian Army
Medical Corps, the Medical Officer of the Seventy-fifth Battalion,
through all that day of torment and death, stayed on the field
and dressed the wounds of every man who had been hit. He
attended to a seriously wounded officer under that dreadful fire,
and saw him carried out to safety by prisoners and our own
men, who suffered many casualties. Later he dashed through
the fire to a wounded sergeant, and, in full view of the enemy,
dragged him into a shell-hole and dressed his injuries. These
were but two of his many acts of gallantry.

Then, in the Eighty-seventh Battalion, Private John Francis
Young showed similar high courage and devotion to duty. Over
the utterly exposed and death-swept ground. Private Young,
who was acting as a stretcher-bearer, went to and fro among his
comrades, dressing their wounds. Several times, his stock of
bandages being exhausted, he had to return to his company
headquarters for more. In this way he saved many lives. Later
on, during the afternoon, when the fire slackened, he directed
the stretcher-bearers in the work of carrying out the wounded.

Private Young, in the succeeding days of action, showed
equal bravery and was finally awarded the Victoria Cross.
Captain Hutcheson also received the Victoria Cross. Theirs
was the type of valour — the valour of the Red Cross man, of
the non-combatant — which too often escapes recognition in the
more glamorous light of the bravery of men who fight the
enemy.

The Fourth (Imperial) Division met with a similar resistance,
but nevertheless made good progress. During the afternoon it
crushed the enemy's defence in Prospect Farm and got within
a thousand yards of Etaing.

On the front of the Fourth Canadian Division the Twelfth
Brigade was drawn into reserve after dark.

When the dull night came down, the line of the Canadians
on the right was over six thousand yards in front of the position
it had occupied at dawn, when the attack began, and nowhere
had the troops gained less than two thousand yards. Their
line at midnight ran along the Queant-Marquion Railway from
the Cagnicourt-Inchy Road to the Buissy Switch. North of
the Railway all the Switch was in our hands and the line was a

286 THE CANADIANS IN FRANCE

mile beyond the Factory north of Villers-lez-Cagnicourt. Thence
it ran along the Arras-Canibrai Road to the Factory, and so up
to Dury's eastern outskirts and to the new positions held by the
Fourth (Imperial) Division to the left. It was true that all that
had been hoped for had not been realized. But the great aim
of the day had been achieved. South of the Canadians the
hinge of the Hindenburg and the Drocourt-Queant Lines had
been taken. British troops were threatening Queant and Pron-
ville. Many miles of formidable trenches had been cleared.
And above all, the Drocourt-Queant Line on the whole Canadian
front had been battered in. To the Germans it was as if the
sky had cracked. A blow had shattered the wonderful armour
over the German heart. The Drocourt-Queant Line was but a
memory.

Many prisoners, vast numbers of machine guns and scores of
guns had passed into British keeping. Eight thousand prisoners
had been taken, of whom the Canadians could claim more than
half. At 6 p.m. the officers in charge of the prisoner-of-war
cages far in rear had counted one hundred and twelve officers
and four thousand three hundred and thirty-seven men to the
credit of the Corps. Many more white-faced victims were scurry-
ing through the dusk to join their comrades in the cages. There
had been no time to count trophies.

That night the enemy was silent — suspiciously so. He was
preparing for the inevitable aftermath of such a defeat as he
had suffered. Knowing that it was hopeless to counter-attack,
he was preparing to get back to his next line of defence. He was
about to give us our second objective without a battle. At dawn
he was in full retreat.

The retirement was not unexpected, but the British Command
did not intend to wait for the Germans to go. Orders had actually
been issued for a fresh attack on September 3rd, and some of
the Canadian battalions were on the move in compliance when
our aeroplane patrols brought back word that the main forces
of the enemy had been withdrawn to the eastern side of the Canal.
Instantly the whole British line was set in motion.

It was found that the Germans had left behind only a light
screen of machine gunners, and these were easily dealt with.
The only serious opposition encountered by the troops of the Corps
was intermittent artillery fire. At 9.30 a.m. the whole of the
Second Brigade front was on the move, and at 5 p.m. they had
reached the Canal du Nord. The First Brigade reached the
Canal about an hour afterwards. The Fourth Canadian Division
on their left made very rapid progress, took Rumaucourt, Ecourt
St. Quentin, Sandemont and Recourt without difficulty, and at
8 p.m. were also on the Canal. The Fourth (Imperial) Division

CAMBRAI 287

by noon had taken Etaing and Lecluse. Buissy and Baralle
fell naturally to the First Canadian Division.

While this movement was in progress the Sixty-third (Royal
Naval) Division on the Canadian right made an equally rapid
advance, and were able to cross the Canal during the day, but
were compelled to fall back again to the western bank in the
late afternoon.

The advance was to have been pressed beyond the Canal, but
it was soon found that this was not possible. Canadian patrols
thrust down to the western bank discovered that the enemy had
very carefully blown up all the bridges. The enemy held all
the high ground beyond the Canal with well placed and very
numerous machine guns. Many Germans were also in the dry
portions of the Canal bed, and at one or two places small posts
still held out on the western side. On the greater part of the
Canadian front the Canal was full of water. Every time a man
showed himself he was fired at, and any concerted movement
brought whistling tornadoes of machine gun bullets.

Of course, the idea of crossing the Canal was not relinquished
without a struggle. On September 4th well led and determined
patrols made an effort to win the passage, but the resistance of
the enemy was too strong. This was not surprising. The Canal
du Nord, a very formidable natural line of defence, was the first
position to offer the enemy good protection on the loss of the
Drocourt-Queant Line. This was one reason why he selected
it as the position on which to make a fresh stand. Another
reason was that it protected the main portion of his Hindenburg
Line, on which depended his last hope of salvation.

The Higher Command, having discovered that the Germans
intended to fight fiercely for the Canal — a thing it had long ago
foreseen — accepted the situation. It saw at once that the general
advance was of necessity arrested for the present. To carry
such a position as the Canal du Nord, a carefully planned and
very powerful attack was now required. This would take time
to prepare. In the meantime the tired troops, who had done
so well, had to be relieved.

On September 4th the Fourth (Imperial) Division was relieved
by the First (Imperial) Division, which thereupon was transferred,
with the front it held, to the Twenty-second (Imperial) Corps.
The latter had now reached the northerly extension of the line
held by the Canadians. On the same day the First Canadian
Division was relieved by the Third Canadian Division and went
into reserve for rest and reorganization. The Third Canadian
Division on the following day relieved the Fourth Canadian
Division, which also went back to reconstruct and rest its units
in the rear,

288 THE CANADIANS IN FRANCE

The operations which broke the Drocourt-Queant Line closed
with the departure of the victors. These men had accomphshed
great deeds. They had won a great moral victory, which had
far-reaching effects. They had conquered a trench system, of
which the world had spoken with bated breath, in one triumphant
rush. Many material things had passed from the enemy's posses-
sion into theirs. Among these should be numbered eight thousand
prisoners, sixty-five guns and four hundred and seventy-five
machine guns. Their line was now only seven miles from Cambrai.

A period of quietness followed. The British were preparing
to cross the Canal. The Germans were preparing to resist them.
The enemy continually attacked our posts, but were as often
beaten off. The posts we held on the Canal banks were incessantly
machine gunned. On September 16th the Corps Commander
ordered these to fall back until safe from the domination of the
German machine guns.

On September 13th Major-General L. J. Lipsett, C.B., C.M.G.,
was succeeded in the command of the Third Canadian Division
by Brigadier-General F. O. W. Loomis, C.B., C.M.G., D.S.O.
Major-General Lipsett proceeded to the Fourth (Imperial) Division
to take command. Great regret was felt throughout the Corps
at his departure, for there never was a braver or more popular
leader. He was killed by a sniper shortly after he left, and the
news was a source of great sorrow to the Canadians.

Brigadier-General Loomis was promoted to Major-General.
His successor in the Second Canadian Infantry Brigade was
Lieut. -Col. R. P. Clark, D.S.O,, M.C., who took command on
October 6th, Lieut. -Col. W. F. Gilson being in command in the
meantime.

On September 19th the Third Canadian Division was relieved
by the Fifty-sixth (Imperial) Division of the Twenty-second
(Imperial) Corps. The Second Canadian Division extended its
front to the right by taking over a portion of the front of the
Fifty-second (Imperial) Division, including the northern part of
Moeuvres. Thus the whole Corps front was now held by this
one division, which was on a comparatively short line.

The Fifth Brigade, holding the newly acquired sector, on
September 22nd and 23rd, with a view to improving the position
north of Moeuvres, made several minor attacks and pushed
forward its outposts, closer to the Canal. The Germans offered
some resistance and counter-attacked several times, but to no
avail.

And now the plans for a continuation of our offensive operations
were ready. The project for the crossing of the Canal du Nord
was complete. On September 27th the new attack was launched.

It is as well to consider first what the British Higher Com-

CAMBRAI 289

mand proposed to do, and so to learn the relation which the
role of the Canadians in the forthcoming battle bore to the rest
of the British forces.

By hard fighting in the latter part of September the Fourth
British Army between St. Quentin and Gouzeaucourt, and the
Third British Army thence to Moeuvres, had placed themselves
within assaulting distance of the Hindenburg Line. The First
Army, with the Canadians on the right, lay along the Canaldu
Nord on most of its front. The general strategical plan for
the resumed offensive was an advance of the whole towards
Maubeuge.

To get to Maubeuge our troops had first to take the Hinden-
burg Line in the south and cross the Canal in the north. The
most difficult task was the former. Accordingly, arrangements
were made for the Third Army to cross the Canal and, by a
rapid advance in a generally eastern direction, to outflank the
Hindenburg Line from the north. The Fourth Army meanwhile
was to bombard the very powerful defences of the Line, and then,
when the Third Army was threatening it from the north, to
attack. The Third Army, of course, could not do its part with
its left exposed. The Canadian Corps, therefore, was allotted
"the duty of keeping pace with the Third Army on the north.
The flank of the Canadian Corps, in its turn, would be guarded
by the marshes of the Sen see River.

These troops were faced by an obstacle of awe-inspiring
strength. The Canal du Nord was a desperately strong line of
defence. It was also a most difficult thing to cross. Few attacks
have ever been made with such a powerful barrier set in the
path of the initial advance.

This Canal du Nord linked the Somme Canal with the Sensee
Canal, twenty miles apart. Southwards from Moeuvres, owing
to advances recentlj'' made, it had passed into our hands. From
Moeuvres, northwards, however, the enemy held all the eastern
bank, and in some cases was on the western side also. The Germans
had sown the borders of the Canal with machine guns in immense
numbers, mined the approaches, blown up the bridges, placed
great numbers of batteries to sweep the approaches, and had per-
fected a system of anti-tank guns to deal with any tanks which we
brought against it. Behind the Canal itself, on the high ground,
they had distributed many more machine guns. They had
worked hard on improving the trench systems still remaining to
them. The high ground east of the Canal, and especially the wood-
crowned hill of Bourlon, gave them excellent observation over
many miles of the territory we held.

Had all the Canal been filled with water, matters would have
been desperate indeed. But fortunately, between Inchy and

19

290 THE CANADIANS IN FRANCE

Mceuvres, and opposite these villages, the Canal was dry. On
this frontage two thousand five hundred yards of the Canal had
not been completed when war broke out. In the uncompleted
portion there was no water.

It was possible to cross the Canal at this point, provided an
artillery bombardment of unprecedented violence first annihilated
the defence and then protected the attackers as they made the
passage. Once over, the British could proceed to develop their
assault as they wished. They would have to set to work at once,
however, to clear the enemy out of the positions he held along
the watershed to north and south.

The Germans realized their danger, and had done everj^thing
to make the dry portion of the Canal impassable. Their machine
guns were thickest there. They intended to fill the narrow defile
to the brim with British dead.

The plan of the Canadian Corps for the operations was as
follows : First, covered by the terrific barrage provided, the
infantry were to cross the Canal from Mceuvres to Inchy. Then,
while the Imperial troops of the Third Army, who had also crossed
at this point, were pushing in a generally eastern direction and
along the south side of the Bapaume-Cambrai Road, they were
to strike out fanwise, along the north side of the Bapaume-
Cambrai Road, north-east towards the Sensee and north along
the east side of the Canal du Nord. The move along the Canal
was to be made with a view to clearing up the Germans there,
for until these had been disposed of, no advance could be safely
made. Continuing the general assault, the Corps was to manoeuvre
forward until its left was on the Sensee. Then, with its left
thus secured and its right in touch with its Imperial comrades
south of the Bapaume-Cambrai Road, it was to advance due
east, keeping pace v/ith the Third Army.

Such was the general plan. The details may now be given.

The first phase of the operations was to consist of the crossing
of the Canal, followed by the subjection of the Germans on the
eastern bank to a point north of Marquion and the capture of
Bourlon Wood, Bourlon village and the high ground between the
Wood and the Arras-Cambrai Road. The second phase was to
consist of the capture of the high ground overlooking the valley
of the Sensee and the establishing of bridgeheads over the Canal
de I'Escaut (or Scheldt Canal), which guarded the city of
Cambrai.

In the first phase there were four objectives. The first
objective consisted of the front line of the Marquion Line on the
Corps front, with the left thrown back to include Sains-lez-Mar-
quion. This objective, from the right, about three thousand
yards east of Mceuvres, ran roughly parallel to the Canal and

292 THE CANADIANS IN FRANCE

about two thousand yards east of it. The second objective
ran through the western edge of Bourlon Wood, northwards
east of Bourlon, thence along the Bourlon-Marquion Railway
for about one mile, and so by the Bourlon-Marquion Road to
include Marquion. The third objective ran along the Railway
from a point north of Fontaine-Notre-Dame to a point east
of Bourlon village. Thence, crossing the Arras-Cambrai Road
at a place called La Maison Neuve, which was five thousand
yards from the Canal, it ran north-west to a point five hundred
yards south of Sauchy-Lestree and then west to the Canal.
Finally, the fourth objective ran due north from Fontaine-
Notre-Dame to west of Haynecourt, and thence to the southern
outskirts of Sauchy-Lestree and so to the Canal.

The whole advance in the first phase would reach a maximum
penetration of eight thousand yards, starting from a jumping-
off line with a frontage of about two thousand yards and ending
on a frontage five times greater.

For the second phase no definite objectives had been arranged,
but this phase involved the securing of all the ground beyond the
fourth objective between the Canal de I'Escaut and the Sensee
River.

The first phase was to be carried out by the First and Fourth
Canadian Divisions, the latter on the right. The second phase
was to be carried out by these divisions plus the Third Canadian
and Eleventh (Imperial) Divisions. During the pause between
the two phases the Third Canadian Division was to take over
the southern portion of the Fourth Canadian Division's front,
while the Eleventh (Imperial) Division passed through the
northern portion of the First Canadian Division. All four
would then advance, the Third Canadian Division on the right,
on their left the Fourth Canadian Division, on their left the
First Canadian Division, and on their left the Eleventh (Imperial)
Division.

The artillery support arranged for was on a truly stupendous
scale. An intense barrage was to be provided up to the second
objective. Thence the guns were to follow up and render im-
provised support. A pause of an hour was to be made on the
first objective by the infantry to enable the guns to get forward
for the barrage to the second objective.

The barrage covering the First Canadian Division was provided
by the divisional artillery of the First and Second Canadian
Divisions, the Thirty-ninth (Imperial) Division, and by the Fifth
Canadian Divisional Artillery, also two brigades of Imperial
field artillery.

The Fourth Canadian Division was covered by the barrage
of the Third and Fourth Canadian Divisions' artillery plus the

CAMBRAI 293

divisional artillery of the Fifty-seventh (Imperial) Division, the
Eighth Army Brigade of Canadian Field Artillery and three
brigades of Imperial field artillery.

The heavy artillery of the Corps was divided into two groups '.
the first, for bombarding villages, strong points, etc., the second
for counter-battery fire. The first group consisted of the following
brigades : First Canadian, Eighth, Thirty-fourth and Ninety-
first Royal Garrison (Imperial). The second was made up of
the Second and Third Canadian and the Imperial Seventh,
Forty-eighth, Fifty-third and Eighty-first Royal Garrison
Artillery.

This was the force of guns under Canadian control which first
devoted all its energies to barraging the Canal and then covered
the advance as far as the second objective. As the whole of
the field guns, as well as those of the Seventeenth (Imperial)
Corps to the south, fired on the two thousand yard length of dry
Canal during the first stage of the attack, the violence of their
fire may be imagined. It was said that only nine yards of frontage
were allotted to each gun. As these were each capable of dropping
four shells upon the nine yards in one minute of intense fire, the
result of such a concentration was terrific. The barrage was
the heaviest ever created in the history of the war.

After the taking of the second objective the guns were grouped
as follows :

To the First Canadian Division, in addition to its own, were
allotted the Thirty-ninth (Imperial) Divisional Artillery and part
of the Ninety-first Brigade (Imperial) of Royal Garrison Artillery.
The third Canadian Division was allotted the Fifth Canadian
Divisional Artillery and the Eighth Army Brigade, Canadian
Field Artillery, part of the Eighth (Imperial) Brigade, Royal
Garrison Artillery, and their own guns. The Fourth Canadian
Division was allotted its own artillery with that of the Second
Canadian and Fifty-seventh (Imperial) Divisions, and part of
the Thirty-fourth (Imperial) Brigade of Royal Garrison Artillery.
The Eleventh (Imperial) Division was covered by four Imperial
brigades of field artillery, its own artillery, and some of the First
Brigade of Canadian Garrison Artillery.

The balance of the First Canadian and Eighth, Thirty-fourth
and Ninety-first (Imperial) Brigades were grouped for bombard-
ment work, and all the rest of the heavy artillery for counter-
battery work against the enemy's guns.

A company of tanks of the Seventh Tank Battalion was
allotted to each division for the battle.

On September 25th the Twenty-second (Imperial) Corps took
over all the Canadian front north of the Arras-Cambrai Road.
During the night the Tenth Brigade of the Fourth Canadian

294 THE CANADIANS IN FRANCE

Division, the First and Third Brigades of the First Canadian
Division and the Thirty-second Brigade of the Eleventh (Im-
perial) Division relieved the Second Canadian Division in the
line. The rest of the Corps spent the day and September 26th
in moving forward to their assembly positions.

Corps Headquarters, v/hich since moving from Arras had
been in a camouflaged camp on the Neuville-Vitasse-Wancourt
Road, established itself near Queant for the battle.

At 5.15 a.m. on September 27th the last man was in his
place and the whole Corps was concentrated in one vast array
close to the Canal du Nord. It had been a dark, wet night, and
the troops had marched long distances over soggy ground, but
all awaited the assault with eagerness. The excellent marking
out of routes and assembly positions by the Engineers had
greatly facilitated the gathering of the force into its various
concentration areas.

Just before zero there was an uncanny hush over everything,
and it was difficult to realize that what was to prove the last
general attack of the Canadian Corps was about to be launched.

It was the hush before the storm.

At 5,20 a.m. the first gun spoke, the barrage opened on the
Canal with overwhelming power, and the whole vast torrent of
men began to move. The battle had begun.

Never had the world known anything to compare with the
strength and majesty of that terrible artillery fire. It was as
if the pillars of the earth had fallen and God had struck the
Germans with His anger. The gloom behind the advancing
troops was blazing with fire, and the gloom in front. The night
overhead shrieked and moaned and howled with the passing
of the shells, hurrying, hurrying, hurrying to keep their appoint-
ment with death. The German machine gunners in the Canal
and immediately behind it were blown to pieces and the German
guns were throttled with their answers in their lips. One or
two machine guns, perhaps because the devil was watching
over them, survived the hurricane and could be heard tapping
through the clamour of the shells. But they were very few.

Behind the barrage came the infantry and the machine gunners,
one immense river of khaki, with faces full of eagerness and
blood-lust in the glare of the gun fire, and over all a leaping mist
of steel. The torrent rolled forward hot-foot behind the barrage,
an irresistible force which could not be checked by any
human power. The pressure of this mass of men was so great
that those behind forced those in front into the barrage. Men
who went down wounded were submerged in the onrush and left
behind. Some idea of the weight and majesty of that advance
may be gathered from the statement that, at a conservative

CAMBRAI 295

estimate, twenty thousand Canadian and Imperial troops passed
through that narrow defile in an hour. Long after these were
ranging into open country the stream of infantry was pouring
through as steadily as ever.

The Germans with a thousand machine guns could not have
checked the tidal wave of men advancing behind that terrific
shell fire.

The leading battalions carried scaling ladders and other
devices for use if the Canal banks proved too steep or too slippery,
but they were rarely needed. Thanks to the artillery and a
special smoke screen provided to hide the advance from the left
and front, little difficulty was encountered. All the tanks got
over safely and, barring one which was destroyed by a mine
north of Inchy, went on with the infantry. Thus an obstacle
which had been looked upon with anxiety, if not with fear, was
crossed as easily as open ground.

When the Canal was crossed the attack on the first objective
developed.

The Tenth Brigade was £mi)loyed by the Fourth Division
for this attack. The Forty-fourth Battalion, Lieut. -Col. R. D.
Davies, D.S.O., advancing on the right, with the Forty-sixth
Battalion, Major J. S. Rankin, D.S.O., on the left, carried out
the first stage of the attack. The two battalions halted in a
sunken road five hundred yards east of the Canal, and the Forty-
seventh Battalion, Lieut. -Col. H. L. Keegan, on the right, with
the Fiftieth Battalion, Lieut.-Col. F. L. Page, D.S.O., on the
left, passed through and went on.

Quarry Wood gave some trouble, but it was rapidly encircled
and its machine guns were taken. The brigade reached the
Marquion Line at 7.15 a.m. It was heavily garrisoned, but the
Germans were too frightened to offer much resistance.

The First Division, attacking on the left, with the First Brigade
on the right and the Third upon the left, secured the first objective
with little difficulty. The Fourth Battalion, Lieut.-Col. L. H.
Nelles, was employed by the First Brigade for this phase, while
the Fourteenth Battalion, Lieut.-Col. D. Worrall, M.C., attacked
on the Third Brigade front. The latter encountered considerable
opposition from machine guns as it worked its way along the
Canal and lost a number of men, but shortly after 9 a.m. was in
possession of its objective, including Sains itself. Elsewhere
the First Division reached the objective with little opposition.

There was a pause in the advance from 7.30 a.m. to
8.30 a.m., and the artillery began to stream down to the Canal
to support the next stage of the attack. The Engineers, with
excellent speed and efficiency, were already at work bridging
the Canal and improving the communications from bank to bank

296 THE CANADIANS IN FRANCE

through the dry bed. At 8.30 a.m. the barrage began to march
forward again, and with it went the infantry.

In this advance the Eleventh Brigade on the right and the
Twelfth Brigade on the left passed through the Tenth Brigade
and continued the operations of the Fourth Division.

The Eleventh Brigade, employing the One Hundred and
Second Battalion, Lieut.-Col. F. Lister, D.S.O., M.C., on the right
and the Eighty-seventh Battalion, Lieut.-Col. F. S. Meighen,
C.M.G., on the left, pressed on rapidly towards the objective.
As they advanced they came under heavy machine gun fire from
the flanks, and particularly from the right, where groups of the
enemy were still offering a lively resistance in the Hindenburg
Support Line, which the Sixty-third (Royal Naval) Division
was attacking. The One Hundred and Second Battalion was
temporarily checked by a strong point on its front. Lieut.
Graham Thomson Lyall, commanding a platoon of the support
company, immediately exercised a bold flanking movement
and captured the point of resistance, together with a field gun,
four machine guns and thirteen prisoners.

As the brigade continued its advance, the firing from the
right and from in front became heavier. A nest of machine guns
opened fire on the One Hundred and Second Battalion and again
Lieut. Lyall dashed forward. Single-handed he rushed the
position and killed the officer in command, and the whole defence
collapsed, forty-five prisoners with five machine guns surrendering
to him. Later, Lieut. Lyall captured a further forty-seven
prisoners. Through all the operations he continued to show
great gallantry, leading a company in the desperate fighting
which was to ensue with fine judgment and courage. He was
wholly responsible for the taking of one hundred and eighty-five
prisoners, twenty-six machine guns and a field gun, during the
struggle at Bourlon Wood and beyond, and well merited the
Victoria Cross which he subsequently received.

The Eleventh Brigade was on the second objective to the
minute and looking into the depths of Bourlon Wood.

Meanwhile the Twelfth Brigade was advancing, the Eighty-
fifth Battalion, Lieut.-Col. J. L. Ralston, on the right, the Thirty-
eighth Battalion, Lieut.-Col. Edwards, on the left. The right
battalion, suffering considerable loss from artillery and machine
gun fire from the direction of Bourlon Wood, swept over the
remaining trenches of the Marquion Line, One hundred and
fifty prisoners and fifteen machine guns were taken in these
trenches. The enemy in Bourlon offered a pitiful fight. By
9.45 a.m. the Eighty-fifth Battalion stood triumj^hantly on the
second objective, with the village securely in their hands. At
that time the German guns from far off were shelling it heavily.

CAMBRAI 297

On the left, however, there was sterner fighting. When the
•Thirty-eighth Battahon cleared the Marquion Line, German
machine guns hidden in that portion of the Bourlon-Marquion
Railway forming the battalion's objective opened very heavy
fire upon them. The left company was held up, but the reserve
company came to their assistance. The Seventy-second Battalion,
following to pass through for the attack on the third objective,
also joined in the struggle, and with this aid the advance was
thrust through the machine gun fire, the resistance was beaten
out and the second objective was taken shortly after 11 a.m.

The First Brigade and the Third Brigade on the First Division's
front had launched their attack on the second objective between
8.30 a.m. and 9.80 a.m. The First Battalion, Lieut.-Col. A. W.
Sparling, D.S.O., secured this line on time after a dashing advance
under machine gun fire.

The Thirteenth Battalion, Major J. M. R, Sinclair, M.C., had
a peculiar role to perform in the operations of the Third Brigade.
After passing through the Fourteenth Battalion on the first
objective, its duty was to advance and secure the second. It
was then to turn westwards, take the Canal du Nord Line in
enfilade and capture these trenches and Marquion beyond, while
it cleared the enemy out of all the woods east of the Canal
around these places. The battalion encountered heavy masses
of barbed wire and the Germans everywhere offered a fierce
resistance.

By slow and painful effort in the dense wire and among the
woods, the battalion first captured the second objective on the
right, i.e. the easterly portion of its front, the Fifteenth Bat-
talion and the Seventh Battalion to the south, which were to carry
on the later stages of the advance, rendering invaluable assistance.
Two companies of the Sixteenth Battalion, Lieut.-Col. C. W.
Peek, V.C, D.S.O., fed in from reserve, joined in the struggle on
the left, but, together with the men of the Thirteenth Battalion
attacking at that point, were checked. The Fifteenth Battalion
and troops of the Eleventh (Imperial) Division, all of whom had
crossed the Canal between Sains and Marquion by means of planks
under a heavy machine gun fire, meanwhile continued to assist
the Thirteenth, and between them these forces cleared Marquion
and captured the rest of the second objective on the Third Brigade
front. All resistance in the woods and the village and along
the Canal having been overpowered, the troops rallied, and the
battalions assigned to the attack on the third objective prepared
to go forward.

The whole of the second objective was in Canadian hands by
noon. The tanks, most of which had exhausted their ammu-
nition, were now withdrawing, having seen the infantry safely

298 THE CANADIANS IN FRANCE

into open country. These weapons of war had once more proved
their sterhng worth under favourable conditions.

To return to the Fourth Division. The Eleventh Brigade
shortly after 12 a.m. advanced to the attack on the third objective.
They had before them an extremely difficult task, involving the
subjection of Bourlon Wood. The Wood, standing on a great
hill which commands all the surrounding country, was filled
with German guns. Well placed machine gunners in the Wood
might hold up an attack indefinitely with comparative ease.
The strength of the position had been amply proved a year before,
when it had first resisted desperately against a great British
advance, and had then, once taken, defied the enemy's counter-
blow for several days.

Knowing full well the risk of a direct attack through the wood,
the Corps had arranged to deluge it with gas, with a view to making
it untenable. The advancing Canadians were not to enter the
wood, but to go round it on north and south, thus surrounding
any Germans who might still be inside. The Eleventh Brigade
accordingly attacked with the Fifty-fourth Battalion, Lieut. -
Col. Carey, on the northern side of the wood and the One Hundred
and Second Battalion on the southern side, with orders to meet
on the third objective beyond. The adv^ance was closely supported
by artillery and was completely successful. The wood, a sinister
mass towering up against the grey afternoon, silent and clouded
with a drifting mist of gas, offered some resistance — the enemy,
had not entirely abandoned it. On the flanks, too, a strong
and determined defence was met with. To the left the Twelfth
Brigade were fighting heavily, and the Germans opposing them
poured their fire into the battalion moving along the northern
edge of the wood. To the right the enemy was standing
most determinedly in front of Anneux. Here the Sixty-third
(Royal Naval) Division was fiercely involved. Thus the enemy
was on the right rear of the Canadian brigade and raked the
flank with heavy fire. On their own front, too, outside the
wood, the Eleventh Brigade were strongly opposed by nests of
machine guns.

Despite these many difficulties, the brigade gradually forced
their way to their objective, which was taken at 5 p.m. The
Fifty-seventh (Imperial) Division, which was to pass through
the Naval Division as soon as the latter had taken Graincourt
and Anneux, had not yet attacked Fontaine-Notre-Dame, its
first objective. As the village lay directly on the exposed right
of the brigade and was filled with machine gunners who knew
how to take full advantage of the fact, the situation there was
distinctly unpleasant.

The Eleventh Brigade thereupon formed a defensive flank

CAMBRAI 299

with the One Hundred and Second Battalion. The flank followed
the general line of the Bapaume-Cambrai Road and faced Fon-
taine-Notre-Dame, ready to ward off any rush from that quarter.
Many prisoners, some guns and numbers of machine guns had
been taken.

The Twelfth Brigade, on the left of the Eleventh, attacked
the third objective with two battalions, the Seventy-eighth Bat-
talion, Lieut.-Col. J. Kirkaldy, D.S.O., on the right and the
Seventy-second Battalion, Lieut.-Col. G. H. Kirkpatrick, on
the left. The former, having a clear field, advanced through the
Eighty-fifth Battalion at about 11.80 a.m., and at noon had pene-
trated several hundred yards beyond the second objective. During
the afternoon it fought through stiff opposition and gained the
third objective. A German post on the right held out stubbornly
until 8 p.m., when it was rushed by a dashing attack which ex-
terminated the garrison. This completed the battalion's conquest
of the objective. It was compelled to fling out a defensive
flank to the left during the afternoon, as the Seventy-second
Battalion had not yet come up.

Lieut. Samuel Lewis Honey, D.C.M., M.M., won his Victoria
Cross in these operations. He took command of his company
when all other officers had become casualties, reorganized it
under terrific fire and led it on to the objective. He then located
a nest of machine guns which were causing severe casualties,
and, single-handed and without the slightest hesitation, rushed
the nest, capturing the guns and ten prisoners as well.

When the enemy began to counter-attack later in the day,
he inspired his men to a heroic resistance, four of these attacks
being repulsed. After dark he went out alone in front of his
line, where he located a German post. Returning for a party,
he led them forward and captured the post with three guns.
This most gallant officer, after continuing to show the utmost
zeal and courage, was killed some days later.

The Seventy-second Battalion, having become embroiled of
necessity in the fight of the Thirty-eighth Battalion for the
second objective, was delayed, and began its advance without
the barrage, which, keeping up to its time-table, had marched
on. This was a great disadvantage. The battalion was met
with terrible direct fire from field guns and small arms. Never-
theless, covering their movements by rifle and Lewis gun fire,
the men advanced with great courage and resolution. Shortly
after 1 p.m. they attacked the resisting Germans, who were
fighting from a group of gun-pits a few hundred yards beyond
the second objective, and by a fine enveloping assault captured
the position, taking eight field guns and one hundred and twenty
prisoners out of the pits. A nest of German machine guns near

300 THE CANADIANS IN FRANCE

the third objective next resisted desperately. A fresh barrage
was arranged for, and at 2.45 p.m.. under cover of this barrage,
the attack was resumed. At 5 p.m. the battaHon held all its
objectives.

In the meantime the First Canadian Division had long since
secured the third objective on its front. The Fifteenth BattaUon,
Major Girvan, having disengaged itself from the fight for the
second objective, in which it had rendered such sterling service,
pushed on with much ardour, and at 2 p.m. held the third
objective.

Posts were then placed upon the fourth objective by the
battalion. This completed the work of the Third Brigade for
the day.

The attack on the third objective in the centre of the First
Canadian Division was carried out by the Second Brigade. To
the Seventh Battahon, Lieut. -Col. W. F. Gilson, D.S.O., had been
assigned the task of passing through the left of the First Brigade
and taking the third objective. The battalion, becoming involved
in the general melee, had to fight its way up to the second objective.
The barrage by that time was far ahead. Notwithstanding,
they pressed forward. Large numbers of the enemy were still
resisting the Third Brigade, in Marquion, and others came forward
to the Arras-Cambrai Road and placed themselves athwart the
advance. These men opened a terrific fire on the Seventh, and
several field guns and trench mortars joined in and fired on the
battalion over open sights. The Canadians in return replied with
every available rifle and Lewis gun, and an old-fashioned fight
for superiority of fire developed. Then a local barrage was
provided, the left was reinforced and the whole battalion swept
forward. At 2 p.m., having overpowered the resistance of several
isolated machine guns, the battalion was in full possession of
the third objective. Posts were pushed out to the fourth
objective, and a counter-attack which gained a footing in our
line was speedily deprived of it.

On the right of the First Canadian Division the First Brigade
launched the attack on the third objective. The Second Battalion,
Lieut.-Col. L. T. McLaughlin, D.S.O., advanced on the right, the
Third Battalion, Lieut.-Col. J. B. Rogers, D.S.O., M.C., upon
the left, the tAvo battalions pushing through the First Battalion
on the second objective. Soon after moving forward they were
checked by heavy machine gun fire from the Railway, a short
distance ahead. Steps were taken to bring artillery fire to bear,
but at noon, before the artillery began its bombardment of the
points of resistance, the battalions seized an opportunity of
advancing, dashed forward, and with great gallantry cleared the
Railway, carried the third objective and thrust out patrols to

CAMBRAI 301

the flanks, and posts to the fourth objective, while they proceeded
to consolidate.

During the rest of the day the troops holding the third
objective on the whole Corps front gradually succeeded in placing
posts on the fourth objective, as the First Canadian Division
had done.

It was during the fighting for the third objective that Lieut.
George F. Kerr, M.C., M.M., of the Third Battalion, won the
Victoria Cross. Lieut. Kerr was in command of the left support
company of the battalion. He had already led his men with
great skill and courage, outflanking a machine gun which was
causing much trouble during the first stages of the operations.
Later, when the advance was checked by a strong point near the
Arras-Cambrai Road, Lieut. Kerr, far in advance, rushed the
position alone and captured four machine guns and thirty-one
prisoners.

The taking of the third objective, with the placing out of
posts upon the fourth, brought the first phase of the operations
to a close. The second phase — a fresh advance by the First,
Third and Fourth Canadian Divisions and the Eleventh
(Imperial) Division— was now before them. The Third Canadian
i)ivision was about to take over its battle-front from the Fourth
Canadian Division, but it was not until next morning that the
advance of the Canadian right actually began. The First Canadian
Division, on the other hand, with the Eleventh (Imperial) Division,
were ready to resume the battle at once.

To the First Canadian Division, represented by the Second
Brigade, was allotted the task of capturing Haynecourt and con-
tinuing the advance in a generally eastern direction. The
Eleventh (Imperial) Division was to attack on their left, with
the object of capturing Aubencheul-au-Bac, Epinoy and Oisy-
le- Verger. The Second Brigade assigned to the Fifth Battalion,
Lieut.-Col. L. P. O. Tudor, the task of capturing Haynecourt
and the high ground on which it stood, while the Tenth Battalion,
Lieut.-Col. E. W. MacDonald, D.S.O., M.C., was to pass through
the Fifth and carry on the advance.

The Eleventh (Imperial) Division was to attack at the same
time on their left, passing through the Third Brigade, which then
came into reserve. The First Brigade also came into reserve
at the same time.

At 3.20 p.m. the Fifth Battalion and its Imperial comrades
on the left advanced and made very rapid progress. Hayne-
court was soon taken, and with it the high ground about it.

The Tenth Battalion now went on, through the Fifth Battalion.
The men were under steady fire from the right. Machine guns
and field guns east of Haynecourt also swept the advancing

302 THE CANADIANS IN FRANCE

waves, the latter firing over open sights. But the battalion
sent out strong patrols, encircled these weapons, which were
surrounded by webs of barbed wire, and one by one silenced
them. Then they came upon dense entanglements along the
western side of the Douai-Cambrai Road, and behind the entangle-
ments were machine guns. Though lashed by tempests of bullets,
the men calmly hacked their way through the wire and rushed
these centres of resistance. Beyond the road were more belts
of wire and more machine guns.

A halt was then made, as it was nearly dark, the right flank
was entirely unprotected and the left had not gained touch
with the Eleventh (Imperial) Division. The latter in the mean-
time had made equally gallant progress, covered by an enfilade
barrage in the earlier stages, and had captured Sauchy-Cauchy,
Sauchy-Lestree, Oisy-le- Verger and Epinoy. This gave them
entire domination over the Sensee. Their line having reached
an excellent defensive position, they, too, halted, and the two
divisions at dusk were in touch south-east of Epinoy.

At this time the enemy took advantage of the exposed right
of the Tenth Battalion to push in a counter-attack round that
flank on Haynecourt. The Fifth Battalion met the shock of
the encounter and drove the Germans back south of the village.
Arrangements were now made to safeguard the position. The
Fifth Battalion got touch with the right of the Tenth Battalion
on the Douai-Cambrai Road and established a line facing south-
east, repulsing two more counter-attacks in the process. The
Eighth Battalion, Lieut.-Col. A. L. Saunders, D.S.O., M.C., with
two companies prolonged the line thence to the left of the Fourth
Canadian Division. The Tenth Battalion held the Douai-
Cambrai Road on a front of a mile as far as Epinoy. The brigade
proceeded to dig in on these positions, to hold them for the night.

This ended a brilliant advance in open-warfare style. The
Second Brigade, from the third objective, had penetrated five
thousand yards into the enemy's country. The machine gunners
and the artillery had backed up their attack excellently. The
guns in some cases were over the Canal by 10.30 a.m. and engaging
the enemy at point-blank ra,nge over open sights.

The Canadian Corps, with the Eleventh (Imperial) Division,
that night held the outskirts of Fontaine-Notre-Dame, thence a
line along the Railway and north to a point seven hundred yards
east of La Maison Neuve. The line then ran north-east, around
Haynecourt — five hundred yards south, and south-east of the
village — and so to the Douai-Cambrai Road and Epinoy. From
Epinoy it proceeded to Oisy-le-Verger and the Canal du Nord.
The frontage under Canadian control, which at 5.20 a.m. had
been two thousand yards, was now seventeen thousand. The

CAMBRAI 303

Canal du Nord, one of the strongest positions left to the enemy,
had been crossed almost without loss. The machine guns still
in position on the eastern bank, the Canal du Nord Line and the
Marquion Line had been rolled up ; Bourlon Wood, with its wired
trenches round it and its formidable hill, had been enveloped
and taken. The left of the Third Army had been perfectly pro-
tected. As for results in prisoners and weapons of war, over
four thousand prisoners, over one hundred guns, great numbers
of machine guns and vast quantities of stores were in the hands
of the Canadians.

This had been accomplished by the most complicated, and yet
the most perfect, piece of combined action the Corps had ever
performed.

The Imperial troops to the south had broken the portion
of the Hindenburg Line on the front of the Third Army and
brought the totals up to ten thousand prisoners and many guns.
Altogether it was a great day for British arms.

In the dusk of the evening the Canadian guns finished getting
into position to cover the captured line. At 9 p.m. the Eleventh
Brigade made an effort to secure Fontaine-Notre-Dame, though
this was not on their front, and to take the Marcoing Line, two
thousand yards east of their positions, the first in order to
relieve their flank, the second to bring up their front to con-
form with that of the First Canadian Division. The night was
very dark and extremely heavy fire was encountered. It was
not found possible to take these positions before it was necessary
for the brigade to hand over its front to the Third Canadian
Division for the operations of the following day.

During the night the latter division took over its battle-front
on the right of the Corps line. Numerous local counter-attacks
took place, but all were flung off, defeated. At dawn on September
28th all was ready for a fresh advance.

On September 28th the development of the second phase
of the operations was continued. An attack was made by the
four divisions Viorking under the Canadian Corps with the object
of forcing the Germans back to the Canal de I'Escaut on the
whole front.

It was recognized that in view of the advanced position of
the First Canadian Division their attack should be deferred
until the troops on the flanks had come up. Whereas the Eleventh
(Imperial) Division on the left and the Third and Fourth Canadian
Divisions on the right attacked at 6 a.m., the First Canadian
Division did not launch its troops forward until two hours later.
The operations of September 28th, while successful and inflict-
ing severe loss, were most desperately opposed by the Germans,
who realized to the full the importance of the struggle. Never-

304 THE CANADIANS IN FRANCE

theless our battalions battered their way through this defence
and gained a considerable amount of ground.

The attack of the Third Canadian Division on the right was
made by the Ninth Brigade on the right and the Seventh Brigade
upon the left. The attack of the Ninth Brigade was delivered
by the Fifty-third Battalion, Lieut.-Col. W. K. Chandler, D.S.O.,
on the right, and the Fifty-second Battalion, Lieut-Col. Sutherland,
on the left. The Royal Canadian Regiment, Lieut.-Col. C. R. E.
Willets, D.S.O., attacked on the Seventh Brigade front, closely
supported by the Princess Patricia's, Lieut.-Col. C. J. Stewart,
D.S.O.

The attack was pressed home under a barrage with fine
determination, through very heavy fire. At 9 a.m. the Seventh
Brigade had captured the front line of the Marcoing Line, a strong
trench system running roughly north and south across the Canadian
front from the Canal de I'Escaut on the south to Raillencourt,
and so to Sancourt and beyond. The northernmost portion of
the line between the Arras-Cambrai Road and the Bapaume-
Cambrai Road, was taken by this brigade. On their right, the
Fifty-second Battalion struggled against desperate resistance to a
position in front of the Marcoing Line. South of the Bapaume-
Cambrai Road, the Forty-third Battalion had cleared Fontaine-
Notre-Dame and thrust its right forward to a point eight hundred
yards south-east of the village, while its left was in the Marcoing
Line beyond the Road.

The Ninth Brigade had for the time being reached the limit
of its advance. The Seventh Brigade, emerging from the Mar-
coing Line to carry the attack beyond, was instantly met with
terrific fire from the Support Line. They were checked. Lieut.-
Col. Willets at this stage was wounded and Captain C. L. Woods
took command. The Princess Patricia's, Lieut.-Col. C. J. T.
Stewart, D.S.O., was thrust in to assist upon the left. Following
this move, there ensued violent and bloody fighting. Lieut.-
Col. Stewart was killed by shell fire and was succeeded by Captain
G. W. Little. With Lieut.-Col. Stewart there passed a most
gallant and able officer. Eventually the Seventh Brigade was
unable to penetrate the Marcoing Support Line, and it was decided
by the Third Canadian Division to launch a fresh attack later
in the day.

The Fourth Canadian Division in the meantime had made
excellent progress. The Tenth Brigade, having moved forward
from west of Bourlon Wood, passed through the Twelfth Brigade,
and with the Forty-seventh Battalion on the right and the
Fiftieth Battalion on the left advanced at zero hour. The two
battalions pushed on rapidly, and it was not until the outskirts
of Raillencourt were reached that serious opposition was met

CAMBRAI 805

with. Then the Marcoing Line and the houses of the village
suddenly blazed with machine gun fire. Through intense resis-
tance, the battalions encircled the village and reached the wire
fringing the Marcoing Line. Here it seemed as if the dreadful
machine gun and rifle fire from the trench would annihilate
the attack, but Lieut. H. A. Sharpe, of the Fiftieth Battalion,
broke into the line with his Lewis guns and took the enemy in
the trench in enfilade, slaughtering them in a tornado of well
directed fire. Eighty dead were counted afterwards. The rest
of the garrison fled, and the battalions pushed on, enveloped
Sailly, stamped out all remaining defiance in the two villages,
and at 8.45 a.m. halted five hundred yards ahead, on their
objectives.

The Forty-fourth Battalion on the right and the Fifty-sixth
Battalion on the left then formed up east and north of Sailly
and carried on the advance. Large numbers of Germans were
wiped out with the Lewis gun fire. When the battalions were
about five hundred yards beyond the forming-up line they
were checked by the intense fire which poured into them from
every side. Later in the day the brigade renewed its attack
and got to the Douai-Cambrai Road, with the object of securing
a good jumping-off line for the morrow.

At 9 a.m. the First Canadian Division attacked again, and
it was the Tenth Battalion of the Second Brigade which moved
forward. The Fifth Battalion was held in readiness to push
on later. The men advanced under cover of an artillery
barrage.

As soon as they began to move, innumerable German machine
guns broke into a tempest of fire. To the south and north,
on high ground which had not yet been taken, there were other
machine guns, and these joined in until the air cracked and
screamed with the whimper of the bullets and a man could hardly
hear an order for the din of the chorus that the rattling weapons
sang. To make matters worse, field guns at close quarters began
to hammer the battalion with shrapnel. But the men went
on and got to the dense belts of wire facing them.

Time after time they broke into the wire and began to hack
their way through, only to be struck down. The fire was too
murderous. No one could get at the enemy's machine guns.

One instance of the nobility of these splendid men will serve
to show the temper of the whole. Captain Jack Mitchell, M.C.,
rallied his men and led them on again and again. A machine
gun bullet broke his hand, but after the wound was dressed
he returned to the attack. Again he was wounded. This time
it was the ligaments of his foot which were torn. He hobbled
out and had it dressed. Then, fainting from fatigue and pain

20

806 THE CANADIANS IN FRANCE

but as indomitable as ever, he went back to his men. A third
time he was wounded — this time fatally — but, until his senses
reeled, he urged his men forward. They carried him out at
last, dying in their arms.

Eventually, after over two hours of heroism, the attack was
abandoned and the Eighth Battalion relieved the remnants of
that glorious effort.

At 7 p.m. the new advance of the Third Canadian Division
was launched, with the Douai-Cambrai Railway as final objective
to the Seventh Brigade, while the Ninth Brigade carried their
line through St. OUe. The Seventh Brigade attacked with the
Princess Patricia's and the Forty-ninth, the latter on the right.
The Ninth Brigade attacked with two companies of the Fifty-
eighth Battalion, Lieut. -Col. R. A. MacFarlane, which were to
attack the Marcoing Line in enfilade from the north, while the
One Hundred and Sixteenth Battalion, Major D. Carmichael,
D.S.O., M.C., passed through them and captured St. Olle.

The attack was made under cover of a very effective artillery
barrage and succeeded in clearing the whole of the Marcoing
Line as far south as the Bapaume-Cambrai Road. The One
Hundred and Sixteenth Battalion drove its line into the western
outskirts. The Princess Patricia's, striking north-east, had then
reached a position south of the Douai-Cambrai Road.

The attack, though darkness and the enemy had not permitted
the full development of the plan, was very successful notwith-
standing. A new advance of two thousand yards had been
realized, and the divisions had everywhere thrown the Germans
out of the Marcoing Line.

During the terrific struggle that waged all day for the possession
of these trenches, an officer of the Royal Canadian Regiment,
Lieut. Milton Fowler Gregg, M.C., won the Victoria Cross.

While the brigade was held up, violent fire sweeping every
yard of their front, Lieut. Gregg crawled forward alone and
examined the dense wire guarding the German trenches. He
found a small gap, and through it forced his way into the trench
with his men. The Germans promptly counter-attacked in great
force. Bombs ran out and the situation became decidedly critical.
Lieut. Gregg, who had now been wounded, went back through
the annihilating fire, obtained a further supply and rejoined his
men. They were now very much reduced in numbers, but Lieut.
Gregg planned an attack and they went on and cleared a large
portion of the trenches, inspired with the utmost determination
by the gallantry of their commander.

Lieut. Gregg alone killed or wounded eleven Germans, and took
twenty-five prisoners and a dozen machine guns, though wounded
& second time. Afterwards, during the bitter fighting of the

CAMBRAl 807

days which followed, he continued to lead his men until in-
capacitated by severe wounds received on September 30th.

The whole of the Third Canadian Division took many prisoners
and machine guns during the day.

On the left of the Corps front the Eleventh (Imperial) Division
accomplished a substantial advance.

At midnight on September 28th the Canadian Corps line,
from its right astride the Bapaume-Cambrai Road in the Marcoing
Line, ran north-eastwards to St. Olle and thence north-east of
Sailly to the positions held by the Tenth and Second Brigades
along the Douai-Cambrai Road, two hundred yards west of the
road, to a point about one mile north of Epinoy and so to the Bois
du Quesnoy. In the area astride the Arras-Cambrai Road an
advance of four thousand yards had been realized. The Marcoing
Line from the Arras-Cambrai Road as far north as the Douai-
Cambrai Road was in Canadian possession. Hundreds of prisoners
and scores of machine guns had been taken and large numbers
of the enemy had been killed. Far more important than any of
these was the fact that the Germans, well aware of the jeopardy
in which they stood, were hurling masses of men into the path
of the Canadians and yet were powerless to check their advance.

Brigadier-General MacBrien, C.M.G., D.S.O., commanding
the Twelfth Brigade, was wounded during the day, and was
succeeded by Lieut.-Col. J. Kirkaldy, of the Seventy-eighth
Battalion.

At 6 a.m. the first attack of September 29th was launched
by the Thirty-second Brigade of the Eleventh (Imperial) Division
with the object of capturing the high ground beyond the Douai-
Cambrai Road east of Epinoy. The attack failed, owing to
machine guns and barbed wire. At 8 a.m. the brigade again
attacked, in conjunction with the Canadians, and again was
unable to gain its objective. The Canadians were more successful.

The new advance was made with the object of driving the line
forward to the Canal de I'Escaut and seizing the bridgeheads
on the Canal. It was conducted by the First Division on the
north with the Second Brigade, which employed the Eighth
Battalion. On account of its advanced position the attack of
this brigade was again timed to commence at a later hour than
the movement on the flanks. The Eighth Battalion did not
advance until 8.36 a.m. Southwards— i.e. on their right — the
Twelfth Brigade of the Fourth Division carried on the attack,
and, on their right, the Seventh, Eighth and Ninth Brigades,
from left to right as named.

The tasks assigned to these troops were severally as follows :
On the right the Ninth Brigade was to complete the capture of
the Marcoing Line from the Canal to the Bapaume-Cambrai

308 THE CANADIANS IN FRANCE

Road, capture Petit Fontaine and St. Olle, and clear the area
between the Bapaume-Cambrai Road and the Arras-Cambrai
Road, seizing the bridgehead into Cambrai east of the junction
of these main highways. The Eighth Brigade was to clear the
ground between the Arras-Cambrai Road and the Douai-Cambrai
Road, forcing its way to the Canal. The Seventh Brigade was
to capture Tilloy from the north and seize the crossings of the
Canal at Ramillies and Pont d'Aire, while the Twelfth Brigade
captured Sancourt and Blecourt. The Second Brigade was to
keep pace with the Twelfth on its right. The operation was in
the nature of a turning movement, pivoting on the right.

At 8 a.m., under cover of an intense barrage, the line advanced.

On the right, among the intricate streets west of Cambrai,
severe fighting developed at once, resembling the bloody struggles
around Lens a year before. Nevertheless, the troops made good
progress.

The Fifty-eighth Battalion continued its strenuous labours
of the previous day in the Marcoing Line. One company, crossing
the Fontaine-Cambrai Railway and the main road to the south,
swept by murderous fire from the trenches and from houses some
distance to the east upon the road, fought down into the Marcoing
Line beyond, and at 1 p.m. were in possession of their objective.
The fighting experienced by the battalion was of the grim, foot-
by-foot variety of old trench-warfare.

The One Hundred and Sixteenth Battalion meanwhile had
been desperately engaged at St. Olle. On their advancing, a
small trench in front of the village, and the houses of the village
and of Petit Fontaine beyond, broke into a storm of machine
gun fire. The leading companies were hard hit, but the battalion
never faltered. A Canadian field battery at this stage began
to drop its shells with deadly accuracy — it had direct observation
on the target — into the trench and played havoc with the Germans
there. Under cover of this, six platoons, admirably led by Lieut.
Bonner, outflanked the position. " D " Company of the battalion
then went on, cleared the whole of the Arras-Cambrai Road,
got its posts on to the junction of the road with the Bapaume-
Cambrai Road, and exterminated the holders of Petit Fontaine.
At 3 p.m. the whole of the positions held by the Ninth Brigade
were indisputably theirs.

The Eighth Brigade were then close-locked with the enemy.
At 8 a.m. they had attacked, the First C.M.R. Battalion, Lieut.-
Col. B. Laws, D.S.O., on the right and the Second C.M.R. Battalion
upon the left. At noon, after the First C.M.R.'s had been checked
for some time by the fire from St. Olle, the successful attack of
the One Hundred and Sixteenth Battalion on the village enabled
the advance of the battalion to proceed, and it swept on, clear-

1

CAMBRAI 809

ing the buildings along the north side of the Arras-Cambrai Road
and capturing many prisoners. In the meantime the Second
C.M.R.'s had fought forward doggedly. When darkness fell the
brigade was less than a mile from the Canal de I'Escaut on its
whole front.

The advance of the brigade was greatly facilitated by the
daring and self-sacrifice of Captain John MacGregor, M.C., D.C.M.,
of the Second C.M.R. Battalion. The forward movement being
checked in the course of the day by the annihilating fire of the
enemy's machine guns, Captain MacGregor, who had already
showed the greatest gallantry in leading his men through this
opposition, located a nest and ran forward, alone and wounded,
to destroy it. Making his way through the fire, he got to the guns
and, single-handed, killed four of the enemy with rifle and bayonet
and captured eight prisoners. Then he reorganized his command,
resumed the advance, rendered valuable support to the units
on the flanks, and through the fiercest phases of the attack moved
up and down his front, encouraging his men and carrying them
with him.

On the left of the C.M.R.'s the Forty-ninth Battalion and the
Forty-second Battalion, the latter on the left, pushed forward
the line of the Seventh Brigade. At 8 a.m., covered by a barrage,
they advanced from a line north of St. Olle in the general direction
of Tilloy, the Eighth Brigade moving into position on their right
as they did so.

After overpowering a nest of machine guns the Forty-ninth
Battalion pressed on. About five hundred yards from the Douai-
Cambrai Road the German machine guns once more proved trouble-
some. Captain B. H. Tayler, superintending the attack, ordered
the right company to outflank the guns, which they did, executing
a neat turning movement which resulted in the taking of one
hundred and fifty prisoners and three machine guns.

Meanwhile the Forty-second Battalion on the left had come
upon wide, low belts of wire a short distance from the Arras-
Cambrai Road. This caused some delay, as the men had to
work through the wire and were fired on briskly. On emerging
from the wire they were swept by sudden bursts of murderous
machine gun fire from every side. In spite of this they struggled
on across the Douai-Cambrai Road. A party led by Captain
H. B. Trout managed to cross the Douai-Cambrai Railway,
where it held on until dusk, though Captain Trout was severely
wounded and the post was practically exterminated.

The Forty-ninth Battalion had now reached the Douai-
Cambrai Road also. Eventually the Seventh Brigade established
itself along the general line of the road.

Further to the north the Twelfth Brigade had made ^ most

810 THE CANADIANS IN FRANCE

dashing and successful advance. They attacked on a front of
two thousand four hundred yards, the Thirty-eighth BattaHon
on the right and the Seventy-second BattaHon on the left. They
were covered by an intense and effective barrage, which rested
for twenty minutes on a line along the Douai-Cambrai Road to
enable the battalions to deploy and then went forward, followed
by the infantry.

The Seventy-second Battalion started its advance about
fifteen hundred yards west of the Douai-Cambrai Road. Under
very heavy machine gun fire and violent shelling, the battalion
stormed Sancourt and, hurling themselves into the enemy, took
two hundred and fifty prisoners and drove the Germans out in
disorder. The whole battalion then surged over the Douai-
Cambrai Railway. Here the right company was checked. The
left company, however, pushed on and seized the high ground
astride the Sancourt-Abancourt Road, north-west of Bl^court,
with another group of prisoners — one hundred and twenty of
them — and a score of machine guns. The centre company,
after crossing the Railway, encountered terrific fire. In this fire
Lieut. J. Knight and an indomitable handful of five men pressed
into Blecourt and captured the western portion, over eighty
Germans surrendering themselves to him. As soon as the enemy
realized that no serious force w^as in possession, they attacked,
while many other Germans in the village joined in. When
four of his men Vv^ere Vv'ounded — not before — Lieut. Knight fell
back to the Railway.

At noon large numbers of the enemy, under cover of very
intense machine gun fire, began to advance down the valley
towards Sancourt, rendering the position of the Seventy-second's
company north-west of Blecourt untenable. The battalion
therefore assumed the line of the Railway on its whole front.
The Eighty-fifth Battalion, moving up to attack Blecourt again
at 3 p.m., was diverted to a position south of Sancourt, where it
formed a defensive flank. The village was under heavy artillery fire
as the Eightyrfifth Battalion came up, and they suffered severely.

The Thirty-eighth Battalion was checked in its advance
by terrific fire between the Douai-Cambrai Road and the Railway
just beyond. At 1.30 p.m. a new barrage was provided, and the
Seventy-eighth Battalion passed through to carry on the attack.
Such violent opposition was met with that the battalion was
unable to progress more than a few yards beyond the positions
of the Thirty-eighth Battalion.

It is now necessary to go back to 8.36 a.m., when the Eighth
Battalion moved forward to the attack. Their story is soon
told, for it is a repetition of that which had befallen the Tenth
Pattalion the day before.

CAMBRAI 311

At 8.86 a.m., as already narrated, the troops on the right
were not yet in line and the troops on the left were repulsed.
The Eighth Battalion advanced, and the machine guns on their
exposed flanks and in front concentrated a murderous storm of
fire upon the men. On the left they v/ere once more held up by
the wire. On the right they got through the entanglements —
two belts of formidable wire many yards deep — and pushed on
into the weltering fire, Lieut. T. E. Millar, M.M., leading them,
as he was the only officer left. They penetrated almost to the
Railway, over two thousand yards beyond their starting-point.
There they dug in. During the morning, as the troops on
the right, near Blecourt, were forced to fall back, their flanks
became exposed and shell and machine gun fire rained into them
from all sides. Nevertheless, they hung on with grim courage,
and the Germans came out of the valley to the right and delivered
three fierce counter-attacks against them. But Lieut. Millar
and his men repulsed them all. The battalion finally assumed
a line along the Sancourt-Epinoy Road after as glorious an effort
as any in their history.

Darkness came at last upon those dreadful ridges, and the
Canadian Corps settled down into its positions for the night and
prepared to resume the fight on the morrow. The enemy's
resistance was still stiffening, as he strove to obtain equilibrium.
But in spite of all his efforts the line was creeping nearer and nearer
to the Canal de I'Escaut and that open country beyond, which,
once gained, meant victory for Allied arms.

At dawn on September 30th the Canadian Corps resumed the
desperate struggle. The attack was made at 6 a.m. in two phases.
The first phase was to carry on the effort to capture the bridges
on the Canal de I'Escaut, and was to be conducted by the Third
and Fourth Canadian Divisions. The second phase, to be carried
out by the First Canadian and Eleventh (Imperial) Divisions,
was to consist of an attack with the object of securing the high
ground overlooking the Sensee still in German hands. The
Eighth Brigade was to conform to the Seventh Brigade, which
continued its attack with the objectives allotted to it on the
previous day. On the left of the Seventh Brigade the Fourth
Division was to push the whole line up to the Railway and to
Blecourt and beyond. As events transpired, the First Brigade
of the First Division, which had relieved the Second Brigade
during the night, was not called upon to attack, nor was the
Eleventh (Imperial) Division.

The events of this day can be described in comparatively
brief terms.

The Seventh Brigade, with the Princess Patricia's on the
right and the Royal Canadian Regiment on the left, advanqeci

812 THE CANADIANS IN FRANCE

with great dash. The Princess Patricia's, with orders to seize
Tilloy and push on to the high ground a thousand yards north-
east of the village, and subsequently to seize the bridge at Pont
d'Aire, made rapid progress and had soon reached the north-
western outskirts of Tilloy. One company then pushed forward to
the south-eastern end of the village, while the rest of the battalion
moved on towards the high ground. Machine guns in Tilloy
and on the high ground now concentrated terrific fire upon the
companies on the left. With nearly all officers and N.C.O.'s
casualties, they were forced to withdraw to the Railway west
of the village. But there was not a man among them who would
admit failure. Captain J. N. Edgar and Lieut. A. J. Kelly
reorganized them, and they advanced again, with indomitable
determination, to attack the village. All but the northern-
most portion was taken after desperate fighting, and attempts
were made to push on to the high ground, but, though a company
of the Forty-ninth Battalion reinforced, it was impossible to do so.

The Royal Canadian Regiment meanwhile had battered its
way through annihilating fire as far forward as the Tilloy-BIecourt
Road. In the subsequent hours the fire from all sides became so
intense that the remnants of the battalion were forced to evacuate
their position. They fell back to north-west of Tilloy in the
vicinity of the Tilloy-Sancourt Road. In the evening the Seventh
Brigade held nearly all Tilloy, and on the left was well in advance
of the Tilloy-Sancourt Road, facing south-east.

The Eighth Brigade, during the day, still employing the First
and Second C.M.R. Battalions, conformed its line to that upon
the left. By means of strong patrols, which ousted the enemy
step by step from the outskirts of Neuville St. Remy and Faubourg
Cantimpre, south of Neuville, the brigade won to a position a
stone's-throw from the Canal de I'Escaut. On the left, by their
progress, the Second C.M.R.'s rendered great assistance to their
comrades fighting in Tilloy. It was here that Captain John
MacGregor completed the splendid work he had done the
day before and performed the feats that made his Victoria Cross
assured.

The Eleventh Brigade, somewhat refreshed by a short rest,
came forward early in the morning and, attacking at 6 a.m.,
went into battle on the left of the Third Division. The brigade
employed the Seventy-fifth Battalion, Lieut.-Col. C. C. Harbottle,
D.S.O., for the first stage of its attack.

The battalion advanced from a position along the Douai-
Cambrai Road under the intense barrage. As they came up to
the portion of the Douai-Cambrai Railway which the Twelfth
Brigade had been unable to secure on the previous day, terrific
piachine gun fire enveloped them from the Railway and th^

CAMBRAI 818

flanks. But they struggled on and cleared the Railway of the
machine guns and got to their objective, slightly beyond. Here
the Fifty-fourth Battalion, which was following hard on their
heels, was to pass through and continue the advance. At this
stage, however, the flanks being entirely exposed — keeping touch
in these more open operations was a most difficult task — and
great numbers of the enemy gathering to counter-attack, the
Seventy-fifth were ordered to fall back to the Railway, which
was a better position.

And not a moment too soon. The Germans followed their
withdrawal in a most threatening manner and immediately
launched a counter-attack in great force. The Fifty-fourth and
the Seventy-fifth answered the oncoming masses with tremen-
dous bursts of rifle and Lewis gun fire. The enemy persisted
desperately, but that deadly fire held them off like an iron hand.
At length they drew off, leaving many dead on the ground. The
Seventy-fifth Battalion were then withdrawn, leaving the
Fifty-fourth Battalion to hold the Railway.

The front of the Canadian Corps quietened in the afternoon.
The line at dusk ran through the Faubourg Cantimpre and
Neuville St. Remy, along the eastern edge of Tilloy, thence in
front of the Railway as far as the Eleventh Brigade front, and
thence along the Railway to the positions formerly held at
Sancourt and beyond.

The gain of ground on the fighting portion of the front
amounted to an average depth of over a thousand yards. When
one considers that this was accomplished by a force depleted
by casualties, and made up of men who had been fighting for
over three days at least, against a most dreadful resistance,
the advance was a very fine one.

As a proof of the resistance offered, it should be mentioned
that prisoners were secured during the day from three new German
divisions, a fresh regiment (equivalent to a British brigade) and
many companies of marksmen, none of which had been hitherto
engaged.

At midnight the captures of the Canadian Corps since Sep-
tember 27th had risen to a total of two hundred officers and
five thousand five hundred men and two hundred guns. Since
those bloody struggles in front of the Drocourt-Queant Line on
September 1st, twelve thousand seven hundred and fifty prisoners,
two hundred and eighty-two guns and fourteen hundred and
fifty-four machine guns had been taken by the Canadian Corps.
Already they were in the outskirts of Cambrai. And the end
was near — nearer than they dreamed. This had been achieved
at a total cost in September of sixteen thousand seven hundred
casualties,

814 THE CANADIANS IN FRANCE

But October 1st saw the most appalling of all those battles
between the two Canals. On that day the indefatigable divisions
resumed the attack. The general plan was to complete the
operations begun the day before. The Ninth Brigade, which
relieved the Seventh Brigade before the advance began, was to
capture the high ground north-east of Tilloy and then continue
its thrust down to the Canal de I'Escaut, estabhshing itself in
Pont d'Aire and Ramillies and seizing the bridgeheads at these
places. The Eighth Brigade to the south was to conform to
this line, pushing posts to the Canal. North of the Third Division
the Eleventh Brigade was to resume its attack and carry the line
to the Ramillies-Cuvillers Road. On their left the First Division
was to attack, the Third Brigade on the right to capture Blecourt,
Cuvillers and Bantigny, while the First Brigade was to capture
Abancourt and the high ground to the east. Finally, the Eleventh
(Imperial) Division was to secure possession of the ridges between
the Douai-Cambrai Road and the Douai-Cambrai Railway to
the north of the First Division.

At 5 a.m. this fresh advance began.

On the Ninth Brigade front the Forty-third Battalion attacked
on the right, with the Fifty-second Battalion, Lieut. -Col. Suther-
land, on the left. They were followed by the Fifty-eighth and
One Hundred and Sixteenth Battalions, the former leading.
The duty of these battalions was to support the leading units
if required and to ensure the capture of the bridgeheads.

In spite of severe opposition, the high ground north-east of
Tilloy was taken, with over three hundred and fifty prisoners
and hosts of machine guns. After a halt of fifteen minutes the
barrage moved on and the battalions went down the slopes towards
the Canal. As they marched down the open ground, innumerable
machine guns concealed in the low levels in front, and in the
woods and on the canal bank to the right, assisted by the furious
fire of German artillery situated on the spur north of Ramillies,
resisted them desperately. The leading battalions kept on, and
the Fifty-eighth and One Hundred and Sixteenth Battalions,
observing the difficulty, pressed forward gallantly and, passing
through, carried on the advance. At 9 a.m. the men had reached
a line running roughly north-east and south-west from a point
in a small wood a mile west of Ramillies to the southern outskirts
of Tilloy. Even then the left had advanced over two thousand
yards.

While this was going on, the Eighth Brigade had pushed its
line down to the Canal on the right, the PMrst and Second C.M.R.
Battalions doing the fighting.

The One Hundred and Second Battalion of the Eleventh
Brigade launched the attack on that front, They were followecj

CAMBRAI 815

by the Eighty-seventh Battalion, which was to pass through them
on the objective being gained, to exploit success beyond.

The battalion was also covered by a barrage. They began
their advance at 5 a.m. from the Railway south of Sancourt,
and four hours later, after severe fighting, had crossed the
Ramillies-Cuvillers Road south of the latter village, and were on
their final objective with an advanced line five hundred yards
beyond the Road. The Eighty-seventh Battalion had fought
its way forward to a position on their right, but was unable to
penetrate beyond.

It is now necessary to describe the operations of the First
Brigade on the left portion of the First Canadian Division front,
together with those of the Eleventh (Imperial) Division to the
left, on which they hinged. The Thirty-second Brigade of the
latter division carried out its attack on the high ground which
was the division's objective, but owing to terrific machine gun
fire was unable to secure it. As the high ground commanded
the front of the First Brigade, this affected the Canadian battalions
greatly. The First Battalion advanced on the right, with the
Fourth Battalion on the left. The role of the former was to take
the Abancourt Spur, passing through the southern portion of
the village to do so, while the latter, on a wider front, took the
remainder of the place. A line was to be established five hundred
yards beyond.

At 5 a.m., playing its part in the general advance, the
brigade advanced under the barrage from the line which it had
taken over on September 29th. On the left all went well until
the advance Avas within two hundred yards of the Douai-Cambrai
Railway. Then fearful machine gun fire from the front and left
began to harry the Fourth Battalion. This checked the attack,
for no man could expose himself and live. The tempest was
so intense that even an exposed limb was hit. The Germans
playfully fired on the wounded. One man was hit six times.
The leg of another was practically shot off.

The First Battalion covered eight hundred yards without
serious difficulty. Then they too came under very heavy fire
from in front. But they pushed on, and enemies lurking in
the sunken roads west of the Railway they disposed of with the
bayonet. On reaching the Railway they were checked, and all
the dash and bravery of the men could not carry the line
beyond.

A Victoria Cross was won by Sergeant William Merrifield, of
the Fourth Battalion, in this fighting. Sergeant Merrifield, his
men being held up by fire from two machine gun emplacements,
rushed forward alone and overpowered them both. The first
he silenced by killing the occupants, and, though WQUnded, hp

316 THE CANADIANS IN FRANCE

also killed those in the second by bombing. He would not
leave his men until once more severely wounded.

Sergeant Merrifield's splendid bravery was but typical of
his brigade as a whole.

The Third Brigade all this time had been engaged in one of
the most sanguinary struggles of its history.

To the Thirteenth Battalion was allotted the task of capturing
Blecourt. The Fourteenth Battalion was to take Bantigny by
a turning movement from the south and send out patrols beyond.
The Sixteenth Battalion at the same time was to take Cuvillers
and seize the high ground to the east. The operation was ex-
tremely complicated, but it was carried out as successfully as if
a peace-time manoeuvre.

The whole brigade advanced, in conjunction with the rest of
the Corps, beneath its barrage, the Thirteenth Battalion leading
off for Blecourt.

The leading company cleared the ground up to the Douai-
Cambrai Railway. Then two companies pushed on, enveloped
the village, and secured all their objectives. Most obstinate
resistance was encountered, though large numbers of Germans
surrendered.

The Fourteenth Battalion meanwhile had passed on, seized
Bantigny after heavy fighting, and captured a hundred prisoners.
Two batteries of twelve guns about a thousand yards north of
the village were abandoned by their crews.

The Sixteenth Battalion was by this time in possession of
Cuvillers. Having overpowered a number of hostile posts on
their front, and under the direct fire of fifteen guns a short
distance east of Cuvillers, as well as the fire of other guns and
great numbers of machine guns on the left, the battalion
fought forward, captured Cuvillers — the village itself was not
strongly held— seized the guns to the east and finally halted
triumphantly on its last objective, two thousand yards north-
east of Cuvillers.

Thus far the entire operation had been brilliantly successful.

It was now about 10 a.m. The Fourteenth Battalion, in
position north of Bantigny, suddenly observed a large German
aeroplane flying very low a short distance ahead. The plane
dropped a coloured light. Immediately the gunners ran back
to their abandoned guns, large numbers of Germans began to move
forward to reinforce the troops holding Abancourt and the ground
between that village and Bantigny, while the machine gun fire
from all sides increased to an extreme violence. The guns com-
menced shelling our men at point-blank range with deadly effect,
and many hostile machine gunners whom it had not yet been
possible to mop up took this as a signal and joined in the firing.

CAMBRAI 317

At the same time a last counter-attack developed from the
direction of Paillencourt.

It was quite obvious that the position was rapidly becoming
untenable. The left of the brigade was completely " in the air,"
with the enemy pressing forward in great numbers round that
flank. Hundreds of German machine gunners were among those
advancing troops, all firing continuously. The counter-attack
from Paillencourt gradually forced a wedge between the Sixteenth
and Fourteenth Battalions. The Germans in the villages and
behind the Canadians had now awakened to feverish activity, so
that the battalions had immensely superior forces all around them
and even among them.

The fight that developed was one of the most homeric the
brigade had ever known. The Fourteenth Battalion swept
the guns with intense fire. All around the guns were disabled
men and horses, but the gunners stuck there gallantly and went
on shelling our men with the utmost fury. Meanwhile the infantry
attacks and the machine gun fire continued to develop. Our
artillery wrought great havoc, but the Germans still advanced.

The positions became hopeless, and the battalions, greatly
reduced in numbers and with nearly all their officers casualties,
were faced with the alternative of cutting their way out or being
overwhelmed. They fell back slowly, disposing of the enemy
behind them as they went and covering their retreat by mutual
supporting fire. So desperate was the fighting that the Fourteenth
Battalion ran out of ammunition, and the men held off the
onrush by using German rifles, machine guns and ammunition.
It was not until the Third Brigade reached Blecourt that the
hostile advance was definitely arrested. All the enemy's efforts
could not dislodge the brigade from their positions in the
village.

The One Hundred and Second Battalion, though the enemy's
advance on the left exposed their flank, hung on with grim deter-
mination to their ground, formed a defensive flank facing north
from Cuvillers to Blecourt, and could not be moved. The Seventy-
fifth Battalion was then marched up to close a gap on their right,
which was duly accomplished, touch being gained with the
Seventh Brigade.

At 3.30 p.m. the Eleventh (Imperial) Division renewed its
attack on the high ground between the Douai-Cambrai Road
and the Douai-Cambrai Railway, pressing its assault with great
gallantry and securing all its objectives. This improved the
situation on the left immensely.

The enemy, having kept the front under terrific fire all after-
noon, at 6 p.m. deUvered a strong counter-attack from Pont
d'Aire against the Seventh Brigade. After desperate efforts

818 THE CANADIANS IN FRANCE

he succeeded in pushing back our outposts two or three
hundred yards.

When night came down the Germans had exhausted them-
selves. At an immense cost they had recovered about two
thousand yards of ground on the front of the Third Brigade
and an insignificant shce on the front of the Third Canadian
Division. Even then they had recovered less than one quarter of
the territory they had lost during the day, so that the balance
was still nicely on the Canadian side.

That night the Corps line ran from the Canal west of Cambrai
through the eastern edge of Neuville St. Remy, thence straight
to a point immediately south-east of Cuvillers and west to
Blecourt, through the western outskirts of the village to the
Railway and along the Railway to the Sensee.

It was on that line that the majority of the troops were
relieved that night. For the present the operations were over.
The High Command had decided to launch a new " set-piece "
attack, which would carry the whole line down to and over
the Canal de I'Escaut, in a few days' time. During the night
the Second Canadian Division relieved all the troops between the
Arras-Cambrai Railway and the northern outskirts of Blecourt.
The Fifty-sixth (Imperial) Division took over the northern
portion of the front held by the Eleventh (Imperial) Division, and
the First Canadian Infantry Brigade was relieved Ijy the Second
Canadian Infantry Brigade.

The great series of actions beyond the Canal du Nord had
now come to a close. It is well to consider what had been
accomplished. The line had been advanced a distance of over
fifteen thousand yards — nearly eight miles — in a little over
four days' time. The Canal du Nord had been crossed. The
last German trench system worthy of the name had been over-
come. Positions of great natural strength had been taken and
our outposts, though not everywhere on the Canal de I'Escaut,
nevertheless held all the high ground worth having just west of
it, commanded the Canal completely and were within easy distance
of the bridgeheads. The role of protecting the flank of the Third
Army had been completely fulfilled. Thus protected, the British
troops to the south had battled their way through the Hindenburg
Line and stood in open country beyond on October 5th, having
taken over thirty thousand prisoners and great numbers
of guns.

The Corps helped to swell the total. Since September 27th
seven thousand one hundred and seventy-four prisoners, two
hundred and five guns, twenty trench mortars and nine hundred
and fifty machine guns had been taken. Thirteen German
divisions, excluding special machine gun detachments, had been

CAMBRAI 319

torn to shreds by one Imperial and three Canadian divisions. On
October 1st ten divisions had opposed these weary but uneon-
querable troops.

The terrific fighting towards Cambrai was now over. Cambrai
was not yet taken, but its capture was not the culmination of
the autumn battles. It was the beginning of a new phase — the
aftermath. When Cambrai fell, it was to let the Canadians into
open country. They did not know it then — but on October
1st they fought their last pitched battle. They had achieved
something far greater than the capture of a city. They had
broken the German Army, utterly and beyond repair.

A few words will suffice to tell of the capture of Cambrai.
After an unsuccessful attack by the Germans on October 2nd,
in which the Second Canadian Division threw off two hundred
and fifty hostile infantry, a quietness fell on the Corps front.

Meanwhile the Germans were burning and plundering Cambrai,
prior to the evacuation which they knew must come. And still
the troops waited.

On October 8th the Seventeenth (Imperial) Corps on the
Canadian right delivered a general attack in conjunction with
others to the south. It was a great success, and the Sixty-
third (Royal Naval) Division took Niergnies, south-east of the
city. This was the signal to the Canadian Corps.

At 1.30 a.m. on October 9th the silence of the night followinsr
the battle was broken by the drum-roll of the Canadian guns.
At the same time the infantry moved forward.

In spite of darkness, the assembly of the attacking battalions
had been carried out perfectly. The Fifth C.M.R. Battalion,
Lieut.-Col. W. Rhoades, D.S.O., M.C., attacked from in front
of Neuville St. Remy with the object of seizing bridgeheads on
the Canal there. On their left the Twenty-sixth Battalion, Lieut.
Col. W. R. Brown, D.S.O., and the Twenty-fifth Battalion,
Major C. J. Mersereau — the latter on the left of the Twenty-sixth
— were first to seize the bridgeheads over the Canal as far as
Ramillies and then to advance and capture Escaudoeuvres,
establishing themselves on the Cambrai-Valenciennes Railway
with the flanks bent back to the Canal and the right looking into
Cambrai. On their left the Twenty-seventh Battalion, Lieut.-
Col. H. J. Riley, D.S.O., was to take Ramillies and the bridge-
head there and form a defensive flank facing north, which the
Thirty-first Battalion, Lieut.-Col. E. S. Doughty, D.S.O., was to
prolong another two thousand yards to the jumping-off line.
Circumstances being favourable, the whole Corps would then
be passed over the Canal.

The seizing of the bridgehead and the forming of the defensive
flank were to be carried out under an intense barrage, while

320 THE CANADIANS IN FRANCE

the advance beyond to Escaudoeuvres would be covered by a
smoke screen and a special barrage. Great precautions for
secrecy were taken. But the Germans as a whole had gone.
By 2.30 a.m. all the bridgeheads were secured and Ramillies
was in our hands. The Fifth Brigade crossed the Canal a short
time later. At 6 a.m. the Sixth Brigade had passed patrols
through Blecourt, Bantigny and Cuvillers. At 8 a.m. the whole
of the Eighth Brigade had gone through Cambrai, meeting patrols
of the Twenty-fourth (Imiaerial) Division in the city. Fierce
fires were burning there, and parties set to work to quench
them.

At 8.20 a.m. the Eleventh (Imperial) Division was on the move,
and the Twenty-ninth Battalion, Lieut. -Col. H. S. Tobin, with
the Thirty-first Battalion, captured Eswars, in conjunction with
the Imperials, three hours later. The Canadian Light Horse,
Lieut.-Col. I. Leonard, D.S.O., moved forward over the intact
bridges and galloped hot-foot after the enemy.

In the meantime the Engineers had been working furiously
to throw more bridges over the Canal. It was entirely due to
the very smart and gallant work of an officer of the Canadian
Engineers that one of the most important bridges was saved
from destruction by the German rearguards.

Captain Coulson Norman Mitchell, M.C., Fourth Battalion
Canadian Engineers, with a small party of his men, advanced
in front of the infantry in the attack on the bridges, intending
to prevent their demolition. At this point the Germans were
sweeping the banks with intense fire, in order to hold the Canadians
off until they could complete the work of blowing up the crossings.
Through this fire Captain Mitchell went. The first bridge he
examined had been destroyed. At the second he cut a number
of wires connecting the charges with the firing party. Then,
in complete darkness and ignorant of the strength or position
of the enemy guarding it, he dashed over a third bridge, posted
a sentry, and with an N.C.O. proceeded to cut the wires under
the bridge, which he found heavily charged Ibr demolition. At
this stage a large party of Germans attempted to rush the bridge.
Captain Mitchell at once dashed to the assistance of his sentry,
who had been wounded, killed three Germans single-handed,
took twelve prisoners, and continued to hold on until the
infantry arrived. Then he went on calmly removing charges
which might blow him sky-high at any moment and finally
cleared the bridge.

For this act of gallantry Captain Mitchell received the Victoria
Cross.

At dusk the Canadian line lay a thousand yards west of
Cagnocles on the right, thence ran north to the Cambrai-Valen-

CAMBRAI 821

ciennes Railway, north-east along the Railway, and so through
the eastern outskirts of Thun St. Martin and Thun-Leveque.
The Eleventh (Imperial) Division were established in the last-
named village, in Paillencourt and in the southern outskirts of
Hem-Long] et and Fressies. Patrols of cavalry and motor machine
guns were out beyond these positions.
Cambrai was indisputably ours.

21

CHAPTER XV

MONS— AND VICTORY!

October-November 1918

On October 10th the advance of the Canadians beyond Cambrai
was resumed.

The Independent Force, leading the advance on the extreme
right along the Cambrai-Bavai Road, on October 10th reached
the Erclin River, a very small stream crossing tbe road north-
west of Rieux. Here the Germans had blown up the bridge,
rendering it impossible for the armoured cars to get over. Not-
withstanding, portions of the Force on foot went on another
thousand yards up the road and remained there.

This was the deepest penetration realized during the day —
the enemy further south were scurrying back to Le Cateau.
Behind the Independent Force the Fourth Brigade secured Naves
and the Sixth Brigade manoeuvred into a position a thousand
yards west and south of the large village of Iwuy prior to attacking
it on the following day. The Eleventh (Imperial) Division,
further north, completed the establishing of its posts everywhere
along the Canal de I'Escaut and also pushed others into Hem-
Longlet, south of the Sensee.

During the day the Third Canadian Division was withdrawn to
a rearward area about the Canal du Nord, having been " squeezed
out " by the converging attack of the Second Canadian Division
and the Seventeenth (Imperial) Corps on the previous day.
The Forty-ninth (Imperial) Division shortened the Canadian
front by relieving the right section of the Second Canadian
Division.

At 9 a.m. on October 11th the latter division attacked Iwuy
under an intense barrage.

The attack was carried out by the Twenty-eighth Battalion,
Major G. F. D. Bond, M.C., while the Fourth Brigade, represented
by the Twenty-first Battalion, Lieut. -Col. H. E. Pense, M.C.,
on the right and the Twentieth Battalion, Lieut. -Col. B. O.
Hooper, M.C., on the left, moved forward on the south.

322

MONS— AND VICTORY! 323

A fierce defence was met with, the enemy fighting hard with
machine guns. But at 11 a.m. the village was in our hands,
except for one or two points where groups of exceptionally-
courageous Germans continued to hold out. These were dealt
with methodically, and soon the entire village was clear.

The Fourth Brigade meanwhile made steady progress through
severe artillery and machine gun fire. The Twentieth Battalion
co-operated nobly in the attack on Iwuy, Lieut. Wallace Lloyd
Algie, of that unit, greatly distinguishing himself and displaying
such bravery and self-sacrifice that he was later awarded the
Victoria Cross.

The hostile posts in Iwuy gave the battalion much trouble
and began to sweep the advancing waves with murderous enfilade
machine gun fire. Lieut. Algie immediately called for volun-
teers to attack the nearest machine gun. Nine being forthcoming,
he led them forward, rushed the gun, disposed of the crew and
turned the weapon on the enemy. This done, he went on with
his men into the village. Here they encountered another machine
gun. Lieut. Algie at once dashed at this gun, killed all the crew,
took prisoner an officer and ten men, and so cleared the end of
the village.

He then went back for reinforcements, having done much
to clear the place of the resistance still remaining. While leading
them forward he was killed.

The brigade, continuing its advance, finally reached the
high ground about two thousand yards north-east of Rieux.
At this point the Germans were extremely strongly placed, with
well arranged posts covering the whole line of the Canadian
advance. Seven hostile tanks emerged from Avesnes-le-Sec
as the attackers approached the positions held by the Germans,
and proceeded to patrol up and down, as if to hearten their
infantry and warn our own men off. It was not possible for
further progress to be made against the tanks. The troops
consolidated the line they held. As the presence of the tanks
constituted a menace to our safety, field guns were sent forward
to deal with them. One by one the tanks were destroyed by
direct fire.

During the evening an adjustment of front and of command was
made between the Twenty-second (Imperial) and the Canadian
Corps. When this had been completed the Canadian Corps
became responsible for the line astride the Sensee. This was
held by the Second Canadian Division, from east of Iwuy to the
Canal de I'Escaut ; by the Eleventh (Imperial) Division thence
along the southern bank of the Sensee to the Canal du Nord.
North of the river the Fifty-sixth (Imperial) Division held the
front facing Arleux, and on their left the First Canadian Division

324 THE CANADIANS IN FRANCE

was established on a line west of Estrees, Gouy-sous-Bellonne
and Corbehem. The First Canadian Division had just taken
over the line after a period of rest. The Fifty-sixth (Imperial)
Division was transferred to the Corps as it stood on the adjust-
ment with the Twenty-second Corps.

It will be observed that on practically the whole of this twenty-
mile front the Canadians were faced by water, the enemy, with
some cleverness, having taken advantage of the admirable positions
of defence offered by the rivers and canals. The Canadian
left, fronting the Canal de La Sensee, was far in rear of the general
alignment of the right, for the Germans still clung to Douai.
The centre, on the southern bank of the Sensee River, could not
easily cross the marshes. It was therefore necessary to advance
the left in order to straighten the line. Fortunately, the Germans
retired and thereby enabled the left to advance without a serious
attack.

Continually probing the front with patrols, the divisions
north of the Sensee River on October 12th caught the enemy
in the act of withdrawing in an easterly direction. By the end
of the day they held Estrees, Gouy-sous-Bellonne and Corbehem,
and their patrols had reached the Canal de La Sensee on the
whole front.

With the object of ascertaining the enemy's intentions and,
if possible, anticipating them, the Fifth Brigade attacked Hordain,
on the south bank of the Sensee, ten miles east of the front held
by the First Canadian Division. The attack was a complete
success, and by 1.30 p.m., an hour and a half after the commence-
ment of the operations, the whole place was held and the line
had been advanced to a point west of Lieu-St. Amand.

There was now a slight pause in the forward movement
of the Canadians, and it was' not until October 17th that any
advances of importance occurred.

On October 15th the Fourth Canadian Division relieved the
Fifty-sixth (Imperial) Division, arriving just in time to take
part in pursuing the enemy to Valenciennes. The First and
Second Brigades of the First Canadian Division crossed the
Canal de La Sensee on October 17th, and the Tenth and Eleventh
Brigades of the Fourth Canadian Division joining in the advance,
the whole line north of the Sensee River began to move. The
Germans, under the unrelenting pressure of the Army, once
more took refuge in flight.

During the next ten days, with practically no check, the
Canadian infantry, following a light screen of cavalry and motor
machine gunners, pressed on rapidly after the broken rearguards
of the enemy. On October 19th the Second Division was
withdrawn and the First and Fourth Divisions, the latter on

326 THE CANADIANS IN FRANCE

the right, were left to carry on the chase between the Scarpe
and the Sensee.

The advance was made over the canalized and densely popu-
lated country east of Douai. By the night of October 19th the
highly important railway junctions of Aniche and Somain were
securely in our hands, and on the following day Denain, a populous
town on the Sensee, only five miles from Valenciennes, was
encircled and taken by the Fourth Division. Next day more
progress was realized, the First Division on the left fighting its
way into the thick woods of the Foret de Vicoigne, north-west
of Valenciennes. The evening of October 21st found our men in
possession of Trith, on the western bank of the Canal de I'Escaut,
and the First Division's patrols held the Valenciennes-St. Armand
Road on their whole front. The Foret de Vicoigne was then
behind them, and the line was about to enter the larger Forest
of Raismes to the east.

On October 22nd the Third Canadian Division came forward
and passed through the First Canadian Division to continue
the pressure on the enemy. While the First Canadian Division
withdrew to rest billets in the vicinity of Aniche, the Seventh
and Ninth Brigades, the latter on the left, pushed on into the
forest, and at nightfall had almost reached the eastern limits. The
Fourth Division, though its right was arrested for the moment
on the Canal de I'Escaut at Trith, never relaxed its efforts for
a moment, and before dark had reached the outskirts of the
Faubourg de Paris, a suburb of Valenciennes west of the Canal,
St. Waast-La Haut and Beuvrages. Next day these places
were cleared of the enemy, and during the following night our
posts reached the Canal de I'Escaut north of Valenciennes.
By that time the Third Division was in the eastern edge of the
Forest of Raismes.

Resistance now stiffened. The enemy had dammed the
Canal as a last resource, and great tracts of country were rapidly
passing under water. From Valenciennes northwards the valleys
had been turned into lakes and marshes shining like silver in
the blue October air. Behind these stretches of water and the
Canal the Germans waited for our men with numerous machine
guns. They did not dare to face a blow. To the elements,
in their despair, they turned wildly for protection, knowing that
no German alone could stop the British advance.

In spite of these immense obstacles our men reached the
general line of the Canal de I'Escaut everywhere between Conde
and Trith before the end of the month.

The method of carrying on the pursuit employed by the
Canadians was such that it gave the enemy not one moment's
rest. It has been seen how division passed through division,

I

MONS— AND VICTORY! 327

fresh troops coming up from the rear, moving through the ranks
of their comrades who had hitherto maintained the advance,
and taking up the chase in their turn. In a similar manner the
divisions passed their fresh brigades into action through the Hne
held by their comrades of the brigades which had till that moment
represented the division in the forefront of the pursuit. Similarly,
the brigades passed battalion through battalion and the battalions
sent company through company. At night the line halted on
the ground reached during the day, and defensive positions were
assumed until at dawn the process began again. Meanwhile
cavalry and infantry patrols probed the enemy's front all night.

The Germans, though they had orders to hold their ground
until the main body of Canadians had been delayed, as a general
rule retired without fighting on the approach of our men. Those
groups of stouter quality which showed a desire to dispute the
advance were generally outflanked and disposed of without
much difficulty.

It was a very pleasant form of warfare — the warfare of which
men had dreamed for years, while they held those terrible trenches
of the old front line through endless ages of enduring mud and
cold, rain and water, shell fire and the indescribable hell
of war to the death with a murderous enemy a stone's-throw
away. The day on which they should find the Germans incapable
of offering serious resistance had become for them a beacon, a
star beckoning them from heights so rocky and so steep that
sometimes it seemed that they would never reach it, in spite
of all their blood and sacrifice.

And now they were driving the enemy hot-foot from the
country. He did his best to make their advance as difficult
and unpleasant as possible. Practically every bridge and every
cross-road of importance he destroyed with explosive charges.
Others, though not yet destroyed, were mined — either with
delayed-action fuses or with devilish arrangements that would
go off when a heavy vehicle passed over them, blowing up
the bridge or the road and its burden together. He tore up the
railway, shattered all the culverts, threw poles across the roads,
cut the telegraph, smashed the instruments and generally wrecked
the system. He posted snipers and machine guns to cover
all the front and pick off our patrols as they advanced. He blew
up his ammunition dumps and destroyed his depots. It will
be observed that most of these methods were legitimate acts of
war. As the advance went on it was perceived that the Germans
abstained from preparing the childish " booby-trap " — which
long ago had ceased to be effective. They damaged no buildings
as far as they could avoid it. And they left the civilians alone.

Their reasons for this apparent leniency were obvious. The

328 THE CANADIANS IN FRANCE

shadow of the scaffold lay across their path. It is h^rd to see
what they might hope to gain by this grave-side repentance,
after four years of cruelty and ruthlessness.

Under cover of his rearguards and his wrecking of communi-
cations the enemy managed to get most of his mobile equipment
and his guns away. But he could not destroy half his ammunition,
his supplies and his depots. Vast quantities of every conceivable
war material fell into the hands of our troops. As our advanced
guards quickened the pace, so the booty increased. It was found
possible to quicken the pace. There was a remedy for all the
hindrances set before the path of the advance.

Engineers and pioneers followed on the heels of the infantry,
mending and improvising bridges and filling in the craters in
the roads almost as fast as they appeared. The Engineers per-
formed marvellous feats of bridge-building. Parties of specially
trained men worked forward with our patrols, ferreting out
mines which had not yet been fired and thereby drawing the
teeth of the enemy. Railway troops, though for the moment
the speed of the advance had outstripped the rapidity of the
repair work on the line, built new culverts, laid new steel and
put the railway in order with remarkable swiftness. As for
the enemy's snipers and machine gunners, few offered any resist-
ance to our troops. Those who still retained enough sense of
duty to do so were easily overpowered.

And then there were the civilians. Every man in the ranks
of the British Army had dreamed at one time or another of the
day when they should release the French and Belgian non-
combatants from bondage. Now, with every mile flung behind
them more civilians passed from tyranny to liberty. From
October 17th to 21st ninety thousand people were released
by Canadians, nearly forty thousand being rescued in Denain
alone.

Their gratitude was pitiful. In Denain they tendered a public
welcome to the men of the Fourth Canadian Division. Else-
where they ran to greet the oncoming patrols and kissed the
hands that held the rifles and wept upon the shoulders of the
scouts, thanking God that they had lived to see that day. Flags
— the Tricolour — appeared on every house, though where they
came from it was impossible to say. The men marched through
miles of country hung with the colours of liberty, which had
not been seen for years. They laughed among themselves,
shared their rations with the inhabitants and went on again,
the simplest knights the world had ever known.

In this way they came to Valenciennes.

While Canadian and German infantry faced each other across
the flood-lands the High Command was not idle. Every effort

MONS— AND VICTORY 1 329

was made to improve communications, push forward supplies,
and complete arrangements generally for a resumption of the
advance. By the end of October the inevitable dislocation
caused by the rapid German retreat had been put right and all
was ready for another blow. On the night of October 29th
the Fourth Canadian Division relieved the Imperial troops
between the Canal de I'Escaut and Famars, a village four thousand
yards south of Valenciennes, east of the Canal.

This gave the Canadian Corps a footing beyond the Canal
whence it was possible to attack the city. The line here, covering
a front of about two thousand five hundred yards, the left on
the Canal near Poirier Station, the right slightly east of the
Famars-Valenciennes Road, faced northwards, skirting the
southern slope of Mont Houy and the northern end of Famars.

October brought the end of another phase in the operations.
It had been an exceedingly fruitful month for the Canadians,
who had borne their full share of the great successes brought by
Allied arms. Three thousand prisoners, one hundred and thirty-
six guns and howitzers, four hundred and sixty-seven machine
guns, forty-two trench mortars, and enormous quantities of
material, including six locomotives and much rolling stock, had
been taken, either in pitched battle on the ridges north of Cambrai
or in the swift pursuit which followed its capture. Many villages
and towns, with their inhabitants, had been recovered from the
enemy, and the whole line had been advanced over twenty miles.
This had been achieved at a cost of seventeen thousand casualties,
the great majority being wounded. The strategical value of
the operations far exceeded any of these achievements, since the
month witnessed the death-agonies of the German Army.

At 5.15 a.m. on November 1st the final phase of the war
began when the Canadian Corps, represented by the Tenth
Brigade, resumed the advance, in conjunction with the Twenty-
second (Imperial) Corps.

The plan of operations was briefly as follows : The Tenth
Brigade was to capture Mont Houy, dominating the Canal
de I'Escaut, clear the straggling village of Aulnoy, astride the
Rhonelle River (which ran roughly southwards from the south-
eastern outskirts of Valenciennes), seize the bridgeheads on
the river and pass troops over in pursuit of the enemy. This
operation would envelop the city from the south and force the
Germans in the place to retire. If all went well, the Twelfth
Brigade, holding the Canal west of the city, were to cross the
Canal and enter Valenciennes, hastening the flight of the defenders.

For several days prior to the assault the Canadian artillery
had bombarded the objectives heavily, leaving Valenciennes
and its environs carefully alone. It now provided a terrific

MONS— AND VICTORY! 331

barrage, and the Tenth Brigade pressed rapidly forward on its
heels.

The Forty-fourth Battahon, Lieut.-Col. R. A. Davies, D.S.O.,
attaeked on the right, the Forty-seventh Battahon, Lieut.-Col.
H. L. Keegan, D.S.O., upon the left and both battalions met
with instant success.

The first objective assigned to the attack lay two thousand
yards beyond the jumping-off line, north of Mont Houy, its
right on the Rhonelle River, at Aulnoy, its left in the southern
outskirts of the Faubourg de Cambrai.

Through a very violent, if brief, hostile counter-barrage,
which included a large quantity of gas shell, the Forty-seventh
Battalion fought doggedly forward. Great numbers of Germans
were encountered, particularly around Poirier Station, where
numerous buildings and the railway system gave them shelter.
Our guns had slain scores of these men, but many of the living,
being strongly entrenched, offered a desperate resistance and
died by bayonet or bullet without surrendering. At 7 a.m. the
battalion held its share of the first objective.

On the right the Forty-fourth Battalion also met masses
of Germans, apparently thrust into the line by a Staff which
had lost its head completely and staked its last hope on numbers
alone. These men fought hard in places, notably on the extreme
right and on Mont Houy, but were overpowered at little cost.
The Forty-fourth also secured its first objective by 7 a.m. Over
six hundred prisoners, with three field guns, twenty trench
mortars and eighty-three machine guns were captured by this
unit alone.

To the Forty-sixth Battalion, Lieut.-Col. H. J. Dawson, D.S.O.,
which followed the Forty-fourth Battalion to the first objective,
had been allotted, by mutual arrangement of the battalion
commanders, the task of looking after a portion of Aulnoy. The
men came upon hosts of Germans along the road from Aulnoy
to Marly and from Famars to Valenciennes. These roads on
both sides were fringed with houses, and every cellar was filled
with grey-clad men clamouring for mercy. In the streets, between
the houses, groups of their stouter-hearted comrades fought
desperately and were bayoneted until the ground was covered
with corpses.

At 7.05 a.m. the barrage, after resting for fifteen minutes
in front of the first objective, began to creep onwards to the
second objective, which was the line of the Bavai- Valenciennes
Railway from the Canal on the left to the Rhonelle River on the
right. The Forty-sixth Battalion, in accordance with the plan,
pushed through the Forty-fourth Battalion on the right and con-
tinued the attack, while the Forty-seventh Battalion advanced
upon the left,

382 THE CANADIANS IN FRANCE

The Forty-sixth Battahon again encountered and overpowered
large forces of the enemy. The brickfields on the Aulnoy-Marly
Road, about half-way between the two objectives, were the
centre of a violent struggle.

A large body of Germans, with three field guns, a trench mortar
and seven machine guns, garrisoned the brickfields. Major
Gyles, Company Sergeant-Ma j or Gibbons and Sergeant Hugh
Cairns, D.C.M., directing a group of eleven men, were responsible
for the successful reduction of this defence. Under very heavy
fire they reached a point whence they were able to rake the
position with Lewis guns. Company Sergeant-Major Gibbons
and Sergeant Cairns with four men and two Lewis guns then
moved off to a position on the right, while their comrades covered
them by bursts of fire. They completely outflanked the Germans
and finally manoeuvred into close proximity, when they opened
fire. So deadly and accurate was their marksmanship that the
enemy suffered very severely, and the remnant, fifty strong,
at once capitulated. Soon afterwards the Forty-sixth Battalion
reached its objective.

This success was largely due to Sergeant Cairns, who showed
splendid gallantry throughout the day. He had already rushed
and disposed of three machine guns single handed under hea\y
fire, killing seventeen and capturing eighteen Germans. Later
in the operations against ^larly — which will be dealt with in due
course — though already severely wounded, he captured sixty
prisoners, and continued to fight on until he collapsed from weak-
ness and loss of blood.

Sergeant Cairns died on November 2nd. He was subse-
quently awarded the Victoria Cross.

The Forty-seventh Battalion in the meantime had fought
through the Faubourg de Cambrai and reached its objective.
Both battalions by 9 a.m. were in full possession of the second
objective and had patrols thrust out towards Marly, on the
eastern side of Valenciennes.

It was now feasible for the Twelfth Brigade to attempt the
crossing of the Canal de I'Escaut. At 11.30 a.m. the Thirty-
eighth Battalion, Lieut. -Col. A. D. Cameron, M.C., on the right,
facing the western edge of Valenciennes, began to cross, while
the Seventy-second Battalion, Lieut. -Col. G. H. Kirkpatrick,
D.S.O.. north-west of the city, commenced fifteen minutes before.
The Thirty-eighth Battalion got over in small groups by short
rushes -with only three casualties, utilizing two broken-down
bridges for the purpose, and by 12.40 p.m. the whole battalion
was safely on the eastern bank. The Seventy-second Battalion
met considerable opposition and was not so fortunate. Using
boats, rafts and a cork-float bridge which were constructed by

MONS— AND VICTORY! 333

" C " Company of the Twelfth Battahon Canadian Engineers,
the battalion worked their way across under hea\y fire. The
bridge broke down and it was necessary to rely mainly on the
boats, one of which was sunk by machine guns. Nevertheless
the battalion drove the enemy off and gradually completed
the passage.

A field gun of the Fifty-second Battery Canadian Field
Artillery did extremely useful work in keeping down machine
gun fire while the battalion crossed. It was placed in position
near the Canal to command the main Conde-Valenciennes Road
leading into the city, and fired on hostile machine guns in the
network of railway a hundred yards away.

Once over the Canal, the Twelfth Brigade entered Valenciennes,
overpowering the German posts in the city. Throughout the
afternoon and all night there was patrol fighting in the deserted
streets. On the morning of November 2nd Valenciennes was
cleared of the enemy and the brigade occupied a line beyond
the eastern limits.

The Canadian operations of November 1st yielded fourteen
hundred prisoners, a number of guns and many machine guns.
Dreadful bloodshed had occurred among the Germans. Over
eight hundred dead were counted on the battle-field. The
field-grey corpses were everywhere — in the battered houses,
in ruined buildings, scattered over the railway embankments
and along the ties, in the streets and on the banks of the
stagnant Canal.

Our men marched past these bodies and took no heed of them,
for their hearts were hardened to sights of that description. But
the French civilians, who had lain in hiding for days while the
battle raged about them, coming out of their cellars like timid
creatures of the woods emerging from their warrens on the night
that followed the taking of Valenciennes, looked at them dumbly
and shuddered.

The relentless pressure was not relaxed during November 2nd.
The Twelfth Brigade fought forward all day, and ere dusk had
taken the greater part of St. Saulve, over a mile beyond Valen-
ciennes along the road to Mons. The Eleventh Brigade in the
meantime had passed through the Tenth Brigade, and at 5.30
a.m. attacked 3Iarly with the Fifty-fourth Battalion, Lieut. -Col.
Carey, cancelling a barrage which had been arranged for, as it
seemed unnecessary. The decision was justified, Marly being
taken without difficulty and the garrison surprised and captured.

At 12.45 p.m. the One Hundred and Second Battalion, Lieut. -
Col. E. J. W. Ryan, D.S.O., was placed on the left of the Fifty-
fourth Battalion and advanced through the southern outskirts
of Valenciennes while the latter unit moved in an easterlv direc-

334 THE CANADIANS IN FRANCE

tion. Ere nightfall they had reached a line fifteen hundred
yards east of the city and had taken one hundred prisoners with
only twenty-five casualties.

The further advances of the Canadian Corps — the Third
Division on the left and the Fourth Division on the right — met
with little resistance during the next days. In uncertain autumnal
weather the patrols moved on steadily, gathering in hundreds
of prisoners, a gun here and there, numerous machine guns and
dumps of every conceivable material. The difficult dyke country
north of the Mons- Valenciennes Road and the country of little
rivers to the south, which a well-organized and spirited rear-
guard might have rendered impassable, passed surely into our
possession. Every day the men went out under a light barrage,
rolled up the German outposts and covered another mile or two
towards Mons.

On the night of November 5th the Fourth Canadian Division
experienced a slight check, but on November 6th the Corps was
once more advancing. Athwart their path that morning was the
Aunelle River, a shallow but tumultuous stream brawling between
steep banks impassable to transport, with all the bridges destroyed.
The Germans, knowing the great natural strength of the river,
made a desperate attempt to stand there. But the two divisions
attacked under a barrage and were soon across the river. Numerous
prisoners were taken. Then they pushed on, the Eleventh and
Twelfth Brigades crossing the Honnelle River some distance
beyond. Basseux was captured by the One Hundred and Second
Battalion, and the Seventy-eighth and Eighty-fifth Battalions
got into Quievrain, At 4 p.m. the village of Cresjoin, which had
offered strenuous resistance all day, was attacked and carried by
the Third Division, while a footing was secured upon the Honnelle
before darkness fell.

During the night the Fourth Division was relieved by the
Second Division, and at 8 a.m. on November 7th the Corps resumed
its advance. It continued to make rapid progress, and the
Third Division cleared the last bit of France on the Corps front
while the whole force south of the Conde-Mons Canal penetrated
far into Belgium.

And now the line went sweeping on like a tidal wave, beating
back the broken German breakwater with irresistible fury.
On November 8th Montreul-sur-Haine, Hamin and Dour fell
into our hands, and on the following day the whole of the country
south of the Conde-Mons Canal as far south as a line parallel
to the Canal through the Bois de Colfontaine and as far east
as Cuesmes was cleared of the enemy. Our troops pushed north
over the Canal and took Ville Pommercul with a great slice of
country between St. Ghislain and a point five miles west of that

MONS— AND VICTORY! 835

village. To help the infantry they had the Fifth Lancers, who
were attached to them on November 9th and had fought on that
ground as a unit in August 1914. The territory released that
day included the densely populated district south-west of Mons —
St. Ghislain, Boussu, Hornu, Wasmes, Paturages, Quaregnon,
Jemappes, Frameries, La Bouverie — places which had known
the " Old Contemptibles " in the dreadful long ago.

After the " Old Contemptibles " had gone it was waiting,
just waiting, months and years and eternities for the return
of the deliverers. And hope had risen and burned low and risen
innumerable times in the breasts of these civilians, until at last
it seemed that the deliverers would never return. Then God,
in His mercy, worked a miracle. They saw another retreat,
but it was not a British retreat this time. The sound of the
guns grew near again and the Germans moved away before the
guns. Then came the day when they saw khaki again, not
the khaki of the " Old Contemptibles " but of big, strange men
with coloured patches on their sleeves and " Canada " written on
their shoulders. At first they saw only a single scout, but soon
afterwards the great tide of the whole Corps, cavalry and infantry,
batteries and ambulances, an endless river of men and horses and
guns. And the people dashed out into the streets, screaming
" Les Canadiens ! " and went mad with joy.

The colours of Belgium appeared as if by magic, from places
where they had been hidden for years, so that the men marched
through one vast display of red and black and gold. Little
flags nodded at the horses' ears, in the muzzles of the rifles and
the guns and over the transport, turning the army into an army
of glorious colour, like those of old. Vast crowds thronged
every street, crying and laughing in their frantic thanksgiving.
There was not a heart that was not brimming over with happiness.
The air was filled with victory.

But Victory was not yet. Though British troops were marching
through, the environs of Mons, the wheel had not yet turned full
circle. Mons had still to be taken. Canadian patrols were
at that moment within rifle-shot of the city.

During the evening the Princess Patricia's Canadian Light
Infantry, Captain G. Vv^. Little, on the right and the Forty-ninth
Battalion, Lieut. -Col. R. H. Palmer, D.S.O., on the left succeeded
in dislodging the enemy from the railway south-west of Mons,
where hostile machine guns had resisted stubbornly. They
pushed forward and gained a footing in the western outskirts of
the city. On November 10th the Royal Canadian Regiment,
Major G. W. MacLeod, D.S.O., and the Forty-second Battalion,
Lieut. -Col. R. L. H. Ewing, D.S.O., took over this line from the
Seventh Brigade and worked their way forward, while the enemy

336 THE CANADIANS IN FRANCE

opposed them with machine guns and heavy shell fire, which
did not cease until 5 p.m. At dusk, Baudour and Ghlin, north of
the Conde-Mons Canal, and Hyon and Mesvin were in Canadian
hands and it was safe to attempt an entry into Mons itself.
Accordingly, at midnight a company of the Forty-second Bat-
talion, supported by a company of the Princess Patricia's, having
overpowered the Germans on the Canal, entered the city.

On November 11th the historical telegram which put an
end to the most appalling war ever known was flashed through
the Canadian Corps. At 11 a.m., it said, hostilities would cease
and troops would stand fast on the ground reached at that hour.
Examining posts would be established on all roads and there
would be no parleying with the enemy.

At 6 a.m. the whole line was on the move, driving back the
Germans so that Mons and the great strategic point it represented
might be secured before the armistice cried "Halt! " — secured
against all trickery and treachery of the enemy. The Seventh
Brigade went through Mons, while the Sixth Brigade of the
Second Division kept pace with them on the south. The men
attacked with the great gallantry and sense of duty that had
made them famous. There was no lagging, though every one
knew that in a few hours it would be all over. Fortunately,
casualties were infinitely small. At 8 a.m. Mons was cleared.
At 11 a.m. our troops were miles beyond. Promptly at 11 a.m.
the line halted, and men stood with bated breath while the last
seconds of the world's great tragedy slipped away on quiet wings.
The hour struck. The fighting was over.

At 11 a.m. on that wonderful day the Canadian line ran from
the right, east of Petit Havre, and in touch with the Imperials
there, along the little La Haine River to the Canal du Centre
which led to Mons ; thence along the Canal to the Bois de la
Taille des Vignes, where it turned north, running along the eastern
face of the Bois, through the Bois de Becqueron to St. Denis.
From St. Denis it ran north-westwards as far as the main road
from Mons to Brussels, where it turned south-west along
the road to Maisieres. At Maisieres touch was established
with the Imperial troops on the left and the line of the Corps
ended.

Holding this line were the Sixth Brigade of the Second Divi-
sion and the Seventh Brigade of the Third Division. The former
held the southern portion, its left one thousand yards north of
the Canal, with the Thirty-first Battalion on the right and the
Twenty-eighth Battalion on the left. The northern portion
was held by the Seventh Brigade, with the Royal Canadian
Regiment on the right and the Forty-second Battalion on
the left.

MONS— AND VICTORY! 3St

The wheel of Fate had turned full circle. At Petit Havre,
Canadian troops were ten thousand yards due east of Mons
and the city was firmly in British possession. Thus God had
brought back to Mons, as avengers of the Old Army, the crusaders
from beyond the Atlantic seas.

Elsewhere on the British front the situation was equally
satisfactory. Maubeuge, the strategical objective of the entire
Army, had been taken two days before. As for the condition
of the enemy, one cannot do better than quote Sir Douglas
Haig's despatch dealing with the subject :

" The military situation . . . can be stated very shortly.
In the fighting since November 1st our troops had broken the
enemy's resistance beyond possibility of recovery, and had
forced on him a disorderly retreat along the whole front of the
British Armies. Thereafter, the enemy was capable neither
of accepting nor refusing battle. The utter confusion of his
troops, the state of his railways, congested with abandoned
trains, the capture of huge quantities of rolling stock and material,
all showed that our attack had been decisive. It had been
followed on the north by the evacuation of the Tournai salient,
and to the south, where the French forces had pushed forward
in conjunction with us, by a rapid and costly withdrawal to the
line of the Meuse.

" The strategic plan of the Allies had been realized with a
completeness rarely seen in war. When the armistice was signed
by the enemy his defensive powers had already been definitely
destroyed. A continuance of hostilities could only have meant
disaster to the German Armies and the armed invasion of
Germany."

To the reader may be left the judgment of the Canadian
share in the accomplishment of the victory.

The rest of November 11th passed quietly. During the day
Corps Headquarters moved from Valenciennes to Mons, and the
Corps Commander made his official entry into the city at 3.30 p.m.
amid scenes of the wildest enthusiasm. The men, examining
posts having been established, settled down to enjoy the best
billets they had yet known and to await orders for the march
to the Rhine.

Contrary to the expectations of many, there was little or no
demonstration among the fighters. The emotion felt by officers
and men was too deep for outward expression. Their thoughts
did not turn to flag-wagging, but to Home and Peace and those
at home whom they had been spared to see again. And their
minds went back over the dreary years to fifty thousand comrades
who were not so fortunate, from a worldly point of view, and
who would never see Home or loved ones any more, but who

22

338 THE CANADIANS IN FRANCE

had died, God bless them ! for the freedom of the whole world
and for the Canadian Army Corps and its place in history.

And then for the hundredth time — scarcely daring to believe
it — they told each other that the menace of death or slavery
had gone forever ; they had heard the last rifle-shot of anger and
had seen the last glare of shell fire along the midnight sky.

This was Victory. At last !

APPENDIX

PRINCIPAL UNITS OF THE CANADIAN ARMY CORPS

(As organized in 1918)

Note. — During the later stages of the war it was not possible
to maintain all units with drafts of men from the towns and
cities whence these units had originally been raised. In such
cases they were reinforced with men from their respective
provinces, so that their territorial associations might be pre-
served as far as circumstances permitted. On the whole, these
original associations were rigidly adhered to, especially with the
infantry.

CANADIAN ARMY CORPS HEADQUARTERS AND CORPS TROOPS

Unit. Originally Recruited Jrom —

Canadian Army Corps Headquarters All parts of Canada.

Canadian Army Corps Heavy Artil-
lery.
1st, 2nd and 3rd Brigades, Canadian All parts of Canada.
Garrison Artillery

6th Canadian Divisional Artillery.

13th and 14th Brigades, Canadian All parts of Canada.
Field Artillery

8th Army Brigade, Canadian Field All parts of Canada.

Artillery

6th Canadian Divisional Engineers All parts of Canada.

Canadian Army Corps Signal Com- All parts of Canada.
PANY, C.E.

Canadian Light Horse .... All parts of Canada. Formed

first from Divisional Cavalry of
1st and 2nd Canadian Divisions
end of 1916. Was called Cana-
dian Corps Cavalry Regiment
until early in 1918.
S39

840

THE CANADIANS IN FRANCE

Unit. Originally Recruited from —

Canadian Abmy Cobps Cyclist Bat- All parts of Canada. Formed
TALION from Cyclist Companies of 1st

and 2nd Canadian Divisions
end of 1916.

1st and 2nd Canadian Motor All parts of Canada. First or-
Machine Gun Brigades ganized from independent bat-

teries end of 1915.

Canadian Army Service Corps Units .
Canadian Army Troops Companies,

C.E.
Canadian Timnelling Companies, C.E.

All parts of Canada.
All parts of Canada.

All parts of Canada.

1st

Canadian
quarters

FIRST CANADIAN DIVISION
Divisional Head- All parts of Canada.

1st Canadian Divisional Artillery.
1st and 2nd Brigades, Canadian Field
Artillery, and 1st Canadian Divi-
sional Ammiinition Column

All parts of Canada. In June
1917 the 3rd Brigade of the
1st Canadian Divisional Artil-
lery was transferred to the 4th
Canadian Division.

IsT Canadian Divisional Engineers.
1st Canadian Engineer Brigade (1st,
2nd and 3rd C.E. Battalions)

1st Canadian Divisional Signal Com-
pany, C.E.

1st Canadian Infantry Brigade.
Brigade Headquarters .
1st Canadian Battalion

2nd Do.

do.

3rd Do.

do.

4th Do.

do.

Ist Canadian

Light

Battery

Trench Mortar

2nd Canadian Infantry Brigade
Brigade Headquarters .
5th Canadian Battalion
7th Do. do.

8th Do. do.

10th Do. do.

2nd Canadian
Battery

Light Trench Mortar

All parts of Canada. Prior to
April 1918, 1st Canadian Divi-
sional Engineers consisted of
1st, 2nd and 3rd Field Com-
panies, C.E., and 1st Canadian
Pioneer Battalion.

All parts of Canada.

Units of Brigade.
Central Ontario.
Eastern Ontario.
Toronto, Ont.
Central Ontario.
Units of Brigade.

Units of Brigade.
Western Provinces.
British Columbia.
Manitoba (chiefly Winnipeg).
Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Al-
berta.
Units of Brigade.

I

APPENDIX

841

Unit.

3iiD Canadian Infantry Beigade
Brigade Headquarters .
13th Canadian Battalion
14th Do. do.

15th Do. do.

16th Do. do.

Originally Recruited from —

Units of Brigade.

Montreal, Que.

Montreal, Que.

Toronto, Ont.

Manitoba and British Columbia.

3rd Canadian Light Trench Mortar Units of Brigade.
Battery

1st

Canadian
talion

Machine Gun Bat-

All parts of Canada. Formed
early in 1918 from Canadian
Machine Gun Companies, which
until summer of 1917 were
called Brigade Machine Gun
Companies. The Brigade

Machine Gun Companies were
formed from Infantry Battalion
Machine Gun Detachments in
summer of 1916.

1st, 2nd and 3rd Canadian Field All parta of Canada.

AiyiBULANCES AND IST CANADIAN

Sanitary Section

1st Canadian Mobile Veterinary Eastern Provinces,
Section

1st Canadian Divisional Train and All parts of Canada.
1st Canadian Divisional Supply
Column, C.A.S.C.

2nd

Canadian
quarters

SECOND CANADIAN DIVISION
Divisional Head- All parta of Canada.

2nd Canadian Divisional Artillery.
6th and 6th Brigades, Canadian Field
Artillery, and 2nd Canadian Divi-
sional Ammunition Columu

2nd Canadian Divisional Engineers.
2nd Canadian Engineer Brigade (4th,
5th and 6th C.E. Battalions)

2nd Canadian Divisional Signal Com-
pany, C.E.

All parts of Canada, In June
1917 the 4th Brigade of the
2nd Canadian Divisional Artil-
lery was transferred to the 3rd
Canadian Division. Subse-

quently the remainder (5th and
7th Brigades) of the 2nd Cana-
dian Divisional Artillery were
reorganized as 5th and 6th
Brigades.

All parts of Canada. Prior to
April 1918, 2nd Canadian Divi-
sional Engineers consisted of
4th, 5th and 6th Field Com.,
panies, C.E., and 2nd Canadian
Pioneer Battalion.

All parta of Canada,

342

THE CANADIANS IN FRANCE

Originally Recruited from —

Unit,

4th Canadian Infantby Bbigade.

Brigade Headquarters Units of Brigade.

18th Canadian Battalion .... Central Ontario.

19th Do. do. . . • . Central Ontario.

20th Do. do, .... Toronto, Ont.

2l8t Do. do. .... Eastern Ontario.

4th Canadian Light Trench Mortar Units of Brigade.
Battery

6th Canadian Infantry Brigade.

Brigade Headquarters Units of Brigade.

22nd Canadian Battalion .... Province of Quebec (French-
Canadians).

24th Do. do. .... Montreal, Que.

26th Do. do. .... Nova Scotia.

26th Do. do. .... New Brunswick.

6th Canadian Light Trench Mortar Units of Brigade.
Battery

6th Canadian Infantry Brigade
Brigade Headquarters •
27th Canadian Battalion .
28th Do. do.

29th Do. do.

31st Do. do.

6th Canadian Light Trench Mortar Units of Brigade.
Battery

Units of Brigade.
Winnipeg, Man.
North-West Canada.
Vancouver, B.C.
British Coliunbia.

2nd Canadian Machine Gun Bat- All parts of Canada. See remarks
TALION re formation of 1st Canadian

Machine Gun Battalion.

4th, 6th and 6th Canadian Field All parts of Canada.
Ambulances and 2nd Canadian
Sanitary Section

2nd Canadian Mobile Veterinary Eastern Provinces.
Section

2nd Canadian Divisional Train and All parts of Canada.
2nd Canadian Divisional Sup-
ply Column, C.A.S.C.

THIRD CANADIAN DIVISION

3rd Canadian Divisional Head- All parts of Canada.
quarters

3rd Canadian Divisional Artillery.

9th and 10th Brigades, Canadian All parts of Canada. Originally
Field Artillery, and 3rd Canadian 8th, 9th, 10th and 11th Brigades,
Divisional Ammunition Colvunn Canadian Field Artillery. Prior

to their arrival in France with
the 4th Canadian Division,

APPENDIX

843

Unit.

3bd Canadian Divisional Engineers.
3rd Canadian Engineer Brigade (7th,
8th, and 9th C.E. Battalions)

Srd Canadian Divisional Signal Com-
pany, C.E.

Originally Recruited from —

the " Lahore " (afterwards
called " Reserve ") Divisional
Artillery (Imperials) and Bri-
gades from Ist and 2nd Cana-
dian Divisional Artillery did
duty with 3rd Canadian Division.

All parts of Canada. Prior to
April 1918, 3rd Canadian Divi-
sional Engineers consisted of
7th, 8th and 9th Field Com-
panies, C.E., and Srd Canadian
Pioneer Battalion.

All parts of Canada.

7th Canadian Infantry Brigade.

Brigade Headquarters

Royal Canadian Regiment

Princess Patricia's Canadian Light

Infantry
42nd Canadian Battalion ....
49th Do. do. ....

7th Canadian Light Trench Mortar

Battery

Units of Brigade.
All parts of Canada.
All parts of Canada.

Montreal, Que.
Edmonton, Alta.
Units of Brigade.

8th Canadian Infantry Brigade.

Brigade Headquarters Units of Brigade.

1st Canadian Mounted Rifles Battalion Brandon, Man.
2nd Do. do. do.

4th Do, do. do.

6th Do. do. do.

8th Canadian
Battery

Light Trench Mortar

Victoria, B.C.
Toronto, Ont.

Province of Quebec (chiefly Mon-
treal).
Units of Brigade.

9th Canadian Infantry Brigade,
Brigade Headquarters .
43rd Canadian Battalion .

62nd

Do.

do.

68th

Do.

do.

116th

Do.

do.

9th Canadian
Battery

Light Trench Mortar

Units of Brigade.

Winnipeg, Man.

Western Ontario.

Toronto, Ont.

Central Ontario. This Battalion
replaced the 60th Canadian
Battalion in the 9th Canadian
Infantry Brigade in April 1917.
The 60th had been recruited in
Montreal, Que.

Units of Brigade.

3rd

Canadian
Taljon

Machine Gun Bat-

All parts of Canada. See remarks
re formation of 1st Canadian
Machine Gun Battalion.

344

THE CANADIANS IN FRANCE

Unit. Originally Recruited from —

7th, 8th and 9th Canadian Field All parts of Canada.
Ambulances and Srd Canadian
Sanitary Section

3kd Canadian Mobile Veterinary Eastern Provinces.
Section ,

3rd Canadian Divisional Train and All parts of Canada.
3rd Canadian Divisional Sup-
ply Column, C.A.S.C.

4th

Canadian
quarters

FOURTH CANADIAN DIVISION
Divisional Head- All parts of Canada.

4th Canadian Divisional Artillery.
3rd and 4th Brigades, Canadian Field
Artillery, and 3rd Canadian Divi-
sional Ammunition Column

4th Canadian Divisional Engineers.
4th Canadian Engineer Brigade (10th,
nth and 12th C.E. Battalions)

4th Canadian Divisional Signal Com-
pany, C.E.

10th Canadian Infantry Brigade.
Brigade Headquarters .
44th Canadian Battalion
46th Do. do.

47th Do. do.

60th Do. do.

10th Canadian Light Trench Mortar
Battery

11th Canadian Infantry Brigade.
Brigade Headquarters .
64th Canadian Battalion
75th Do. do.

87th Do. do.

102nd Do. do.

11th Canadian Light Trench Mortar
Battery

All parts of Canada. These
Brigades were transferred from
the 1st and 2nd Canadian
Divisional Artillery in June
1917. Prior to that date the
" Lahore " (afterwards called
" Reserve ") Divisional Artillery
(Imperials) and Brigades from
other Canadian Divisions did
duty with the 4th Canadian
Division.

All parts of Canada. Prior to
April 1918, 4th Canadian Divi-
sional Engineers consisted of
10th, nth and 12th Field
Companies, C.E., and 4th Cana-
dian Pioneer Battalion.

All parts of Canada.

Units of Brigade.
Winnipeg, Man.
South Saskatchewan.
British Columbia.
Calgary, Alta.
Units of Brigade.

Units of Brigade.
Kootenay, B.C.
Toronto, Ont.
Montreal, Que.
North British Columbia.
Units of Brigade.

APPENDIX

345

Unit.

12th Canadian Infantry Bbigade
Brigade Headquarters .
38th Canadian Battalion

72nd

Do.

do.

78th

Do.

do.

85th

Do,

doj

12th Canadian
Battery

4th

Canadian

TALION

Light Trench Mortar

Machine Gun Bat-

Origimxlly Recruited from —

Units of Brigade.

Ottawa, Ont.

Vancouver, B.C.

Winnipeg, Man.

Nova Scotia. This Battalion re-
placed the 73rd Canadian Bat-
talion in the 12th Canadian
Infantry Brigade in April 1917.
The 73rd had been recruited in
Montreal, Que.

Units of Brigade.

All parts of Canada. See remarks
re formation of 1st Canadian
Machine Gun Battalion.

10th, 11th and 12th Canadian Field All parts of Canada.
Ambulances and 4th Canadian
Sanitary Section

4th Canadian Mobile Veterinary Eastern Provinces.
Section

4th Canadian Divisional Train and All parts of Canada.
4th Canadian Divisional Sup-
ply Column, C.A.S.C.

IXDEX

Abancourt, 314, 315, 316

Abeele, 42, 64

AcheviUe, 115, 120, 122, 196

Aconite Trench, 137, 144

Adamson, Lieut. -Col., 163

Adept Trench, 129

Agent Trench, 129

Air Force, Roval, 213

Albert, 87, 89"

Alberta 340

Alberta Dragoons, 11

Alcove Trench, 128

Alderson, Lieut. -General SirE. A.H.,
K.C.B., 12, 22, 35, 53

Algie, Lieut. W. LI., 323

AUan, Lieut. B. W., 186

Allan, Lieut-Col. C. W., D.S.O., 196

Allan, Lieut. R. E., 185

Allan, Lieut. -Col. W. D., 57, 58, 61

Allan, Major M. Y., 57, oS

Aloof Trench, 144, 145

Alpaca Trench, 137, 144, 150, 157

Ambercourt, 222

Amiens, 191, 192, 193, 203, 211,
212, 213, 214, 219, 228, 229, 230,
234, 238, 240, 242, 245, 246, 247,
249, 269

Ammunition Column, Fifth Divi-
siona], 188

Ammunition Column, First Divi-
sional, 340

Ammunition Column, Fourth Divi-
sional, 344

Ammunition Column, Second Divi-
sional, 36, 341

Ammunition Column, Third Divi-
sional, 66, 344

Amulet Trench, 128, 142, 144

Ancre, 84, 195

Andechy, 230, 237

Anderson, Captain, 31

Andrews, Private. J. C, 41

Andros, Lieut. -Col., 162, 171

Angres, 116

Aniche, 326

Anneux, 298

Anzac, 220

Anzac Corps, First, 67. 68, 155 ^

ArchambaultjMajor J.P.,D.S.O.,268

Arleux, 117, 118, 119, 123, 126, 196,
323

Armagh House, 57

Armagh Wood, 55, 57, 64

Armentieres, 12, 37

Army Medical Corps, Canadian, 285

Army Service Corps, 340

Army Troops, 190, 340

Arques, 67

Arras, 88, 89, 90, 98, 99, 101, 102,
124, 127, 195, 196, 205. 210, 212,
247, 248, 249, 250, 252, 254,
258, 259, 260, 261. 265, 266,
267, 268, 269, 271, 272, 273,
274, 276, 280, 283, 284, 285,
286

Arras-Bethtme Road, 103

Arras-Cambrai Railwav, 318

Arras-Cambrai Road. 290, 292, 293,
300, 304, 307, 308, 309

Arras-Lens Railwav, 129

Artillery, 14, 27, 105, 110, 150, 157,
165. See also under numbers
of Brigades

Artillery Hill, 261, 262, 265, 266, 268

Artois, '88 •

Arvillers, 231, 240

Ashton, Major E. T., 29

Atkinson, Sniper J., 42

Atto, Lieut., 188

Aubencheul-au-Bac, 301

Aubignv, 211

Auchel,' 182, 184, 203

Audruicq, 67

Aulnov, 329, 331. 332

AuneUe River. 334

AustraHans. 67, 68, 173, 194, 237,
240, 246

Australian Corps, 211, 213, 216

Australian Third Di^-ision, 155

Australian First Di\-ision, 158

Aux Reitz, 103

Avesnes-le-Sec, 323

Avion, 130, 131, 135, 182, 184,
186, 196

Avre, 220, 245 It- "-

Baconel, 247

Bailleul, 25, 27, 34, 42, 116

347

348

THE CANADIANS IN FRANCE

Baker, Lieut.-Col. C. H., 38, 56
Bantigny, 314, 316, 320
Bapaiime, 87, 195, 205
Bapaume-Cambrai Road, 290, 299,

304, 306, 307, 308
Bapaume Road, 68, 69, 70, 72
Baralle, 276, 287
Barlin, 172
Barman, Lieut., 204
Barron, Corporal C, 175
Basseux, 195, 334
Battersby, Major W. F., 192, 194
Baudour, 336

Bavai-Valenciennes Road, 331
Beaucourt, 226, 227
Beaufort, 203, 230, 232, 242
Beaumont-Hamel, 84
Beckett, Lieut.-Col. S. C, 66, 82,

83, 85, 96
Beecher, Lieut.-Col., 33
Bell, Lieut.-Col. A. H., 36, 44, 60
Bell Street, 137

Bellevue, 159, 160, 161, 162, 164
Bent, Lieut.-Col. C. E., C.M.G.,

D.S.O., 58, 61, 217, 271
B^thune, 32
Beuvrages, 326
Biggs, Lieut., 49, 50
Bingham, Lieut., 94
Bingham, Major, 282
Birchall, Lieut.-Col. A. P., 16, 20
Bird, Lieut., 94
Black, Captain A. W., 187
Black, Lieut., 192, 193, 194
Blackstock, Major J. J., 270, 283
Black Wood, 243
Blangy, 211
Blangy Wood, 219
Blecourt, 308, 311, 314, 316, 317,

319, 320
Bliss, Captain R. M., 223
Blois, Lieut.-Col. A. O., D.S.O., 184
Blue Dotted Line, 213, 214, 216,

217, 218, 225, 226, 227, 230
Blue Line, 214, 218, 228
Bluff, 52

Bogichavich, Sergeant, 206
Boiry Notre Dame, 250, 257, 260,

262, 265, 266
Bois des Alleux, 103
Bois de Becqueron, 336
Bois de Bonval, 100, 101, 107
Bois de Bouche, 280, 281, 282
Bois de Colfontaine, 334
Bois Corre, 95

Bois de La FoHe, 100, 101, 110
Bois de Gentelles, 219, 246
Bois de Griesnoy, 276, 307
Bois de Hamel, 194
Bois de I'Hirondelle, 116
Bois Hugo, 134, 138, 185
Bois de Loison, 280, 282
Bois de Ploegsteert, 34

Bois de Recourt, 276
Bois de la Taille des Vignes, 336
Bois de la Ville, 100, 101, 103, 112
Bois du Sart, 257, 258, 260, 261,

262, 264, 265
Bois du Vert, 258, 260, 261, 262
Bois en Z, 244

Bond, Major G. F. D., M.C., 322
Bonner, Lieut., 308
Borden, Lieut.-Col. A. H., 163, 165
Borden, Sir R., 205
Borthwick, Lieut., 198
Boswell, Captain J., 271
Bott, Lieut.-Col. C. L., 38, 64
Bouchoir, 193, 230, 231
Boulogne, 37
Bourlon, 289, 290, 292
Bourlon-Marquion Road, 276, 292,

297
Bourlon Wood, 248, 290, 292, 296,

298, 303, 304
Boussu, 335
Boves, 211, 247
Boyle, Lieut.-Col. R. L., 17, 18
Brandon, Man., 343
Brereton, Corporal A., 234
Brewer, Captain, 282
Brillant, Lieut. J., 235
British Columbia, 145, 340, 341, 342,

344
British Columbia, North, 344
Broken Mill, 198

Brooke, Brigadier-General Lord, 36
Brooks, Lieut, E. J., 48
Brooks, Major E. J., 71
Brown, Lieut.-Col. W. R.,D.S.O., 319
Brown, Private H., 141
Bruav, 88, 89, 93, 98, 99, 124, 186,

187, 188
Brutinel, Brigadier-General R.,

C.M.G., D.S.O., 213, 216, 269, 276
Buchanan, Lieut.-Col. V. C, 52,

58, 61
Buenes, 27
Buissy, 276, 287
Buissy-Queant Road, 282
Buissy Switch, 272, 273, 276, 280,

282, 283, 285
Bullecourt, 273
Buller, Lieut.-Col. H. C, D.S.O.,

38, 53
Burstall, Brigadier-General H. E., 11
Byng, Lieut. -General Sir Julian,
K.C.M.G., 53

Caestre, 180

Cagnicourt, 273, 276, 278, 280

Cagnicourt-Inehy Road, 276, 280,

285
Cagnocles, 320

Cairns, Sergeant H., D.C.M,, 332
Caix, 226, 228
Calais, 13, 14

INDEX

84d

Calgary, Alta., 344

Camblain I'Abbe, 103, 133, 151,

195, 202
Cambrai, 196, 247, 248, 250, 252,

254, 258, 259, 260, 261, 265,

266, 267, 268, 271, 272, 273, 274,

276, 280, 283, 284, 285, 321, 322,

329
Cambrai-Bavai Road, 322
Cambrai-Valenciennes Road, 319,

320
Cameron, Lieut., 48, 174, 200
Cameron, Lieut. -Col. A. D., M.C.,

332
Campbell, Lieut. F. W., 33, 34, 38,

77
Canadian Mounted Rifles, 37, 41
Canadian Mounted Rifles, Fifth

Battalion, 188, 216, 231, 232,

253, 266, 293, 319
Canadian Mounted Rifles, First

Battalion, 216, 221, 238, 253,

256, 308, 312, 314
Canadian Mounted Rifles, Fourth

Battalion, 216, 231, 253, 265, 266
Canadian Mounted Rifles, Second

Battalion, 216, 238, 253, 261,

262, 308, 309, 313, 314
Canal de La Sensee, 324
Canal de I'Escaut, 248, 290, 292,

303, 307, 309, 310, 312, 314, 318,

322, 323, 326, 329, 332
Canal du Centre, 336
Canal du Nord, 248, 276, 286, 287,

288, 289, 294, 297, 302, 303,

318, 322, 323
Cancelette Wood, 213, 223
Candy Trench, 69, 70
Cantlie, Lieut.-Col. G. S., 38, 57
Carency, 89, 93, 103
Carey, Brigadier-General, 194
Carey, Lieut.-Col., 219, 226, 284, 298,

333
Carmichael, Major D., D.S.O., M.C.,

306
Carmichel, Lieut., 178
Carscallen, Lieut.-Col. H. G., 39
Carter, Lieut., 148
Casewell, Major, 90
Cassel, 13

Cauchy-Lestr^e, 276
Cavalry Brigade, Canadian, 29, 30,

32, 37, 41, 61
Cavalry Division, Third Imperial,

213, 214, 216
Cavalry Regiment, Canadian Corps,

77
Cavalry Trench, 262
Cavillon, 211
Cayeux, 213, 224, 227
Celle River, 245
Chalk Mound, 72
Chalk-pit Alley, 198

Chalk Quarry, 136, 142

Chandler, Lieut.-Col. W. K., D.S.O.,

158, 261, 304
Chapelle, Lieut. H. J., 72
Chapman, Lieut. T. B., 209
Chateau de la Haie, 195, 201
Chaudi^re, 182
Chaulnes, 212, 214, 229, 238, 240,

246
Cherisy, 263

Chicory Trench, 138, 142, 149
Chilly, 230, 238, 240, 241, 245
Chipman, Corporal, 207
Cinnabar Trench, 145, 147, 149,

151, 152
Cit4 de Petit Bois, 116
Cit^ du Moulin, 133
Cite St. Antoine, 131
Cit6 St. Auguste, 134, 136, 185
Cite St. Edouard, 133
Cite St. Emile, 133, 184, 187
Cizaucourt, 192
Clark, Lieut.-Col. J. A., D.S.O., 164,

219 272 278
Clark, Lieut.-Col. R. P., D.S.O., 288
Clark-Kennedy, Lieut-Col. W. H.,

G.M.G., D.S.O., 197, 218, 263,

268
Clarke, Corporal L., 85, 86
Clarke, Lieut., 136
C16ry, 192, 193
Cogland, Lieut. W. J., 209
Cojeul River, 250, 255, 258, 259,

264, 265, 266
Colza Trench, 142
Combat Trench, 145, 148, 149
Combe, Lieut. R. J., 122
Commandant's House, 101
Commotion Trench, 134, 137, 145, 183
Conde, 326, 333, 334, 336
Conductor Trench, 149
Connaught, H.R.H. Duke of, 208
Cooper, Major H. W., 201
Coppins, Corporal F. G., 234
Corbehem, 324
Costigan, Captain, 38
Costigan, Lieut.-Col. R., 188
Cotton, Lieut. C, 56
Couin, 195
Count's Wood, 108
Courcelles, 213, 221, 226
Courcellette, 68, 69, 70, 71, 72, 73,

75, 77, 78, 79, 80, 82
Craig, Lieut. 0. S., 33
Craix, 214
Cramont, 67

Craters, 45, 46, 47, 48, 49, 50
Creelman, Lieut.-Col. J. J., 11
Creighton, Lieut.-Col. F. A., 52,

57, 61, 64
Crespin, 334
Crest Farm, 159, 165, 166, 170, 171,

172

350

THE CANADIANS IN FRANCE

Croak, Private J. B., 229

Croll, Sergeant, 146

Crow's Nest, 271

Crow Trench, 259, 260, 263

Cuesmes, 334

Currie, Lieut. M. M., 201

Currie, Lieut. -Col. J. A., 11

Currie, Lieut. -Greneral Sir A. W.,

G.C.M.G., K.C.B., 11, 14, 24, 35,

154, 190
Currie, Major, 133
Cuvillers, 314, 316, 317, 318, 320
Cyclist Battalion, Canadian Corps,

213, 277, 340
Cyclist Company, 36

Dad Trench, 161

Daly, Lieut.-Col. P. J., C.M.G.,

D.S.O., 172
Daly, Major P. J., 45
Daraery, 230, 236, 239, 240, 241,

244, 245
Davidson, Lieut., 171
Davies, Lieut.-Col. R. D., D.S.O.,

150, 163, 239, 284, 295, 331
Davis, Private A., 46
Davison, Major G. I., 36
Dawson, Lieut.-Col. J, H., D.S.O.,

152, 162, 239, 331
Deck Wood, 158

Dechne Copse, 167, 158, 162, 163
Delamere, Captain, 33
Demuin, 221, 222, 226
Denain, 326, 328
Denison, Lieut., 30
Derbyshire, Lieut., 94
Desire Trench, 83, 84
Destremont Farm, 77, 78, 79
Dieval, 203

Dinson, Private T., 243
Divion, 182

Divisions, see under numbers
Divisional Ammvuiition Column, 11,

36, 66
Divisional Mounted Troops, 11
Divisional Supply Coliunn, 341, 344,

345
Divisional Train, 341, 344, 345
Divisional Wings, 190
Dixon, Lieut., 188
Dodds, Brigadier-General W. O. H.,

C.M.G., 188
Dodds, Lieut.-Col., 36
Dodo Wood, 221
Domart, 219, 221
Donaldson, Lieut., 178
Dorais, Private, 178
Dorchester Redoubt, 33
Douai, 109, 273, 324, 326
Douai-Cambrai Road, 302, 305, 306,
307, 308, 309, 310, 312, 314, 315,
316, 317
Double Grassier, 92

Doughty, Lieut.-Col. E. S., 206, 218,
319

Dour, 334

Dragoons, Nineteenth, Alberta, 11

Dragoons, Royal Canadian, 29

Drake Battalion, Royal Naval Divi-
sion, 281

Draper, Lieut.-Col. D. C, D.S.O.,
165, 188

Drocourt, 273

Drocourt-Queant Line, 248, 249,
260, 267, 271, 272, 273, 274, 276,

278, 279, 280, 281, 284, 286, 287,
288, 313

Dryden, Sergeant, 22

Dubuc, Major A. E., D.S.O., M.C.,

206, 237, 264
Duck Trench, 259
Duisans, 208, 211
Dupuis, Lieut. G. E., 72
Durham (Imperial) Brigade, 26
Durham Light Infantry, 24
Durv, 219, 245, 247, 270, 273, 276,

279, 280, 284
Dyer, Lieut.-Col., 53
Dyke Road, 79, 80, 82
Dynamite House, 135

Eastern Provinces, 341, 343

East Miraumont Road, 78

Eaton, Lieut.-Col. V., 39

Echole Commune, 101

Ecoivres, 103, 208

Ecourt St. Quentin, 276, 286

Edgar, Captain J. M., 312

Edgar, Major N. S., 31

Edmonton, Alta., 343

Edwards, Lieut.-Col. C. M., D.S.O.,
219, 278, 296

Egret Trench, 258, 259, 262

Eighteenth Army Field Artillery
Brigade, 110

Eighteenth Battalion, 36, 47, 48,
69, 78, 104, 113, 134, 135, 138,
142, 223, 254, 258, 259, 263,
264, 265, 267, 342

Eighteenth Imperial Corps, 158,
192, 195, 196

Eighth Army Brigade Canadian
Field Artillery, 217, 246, 293,
339

Eighth Battalion, 11, 18, 23, 24, 26,
30, 42, 63, 76, 105, 117, 118, 119,
134, 136, 139, 140, 178, 179,
180, 217, 232, 233, 234, 271,
284, 302, 306, 307, 310, 311, 340
Eighth Battalion, Canadian Engi-
neers, 196, 343
Eighth Brigade, 38, 41, 53, 54, 66,
60, 64, 68, 69, 71, 73, 74, 78, 79,
81, 104, 158, 165, 202, 211, 212,
216, 217, 231, 232, 237, 250,
253, 257, 258, 261, 265, 266,

INDEX

351

307, 308, 309, 311, 312, 314,

320, 343
Eighth Brigade, Canadian Field

Artillery, 39
Eighth Brigade, Royal Garrison

Artillery, 293
Eighth (Imperial) Division, 180
Eighth Light Trench Mortar Battery,

343
Eighth Middlesex, 23
Eighty-fifth Battalion, 111, 112,

130, 163, 164, 166, 219, 249,

272, 278, 279, 296, 299, 310,

334, 345
Eighty-fifth Imperial Brigade, 23
Eighty-first Brigade, Royal Garrison

Artillery, 293
Eighty-seventh Battalion, 66, 82,

83, 84, 110, 127, 128, 137, 209,
219, 230, 284, 285, 296, 315,
344

Eighty-sixth Mobile Brigade, Royal

Garrison Artillery, 238
Eleu dit Leavitte, 130, 131
Eleventh Brigade, 66, 81, 82, 83,

84, 95, 110, 111, 112, 116, 127,
128, 133, 136, 142, 172, 212, 218,
226, 230, 231, 274, 284, 296, 298,
299, 303, 312, 313, 314, 333, 334,
344

Eleventh Brigade, Canadian Field

Artillery, 39
Eleventh Engineer Battalion, 197,

344
Eleventh Field Company, Canadian

Engineers, 66
Eleventh (Imperial) Corps, 202
Eleventh (Imperial) Division, 209,

292, 293, 297, 301, 302, 303, 307,

311, 314, 315, 317, 318, 320, 321,

322, 323
Eleventh Light Trench Mortar

Battery, 344
Elmitt, Major, 92
Embury, Lieut.-Col. J. F. L., 36, 44,

60
Emily Road, 134
Engineers, 11, 22, 328. See also

numbers oj units
Epinoy, 301, 302, 307
Erches, 231
Erclin River, 322
Escaudoeuvres, 319, 320
Estaires, 13
Estr^es, 324
Eswars, 320

Etaing, 273, 276, 285, 287
Eterpigny, 276
Ewing, Lieut.-Col. R. L. H., D.S.O.,

M.C., 216, 257, 335

Fabeck Graben, 71, 72, 73, 74
Faction Trench, 257, 258

Factory Trench, 258
Famars, 329, 331

FarbusWood, 100, 101, 102, 109, 110
Farmer Road, 82
Farquhar, Lieut.-Col., 39
Faubourg Cantimpr6, 312, 313 . j
Faubourg de Cambrai, 331, 332 -•

Faubourg de Paris, 326 ? 'i

Festubert, 27, 32, 37 1 ;

Feuchy, 250 '

Field Ambulances, 341, 342, 344, 345
Fifteenth Battalion, 11, 19, 28, 58,
60, 61, 76, 105, 134, 137, 138,
139, 185, 217, 233, 271, 279,
280, 281, 297, 300, 340
Fifteenth (Imperial) Division, 202,

207, 248
Fifth Army, 157, 191, 194
Fifth Austrahan Division, 220, 230
Fifth BattaUon, 11, 19, 22, 25, 30,
31, 32, 38, 53, 58, 76, 105, 118,
119, 134, 140, 141, 179, 217, 232,
233, 234, 271, 272, 278, 301, 302,
305, 340
Fifth Battery, Canadian Field Artil-
lery, 56
Fifth Brigade, 35, 46, 48, 49, 61,
64, 66, 71, 74, 75, 78, 79, 91, 104,
116, 134, 173, 197, 198, 218,
225, 234, 235, 237, 245, 260,
263, 264, 267, 288, 320, 324, 342
Fifth Brigade, Field Artillery, 36, 39,

135, 235, 341
Fifth Canadian Mounted Rifles, 38,
56, 57, 58, 69, 78, 79, 104, 130,
165, 169, 170, 188, 216. 231, 232,
253, 256, 266, 319, 343
Fifth Divisional Ammunition Column,

188
Fifth Divisional Artillery, 188, 218,

238, 293, 339
Fifth Divisional Engineers, 189, 339
Fifth Engineer Battahon, 196, 341
Fifth Field Company, Engineers, 36,

92
Fifth (Imperial) Corps, 42, 154
Fifth (Imperial) Division, 12, 99,

105, 107, 110, 116, 117, 124
Fifth Lancers, 335
Fifth Light Trench Mortar Battery,

342
Fifth Royal Horse Artillery, 105
Fifth Squadron, R.A.F., 213
Fifteenth Australian Brigade, 235
Fiftieth Battalion, 66, 83, 84, 93, 94,
96, 97, 1 12, 1 13, 1 14, 126, 144, 145,
158, 201, 239, 241, 295, 304, 305,
344
Fiftieth (Imperial) Division, 42
Fifty-eighth Battahon, 39, 61, 80,
130, 131, 158, 161, 183, 216,
221, 229, 261, 262, 266, 306, 308,
314, 343

352

THE CANADIANS IN FRANCE

Fifty-first Imperial Division, 84, 105,

248, 250, 257, 264, 269
Fifty-fourth Battalion, 66, 83, 95,

110, 209, 218, 219, 226, 284, 333,

344
Fifty-ninth (Imperial) Division, 157,

162, 172
Fifty-second Battalion, 39, 57, 58,

61, 65, 130, 131, 150, 151, 159,

161, 216, 244, 261, 262, 266,

304, 314, 343
Fifty-second Battery, Canadian

Field Artillery, 333
Fifty-second (Imperial) Division,

202, 210, 253, 288
Fifty-seventh (Imperial) Division,

210, 271, 277, 293, 298
Fifty-sixth (Imperial) Division, 196,

197, 202, 208, 210, 288, 318
Fifty-third Brigade, Royal Garrison

Artillery, 293
First Anzac Corps, 67, 68
First Army, 27, 88, 99, 129, 131, 132,

191, 196, 203, 211, 247, 274,

289
First Australian Division, 158
First Battalion. 11, 16, 18, 19, 20,

21, 23, 33, 52, 57, 61, 63, 108,

120, 123, 124, 173, 217, 232, 269,
270, 283, 297, 315, 340

First Battalion, Canadian Engineers,
196, 340

First Brigade, 11, 14, 25, 26, 29,
30, 32, 34, 60, 61, 75, 80, 107,
108, 109, 116, 120, 121, 123,
141, 173, 175, 211, 217, 232,
269, 274, 281, 284, 286, 293,
294, 295, 297, 300, 301, 311,
314, 318, 324, 340

First Brigade, Canadian Engineers,
196, 340

First Brigade, Canadian Field Artil-
lery, 11, 23, 340

First Brigade, Canadian Garrison
Artillery, 293, 339

First Canadian Motor Machine Gun
Brigade, 191, 195, 213, 340

First Canadian Mounted Rifles, 38,
53, 56, 69, 90, 104, 162, 171, 216,
221, 238, 253, 256, 308, 312,
314, 343

First Canadian Siege Battery, 157

First Division, 11, 26, 34, 35, 37,
39, 42, 45, 63, 66, 67, 75, 81,
86, 88, 91, 93, 98, 102, 103, 105,
106, 107, 108, 110, 116, 117, 118,

121, 124, 126, 129, 132, 134, 135,
136, 137, 141, 142, 143, 151, 152,
154, 157, 165, 172, 180, 183, 184,
195, 197, 202, 203, 208, 210, 211,
214, 216. 217, 218, 219, 221, 224,
225, 226, 230. 232, 237, 238, 245,
248, 269, 270, 271, 276, 277, 287,

292, 293, 294, 295, 297, 300, 301,

303, 305, 307, 311, 314, 315, 323,

324, 326, 340
First Divisional Ammunition Column,

340
First Divisional Artillery, 218, 240,

340
First Divisional Cavalry, 339
First Divisional Cyclist Corps, 340
First Divisional Engineers, 340
First Field Company, Canadian

Engineers, 1 1
First French Army, 213, 226
First (Imperial) Division, 117, 287
First King's Liverpool Regiment,

198
First Light Trench Mortar Battery,

340
First Machine Gun Battalion, 341
First Pioneer Battalion, 41, 340
First Royal West Kents, 108
First Tank Battahon, 227
Fisher, Captain, 59
Fisher, Lance-Corporal F., 21, 22
Foch, Marshal, 189, 201, 208
Fohes, 230, 231, 232
Fontaine-Cambrai Railway, 308
Fontaine lez Croisilles, 263, 264,

268
Fontaine Notre Dame, 292, 298,

299, 302, 303, 304
Forbes, Lieut.-Col. J. W., D.S.O.,

185
Forest of Raismes, 326
Foret de Vicoigne, 326
Fortieth Brigade (Imperial) Garrison

Artillery, 217
Fortuin, 13, 25
Forty-eighth Brigade Royal Garrison

Artillery, 293
Forty-eighth (Imperial) Division,

172, 182
Forty-fourth Battahon, 66, 82, 83,

93, 94, 112, 113, 125, 126, 163,
209, 239, 284, 295, 298, 306,

331, 344

Forty-fourth (Imperial) Brigade, 195
Forty-ninth Battalion, 37, 38, 51,
58, 59, 60, 71, 72, 74, 80, 86,
104, 107, 127, 165, 167, 168,
170, 216, 224, 243, 244, 257,
261, 265, 306, 309, 312, 322,
335, 343
Forty-second Battahon, 37, 38, 67,
71, 72, 73, 74, 104, 127, 171,
216, 224, 242, 243, 244, 257,
258, 265, 309, 335, 336, 337,
343
Forty-second French Division, 220
Forty-seventh Battalion, 66, 82,

94, 96, 97, 125, 144, 145, 150,
163, 239, 278, 295, 304, 331,

332, 344

I

INDEX

858

Forty-seventh (Imperial) Division,
29, 32

Forty-sixth Battahon, 66, 82, 83,
84, 93, 94, 96, 97, 112, 113, 125,
126, 127, 144, 145, 157, 158,
162, 196, 198, 209, 239, 243,
279, 295, 331, 332, 344

Forty-sixth (Imperial) Brigade, 74

Forty-third Battahon, 39, 80, 86,
130, 131, 158, 159, 160, 216,

221, 261, 262, 264, 265, 266,
304, 314, 343

Fosse St. Louis, 150, 151, 186

Fosse Seven, 129

Fosseux, 195

Foster, Lieut -Col. W. W., D.S.O.,

151, 161, 261

Foster, Major H. W. A., M.C, 92

Foulkes, Lieut., 119

Fouquescourt, 193, 230, 232, 238,

239, 240, 242
Fourteenth Battalion, 11, 16, 19,

20, 27, 58, 60, 61, 65, 80, 105,
134, 138, 140, 183, 199, 200, 217,

222, 223, 233, 271, 278, 280,

282, 283, 295, 297, 316, 317,
341

Fourteenth Brigade Canadian Field

Artillery, 1S8, 339
Fourteentn (Imperial) Corps, 60
Fourteenth Tank Battalion, 261
Fourth Army, 211
Fourth Battahon, 11, 16, 18, 19, 20,

21, 40, 53, 68, 75, 80, 81, 105,
120, 141, 142, 217, 224, 270,

283, 295, 300, 315, 340
Fourth Battalion Canadian Engi-
neers, 196, 320, 341

Fourth Brigade, 36, 43, 47, 48, 61,
68, 69, 70, 74, 78, 91, 92, 104,
134, 177, 200, 211, 218, 222,

252, 254, 258, 259, 260, 263,
264, 267, 322, 323, 342

Fourth Brigade Canadian Field
Artillery, 36, 66, 135, 344

Foiu-th Canadian Mounted Rifles,
38, 53, 55, 56, 71, 78, 104, 127,
158, 159, 160, 161, 162, 216, 231,

253, 266, 266, 343

Fourth Division, 65, 66, 81, 83,
84, 86, 88, 91, 97, 101, 102, 103,
104, 110, 111, 112, 114, 116, 125,
126, 127, 130, 131, 133, 139, 144,

152, 154, 156, 157, 166, 166, 170,
172, 173, 180, 182, 183, 184, 185,
187, 195, 196, 202, 203, 208, 210,
211, 212, 217, 218, 219, 226, 227,
228, 230, 232, 237, 238, 239, 241,
243, 245, 248, 271, 272, 274, 278,

284, 285, 286, 287, 292, 293, 295,
296, 298, 301, 302, 303, 304, 307,
311, 324, 326, 328, 329, 334, 340,
314

Fourth Divisional Aitillery, 344
Fourth Divisional Engineers, 344
Fovirth Engineers Brigade, 197, 344
Fourth Field Company Engineers,

36, 203
Fourth (Imperial) Division, 27, 67,

197, 269, 271, 274, 277, 280,

286, 286, 287, 288
Fourth Light Trench Mortar Battery,

342
Fourth Machine Gmi Battalion, 345
Fourth Tank Battahon, 225
Fourth Tank Brigade, 230, 238
Frameries, 335
Framerville, 230
Frances, Lieut.-Col. M., 163
Fransart, 238, 245
French-Canadians, 198
French, Major, 90
Fx-ench, Sir John, 12
Fresnes-Rouvroy Line, 260, 264,

266, 267, 268, 269, 270
Fresnoy, 112, 120, 121, 124, 129

220, 227, 238
Fressies, 321
Frevant, 211
Frevin-Capelle, 195
Fryer, Captain, 151
Furst Farm, 170

Gaestres, 37

Gardner, Captain S. D., 32

Gardner, Private J. H., 197

Gary, Captain, 94

Gascoigue, Lieut.-Col. F. A. do L.,

39, 57
Gaudet, Lieut.-Col. F. M., 36
Gavrelle, 121, 196
Gaynor, Lieut. J. H., M.C, 207
Geddes, Captain J., 17
Geddes, Lieut.-Col., 18
Geddes' Detachment, 18, 19, 20, 23
Gelineau, Lieut., 198
Genet, Lieut.-Col. H. A., 39, 61,

158
Gentelles, 219
George, Lievit., 271
Gheluvelt-Passchendaele Road, 157
Ghhn, 336

Gibbons, Sergeant-Major, 332
Gibson, Captain, 22
Gibson, Lieut., 200
Gilpin, Lieut., 94
Gilson, Lieut.-Col. W. F., 177, 217,

277, 288, 300
Girvan, Major, 280, 300
Givenchy, 27, 32, 93, 100, 101, 111,

116
Godson-Godson, Captain, 17
Good, Corporal J. H., 228
Goulot Wood, 100, 101
Gouy-sous-Beilouve, 324
Gouzeaucourt, 289

28

854

THE CANADIANS IN FRANCE

Goyencourt, 245

Grade, Corporal, 135

Graf, 165, 166, 168, 170, 171

Graham, Captain W. N., 204

Graincourt, 298

Grandcourt, 75, 80, 83, 84

Gravenstafel, 24, 165

Green Grassier, 137, 150, 151

Green Line, 213, 216, 217, 218, 221,

222, 223, 224, 225, 228
Green Work, 262, 264
Greffard, Lieut. C, 72
Gregg, Lieut. M. F., M.C., 306
Grenadier Tunnel, 10 i
Grey Street, 260

Grieabach, Brigadier-General, 269
Griesbach, Lieut. -Col. W. A., 38,

67, 68
Grimmett, Major, 147
Grun, 165, 171
Gruny, 238
Guemappe, 250, 253, 258, 259, 260,

262
Guillaucourt, 213
Gunn, Lieut. -Col. J. A,, 36
Gunpit Trench, 70, 71
Guthrie, Major, 18
Gwynne, Captain, 47
Gwynne, Lieut., 41
Gyles, Major, 332

Haalen Copse, 168

Hagei'ty, Lieut., 55

Haig, Sir Douglas, 86, 102, 115,

124, 129, 162, 172, 337
Hall, Colour-Sergeant F. W., 24
Hallu, 238, 239, 240, 241
Ham, 230
Hamel, 194

Hamilton, Sir Ian, 189
Hamin, 334
Hamon Wood, 213
Hancourt, 263, 260, 268, 269
Hangard, 194, 213, 221, 222
Hangest, 193, 214
Hanna, Company Sergeant -Major R.,

148
Hans Trench, 271
Hanson, Lieut.-Col. E. G., D.S.O.,

188
Harbarg, 208
Harbonnieres, 214, 228
Harbottle, Lieut.-Col. C. C, D.S.O.,

219, 284, 312
Harkness, Captain R. D., M.C., 192,

193
Harrison, Lieut. G. R,, 91
Harrison, Lieut.-Col. W. H., 36
Hart-McHarg, Lieut.-Col. W., 11,

10, 22
Harvey, Sergeant J., 46
Hatch, Lieut.-Col. H. A., D.S.O.,

198, 200, 218

Hatchet Wood, 262

Hattencourt, 238

Hauhston, Lieut.-Col. J., 196

Haute Cloque, 247

Havre, 37

Hay, Lieut.-Col. A. W., 39, 67, 58

Haynecourt, 292, 301, 302

Hayter, Brigadier-General R. J. F.,
278

Hazebrouk, 12

Hebecourt, 194

Hem-Longlet, 321, 322

Hendecourt, 249, 269, 270, 271

Henu, 195

Hepworth, Captain 0. H., 206

Hermaville, 208

Hersin, 182

Hersin-Coupigny, 133

Hertzberg, Lieut.-Col. H. F., M.C.,
196

Hessian Trench, 75, 76, 77, 78, 79

Hester, Corporal E. H., 31

Hill, Brigadier-General F. W., D.S.O.,
38, 159

Hill, Lieut.-Col. C. H., D.S.O,, 53

Hill, Lieut.-Col. F. W., 10, 32, 42

Hill 60, 18, 53, 67, 60, 61, 62

Hill 65, 122, 129

Hill 70, 115, 137, 143, 144, 162,
184, 185, 195, 198

Hill 104, 224

Hill 120, 93

Hill 140, 100, 101

Hill 145, 100, 101

HiUiam, Brigadier-General, 150

Hindenburg Line, 249, 273, 274,

286, 287, 289, 303, 318
Hoare - Nairne, Brigadier - General

E. S., 54
Hobbins, Major, 59
Hobson, Sergeant F., 143
Hollam Wood, 213, 221
Holland, Captain C. H., M.C., 192,

193
Holmes, Captain, 59
Holmes, Lance-Corporal, 283
Holmes, Lieut., 38
Holmes, Private J. W., 159
Holmes, Sergeant, 204
Honey, Lieut. S, L., D.C.M , M.M.,

299
Honnelle River, 334
Hooge, 42, 52, 53, 54, 55, 57, 60,

61, 62
Hooper, Lieut.-Col. B. O., M.C., 218,

254, 263, 267, 322
Hordain, 324
Hornby, Lieut. G., 32
Home, General, 191
Hornoy, 21
Hornu, 335

Houston, Sergeant, 133
Hughes, Lieut.-Col. H. T., C.M.G., 190

INDEX

355

Hus;he9, Lieut. J., 133
Hughes, Lieut.-Col. W. St. P., 36
Hugo Trench, 134
Humbug Alley, 138
Hutchinson, Captain B. S., 285
Hyon, 336

Ignaucourt, 224

Inchy, 276, 280, 289, 290, 295

Independent Force, 213, 224, 228,

230, 233, 276, 285. 322
Innes-Hopkina, Captain, 31
Iwuy, 322, 323

Jackson, Lieut., 51

Jamieson, Lieut.-Col. F. C, 11

Jefferies, Lieut. H., 206

Jemappes, 335

Jig-Saw Wood, 259, 260, 265, 266

Jones, Lieut.-Col. E. W., D.S.O., 172,

187, 200, 218, 223
Jones, Lieut.-Col. L. E., D.S.O.,

218
Johnston, Lieut.-Col. G. C, D.S.O.,

M.C., 169, 216, 253. 261
Johnston, Lieut. W. W., M.C., 183,

184, 186
Johnstone, Lieut. L. H., 48
Jucksch, Lieut. A. H., M.C, 183,

184

Kaeble, Corporal J., 206

Keane Trench, 129

Keegan, Lieut.-Col. H. L., D.S.O.,

239, 279, 295, 331
Keiburg Spur, 173
Kelly, Corporal, 205
Kelly, Lieut. A. J., 312
Kelly, Lieut. L. S., 32
Keniball, Lieut.-Col. A. H. G., C.B.,

66, 83. 95, 96
Kemmel, 37, 43, 210
Kennedy, Lieut., 175
Kennedy Crater, 101
Kenora Trench, 75, 76. 77. 79
Kerr, Lieut. G. F.. M.C, M.M., 301
Kerr. Private J. C. 86
Ketchon, Brigadier-General H. D. B.,

36, 47
K 5 Redoubt, 30, 31, 32
King, Lieut., 151
King, Major W. B. M., 21, 22
King Edward's Hor.se, Second, 29
Kingsmill. Lieut.-Col. W. B., D.S.O.,

196
King's Royal Rifles, 57
Kinross, Private C. J., 168
Kirkaldy, Lieut.-Col. J., D.S.O.,

164, 214, 240, 284, 299, 307
Kirkham, Corporal C. G., 228
Kirkland, Sergeant F. W., 41
Kirkpatrick. Lieut.-Col. G. M.,

D.S.O., 299, 332

Knight, Lieut. J., 310
Knight. Sergeant A. J.. 284
Konowal, Private F., 146
Kootenay, B.C., 344

La Bass^e, 27

La Bass(^e Canal, 32

Labatt, Lieut.-Col. R. H,, 11

La Bouverie, 335

Labvrinth, 89

La Chaudi^re. 116, 126

La Chavette, 238, 245

La Coulotte. 125. 129, 130

La Haine River, 336

" Lahore " Division, 38, 64, 60,

61, 88, 110, 343, 344
La Maison Neuve, 292, 302
Lambeek Trench, 161
Langtry, Corporal, 200
Lassigny, 212
Latta, Lieut.-Col. W. S., D.S.O.,

184, 205, 218
Laws, Lieut.-Col. B., D.S.O., 216,

253, 308
Leadbetter, Private. 204
Learmouth. Major O'K. M.. 142
Le Caine. Lieut.-Col. G. A., 36
Le Cateau, 322
Leckie, Lieut.-Col. R. G. E., 11,

16, 18, 27, 35, 58
Lecluse, 276, 287
Lemaire Wood, 224, 225
Lens, 88, 90, 98, 99, 102, 115, 116,

117, 122, 124, 125, 127, 129,

131. 132. 133, 135, 136, 145,

146, 149, 150, 153, 154, 165,

172, 180, 182, 183, 184, 185,

188, 190, 273, 308
Lens-Arras Railwav. HO, 130
Lens-Arras Road,' 100, 126, 127,

130
Lens-Beth une Road, 134
Lens-Grenay Railway, 144, 143
Lens-La Bassee Road, 134, 142
Leonard, Lieut.-Col. I., D.S.O., 36,

320
Le Rendu, 99

Le Quesnel, 212, 227, 230, 231
Le Quesnoy, 230, 231, 237, 238
Le Sars, 77, 82
Les Tilleuls, 100
Le Touret, 27
Lieu St. Amand, 324
Lievin, 116
Light Horse, Canadian, 276, 320,

339
Ligny St. Flochel, 211
Lihons, 230, 237, 240
Lille, 132
Lillers, 154

Lindel, Corporal L. H., 175
Lindsay, Brigadier-General W. B.,

CM.G., D.S.O., 189

856

THE CANADIANS IN FRANCE

Lipsett, Brigadier-General, 62, 66
Lipsett, Lieut.-Col. L. J., 11, 26,

30, 36, 66
Lipsett, Major-General, C. B., C.M.G.,

288
Lister, Lieut.-Col. F., D.S.O., 219,

284, 290
Little, Captain G. W., 304, 333
Locon, 27
Loire, 12
Longueau, 247
Loomis, Brieadier-General F. O. W.,

C.B., C.M.G., D.S.O., 65, 288
Loomis, Lieut.-Col., II
Loos, 37, 89, 133, 214, 228
Lorette Ridge, 89
Loughton, Captain, 178
Luce, 211, 213, 217, 221, 224, 226,

246
Lyall, Lieut. G. T., 296

McAvity, Lieut.-Col. J. L., 36
MacBrien, Brigadier-General, C.M.G.,

D.S.O., 103, 307
McCombe, Lieut. G.. D.S.O., 183
McCombe, Major, 58, 61
McCuaig, Lieut.-Col. G. E., D.S.O.,

217, 271, 277
MacDonald, Captain H. F., 25
MacDonald, Lieut-Col. E. W.,

D.S.O., M.C., 209, 217, 282, 301
MacDonald, Private, 42
Macdonell, Brigadier - General,

D.S.O., 38, 57, 66
MacDonnell, Lieut.-Col. A. H.,

D.S.O., 38
MacDowell, Captain J. W., 84
MacDowell, Major T. W„ D.S.O.,

113
McElligot, Lieut. A. E., 70
MacFarlane, Lieut. G. S., 84
MacFarlane, Lieut.-Col. R. A,.

D.S.O., 183, 216, 261, 306
McGee, Captain, 31
MacGregor. Captain J., M.C, D.C.M.,

309, 312
Mclllree, Lieut., 38
MacLitosh, Major J. A., 259, 263
Maclntyre, Captain D. E., 41
McTvor, Lieut., 200
McKean, Lieut. G. B., 199. 200
MacKenzie, Lieiit. H., D.C.M., 168,

169
MacKenzie, Lieut.-Col. A. C. G.,

D.S.O., 172, 218, 263, 267
MacKie. Lieut. J. M., 149
McLaren, Lieut.-Col. J. S., 36
MacLaren, Major, 17
McLaughlin, Lieut.-Col. E. T.,

D.S.O., 173, 217, 269, 270, 300
MacLean, Lieut., 57
McLean, Major W. N., M.C, 203
McLellan, Lieut., 222

McLellan, Lieut. W. W., 76
McLennan, Lieut.-Col. B., D.S.O.,

171
MacLeod, Major G. W., D.S.O.,

335
MacMahon, Brigadier- General J. J.,

36
McMeans, Captain, 30
MacNaughton, Lieut.-Col. A. O. L.,

39
McNaughton, Captain, 89
MacNieve, Sergeant, 204
MacPhail, Lieut.-Col. A., D.S.O. ,

190
McRea, Lieut. M,, 186
Magnicaut, 203
Maisiferes, 336
Mai-son Blanche, 103, 213
Malcolm, Lieut.-Col. W. L., 197
Mallard Trench, 263
Manitoba, 145. 340, 341
Maple Copse, 57, 58, 61
Marcelcave, 213, 223, 228
Marcoing Line, 303, 305, 306, 307,

308
Mark V Star Tanks, 276
Marly, 331, 332, 333
M rmite Farm, 232
Marne, 208, 212
Marquion, 290, 292, 298, 296, 297,

300, 303, 304
Marquion Line, 276
Martinpuich, 70
Martyn, Captain, 151
Mathewson, Captain J. S., 74
Mathewson, Lieut., 22
Mathewson, Lieut. J. K., 74
Matthews, Lieut.-Col., 64
Maubeuge, 289, 337
Maucovirt, 230, 238, 239, 240, 241
Maxfield, Major. 90
May, Lieut. A. W., M.C, 187
Maze, the, 208
Meetcheele, 162, 165, 168, 169,

170
Meharicourt, 230, 234, 237, 246
Meighen, Lieut.-Col. F. S., C.M.G..

11, 16, 27, 296
Meikle, Captain, 31
Mercer, Brigadier-General M. S., 11,

14, 37, 38, 54, 64
Mericourt, 115, 116, 117, 119, 120.

122, 123, 124, 129, 161, 162,

182, 184, 186, 188, 196, 212,

230
Merrifield, Sergeant W., 313
Mersereau, Major C J., 263, 319
Mesnil St. Nicaise, 192
Messines, 34, 38, 129
Mesvin, 336

Metcalf, Lance-Corporal H., 281
Meurling, Captain H. F., M.C, 192,

193, 194

1

INDEX

357

Meuse, 337

M^zi^res. 224

MMHle Wood, 242. 243

Millar, Lieut. T. E., M.M., 310

Millar, Maior M. I., 272, 278

Miller, Lieut. J. W., 224

Miller, Lieut. -Col. L. H., D.S.O.,

172, 254, 263
Milne, Private W. J. M., 113
Miner. Corporal H. B., 229
Miraumont, 77
Mitchell, Brigadier-General J. H.,

11, 39
Mitchell, Captain C. N., M.C., 320
Mitchell, Captain J.. M.C., 308
Mitchell, Private, 204
Mobile Veterinary Section, 341,

342, 344. 345
Moeuvres, 285, 290
Moffat, Captain L., 126
MoUiena Vidame. 211
Molson, Lieut., 55
Monchv-Breton, 203
Monchv le Preux, 249, 250, 263,

254"; 256, 267, 258, 260
Mons, 322, 333, 334, 335, 336, 337
Montdidier, 212
Mont Dury, 276
Mont Foret Quarries, 116
Mont Houv, 329, 331
Montreal, Que., 341, 342, 343, 344,

345
Montreul-sur-Haine, 334
Morcourt, 228
Moreuil, 226
Morgan, Lieut., 48
Morgemont Wood, 222, 223
Moring, Lieut., 207
Morison, Captain, 28
Morrison, Lieut. -Col. E. W B.,

D.S.O., II
Morrissev, Lieut., 188
Mosselmarkt, 166, 170, 173, 175
Mount Sorrel, 64, 57. 58, 61, 62,

63, 65
Mouqxiet Farm, 67, 68, 69, 71, 73, 74
Mullins. Sergeant G., 167, 168
Mundell, Lieut., 31
Murdie, Lieut. R., 30
Myers, Lieut., 49, 50

Nabob Alley, 147

Naves, 322 '

Nellea, Lieut.-Col. C. M., 29

Nelles, Lieut.-Col. L. H., M.C., 217,

295
Nesle, 192
Nest, the, 259
Neitve Chapelle, 12, 13
Neuve Eglise, 37
Neuville St. Remy, 312, 313, 318,

319
Neuville St. Vaast, 89, 98, 101

Neuville Vitasae, 195, 196, 197,

198, 203, 205, 206, 260, 268,

294
New Brunswick, 92, 187, 342
Nicholson, Captain W. C, M.C.,

192, 193, 194
Nieppe, 34
Niergnies, 319

Nineteenth (Alberta) Dragoons, 11
Nineteenth Battalion, 36, 48, 65,

77, 104, 172, 198, 199, 200,

218, 223, 254, 263, 267, 342
Nineteenth Imperial Corps, 192
Ninety-first Brigade, Royal Garrison

Artillery, 293
Ninety-third Army Field Artillery

Brigade, 105
Ninth Brigade, 38, 41, 42, 57, 60,

61. 73, 74, 80, 116, 130, 132,

158, 159, 161, 162, 211, 212, 216,

217, 244, 245, 260. 261, 268, 304,

306, 307, 308, 314, 326, 343
Ninth Brigade Canadian Field

Artillery, 39, 135, 343
Ninth Engineer Battalion, 196, 343
Ninth Hussars, 228
Ninth Imperial Cavalrv Brigade,

235
Ninth Imperial Corps, 202
Ninth Light Trench Mortar Battery,

313
Ninth Tank Battalion, 254
Niven, Captain, 66
Niven, Lieut., 40
Norman Trench, 134, 142
Norris, Captain H., D.S.O., 203,

207
Northumberland Fusiliers, 24
Northumberland Imperial Brigade,

26
North-west Canada, 146, 342
Norwest, Lance-Corporal H., 201
Nova Scotia, 342, 345
Nova Scotia Trench, 254
Noyelle Vion, 248
Noyon, 230

Nunnev, Private J. P., M.M., 279
Nun's Alley, 134, 146, 147, 151

O'Brien, Lieut., 41

Observatory Ridge, 57, 60, 61, 62

Occident Trench, 263, 264

Ocean Work, 270, 271

Odium. Brigadier-General, 172

Odium, Major V. W., 22, 31, 56,

58
Offov, 241

Ogilvie, Lieut.-Col. A. T., 188
O'Hara, Lieut. J., 204
Oisy le Verger, 276, 301, 302
O'kelly, Captain C. P. J., 161
One Hundred and Eighty-third

Imperial Brigade, 192

358

THE CANADIANS IN FRANCE

One Hundred and Fiftieth Army
Brip;ade Field Artillery, 218

One Hundred and Fourth Army
Brigade Field Artillery, 217, 238

One Hundred and Second Battalion,
66, 82, 110, 127, 128, 209, 210,
227, 284, 293, 298, 299, 314,
317. 333, 344

One Hundred and Seventy-first
(Imperial) Brigade, 271

One Hundred and Seventy-ninth
Army Brigade Field Artillery,
217, 238, 239

One Hundred and Sixteenth Battal-
ion, 132, 216, 221, 242, 243,
244, 261, 262, 266, 306, 309,
314, 343

One Hundred and Twenty-sixth
French Division, 245

Ontario, Central, 340, 342, 343

Ontario, Eastern, 340, 342

Ontario, Western, 343

Opal Trench, 271

Oppv, 115, 116, 117. 119, 120, 122,
123, 124, 129. 131, 196, 209

Orange Hill, 210, 249, 250, 253,
254, 256, 257

Orix Trench, 271

Ormond, Brigadier-General D. M.,
D.S.O., 261, 262

Ormond, Major, 18

O'Rourke, Private M. J., 140

Osier. Lieut.-Col. E., 196

Ottawa, Ont., 345

Otty-Barnes, Lieut. G. W., 91

Ovillers, 70

Owen, Sergeant-Major, 34

Page, Lieut.-Col. L. F., D.S.O.,

239, 279, 295
Paillencovirt, 317, 321
Palluel, 276
Palmer, Lieut.-Col. R. H., D.S.O.,

335
Palmer, Major, 58
Papineau, Major T. H., M.C., 40,

167
Paris, 212
Parker, Lieut^., 207
Parvillers, 230, 238, 239, 242, 243,

244, 245
Passchendaele, 162, 154, 155, 156,

167, 158, 163, 165, 166, 167,

170, 171, 173, 175, 176, 177,

179, 180, 181
Passmore, Captain, 30
Paton, Captain K. L., 70
Patriquin, Corporal C. A., 197
Patterson, Lieut.-Col. W. R., D.S.O.,

73, 158, 216, 231, 253
Pattison, Private J. G., 114
Paturages, 335
Payne, Corporal, 24

Pearkes, Lieut.-Col. J. R., V.C,
M.C., 169, 170, 216

Peck, Lieut.-Col. C. W., D.S.O.,
185, 199, 217, 271, 277, 281,
295

Peck, Major, 28

Pelves, 257, 260, 264, 265, 268

Penhale, Lieut.-Col. J. J., 11

Penniman, Lieut., 74

Pense, Lieut.-Col. H. E., M.C., 254,
263, 267, 322

Peples, Lieut.-Col. E., 196

Pernes, 182, 202

P^ronne Wood. 227

Perry, Lieut.-Col. K. M., D.S.O.,
185, 219, 284

Petit Fontaine, 308

Petit Havre, 336, 337

Petit Houvin, 211

Petit Vimy, 110, 116

Phillips, Lieut. P. R., 186

Pierret Wood, 225

Pimple, the, 93, 100, 101, 112

Plessier, 228

Plug-Street Wood, 34

Plumer, General, 27

Poelcapelle, 13

Poirier Station, 329, 331

Pont d'Aire, 308, 312, 314, 317

Poperinghe, 154

Pozieres, 68

Pratt, Major A. W., 262

Princess Patricia's Canadian Light
Infantry, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 53,
60, 71, 72, 74, 104, 127, 165,
167, 168, 169, 170, 217, 242,
243, 244, 257, 260, 265, 304,
306, 311, 312, 335, 336, 343

Pronville, 286

Prospect Farm, 276, 285

Prouzel, 247

Prower. Lieut.-Col. J. M., D.S.O.,
30, 177

Puit, 14. 135

Purman, Corporal, 135

Purslow, Lieut., 38

Pyman, Major C. K. L., 209

Pys, 75, 79, 82, 84

Quadrilateral, 80, 81
Quaregnon, 335
Quarry Wood, 295
Qu^ant, 273, 286, 294
Queant-Marquion Railway, 276
Quebec, Province of, 342, 343
Quesnel Wood, 238
Queanil, 193
Quilvrain, 334

Raddall, Major H. T., D.S.O., 217,
233

Rae, Captain, 28
Raillencourt, 304

I

INDEX

859

Rake Trench, 262

Ralston, Lieut.-Col. J. L., 39, 219,

296
Ramillies, 314, 319, 320
Ramillies-Cuvillers Road, 314, 316
Rankin, Major J. S., D.S.O., 279,

295
Rattray, Lieut. -Col., 55, 57, 58
Ravebeck, 159, 166
Rayfield, Private W. L., 278
Raymond, Major, 92
Rayward, Captain R. O., 223
Recourt, 286
Red Line, 213, 214, 216, 217, 218,

223, 224, 225, 230

Regina Trench, 75, 76, 77, 78, 79,

80, 81, 82, 83, 84, 85
Reid, Lieut. G. S., 91
Remy, 265, 266, 269
Rendel, Captain A. J., 41
Rennie, Lieut.-Col. R., M.V.O., 11,

16
Reserve Division Artillery, 110
R'-ymer, Lieut., 94
Rhoades, Lieut.-Col. W., D.S.O.,

M.C, 216, 231, 263, 319
Rhonelle River, 329, 331
Richardson, Piper J., 85
Richebourg, 27
Riel, Louis, 42
Riel, Private P., 42
Rieux, 322, 323
Riley, Lieut.-Col. H. J., D.S.O.,

206, 218, 255, 319
Roberts, Captain, M.C, 198
Robertson, Captain, M.C, 203, 205
Robertson, Major N. R., .197
Robertson, Private J. P., 174
Rodwell, Sergeant, 207
RcBux, 257, 260
Rogers, Lieut.-Col. C H., 36
Rogers, Lieut.-Col. J. B., D.S.O.,

M.C, 173, 217, 270, 281, 300
Rogerson, Private, 24
Roiston, Major J. M., 196
Rorke, Lieut.-Col. H. V., D.S.O.,

177 205
Rosi^res, 214, 230, 235, 237
Ross, Brigadier-General J. M., 197,

237
Ross, Lieut.-Col. A., D.S.O., 218, 255
Roulers, 13

Routier, Major A. G., M.C, 264
Rouvroy, 122, 193, 194, 230, 232,

233, 237, 239, 242, 243
Rowles, Lieut., 66
Roy, Major G. H., M.C, 264
Royal Air Force, 213
Royal Canadian Dragoons, 29
Royal Canadian Regiment, 37, 38,

63, 65, 74, 80, 104, 127, 128, 216,

224, 242, 244, 257, 266, 304, 311,
312, 335, 337, 343

Roye, 192, 212, 213, 216, 219,

230, 231, 238, 246
Ruisseau Wood, 224
Rumaucourt, 286
Russell, Major C B., 196
Rutherford, Lieut. C S., M.C, M.M.,

256
Ryan, Lieut.-Col. E, J. W., D.S.O.,

333

Sailly, 12, 305, 307

Sains-en-Atni^nois, 246

Sains-lez-Marquions, 290, 296, 297

St. Christ, 241

St. Denis, 336

St. Eloi, 37, 39, 42, 43, 44, 49, 61,

62, 53, 56, 60, 66
St. Ghislain, 334, 335
St. Hilaire, 182, 203
St. Jean, 13, 16, 23
St. Julien, 13, 16, 17, 19, 22, 23,

24, 25
St. Nazaire, 12
St. Olle, 306, 307, 308, 309
St. Omer, 67
St. Quentin, 99, 289
St. Quentin Wood, 226, 227
St. Saulve, 333
St. Servins Farm, 265
St. Waast-La Haut, 326
SalQux, 212, 247
Sallaumines, 122
Sancov;rt, 304, 308, 310, 315
Sancourt-Abancourt Road, 310
Sancourt-Epinoy Road, 311
Sanctuary Wood, 52, 56, 57, 59, 61
Sandeman, Lieut. -CoJ. V. S., 29
Sandemont, 286

Sanitary Section, 341, 342, 344, 345
Saskatchewan, 340
Saskatchewan, South, 344
Sauchy-Cauchy, 276, 302
Sauchy Lestree, 292, 302
Saunders, Lieut.-Col. A. L., D.S.O.,

M.C, 271, 284, 302
Savy, 211
Scarpe, 197, 198, 248, 249, 250,

257, 260, 264, 265, 269, 326
Scheldt Canal, 290
Scherpenberg, 37
Schmidlin, Major E. J. C, M.C,

196
Schwaben Tunnel, 101
Scott, Captain A. G., 65
Scottish Wood, 47
Scrimger, Captain F. A. C, 25
Scroggie, Captain, M.C, 185, 200
Second Anzac Corps, 154
Second Army, 131, 157, 176, 210
Second Battalion, 11, 16, 18, 19, 33,

35, 52, 68, 80, 85, 108, 120,

142, 173, 217, 224 232, 269,

300, 340

860

THE CANADIANS IN FRANCE

Second Brigade, 11, 14, 16, 20, 22, 23,
24, 25, 26, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32,
34, 35, 44, 53, 55, 61, 65, 68,

76, 81, 105, 116, 117, 134, 135,
136, 177, 211, 226, 232, 269,
271, 274, 277, 278, 282, 283,
284, 286, 288, 293, 300, 301,
302, 305, 307, 308, 311, 318,
324, 340

Second Brigade Canadian Field
Artillery, 11, 23, 135, 340

Second Brigade, Canadian Garrison
Artillery, 339

Second Butfs, 18

Second Canadian Mounted Rifle
Battalion, 38, 54, 67, 58, 74,

77, 78, 104, 169, 216, 238, 253,
261, 262, 308, 309, 312, 314,
343

Second Division, 35, 36, 39, 41, 42,
43, 51, 52, 54, 60, 61, 66, 67, 68,
70, 75, 81, 86, 88, 91, 93, 98, 101,
102, 103, 104, 105, 106, 107,
108, 110, 116, 119, 121, 124,
126, 133, 134, 135, 136, 142,
151, 152, 154, 157, 165, 172,
180, 182, 183, 184, 186, 187,
188, 195, 197, 202, 203, 205,
206, 208, 210, 211, 214, 216,
218, 219, 220, 222, 225, 228,
230, 233, 234, 238, 243, 245,
247, 248, 250, 252, 258, 260,
261, 262, 264, 266, 267, 269,
288, 292, 293, 294, 318, 319,
322, 323, 324, 334, 336, 337,
341
Second Divisional Ammunition Col-
umn, 341
Second Divisional Artillerj', 218, 314
Second Divisional Cavalry, 339
Second Divisional Cyclist Company,

340
Second Divisional Engineers, 314
Second Engineer Battalion, 196,

340
Second Engineer Bxigade, 196, 341
Second Field Company Canadian

Engineers, 11
Second Imperial Cavalry Brigade,

26, 61
Second Imperial Corps, 81
Second Imperial Division, 116, 118,

121, 124
Second King Edward's Horse, 29
Second King's Own Scottish Bor-
derers, 108
Second Light Trench Mortar Battery,

209, 340
Second Machine Gun Battalion, 342
Second Motor Machine Gun Brigade,

213, 340
Second Pioneer Battalion, 41, 43
Seely, Brigadier-General, 29

Sens6e Canal, 289
Sensee Kiver, 263, 264, 266, 268,
276, 289, 290, 292, 302, 310,

318, 322, 323, 324, 326
Seventeenth Imperial Corps, 88,

202, 210, 248, 269, 274, 281,

319, 322

Seventeenth Imperial Division, 37
Seventeenth Tank Battalion, 277
Seventh Battahon, 11, 16, 22, 23,

24, 31, 32, 38, o5, 58, 59, 60, 76,

105, 118, 134, 136, 139, 140,

177, 178, 217, 232, 233, 277,

278, 283, 297, 300, 340
Seventh Brigade, 38, 41, 44, 53,

58, 60, 71, 72, 73, 74, 80, 104, 127,

128, 129, 165, 166, 170, 212, 216,

217, 224, 242, 243, 245, 257,

258, 261, 265, 266, 304, 307,

308, 309, 311, 314, 317, 326,

335, 336, 343
Seventh Brigade Canadian Field

Artillery, l35
Seventh iJrigade Royal Garrison

Artillery, :i93
Seventh Canadian Machine Gun

Company, 168
Seventh Engineer Battalion, 196
Seventh Imperial Corps, 192
Seventh Imperial Division, 27, 28,

32, 34
Seventh Light Trench Mortar

Battery, 343
Seventh Tank Battalion, 293
Seventy-eighth Battalion, 66, 94,

95, 110, 164, 171, 219, 227,

240, 241, 242, 284, 299, 307,

334, 345
Seventy-tifth Battahon, 66, 82, 83,

95, 110, 127, 128, 132, 209, 219,

227, 230, 284, 285. 312, 313, 317,

344
Seventy Ridge, 265, 266
Seventy -second Army Brigade Field

Artillery, 105
(Seventy-second Battalion, 66, 95,

110, 130, 164, 166, 170, 171,

219, 227, 240, 272, 278, 299,

310, 332, 345
Seventy-seventh Army Brigade Field

Artillery, 218
Seventy-sixth Army Brigade Field

Artillery, 110
Seventy-sixth Imperial Brigade, 162
Seymour, rrivate R. L., 46
Shankland, Lieut. R., D.C.M., 160,

161
Shannon, Lieut., 171
Sharpe, Lieut. H. A., 306
Shaw, Lieut.-Col. A. E., 38, 63, 58
Signal Companies, 339, 340, 341,

343, 344
Sinclair, Major J. M. R., M.C., 297

J

INDEX

Sixteenth Battalion, 11, 16, 17,
19, 22, 27, 28, 58, 61, 80, 81,
105, 113, 134, 136, 185, 186, 199,
200, 209, 217, 222, 271, 277, 280,
281, 282, 297, 316, 317, 341

Sixth Battery, Canadian Field
Artillery, 282

Sixth Brigade, 36, 47, 49, 60, 61,
68, 69, 70, 71, 75, 76, 107, 108,
109, 113, 114, 120, 121, 122,
123, 124, 144, 145, 147, 149,
173, 174, 175, 211, 218, 228,
234, 235, 237, 252, 255, 258,
260, 263, 320, 322, 326, 342

Sixth Brigade Canadian Field
Artillery, 135, 341

Sixth Canadian Siege Battery, 157

Sixth Engineer Battalion, 196, 341

Sixth Field Company, Engineers,
36, 92

Sixth Imperial Corps, 202, 208

Sixth Iniperial Division, 133, 151

Sixth Light Trench Mortar Battery,
342

Sixtieth Battalion, 39, 57, 58, 132,
343

Sixtieth Imperial Brigade, 57, 192

Sixtieth Imperial Division, 88, 195

Sixty-seventh Pioneer Battalion, 94

Sixty-sixth Imperial Divisional
Artillery, 156, 165

Sixty-third (Royal Naval) Division,
104, 158, 169, 280, 287, 296,
298, 319

Smith, Captain A. A., 205

Smith, Lieut. J. R., 187

Smith, Lieut. W. E., 194

Smith, Major H. D. St. A., 196

Smith-Rewse, Lieut., 30

Sneath, Major T. D., M.C., 188, 189

Snider, Lieut. -Col. I. R., 36, 44

Snipe Hall, 157, 159, 165

Snout, the, 61

Snyder, Lieut. W. H., 193

Somain, 326

Somme, 64, 65, 66, 67, 68, 69, 73,
81, 83, 86, 87, 89, 192, 194, 212,
220, 239, 241, 247

Somme Canal, 289

Souchez, 89, 95, 96, 98, 100, 101,
103, 117, 122, 124, 129, 130,
133, 137, 144, 152, 196

Source Farm, 158, 169

Southern Avenue, 254

Spall, Sergeant R., 244

Sparling, Lieut. -Col. A. W., D.S.O.,
173, 217, 269, 283, 297

Spooner, Brigadier-General, 192

Square Wood, 55, 242

Stag Trench, 259

Stairs, Captain J. C, 71

Station Wood, 110

Steenvorde, 66

I Stevens, Sergeant, 148

I Steward, Lieut., 201

I Stewart, Lieut. -Col. C. J. T., D.S.O.,

I 217, 257, 304

I Stewart, Lieut. -Col. J. S., 36

Stinson, Captain C, 123

Stony Mountain, 33, 34

Stove Wood, 225

Strathcona's Horse, 29

Sudbury Trench, 76

Suffolks, 23, 24

Sugar Trench, 69, 70

Sumner, Private, 222

Sutherland, Lieut. -Col., 314

Sutherland, Major, 261, 262

Swift, Lieut. -Col. A. G., 52

Swischen Stellung, 101, 102

Tait, Lieut. J. C, M.C., 242

Tait, Major, 50, 51

Tanks, Mark V, 276

Tanks, Mark V Star, 276

Taunton, Major A. J. S., D.S.O.,
149

Tayler, Captain B. N., 309

Taylor, Captain K. C. C, 41

Taylor, Major, 90

Tenaille, Major, 31

Ten Elms, 154

Tenth Battahon, 11, 16, 17, 18,
19, 22, 24, 25, 29, 30, 55, 57, 58,
105, 117, 119, 134, 135, 136,
140, 209, 217, 232, 233, 282,
284, 301, 302, 305, 310, 340

Tenth Battery, Canadian Field
Artillery, 21

Tenth Brigade, 66, 81, 83, 93, 96,
97, 110, 112, 116, 125, 126,
127, 141, 144, 145, 150, 158,
162, 163, 202, 212, 219, 239,
240, 243, 245, 274, 278, 279,
284, 293, 295, 296, 304, 307,
329, 331, 333, 334, 344

Tenth Brigade, Canadian Field
Artillery, 39, 135, 342

Tenth Engineer Battalion, 197, 344

Tenth Field Company Engineers, 66,
94

Tenth Hussars, 276

Tenth Imperial Brigade, 24, 26

Thacker, Brigadier-General H. C, 36

Thelus, 100, 101, 102, 103, 108,
109, 111, 117

Thennes, 213

Thiepval, 73, 75

Third Army, 99, 101, 191, 196,
247, 274, 289, 290, 303, 318

Third Australian Division, 155, 156

Third Battalion, 11, 16, 18, 19,
32, 33, 34, 57, 58, 61, 75, 80,
81, 108, 120, 122, 124, 173, 175,
217, 222, 225, 232, 270, 281,
282, 300, 301, 340

24

362

THE CANADIANS IN FRANCE

Third Brigade, 11, 14, 15, 16, 18,
21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 27, 28, 30,
32, 34, 35, 57, 59, 61, 62, 68,
76, 80, 105, 107, 118, 119, 134,

185, 199, 202, 211, 217, 222,
245, 271, 272, 274, 277, 278,
280, 282, 283, 284, 293, 294,
295, 297, 300, 301, 314, 316,

317, 318, 341

Third Brigade, Canadian Field Artil-
lery, 11, 15, 16, 23, 66, 135,
239, 340, 344

Third Brigade Canadian Garrison
Artillery, 339

Third Brigade Royal Garrison Artil-
lery, 218

Third Canadian Siege Battery, 157

Third Division, 37, 38, 42, 43, 53,
54, 59, 66, 67, 68, 71, 72, 73, 81,
86, 88, 98, 101, 102, 103, 104,
106, 107, 116, 126, 127, 128,
130, 131, 138, 151, 152, 154,
156, 157, 159, 162, 165, 166,
167, 172, 173, 180, 183, 184,

186, 190, 195, 202, 203, 208,
210, 211, 212, 214, 216, 217,
219, 226, 230, 231, 237, 238,
242, 243, 244, 245, 248, 250,
253, 254, 260, 261, 265, 269,
287, 288, 291, 293, 301, 303,
304, 306, 307, 311, 312, 314,

318, 322, 326, 334, 336, 342
Third Divisional Ammunition Col-
umn, 344

Third Divisional Artillery, 342
Third Divisional Engineers, 343
Third Engineer Battahon, 196,

209, 340
Third Engineer Brigade, 196, 243
Third Field Company Canadian Engi-
neers, 11
Third Imperial Cavalry Brigade, 26
Third Imperial Cavalrj' Division,

213, 214, 216
Third Imperial Corps, 213
Third Imperial Division, 42, 43,

60, 61, 196
Third Light Trench Mortar Battery,

341
Third Machine Gvm Battahon, 343
Third Pioneer Battalion, 44
Third Tank Brigade, 213, 225,

276
Thirteenth Battalion, 11, 19, 21,
62, 58, 61, 65, 80, 105, 134,
138, 140, 185, 217, 222, 228,
271, 278, 280, 282, 283, 297,
316, 341
Thirteenth Brigade Canadian Field

Artillery, 188, 330
Thirteenth Imperial Brigade, 21,

26, 107, 109
Thirty-eighth Battalion, 66, 83, 84,

94, 95, 110, 113, 130, 219, 235,

240, 259, 278, 279, 296, 297,

299, 310, 322, 345
Thirty-fifth French Division, 246
Thirty-first Battalion, 36, 44, 45,

46, 47, 49, 60, 69, 76, 108, 123,

172, 174, 203, 206, 207, 208,

218, 235, 237, 319, 320, 336,

342
Thirty-first Imperial Division, 105
Thirty-fourth French Division, 246
Thirty-fourth Imperial Brigade, 74
Thirty-fourth Royal Garrison Artil-
lery, 293
Thirty-ninth Imperial Divisional

Artillery, 292, 293
Thirty-second Imperial Brigade, 294,

307, 315
Thirty - second Imperial Division,

213, 230, 237, 238, 240, 241,

242
Thirty-seventh Imperial Division,

88
Thirty-third Imperial Division, 180
Thomas, Captain, 38
Thomson, Lieut., 200
Thomson, Lieut.-Col. R. M., 39
Thornhill, Lieut., 94
Thun-Leveque, 321
Thun-St. Martin, 321
Tilloy, 308, 309, 312, 313, 314
Tilloy-Blecourt Road, 312
Tilloj^-Sancourt Road, 312
Tinques, 208, 211
Tobin, Lieut.-Col. H. S., D.S.O.,

36, 44, 255, 320
Toronto, Ont., 340, 341, 342, 343,

344
Tournai, 337
Tranter, Lieut., 33
Tremblay, Lieut.-Col. T. L., C.M.G.,

D.S.O., 197, 218, 237
Trench, Captain W. T., 224
Triangle, the, 125
Triggs, Lieut., 55
Trith, 326

Trotter, Major H. L., D.S.O., 197
Trout, Captain H. B., 309
Trouvilles Wood, 219
Tucker, Captain P. B. A., 207
Tudor, Lieut.-Col. L. P. O., D.S.O.,

179, 209, 217, 271, 301
Tunnelling Companies, 92, 94, 190,

340
Tupper, Major J. H., 71
Turner, Brigadier-General R. E. W.,

V.C, D.S.O., 11, 14, 35, 36,

88, 89
Turner, Sergeant G. S., 41
Tuxford, Brigadier-General G. S., 57,

62, 271
Tuxford, Lieut., 200
Tuxford, Lieut.-Col. G. S.. 11

i

INDEX

363

Twelfth Brigade, 66, 82, 83, 95,
110, ]12, 130, 131, 163, 164,
166, 166, 212, 218, 219, 227,
230, 239, 240, 243, 272, 274,
279, 284, 285, 296, 298, 299,
304, 307, 308, 309, 312, 329,
333, 334, 345

Twelfth Engineer Battalion, 197,
333, 344

Twelfth Field Company Canadian
Engineers, 66 ?^'->^

Twelfth Imperial Brigade'; 25, 26

Twelfth Imperial Divisional Artil-
lery, 218

Twelfth Light Trench Mortar Bat-
tery, 345

Twelfth London Regiment, 23

Twentieth Battalion, 36, 69, 78,
92, 104, 134, 137, 143, 177,
178, 208, 218, 254, 265, 256,
263, 267, 322, 333, 343

Twentieth Imperial Brigade, 108

Twentieth Imperial Division, 193,
202

Twenty-eighth Army Field Artillery
Brigade, 106

Twenty-eighth Battahon, 36, 41,
44, 46, 47, 49, 51, 60, 69, 108,
123, 124, 146, 172, 174, 175,
218, 237, 260, 263, 322, 336,
342

Twenty-eighth Imperial Division,
25, 37

Twenty-fifth Battalion, 36, 48, 65,

71, 79, 105, 134, 184, 186, 218,
234, 263, 319, 342

Twenty-first Battalion, 36, 47, 50,
69, 79, 92, 104, 134, 135, 137,
142, 172, 187, 200, 201, 218,
223, 254, 263, 267, 322, 342

Twenty-first Imperial Brigade, 28

Twenty-first Imperial Division, 133,
152, 202

Twenty-fourth Battalion, 36, 42, 49,
77, 79, 104, 134, 137, 138, 139,
198, 218, 234, 264, 267, 268, 342

Twenty-fourth Imperial Division,
42, 88, 98, 116, 320

Twenty-ninth Battalion, 36, 41,
44, 46, 47, 49, 60, 76, 108, 124,
144, 145, 147, 148, 149, 184, 205,
206, 218, 236, 237, 256, 269,
320, 342

Twenty-ninth Mobile Brigade, Royal
Garrison Artillery, 238

Twenty-second Battalion, 36, 71,

72, 105, 134, 197, |198, 206,
218, 234, 235, 263, 267, 268,
342

Twenty-second Imperial Corps, 269,
287, 288, 293, 323, 324, 329

Twenty-seventh Battalion, 36, 44,
49, 69, 70, 77, 105, 120, 122,

123, 144, 148, 149, 172, 174,

206, 207, 218, 255, 269, 263,

319, 342
Twenty-seventh Inriperial Division,

23, 39
Twenty-sixth Army Field Artillery

Brigade, 105
Twenty-sixth Battalion, 36, 71, 77,

91, 104, 105, 134, 172, 173, 218,

264, 267, 319, 342
Twenty-three Road, 77, 78, 79
Twisted Alley, 147
Two Hundred and Forty-second

Army Field Artillery Brigade,

110
Two Hundred and Twenty-fifth

Tunnelling Company, 92

Upton Wood, 264, 269, 270
Urquhart, Lieut.-Col. H. M., D.S.O.,

M.C., 216
Ussher, Lieut.-Col. J. F. H., 38,

63, 56

Vainer, Major J. P., M.C., 268
Valenciennes, 324, 326, 328, 329,

331, 332, 333, 334, 337
Valley Wood, 224
Valour Farm, 166
Vancouver, B.C., 49, 342, 345
Vanity House, 165, 169, 170, 171
Vapour Farm, 165, 169
Vasmes, 335
Vat Cottage, 158, 170
Vegetable Farm, 166
Vendin, 115, 117, 129, 131
Venison Trench, 178, 179
Venture Farm, 170, 179, 180
Vert Work, 262, 264
Veterinary Section, Mobile, 341, 345
Victoria, B.C., 343
Ville-Pommereul, 334
Villers au Bois, 103
Villers-Bretonneux, 192, 194,213, 219
Villers Chatel, 164, 195
Villers-le-Roy, 237
Villers-lez-Cagnicourt, 253, 276, 280,

283, 284, 286
Vimy Ridge, 84, 89, 93, 97, 98, 99,

101, 106, 108, 109, 113, 114,

116, 116, 117, 120, 133, 190,

191, 201
Vincent, Private, 33, 34
Vindictive Cross-Roads, 170, 176,

178, 179
Vine Cottage, 171, 173, 176
Vis-en-Artois, 264
Vis-en-Artois Switch, 249, 260, 264,

268, 269, 270
Vocation Farm, 179
Vosburgh, Lieut., 192
Vox Farm, 179
Vr61y,1214, 230, 233, 234

364

THE CANADIANS IN FRANCE

Walderon, Lieut., M.C., 201
Waldron, Lieut. F. G., 193
Walkem, Lieut. -Col. H. C, 196
Walker, Lieut. -Col. W. K., 192
Walker, Major B., 209
Wancourt, 249, 250, 252, 253, 254,

253, 258, 259, 260, 277, 294
Wanquetin, 195. 202
Wansborough, Major, 92
Warlencourt Road, 77
AVarvillers, 193, 230, 232, 233
Watson, Lieut. -Col. D., 11, 16, 35,

36
Watson, Major-General, C.B., 66
Watu, 180
Weames, Lieut., 30
Weaver, Major C. T., 58, 59, 217,

257, 261
Wellington, 212
Western Canada, 42
Western Provinces, 340
West Lancashire Artillery, 36, 38
West, Lieut., 92, 193
Westroosebeke, 176
Wheelbarrow Wood, 224
Wieltje, 13, 16, 17, 23, 25
Wiencoiu't, 225
Wigle, Lieut.-Col. E. S., 36
Wilger, Major W. P., 197
Willerval, 116
Willets, Lieut.-Col. C. R. E., D.S.O.,

216, 257, 304
Williams, Brigadier-General V. W.,

38, 54

WiUiams, Lieut., 207

Wilmott, Lieut., 41

Winnipeg, Man., 340, 342, 343, 344,

345
Wise, Lieut.-Col. J., M.C., 218
Wood, Captain H. G., M.C., 267
Wood, Lieut. J. W., 148
Worrall, Lieut.-Col. D., M.C., 199,

217, 271, 278, 295
Wrightson, Lieut., 38

Yorkshire and Durham Imperial

Brigade, 23, 26
Young, Lieut., 33
Young, Major, 58
Young, Private J. F., 285
Ypres, 12, 13, 14, 16. 18, 25, 26,

27, 39, 42, 43. 53, 64, 67, 129,

131, 134, 156, 164, 172, 176,

180
Ypres-Comines Canal, 42, 82, 53,

65
Ypres-Menin Road, 53
Ypres-Pilkem Road, 19, 20, 2 J
Ypres-Poelcapelle Road, 13, 16, 18,
- 20, 22

Ypres-Roulers Railway, 13, 156, 157
Ypres Salient, 13
Yser, 27

Zengel, Sergeant R. L., 233
Zillebeke, 42, 55, 57
ZoUem Trench, 73, 74, 75
Zwischen Stellung, 101, 102

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