TEARS AND NO CHEERS
On May third we commenced our withdrawal to Bailleul, leaving our sector of
the line in safe hands. We were billeted in this town for a rest.
We were a haggard bunch. Our faces were drawn in lines like old men, many
were gray, some were white; our eyes were wild and glassy and we moved
jerkily or started at the slightest of sharp sounds.
Reinforcements began to arrive. We needed them. There were C and D
Companies without an officer between them. Major Kirkpatrick was wounded
and a prisoner; Captain Straight wounded and taken; Captain Johnson wounded
and imprisoned; Lieutenant Jarvis, son of Amelius Jarvis, the famous
sporting figure of Toronto, lay dead, and our gallant old Major Pete
Anderson, our sniping officer, was also captured, though he has now
escaped from enemy hands.
In billets we had thought we were hard hit. We had not realized it to the
full till the morning we were lined up, one brigade at a time, for review.
We had had an issue of fresh clothing, we had had some long hours of sleep,
we had had all that soap and water could do for us, but we were a sorry and
sorrowful lot of men. We had the light of triumph in our eyes, but even
that was dimmed at thought of the boys who were gone to the great review
above.
Our beloved commander-in-chief came along the lines to review us. He looked
at us with the brave eyes of a father sorrowing over a dead son. He walked
with head high and step firm, but his voice shook with deep emotion, and he
did not hide the tears which rose to his eyes as he spoke his famous words
of commendation.
They are immortal words, words which express the regret of a true man for
comrades whose sacrifice was supreme, words which express pride in deeds
done and breathe of a determination to greater deeds, if possible, in a
triumphant future.
Words Spoken to the First Canadian Division
(Brigade by Brigade and to Engineers and Artillery)
After the Twelve Days and Nights of Fighting
April 22d to May 4th, 1915
By
Lieutenant-General E.A.H. Alderson
Commanding First Canadian Division
"All units, all ranks of the First Canadian Division, I tell you
truly, that my heart is so full I hardly know how to speak to you.
It is full of two feelings, the first being sorrow for the loss of
those comrades of ours who have gone, the second--pride in what
the First Canadian Division has done.
"As regards our comrades who have lost their lives, and we will
speak of them with our caps off [here the general took off his
cap, and all did likewise], my faith in the Almighty is such that
I am perfectly sure that, in fact, to die for their friends, no
matter what their past lives have been, no matter what they have
done that they ought not to have done (as all of us do), I repeat
that I am perfectly sure the Almighty takes care of them and looks
after them at once. Lads--we can not leave them better than like
that. [Here the general put his cap on, and all did the same.]
"Now, I feel that we may, without any false pride, think a little
of what the Division has done during the past few days. I would
first of all tell you that I have never been so proud of anything
in my life as I am of this armlet '1 Canada' on it that I wear on
my right arm. I thank you and congratulate you from the bottom of
my heart for the part each one of you has taken in giving me this
feeling of pride.
"I think it is possible that you do not, all of you, quite realize
that if we had retired on the evening of the twenty-second of
April when our Allies fell back from the gas and left our flank
quite open, the whole of the Seventeenth and Twenty-eighth
Divisions would probably have been cut off, certainly they would
not have got away a gun or a vehicle of any sort, and probably not
more than half the infantry. This is what our commander-in-chief
meant when he telegraphed as he did: 'The Canadians undoubtedly
saved the situation.' My lads, if ever men had a right to be proud
in this world, you have.
"I know my military history pretty well, and I can not think of an
instance, especially when the cleverness and determination of the
enemy is taken into account, in which troops were placed in such a
difficult position; nor can I think of an instance in which so
much depended on the standing fast of one division.
"You will remember the last time I spoke to you, just before you
went into the trenches at Sailly, now over two months ago, I told
you about my old regiment--the Royal West Kents--having gained a
reputation for not budging from the trenches, no matter how they
were attacked. I said then that I was quite sure that in a short
time the army out here would be saying the same of you. I little
thought--we, none of us thought--how soon those words would come
true. But now, to-day, not only the army out here, but all Canada,
all England, and all the Empire, is saying it of you.
"The share each unit has taken in earning this reputation is no
small one.
"I have three pages of congratulatory telegrams from His Majesty
the King downward which I will read to you, with also a very nice
letter from our army commander, Sir Horace Smith-Dorrien.
"Now, I doubt if any divisional commander, or any division ever
had so many congratulatory telegrams and messages as these, and
remember they are not merely polite and sentimental ones; they
express just what the senders feel.
"There is one word I would say to you before I stop. You have made
a reputation second to none gained in this war, but remember, no
man can live on his reputation, he must keep on adding to it. That
you will do so I feel just as sure as I did two months ago when I
told you that I knew you would make a reputation when the
opportunity came.
"I am now going to shake hands with your officers, and I do so
wanting you to feel that I am shaking hands with each one of you,
as I would actually do if the time permitted.
"No--we will not have any cheering now--we will keep that until
you have added to your reputation, as I know you will."
And there was no cheering. We turned away--the few men of us left whole in
those scattered ranks--our eyes tear-dimmed in memory of those comrades
whose lives had gone out; but our hearts ready to answer the call wherever
it might lead us.
The world to-day knows what the Canadian boys have done. We have more than
added to our reputation.
Right after this terrible scrap at Ypres came Givenchy and Festubert, and
then we held the line at Ploegsteert for a whole year, fighting fiercely at
St. Eloi, and stopping them again at Sanctuary Wood.
In the summer of 1916 fourteen thousand of us went down before German
cannon, but still they did not break our lines. This was known as the third
battle of Ypres.
From Ypres we went to the Somme, and it was on the Somme that we met our
Australian cousins who jokingly greeted us with the statement "We're here
to finish what you started," and we fired back, "Too bad you hadn't
finished what you started down in Gallipoli!"
It was not very long before both were engaged in that terrible battle of
the Somme, where to Canadian arms fell the honor of taking the village of
Courcellette. We plugged right on and soon we put the "Vim" into Vimy, and
took Vimy Ridge. As I write we are marking time in front of Lens.
At Ypres we started our great casualty lists with ten thousand. To-day over
one hundred twenty-five thousand Canadian boys have fallen, and there are
over eighteen thousand who will never come back to tell their story.
If the generals of the British Army were proud of us in 1915, I wonder how
they feel to-day?