YPRES
Canadians' glory--A civilian force--Ypres salient--Poelcappelle
road--Disposition of troops--Gas attack on French--Plight of the 3rd
Brigade--Filling the gap--General Turner's move--Loss of British
guns--Canadian valour--St. Julien--Attack on the wood--Terrible
fire--Officer casualties--Reinforcements--Geddes detachment--Second
Canadian Brigade bent back--Desperate position--Terrible
casualties--Col. Birchall's death--Magnificent artillery work--Canadian
left saved--Canadians relieved--Story of 3rd Brigade--Gas attack on
Canadians--Canadian recovery--Major Norsworthy killed--Major McCuaig's
stand--Disaster averted--Col. Hart-McHarg killed--Major Odlum--General
Alderson's efforts--British reinforce Canadians--3rd Brigade
withdraws--General Currie stands fast--Trenches wiped out--Fresh gas
attack--Germans take St. Julien--British cheer Canadians--Canadians
relieved--Heroism of men--Col. Watson's dangerous mission--The Ghurkas'
dead--Record of all units--Our graveyard in Flanders.
"If my neighbour fails, more devolves upon me."
--WORDSWORTH.
"Gloucester, 'tis true that we are in great danger;
The greater therefore should our courage be."
--SHAKESPEARE.
The fighting in April, in which the Canadians played so glorious a
part, cannot, of course, be described with precision of military detail
until time has made possible the co-ordination of all the relevant
diaries, and the piecing together in a narrative both lucid and exact
of much which is confused and blurred.[1]
[Illustration: Map of Ypres and area]
The battle which raged for so many days in the neighbourhood of Ypres
was bloody, even as men appraise battles in this callous and
life-engulfing war. But as long as brave deeds retain the power to
fire the blood of Anglo-Saxons, the stand made by the Canadians in
those desperate days will be told by fathers to their sons; for in the
military records of Canada this defence will shine as brightly as, in
the records of the British Army, the stubborn valour with which Sir
James Macdonnel and the Guards beat back from Hougoumont the Division
of Foy and the Army Corps of Reille.
The Canadians wrested from the trenches, over the bodies of the dead
and maimed, the right to stand side by side with the superb troops who,
in the first battle of Ypres, broke and drove before them the flower of
the Prussian Guards.
Looked at from any point, the performance would be remarkable. It is
amazing to soldiers, when the genesis and composition of the Canadian
Division are considered. It contained, no doubt, a sprinkling of South
African veterans, but it consisted in the main of men who were
admirable raw material, but who at the outbreak of war were neither
disciplined nor trained, as men count discipline and training in these
days of scientific warfare.
It was, it is true, commanded by a distinguished English general. Its
staff was supplemented, without being replaced, by some brilliant
British staff officers. But in its higher and regimental commands were
to be found lawyers, college professors, business men, and real estate
agents, ready with cool self-confidence to do battle against an
organisation in which the study of military science is the exclusive
pursuit of laborious lives. With what devotion, with a valour how
desperate, with resourcefulness how cool and how fruitful, the amateur
soldiers of Canada confronted overwhelming odds may, perhaps, be made
clear even by a narrative so incomplete as this.
The salient of Ypres has become familiar to all students of the
campaign in Flanders. Like all salients, it was, and was known to be,
a source of weakness to the forces holding it; but the reasons which
have led to its retention are apparent, and need not be explained.
On April 22nd the Canadian Division held a line of, roughly, five
thousand yards, extending in a north-westerly direction from the
Ypres-Roulers railway to the Ypres-Poelcappelle road, and connecting at
its terminus with the French troops.[2] The Division consisted of
three infantry brigades, in addition to the artillery brigades. Of the
infantry brigades the first was in reserve, the second was on the
right, and the third established contact with the Allies at the point
indicated above.
The day was a peaceful one, warm and sunny, and except that the
previous day had witnessed a further bombardment of the stricken town
of Ypres,[3] everything seemed quiet in front of the Canadian line. At
five o'clock in the afternoon a plan, carefully prepared, was put into
execution against our French allies on the left. Asphyxiating gas of
great intensity was projected into their trenches, probably by means of
force pumps and pipes laid out under the parapets.
The fumes, aided by a favourable wind, floated backwards, poisoning and
disabling over an extended area those who fell under their effects.
The result was that the French were compelled to give ground for a
considerable distance.[4] The glory which the French Army has won in
this war would make it impertinent to labour the compelling nature of
the poisonous discharges under which the trenches were lost. The
French did, as everyone knew they would, all that stout soldiers could,
and the Canadian Division, officers and men, look forward to many
occasions in the future in which they will stand side by side with the
brave armies of France.
The immediate consequences of this enforced withdrawal were, of course,
extremely grave. The 3rd Brigade of the Canadian Division was without
any left, or, in other words, its left was "in the air." The following
rough diagrams may make the position clear.
[Illustration: Map--Ypres--POSITION BEFORE DISCHARGE OF GAS]
Contrast this with the diagram on the following page.
[Illustration: Map--Ypres--POSITION AFTER DISCHARGE OF GAS]
It became imperatively necessary greatly to extend the Canadian lines
to the left rear. It was not, of course, practicable to move the 1st
Brigade from reserve at a moment's notice, and the line, extended from
5,000 to 9,000 yards, was naturally not the line that had been held by
the Allies at five o'clock, and a gap still existed on its left. The
new line, of which our recent point of contact with the French formed
the apex, ran, quite roughly, as follows:--
[Illustration: Map--Ypres--POSITION ON FRIDAY MORNING]
As shown above, it became necessary for Brigadier-general Turner (now
Major-General), commanding the 3rd Brigade, to throw back his left
flank southward, to protect his rear. In the course of the confusion
which followed on the readjustment of the position, the enemy, who had
advanced rapidly after his initial successes, took four British 4.7
guns, lent by the 2nd London Division to support the French, in a small
wood to the west of the village of St. Julien, two miles in the rear of
the original French trenches.
The story of the second battle of Ypres is the story of how the
Canadian Division, enormously outnumbered--for they had in front of
them at least four divisions, supported by immensely heavy
artillery--with a gap still existing, though reduced, in their lines,
and with dispositions made hurriedly under the stimulus of critical
danger, fought through the day and through the night, and then through
another day and night; fought under their officers: until, as happened
to so many, these perished, gloriously, and then fought from the
impulsion of sheer valour because they came from fighting stock.
The enemy, of course, was aware--whether fully or not may perhaps be
doubted--of the advantage his breach in the line had given him, and
immediately began to push a formidable series of attacks on the whole
of the newly-formed Canadian salient. If it is possible to
distinguish, when the attack was everywhere so fierce, it developed
with particular intensity at this moment on the apex of the
newly-formed line running in the direction of St. Julien.
It has already been stated that four British guns were taken in a wood
comparatively early in the evening of April 22nd. The General Officer
Commanding the Canadian Division had no intention of allowing the enemy
to retain possession of either the wood or the guns without a desperate
struggle, and he ordered a counter-attack towards the wood to be made
by the 3rd Infantry Brigade under General Turner. This Brigade was
then reinforced by the 2nd Battalion under Lieut.-Colonel (now
Brigadier-General) Watson and the 3rd (Toronto) Battalion under
Lieut.-Colonel Rennie (now also a Brigadier-General), both of the 1st
Brigade. The 7th Battalion (British Columbia Regiment), from the 2nd
Brigade, had by this time occupied entrenchments in support of the 3rd
Brigade. The 10th Battalion of the 2nd Brigade, intercepted on its way
up as a working party, was also placed in support of the 3rd Brigade.
The assault upon the wood was launched shortly after midnight of April
22nd-23rd by the 10th Battalion and 16th (Canadian Scottish) Battalion,
respectively commanded by Lieut.-Colonel Boyle and Lieut.-Colonel (now
Brigadier-General) R. G. E. Leckie. The advance was made under the
heaviest machine gun and rifle fire, the wood was reached, and, after a
desperate struggle by the light of a misty moon, they took the position
at the point of the bayonet.
An officer who took part in the attack describes how the men about him
fell under the fire of the machine guns, which, in his phrase, played
upon them "like a watering pot." He added quite simply, "I wrote my
own life off." But the line never wavered.
When one man fell another took his place, and, with a final shout, the
survivors of the two Battalions flung themselves into the wood. The
German garrison was completely demoralised, and the impetuous advance
of the Canadians did not cease until they reached the far side of the
wood and entrenched themselves there in the position so dearly gained.
They had, however, the disappointment of finding that the guns had been
destroyed by the enemy, and later in the same night, a most formidable
concentration of artillery fire, sweeping the wood as a tropical storm
sweeps the leaves from the trees of a forest, made it impossible for
them to hold the position for which they had sacrificed so much.
[Illustration: Map--St. Julien and area]
Within a few hours of this attack, the 10th Canadian Battalion was
again ordered to advance by Lieut.-Colonel Boyle, late a rancher in the
neighbourhood of Calgary. The assault was made upon a German trench
which was being hastily constructed within two hundred yards of the
Battalion's right front. Machine gun and rifle fire opened upon the
Battalion at the moment the charge was begun, and Colonel Boyle fell
almost instantly with his left thigh pierced in five places. Major
MacLaren, his second in command, was also wounded at this time.
Battalion stretcher-bearers dressed the Colonel's wounds and carried
him back to the Battalion first aid station. From there he was moved
to Vlamertinghe Field Hospital, and from there again to Poperinghe. He
was unconscious when he reached the hospital, and died shortly
afterwards without regaining consciousness.
Major MacLaren, already wounded, was killed by a shell while on his way
to the hospital. The command of the 10th Battalion passed to Major D.
M. Ormond, who was wounded. Major Guthrie, a lawyer from Fredericton,
New Brunswick, a member of the local Parliament and a very resolute
soldier, then took command of the Battalion.
The fighting continued without intermission all through the night of
April 22nd-23rd, and to those who observed the indications that the
attack was being pushed with ever-growing strength, it hardly seemed
possible that the Canadians, fighting in positions so difficult to
defend and so little the subject of deliberate choice, could maintain
their resistance for any long period.
Reinforcements of British troops, commanded by Colonel Geddes, of the
Buffs, began to arrive in the gap early on Friday morning. These
reinforcements, consisting of three and a half battalions of the 28th
Division--drawn from the Buffs, King's Own Royal Leinsters, Middlesex,
and York and Lancasters--and other units which joined them from time to
time, became known as Geddes' Detachment. The grenadier company of a
battalion of the Northumberland Fusiliers, numbering two officers and
120 men, who were on their way to rejoin their division after eight
days of trench-fighting at Hill 60, encountered Colonel Geddes' force
and joined it.[5]
At 6 a.m. on Friday, the 2nd Canadian Brigade was still intact, but the
3rd Canadian Brigade, on the left, was bent back upon St. Julien. It
became apparent that the left was becoming more and more involved, and
a powerful German attempt to outflank it developed rapidly. The
consequences, if it had been broken or outflanked, need not be insisted
upon. They would not have been merely local.
It was therefore decided, formidable as the attempt undoubtedly was, to
try to give relief by a counter-attack upon the first line of German
trenches, now far, far advanced from those originally occupied by the
French. The attack was carried out at 6.30 a.m. by the 1st (Ontario)
Battalion and the 4th Battalion of the 1st Brigade, under
Brigadier-General Mercer, acting with Geddes' Detachment. The 4th
Battalion was in advance and the 1st in support, under the covering
fire of the 1st Canadian Artillery Brigade.
It is safe to say that the youngest private in the ranks, as he set his
teeth for the advance, knew the task in front of him, and the youngest
subaltern knew all that rested on its success. It did not seem that
any human being could live in the shower of shot and shell which began
to play upon the advancing troops.
They suffered terrible casualties. For a short time every other man
seemed to fall, but the attack was pressed ever closer and closer. The
4th Canadian Battalion at one moment came under a particularly
withering fire. For a moment--not more--it wavered. Its most gallant
Commanding Officer, Lieut.-Colonel Birchall, carrying, after an old
fashion, a light cane, coolly and cheerfully rallied his men, and at
the very moment when his example had infected them, fell dead at the
head of his Battalion. With a hoarse cry of anger they sprang forward
(for, indeed, they loved him) as if to avenge his death.
The astonishing attack which followed, pushed home in the face of
direct frontal fire, made in broad daylight by battalions whose names
should live for ever in the memories of soldiers, was carried to the
first line of the German trenches. After a hand-to-hand struggle, the
last German who resisted was bayoneted, and the trench was won.
The measure of our success may be taken when it is pointed out that
this trench represented, in the German advance, the apex in the breach
which the enemy had made in the original line of the Allies, and that
it was two and a half miles south of that line. This charge, made by
men who looked death indifferently in the face--for no man who took
part in it could think that he was likely to live--saved, and that was
much, the Canadian left. But it did more.
[Illustration: Map--1st Canadian Division situation at 7 a.m. April
23rd, 1915]
Up to the point where the assailants conquered, or died, it secured and
maintained during the most critical moment of all, the integrity of the
Allied line. For the trench was not only taken--it was held thereafter
against all comers, and in the teeth of every conceivable projectile,
until the night of Sunday, April 25th, when all that remained of the
war-broken but victorious battalions was relieved by fresh troops.
In this attack, the work of the 1st Artillery Brigade was extremely
efficient. Under the direction of Lieut.-Colonel Morrison, whose
services have gained him the command of the artillery of the 2nd
Division with the rank of Brigadier-General, the battery of four
18-pounders was strengthened, in the afternoon, with two heavier guns.
Captain T. E. Powers, of the Signal Company attached to General
Mercer's command, maintained communication throughout with the advanced
line of the attack under a heavy shell fire that cut the signal wires
continually. The work of the Company was admirable, and was rendered
at the price of many casualties.
It is necessary now to return to the fortunes of the 3rd Brigade,
commanded by General Turner, which, as we have seen, at five o'clock on
Thursday was holding the Canadian left, and after their first attack
assumed the defence of the new Canadian salient, at the same time
sparing all the men it could to form an extemporised line between the
wood and St. Julien. This Brigade was also at the first moment of the
German offensive made the object of an attack by a discharge of
poisonous gas. The discharge was followed by two enemy assaults.[6]
Although the fumes were extremely poisonous, they were not, perhaps,
having regard to the wind, so disabling as on the French lines (which
ran almost east to west), and the Brigade, though affected by the
fumes, stoutly beat back the two German assaults. Encouraged by this
success, it rose to the supreme effort required by the assault on the
wood, which has already been described. At 4 a.m. on the morning of
Friday, the 23rd, a fresh emission of gas was made both on the 2nd
Brigade, which held the line running north-east, and on the 3rd
Brigade, which, as has been fully explained, had continued the line up
to the pivotal point as defined above, and had there spread down in a
south-easterly direction.
It is, perhaps, worth mentioning that two privates of the 48th
Highlanders, who found their way into the trenches commanded by
Lieut.-Colonel (now Brig.-General) Lipsett (90th Winnipeg Rifles), 8th
Battalion, perished in the fumes, and it was noticed that their faces
became blue immediately after dissolution. The Royal Highlanders of
Montreal, 13th Battalion, and the 48th Highlanders, 15th Battalion,
were more especially affected by the discharge. The Royal Highlanders,
though considerably shaken, remained immovable on their ground. The
48th Highlanders, who no doubt received a more poisonous discharge,
were for the moment dismayed, and, indeed, their trench, according to
the testimony of very hardened soldiers, became intolerable.
The Battalion retired from the trench, but for a very short distance
and for a very short time. In a few moments they were again their own
men. They advanced on and reoccupied the trenches which they had
momentarily abandoned.
In the course of the same night, the 3rd Brigade, which had already
displayed a resource, a gallantry, and a tenacity for which no eulogy
could be excessive, was exposed (and with it the whole Allied cause) to
a peril still more formidable. It has been explained, and, indeed, the
fundamental situation made the peril clear, that several German
divisions were attempting to crush or drive back this devoted Brigade,
and in any event to use their enormous numerical superiority to sweep
around and overwhelm its left wing. At some point in the line which
cannot be precisely determined, the last attempt partially succeeded,
and, in the course of this critical struggle, German troops in
considerable, though not in overwhelming numbers, swung past the
unsupported left of the Brigade, and, slipping in between the wood and
St. Julien, added to the torturing anxieties of the long-drawn struggle
by the appearance, and indeed for the moment the reality, of isolation
from the Brigade base.
In the exertions made by the 3rd Brigade during this supreme crisis it
is almost impossible to single out one battalion without injustice to
others, but though the efforts of the Royal Highlanders of Montreal,
13th Battalion, were only equal to those of the other battalions who
did such heroic service, it so happened, by chance, that the fate of
some of its officers attracted special attention.
Major Norsworthy was in the reserve trenches, half a mile in the rear
of the firing line, when he was killed in his attempt to reach Major
McCuaig with reinforcements; and Captain Guy Drummond fell in
attempting to rally French troops. This was on the afternoon of the
22nd, and the whole responsibility for coping with the crisis then fell
upon the shoulders of Major McCuaig until he was relieved early on the
morning of the 23rd.
All through the afternoon and evening of the 22nd, and all through the
night which followed, McCuaig had to meet and grapple with difficulties
which might have borne down a far more experienced officer. His
communications had been cut by shell fire, and he was, therefore, left
to decide for himself whether he should retire or whether he should
hold on. He decided to hold on, although he knew that he was without
artillery support and could not hope for any until, at the earliest,
the morning of the 23rd.
The decision was a very bold one. By all the rules of war McCuaig was
a beaten man. But the very fact that he remained appears to have
deceived the Germans. They might have overwhelmed him, but they feared
the supports, which did not in reality exist. It was not in the
enemy's psychology to understand that the sheer and unaided valour of
McCuaig and his little force would hold the position.
But with a small and dwindling force he did hold it, until daylight
revealed to the enemy the naked deception of the defence.
In case the necessity for retreat developed, the wounded had been moved
to the trenches on the right; and, under the cover of machine gun fire,
Major McCuaig withdrew his men just as Major Buchanan came up with
reinforcements.
The sorely tried Battalion held on for a time in dug-outs, and, under
cover of darkness, retired again to a new line being formed by
reinforcements. The rearguard was under Lieut. (now Captain)
Greenshields. But Major McCuaig remained to see that the wounded were
removed. It was then, after having escaped a thousand deaths through
the long battle of the night, that he was shot down and made a prisoner.
The story of the officers of the 7th Battalion (British Columbia
Regiment) is not less glorious. This Battalion was attached to the 3rd
Brigade on Thursday night, and on Friday occupied a position on the
forward crest of a ridge, with its left flank near St. Julien. This
position was severely shelled during the day. In the course of the
afternoon the Battalion received an order to make its position secure
that night. At half-past four Colonel Hart-McHarg, a lawyer from
Vancouver, Major Odlum (who is now Lieut.-Colonel commanding the
Battalion), and Lieut. Mathewson, of the Canadian Engineers, went out
to reconnoitre the ground and decide upon the position of the new
trenches to be dug under cover of darkness. The exact location of the
German troops immediately opposed to their position was not known to
them. The reconnoitring party moved down the slope to the wrecked
houses and shattered walls of the village of Keerselaere--a distance of
about 300 yards--in broad daylight without drawing a shot; but, when
they looked through a window in the rear wall of one of the ruins, they
saw masses of Germans lining hedges not 100 yards away, and watching
them intently. As the three Canadian officers were now much nearer the
German line than their own, they turned and began to retire at the
double. They were followed by a burst of rapid fire the moment they
cleared the shelter of the ruins. They instantly threw themselves flat
on the ground. Colonel Hart-McHarg and Major Odlum rolled into a
shell-hole near by, and Lieut. Mathewson took cover in a ditch close at
hand. It was then that Major Odlum learned that his Commanding Officer
was seriously wounded. Major Odlum raced up the hill under fire in
search of surgical aid, leaving Lieut. Mathewson with the wounded
officer. He found Captain George Gibson, medical officer of the 7th
Battalion, who, accompanied by Sergt. J. Dryden, went down to the
shell-hole immediately. Captain Gibson and the sergeant reached the
cramped shelter in safety in the face of a heavy fire. They moved
Colonel Hart-McHarg into the ditch where Mathewson had first taken
shelter, and there dressed his wound. They remained with him until
after dark, when the stretcher-bearers arrived and carried him back to
Battalion Headquarters; but the devotion and heroism of his friends
could not save his life. The day after he passed away in a hospital at
Poperinghe.[7] But his regiment endured, and, indeed, throughout the
second battle of Ypres fought greatly and suffered greatly. Major
Odlum succeeded Colonel Hart-McHarg. At one time the Battalion was
flanked, both right and left, by the enemy, through no fault of its
own; and it fell back when it had been reduced to about 100 men still
able to bear arms. On the following day, strengthened by the remnants
of the 10th Battalion, the 7th was again sent in to hold a gap in our
line, which duty it performed until, again surrounded by the enemy, it
withdrew under cover of a dense mist.[8][9]
Every effort was made by General Alderson from first to last, to
reinforce the Canadian Division with the greatest possible speed, and
on Friday afternoon the left of the Canadian line was strengthened by
the 2nd King's Own Scottish Borderers and the 1st Royal West Kents, of
the 13th Infantry Brigade. From this time forward the Division also
received further assistance on the left from a series of French
counter-attacks pushed in a north-easterly direction from the canal
bank.
[Illustration: Map--1st Canadian Division situation at 9 a.m. April
24th 1915]
But the artillery fire of the enemy continually grew in intensity, and
it became more and more evident that the Canadian salient could no
longer be maintained against the overwhelming superiority of numbers by
which it was assailed. Slowly, stubbornly, and contesting every yard,
the defenders gave ground until the salient gradually receded from the
apex, near the point where it had originally aligned with the French,
and fell back upon St. Julien. Soon it became evident that even St.
Julien, exposed to fire from right and left, was no longer tenable.[10]
The 3rd Brigade was therefore ordered to retreat further south, selling
every yard of ground as dearly as it had done since five o'clock on
Thursday. But it was found impossible, without hazarding far larger
forces, to disentangle detachments of the Royal Highlanders of
Montreal, 13th Battalion, and of the Royal Montreal Regiment, 14th
Battalion. The Brigade was ordered, and not a moment too soon, to move
back.
The retirement left these units with heavy hearts. The German tide
rolled, indeed, over the deserted village; but for several hours after
the enemy had become master of the village, the sullen and persistent
rifle fire which survived, showed that they were not yet master of the
Canadian rearguard. If they died, they died worthily of Canada.
The enforced retirement of the 3rd Brigade (and to have stayed longer
would have been madness) reproduced for the 2nd Brigade, commanded by
Brigadier-General Currie (now Major-General), in a singularly exact
fashion, the position of the 3rd Brigade itself at the moment of the
withdrawal of the French. The 2nd Brigade, it must be remembered, had
retained the whole line of trenches, roughly 2,500 yards, which it was
holding at five o'clock on Thursday afternoon, supported by the
incomparable exertions of the 3rd Brigade, and by the highly hazardous
deployment in which necessity had involved that Brigade.
The 2nd Brigade had maintained its lines. It now devolved on General
Currie, commanding this Brigade, to repeat the tactical manoeuvres with
which, earlier in the fight, the 3rd Brigade had adapted itself to the
flank movement of overwhelming numerical superiority. He flung his
left flank round south; and his record is that, in the very crisis of
this immense struggle, he held his line of trenches from Thursday at
five o'clock till Sunday afternoon. And on Sunday afternoon he had not
abandoned his trenches. There were none left. They had been
obliterated by artillery.
He withdrew his undefeated troops from the fragments of his field
fortifications, and the hearts of his men were as completely unbroken
as the parapets of his trenches were completely broken. In such a
Brigade it is invidious to single out any battalion for special praise,
but it is perhaps necessary to the story to point out that
Lieut.-Colonel Lipsett, commanding the 8th Battalion (90th Winnipeg
Rifles) of the 2nd Brigade, held the extreme left of the Brigade
position at the most critical moment.
The Battalion was expelled from the trenches early on Friday morning by
an emission of poisonous gas; but, recovering, in three-quarters of an
hour it counter-attacked, retook the trenches it had abandoned, and
bayoneted the enemy. And after the 3rd Brigade had been forced to
retire, Lieut.-Colonel Lipsett held his position, though his left was
in the air, until two British regiments, 8th Durham Light Infantry and
1st Hampshires, filled up the gap on Saturday night.
At daybreak on Sunday, April 25th, two companies of the 8th Battalion
(90th Winnipeg Rifles), holding the left of our line, were relieved by
the Durhams, and retired to reserve trenches. The Durhams suffered
severely, and at 5 p.m. on Sunday afternoon, a Company of the 8th
Canadian Battalion took their place on our extreme left. The Germans
entrenched in the rear of this Company, and German batteries on the
left flank enfiladed it. The position became untenable, and the
Company was ordered to evacuate it, two platoons to retire and two
platoons to cover the retirement. The retiring platoons were guided
back, under terrific fire, by Sergeant (now Captain) Knobel, with a
loss of about 45 per cent. of their strength. They joined the
Battalion Reserve. Of the platoons which covered this retirement,
every officer and man was either killed or taken prisoner. All the
officers of the Company who were in action at the time the retirement
was ordered, remained with the covering platoons.
The individual fortunes of the 2nd and 3rd Brigades have brought us to
the events of Sunday afternoon, but it is necessary, to make the story
complete, to recur for a moment to the events of the morning. After a
very formidable attack the enemy succeeded in capturing the village of
St. Julien, which has so often been referred to in describing the
fortunes of the Canadian left. This success opened up a new and very
menacing line of advance, but by this time further reinforcements had
arrived.
[Illustration: Map--1st Canadian Division situation at noon, April 25th
1915]
Here, again, it became evident that the tactical necessities of the
situation dictated an offensive movement as the surest method of
arresting further progress. General Alderson, who was also in command
of the reinforcements, accordingly directed that an advance should be
made by two British brigades (the 10th Brigade under Brigadier-General
Hull,[11] and the Northumberland Brigade), which had been brought up in
support. The attack was thrust through the Canadian left and centre;
and as the troops making it swept on, many of them going to certain
death, they paused an instant, and, with ringing cheers for Canada,
gave the first indication to the Division of the warm admiration which
their exertions had excited in the British Army.[12]
The advance was indeed costly, but it was made with a devotion which
could not be denied. The story is one of which the Brigades may be
proud, but it does not belong to the special account of the fortunes of
the Canadian contingent. It is sufficient for our purpose to notice
that the attack succeeded in its object, and the German advance along
the line, momentarily threatened, was arrested.
We had reached, in describing the events of the afternoon, the points
at which the trenches of the 2nd Brigade had been completely destroyed.
This Brigade, the 3rd Brigade, and the considerable reinforcements
which by this time filled the gap between the two Brigades, were
gradually driven, fighting every yard, upon a line running roughly from
Fortuin, south of St. Julien, in a north-easterly direction towards
Passchendaele. Here the two Brigades were relieved by two British
brigades, after exertions as glorious, as fruitful, and, alas! as
costly, as soldiers have ever been called upon to make.
Monday morning broke bright and clear and found the Canadians behind
the firing line. But this day, too, was to bring its anxieties. The
attack was still pressed, and it became necessary to ask
Brigadier-General Currie whether he could once more call on his
shrunken Brigade.
"The men are tired," this indomitable soldier replied, "but they are
ready and glad to go again to the trenches." And so, once more, a hero
leading heroes, the General marched back the men of the 2nd Brigade,
reduced to a quarter of its strength, to the very apex of the line as
it existed at that moment. The Brigade held this position throughout
Monday; on Tuesday it occupied reserve trenches, and on Wednesday it
was relieved and retired to billets in the rear.[13]
It is a fitting climax to the story of the Canadians at Ypres that the
last blows were struck by one who had borne himself throughout
gallantly and resourcefully. Lieut.-Colonel Watson, on the evening of
Wednesday, April 28th, was ordered to advance with his Battalion and
dig a line of trenches which were to link up the French on the left and
a battalion of the Rifle Brigade on the right. It was both a difficult
and a dangerous task, and Lieut.-Colonel Watson could only employ two
companies to dig, while two companies acted as cover.
They started out at 7 o'clock in the evening from the field in which
they had bivouacked all day west of Brielen, and made north, towards
St. Julien. And, even as they started, there was such a hail of
shrapnel, intended either for the farm which served as the Battalion's
Headquarters, or for the road junction which they would have to cross,
that they were compelled to stand fast.
At 8 o'clock, however, Colonel Watson was able to move on again; and,
as the men marched north, terrible scenes _en route_ showed the fury of
the artillery duel which had been in progress since the Battalion had
moved out of the firing line on the morning of the 26th.
At the bridge crossing Ypres Canal, guides met the Regiment, and the
extraordinary precautions which were taken to hide its movements
indicated the seriousness of its errand.
The Battalion had suffered heavy losses at this very spot only a few
days before, and a draft of five officers and 112 men from England had
reinforced it only that morning. And the officers and men of this
draft received an awful baptism of fire within practically a few hours
of their arrival at the front. High explosives were bursting and
thundering; there were shells searching hedgerows and the avenue of
trees between which the Battalion marched, and falling in dozens into
every scrap of shelter where the enemy imagined horses or wagons might
be hidden. Slowly and cautiously, the march continued until the
Battalion arrived behind the first line trench held by a battalion of
the King's Own Scottish Borderers. Through this line Colonel Watson
and his men had to pass, and on every side were strewn the bodies of
scores of Ghurkas, the gallant little soldiers who had that morning
perished while attempting the almost impossible task of advancing to
the assault over nearly 700 yards of open ground.
When the Battalion reached the place where the trenches were to be dug,
two companies were led out by Colonel Watson himself, to act as cover
to the other two companies, which then began digging along the line
marked by the Engineers. And if ever men worked with nervous energy,
these men did that night. From enemy rifles on the ridge came the ping
of bullets, which mercifully passed overhead, although, judging from
the persistency and multitude of their flares, the enemy must have
known that work was being done.
It was two o'clock in the morning before the work was finished, and the
Battalion turned its back upon about as bad a situation as men have
ever worked in.
The return to the billets at Vlamertinghe was distressing in the
extreme. Officers and men, alike worn out, slept on the march
oblivious of route and destination.
During the night of May 3rd[14] and the morning of the 4th, the 1st
Canadian Infantry Brigade withdrew to billets at Bailleul. On the
night of May 4th Lieut.-General Alderson handed over the command of
this section of front to the General Officer Commanding the 4th
Division, and removed his headquarters to Nieppe, withdrawing the 3rd
Canadian Infantry Brigade on the night of the 4th, and the 2nd Canadian
Infantry Brigade on the 5th of May.[15]
Such, in the most general outline, is the story of a great and glorious
feat of arms. A story told so soon after the event, while rendering
bare justice to units whose doings fell under the eyes of particular
observers, must do less than justice to others who played their
part--and all did--as gloriously as those whose special activities it
is possible, even at this stage, to describe. But the friends of men
who fought in other battalions may be content in the knowledge that
they too will learn, when the historian has achieved the complete
correlation of diaries of all units, the exact part which each played
in these unforgettable days. It is rather accident than special
distinction which has made it possible to select individual battalions
for mention.
It would not be right to close even this account without a word of
tribute to the auxiliary services. The signallers were always cool and
resourceful. The telegraph and telephone wires were being constantly
cut, and many belonging to this service rendered up their lives in the
discharge of their duty, carrying out repairs with the most complete
calmness in exposed positions. The despatch carriers, as usual,
behaved with the greatest bravery. Theirs is a lonely life, and very
often a lonely death. One cycle messenger lay on the ground badly
wounded. He stopped a passing officer and delivered his message, with
some verbal instructions. These were coherently given, but he swooned
almost before the words were out of his mouth.
The Artillery never flagged in the sleepless struggle in which so much
depended upon its exertions. Not a Canadian gun was lost in the long
battle of retreat. And the nature of the position renders such a
record very remarkable. One battery of four guns found itself in such
a situation that it was compelled to turn two of its guns directly
about and fire on the enemy in positions almost diametrically opposite.
The members of the Canadian Engineers, and of the Canadian Army Medical
Corps, rivalled in coolness, endurance and valour the men of the
battalions who were their comrades. On more than one occasion during
that long battle of many desperate engagements, our Engineers held
positions, working with the infantry. Lieut.-Colonel (now
Brigadier-General) Armstrong commanded our Engineers throughout the
battle. A fighting force, a constructive force, and a destructive
force in the battle of Ypres, the Canadian Engineers plied their
rifles, entrenched, and mined bridges across the canal (the approaches
to which they held) in case of final necessity.
No attempt has been made in this description to explain the recent
operations except in so far as they spring from--or are connected
with--the fortunes of the Canadian Division. The exertions of the
troops who reinforced, and later relieved, the Canadians, were not less
glorious, but the long-drawn-out struggle is a lesson to the whole
Empire--"Arise, O Israel!" The Empire is engaged in a struggle,
without quarter and without compromise, against an enemy still superbly
organised, still immensely powerful, still confident that its strength
is the mate of its necessities. To arms, then, and still to arms! In
Great Britain, in Canada, in Australia, there is need, and there is
need now, of a community organised alike in military and industrial
co-operation.
The graveyard of Canada in Flanders is large. It is very large. Those
who lie there have left their mortal remains on alien soil. To Canada
they have bequeathed their memories and their glory.
"On Fame's eternal camping ground
Their silent tents are spread,
And Glory guards with solemn round
The bivouac of the dead."
[1] Canadians owe a debt of gratitude to Lt.-Colonel Lamb for the
extreme care and detailed accuracy with which he has compiled the maps
and diaries of the 1st Canadian Division.
[2] The 2nd and 3rd Canadian Infantry Brigades took over the line from
the French 11th Division on April 17th. It was perhaps true that the
French had not developed at this part of the line the elaborate system
of support trenches which had been a model to the British troops in the
south. The Canadians had planned several supporting points which were
in a half-finished state when the gas attack developed.
[3] The great bombardment of Ypres began on April 20th, when the first
42 centimetre shell fell into the Grand Place of the little Flemish
city. The only military purpose which the wanton destruction of Ypres
could serve was the blocking of our supply trains, and on the first day
alone 15 children were killed as they were playing in the streets,
while many other civilians perished in the ruined houses.
[4] The French troops, largely made up of Turcos and Zouaves, surged
wildly back over the canal and through the village of Vlamertinghe just
at dark. The Canadian reserve battalions (of the 1st Brigade) were
amazed at the anguished faces of many of the French soldiers, twisted
and distorted by pain, who were gasping for breath and vainly trying to
gain relief by vomiting. Traffic in the main streets of the village
was demoralised, and gun-carriages and ammunition wagons added to the
confusion.
The chaos in the main streets of the village was such that any coherent
movement of troops was, for the moment, impossible; gun-carriages and
ammunition wagons were inextricably mixed, while galloping gun-teams
without their guns were careering wildly in all directions. When order
had been to some extent restored, Staff Officers learned from fugitives
who were in a condition to speak that the Algerians had left thousands
of their comrades dead and dying along the four-mile gap in our Ally's
lines through which the Germans were pouring behind their gas.
[5] Colonel Geddes was killed on the morning of April 28th in tragic
circumstances. He had done magnificent work with his composite force,
and after five days' terrific fighting received orders to retire. He
was just leaving his dug-out, after handing over his command, when a
shell ended his career.
[6] Although methods for resisting gas attacks were quickly developed
when the need was realised, the Canadians were, of course, at this time
unprovided with the proper means for withstanding them. They
discovered that a wet handkerchief stuffed in the mouth gave relief.
To fall back before the gas attack merely meant that one kept pace with
it, while the effort of running, and the consequent heavy breathing,
simply increased the poison in the lungs. The Canadians quickly
realised that it was best to face the cloud, and hold on in the hope
that the blindness would be temporary, and the cutting pain would pass
away.
[7] Col. Hart-McHarg and Col. Boyle--who fell on the same day that Col.
Hart-McHarg was wounded--lie in the same burial ground, the new
cemetery at Poperinghe.
[8] The losses of the 7th Battalion were heavy even for this time of
heavy losses. Within a period of less than three days its colonel was
killed and 600 of its officers and men were either killed or wounded,
including every company commander. Some companies lost every officer.
[9] Lieut. E. D. Bellew, machine-gun officer of the Battalion, hoisted
a loaf stuck on the point of his bayonet, in defiance of the enemy,
which drew upon him a perfect fury of fire; he fought his gun till it
was smashed to atoms, and then continued to use relays of loaded rifles
instead, until he was wounded and taken prisoner.
[10] The remarkable services rendered at St. Julien by the Commandant,
Lt.-Col. Loomis, of the 13th Batt., ought not to be forgotten. This
officer remained at his post under constant and very heavy fire until
the moment of evacuation, and did much by the example of his
tranquillity to encourage the troops.
[11] Brig.-General Hull rendered distinguished services throughout this
trying time. In addition to his own Brigade--the 10th--General Hull
commanded for a considerable period the York and Durham Brigade, the
2nd King's Own Yorkshire Light Infantry, the 9th Queen Victoria Rifles,
the 1st Suffolk Regiment, the 12th London Regiment, and the 4th
Canadian Battalion.
[12] The particular objective of the attack was the village of St.
Julien, the wood near by, and the enemy's trenches between these two
points. Arrangements had been made with the Canadian Artillery for a
preparatory bombardment of the wood, and the St. Julien trenches, but
at the last moment the order to fire on St. Julien had to be cancelled
as it was found that some of the Canadians were still holding on in the
village although completely surrounded.
[13] On the morning of April 26th Lt.-Col. Kemis-Betty, Brigade Major,
and Major Mersereau, Staff Captain, were wounded by a shell. Colonel
Kemis-Betty, though his wound was serious, discharged his duty all day.
Major Mersereau, however, who was grievously injured, was carried into
General Currie's dug-out; and there, as no ambulance was available, he
lay till late that night. Lt.-Col. Mitchell, of the Canadian
Divisional Headquarters Staff, while on a general reconnaissance, heard
of the plight of the wounded officers, who were badly in need of
medical aid, and he determined to carry them to safety in his own car.
With very great difficulty, for the road was being heavily shelled,
Colonel Mitchell got his motor as far as Fortuin. The rest of the way
had to be covered on foot, and when General Currie's dug-out was
reached it was found that only Colonel Kemis-Betty could be moved.
Major Mersereau's injuries were such that he had to be left in the
dug-out until it was practicable to bring up an ambulance. Finally, he
was removed, and is now in Canada slowly recovering from his wounds.
[14] At 5 o'clock on the afternoon of May 2nd the 1st Canadian Infantry
Brigade moved up in support of the 10th and 12th Infantry Brigades
(British) on account of a gas attack along our whole front. The gas
enveloped all our trenches except at our extreme right. The 10th
Infantry Brigade held fast, but the 12th Infantry Brigade was compelled
to fall back, for the attack was so heavy that men were dazed and
reeling, and utterly incapable of any further fighting. The 1st
Canadian Brigade was not called upon to resist the enemy, but the
movements of the troops show the effects of the gas, and how the men
who had to contend with it contrived to baffle the Germans. At 5.40
p.m. the Reserve Battalion of the 12th Infantry Brigade was thrown into
the battle. In the meantime the General Officer commanding the 10th
Infantry Brigade, observing the troops on his left retreating, very
judiciously sent up the 7th Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders to occupy
the vacated trenches, and arranged with the 3rd Cavalry Brigade to
assist them. These two units arrived in time to catch the enemy
advancing in the open, and inflicted severe losses on him. The manner
in which they went through the gas was worthy of great praise. Each
Company of the 2nd Essex regiment of the 12th Brigade had one platoon
in support about 150 yards in the rear of the first line. This platoon
waited until the gas had passed the front line trenches, and then,
advancing straight through the gas, occupied the front line trenches in
time to bring heavy fire to bear on the advancing Germans. Some of the
French infantry closed to the right, thus strengthening the Essex line,
while the French artillery gave an intense and excellently directed
fire, which raked the German lines. General Alderson says, "I
subsequently wrote to General Joppé thanking him for this help, and I
received a grateful acknowledgment of my letter."
[15] On General Alderson and the Staff of the 1st Canadian Division
there devolved during the battle the control of 47 Battalions, 2
Cavalry Brigades, Artillery, Engineers, &c. No greater tribute can be
paid to the resources and energy of the General and of his Divisional
Staff than to record that they handled and fought an Army adequately
and intelligently through one of the longest and most
bitterly-contested battles of the Western War.