PRINCESS PATRICIA'S LIGHT INFANTRY
Review in Lansdowne Park--Princess Patricia presents the Colours--South
African veterans and reservists--Princess Patricias in the
trenches--St. Eloi--Major Hamilton Gault--A dangerous
reconnaissance--Attack on a sap--A German onslaught--Lessons from the
enemy--A march to battle--Voormezeele--Death of Colonel
Farquhar--Polygone Wood--Regiment's work admired--A move towards
Ypres--Heavily shelled--A new line--Arrival of Major Gault--Regiment
sadly reduced--Gas shells--A German rush--Major Gault wounded--Lieut.
Niven in command--A critical position--Corporal Dover's heroism--A
terrible day--Shortage of small arms ammunition--Germans' third
attack--Enemy repulsed--Regiment reduced to 150 rifles--Relieved--A
service for the dead--In bivouac--A trench line at
Armentières--Regiment at full strength again--Moved to the south--Back
in billets--Princess Patricias instruct new troops--Rejoin Canadians--A
glorious record.
"Fair lord, whose name I know not--noble it is,
I well believe, the noblest--will you wear
My favour at this tourney?"
--TENNYSON.
On Sunday, August 23rd, 1914, on a grey and gloomy day, immense numbers
of people assembled in Lansdowne Park, in the City of Ottawa, to attend
divine service with the Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry,
and to witness the presentation to the Battalion of the Colours which
she had worked with her own hand. The Regiment, composed very largely
of South African Veterans and Reservists, paraded with bands and
pipers, and then formed three sides of a square in front of the grand
stand. Between the Regiment and the stand were the Duchess of
Connaught, Princess Patricia, and their Ladies-in-Waiting. The
Princess Patricia, on presenting the Colours to Colonel Farquhar, the
Commanding Officer of the Regiment, said: "I have great pleasure in
presenting you with these Colours which I have worked myself; I hope
they will be associated with what I believe will be a distinguished
corps; I shall follow the fortunes of you all with the deepest
interest, and I heartily wish every man good luck and a safe return."
Not even the good wishes of this beautiful and gracious Princess have
availed to safeguard the lives of the splendid Battalion which carried
her Colours to the battlefields of Flanders; but every member of the
Battalion resolved, as simply and as finely as the knights of mediæval
days, that he would justify the belief in its future so proudly
expressed by the lady whose name he was honoured to bear.
It is now intended to give some account of the fortunes of the
Battalion since the day, which seems so long ago, when with all the
pride and circumstance of military display, it received the regimental
colours amid the cheers of the citizens of Ottawa.
The Princess Patricias, containing a far larger proportion of
experienced soldiers than any other unit in the Canadian Division, was
not called upon to endure so long a period of preparation as the rest
of the Canadian Expeditionary Force; and at the close of the year 1914
they sailed from England at a moment when reinforcements were greatly
needed in France, to strengthen the 80th Brigade of the 27th Division,
and to take their part in a line thinly held and very fiercely
assailed. For the months of January and February the Regiment took its
turn in the trenches, learning the hard lessons of the unpitying winter
war. A considerable length of trenches in front of the village of St.
Eloi was committed to its charge. Its machine-guns were planted upon a
mound which rose abruptly from the centre of the trenches.
The early days were uneventful and the casualties not more than normal,
although some very valuable officers were lost. On February 28th,
1915, the Germans completed a sap, from which the Battalion became
constantly subject to annoyance, danger, and loss. It was therefore
determined by the Battalion Commander to dispose of the menace. Major
Hamilton Gault and Lieut. Colquhoun carried out by night a dangerous
reconnaissance of the German position, and returned with much
information. Lieut. Colquhoun went out a second time, alone, to
supplement it, but never returned. He is to-day a prisoner of war in
Germany.
The attack was organised under Lieut. Crabbe; the bomb-throwers were
commanded by Lieut. Papineau. The last-named officer, a very brave
soldier, is a lineal descendant of the rebel of 1837. He is himself
loyal to his family traditions except when dangers and wars menace the
Empire. At such moments, in spite of himself, his hand flies to the
sword. The snipers were under Corporal Ross. Troops were organised in
support with shovels ready to demolish the parapet of the enemy trench.
The ground to be traversed was short enough, for the sappers' nearest
point was only fifteen yards from the Canadian trench. The attacking
party rushed this space and threw themselves into the sap. Corporal
Ross, who was first in the race, was killed immediately. Lieut. Crabbe
then led the detachment down the trench while Lieut. Papineau ran down
the outside of the parapet throwing bombs into the trench. Lieut.
Crabbe made his way through the trench, followed by his men, until his
progress was arrested by a barrier which the Germans had constructed.
In the meantime, troops had occupied the rear face of the sap to guard
against a counter-attack. A platoon under Sergeant-Major Lloyd, who
was killed, attacked and demolished the enemy parapet for a
considerable distance. The trench was occupied long enough to complete
the work of demolishing the parapet. With dawn, orders were given for
the attackers to withdraw, and as the grey morning light began to
break, they made their way to their own trenches, with a difficult task
well and successfully performed. Major Gault was wounded in the course
of the engagement, in which all ranks behaved with dash and gallantry,
although the men had been for six weeks employed in trench warfare
under the most depressing conditions of cold and damp.
On March 1st the enemy made a vigorous attack on the Princess Patricias
with bombs and shell fire. Between the 1st and the 6th, a fierce
contest was continually waged for the site of the sap which the
Battalion had destroyed. Sometimes the Princess Patricias defended it;
sometimes the British battalions, with whom they were brigaded and
whose staunch and faithful comrades they had become.
On March 6th, carrying out a carefully concerted plan, our men withdrew
from the trench lines, which were still only twenty or thirty yards
from the German trenches; and our artillery, making very successful
practice, obliterated the sap and the trench which the enemy had used
for the purpose of creating it. The enemy were blown out of the
forward trenches, and fragments of dead Germans were thrown into the
air, in some cases as high as sixty feet. The bombardment was carried
out with high explosive shells.
The Canadian soldier is always adaptable, and the Battalion learned,
when they captured the sap on February 28th, that the German trenches
were five feet deep with parapets two feet high, and yet that every day
they were pumped and kept dry. This knowledge resulted in a
considerable improvement in the trenches occupied by the Regiment. The
experience was welcome, for the men had been standing in water all
through the winter months and the Regiment had suffered much from
frostbite.
On March 13th, while the Princess Patricias were in billets, the
Germans, perhaps in reply to our offensive at Neuve Chapelle, made a
vigorous attack in overwhelming numbers upon the trenches and mound at
St. Eloi. The attack, which was preceded by a heavy artillery
bombardment, was successful, and it became necessary to attempt by a
counterattack to arrest any further development.
The Battalion was billeted in Westoutre, where, at 5.30 on March 14th,
peremptory orders were received to prepare for departure. At 7 p.m.
the march was begun. At Zevecoten the Princess Patricias met a
battalion of the King's Royal Rifle Corps, and marched to Dickebush.
At 9.30 it reached the cross roads of Kruistraathoek. Here a short
halt was made, after which the Battalion reached Voormezeele, where it
was drawn up on the roadside. While it was in this position reports
were brought in that the Germans were advancing in large numbers
towards the eastern end of Voormezeele. The Battalion Commander,
therefore, as a precaution against surprise, detailed Number 4 Company
of the Battalion to occupy the position on the east. Soon after 2 a.m.
orders were received to co-operate with a battalion of the Rifle
Brigade in an attack on the St. Eloi mound, which had been lost early
in the day. The zone of the operations of the Battalion was to the
east of the Voormezeele-Warneton road.
The following rough diagram may make the position clear:--
[Illustration: Map--the Voormezeele-St. Eloi area]
The actual situation in the front line was still obscure. It was known
that the mound and certain trenches to the west of it, were in German
hands. It was also known that towards the east we had lost certain
trenches known to our Intelligence Staff as P and A. It was uncertain
whether the trench T was still held by our troops. It was decided, in
a matter in which certainty was unattainable, to proceed towards a farm
building which was an easily recognised objective. This course at
least promised information, for if trench T had fallen it was certain
that the Battalion would at once be heavily attacked. If it was still
intact the Battalion would, it was hoped, cover the commencement of an
assault along the German line against trenches A and P and the mound,
successively.
The alternative was to advance southwards with the Battalion right on
the Ypres-St. Eloi road. The adoption of this plan would have meant
slow progress through the enclosures round St. Eloi, and the subsequent
attack would have been exposed to heavy flanking fire from trenches A
and P.
The progress of the Battalion was necessarily slow; the street in
Voormezeele was full of stragglers. Touch was difficult to maintain
across country without constant short halts. It was necessary always
to advance with a screen of scouts thrown out.
It was ascertained in St. Eloi that trench A had been retaken by
British troops. This knowledge modified the plan provisionally
adopted. The Battalion altered its objective from the farm building to
a breastwork 200 yards to the west of it. This point was reached about
twenty minutes before daylight, and an attack was immediately organised
by Number 2 Company against trench P, approaching it from the back of
trench A. The attack was made in three parties.
The advance was made with coolness and resolution, but the attackers
were met by heavy machine-gun fire from the mound. No soldiers in the
world could have forced their way through, for the fire swept
everything before it. It was clear that no hope of a surprise existed,
and to have spent another company upon reinforcement would have been a
useless and bloody sacrifice. Three platoons were, therefore, detailed
to hold the right of the breastwork in immediate proximity to the
mound, and the rest of the Battalion was withdrawn to Voormezeele,
reaching Dickebush about 8 a.m.[1]
The forces engaged behaved with great steadiness throughout a trying
and unsuccessful night, and at daylight withdrew over open ground
without Voormezeele, reaching Dickebush about 8 a.m.
On March 20th the Battalion sustained a severe loss in the death, by a
stray bullet, of its Commanding Officer, Colonel Farquhar. He had been
Military Secretary to the Duke of Connaught. This distinguished
officer had done more for the Battalion than it would be possible in a
short chapter to record. The Regiment, in fact, was his creation. A
strict disciplinarian, he was nevertheless deeply beloved in an army
not always patient of discipline tactlessly asserted; he was always
cheerful, always unruffled, and always resourceful. Lieut.-Colonel H.
C. Buller succeeded him in command of the Regiment.
After the death of Lieut.-Colonel Farquhar, the Battalion again retired
to rest, and it has not since returned to the scene of its earliest
experience in trench warfare. On April 9th it took up a line on the
Polygone Wood, in the Ypres salient, and there did its round of duty
with the customary relief in billets. By this time the men were
becoming familiar with their surroundings, and gave play to their
native ingenuity. Near the trenches they built log huts from trees in
the woods, and it was a common thing for French, Belgian, and British
officers to visit the camp to admire the work of the Regiment.
Breastworks were built also behind the trenches under cover of the
woods, and the trenches themselves were greatly improved.
The Battalion presently moved into billets in the neighbourhood of
Ypres, and on April 20th, during the heavy bombardment of that unhappy
town which preceded the immortal stand of the Canadian Division, it was
ordered to leave billets, and on the evening of that day moved once
again to the trenches.
From April 21st and through the following days of the second battle of
Ypres the Regiment remained in trenches some distance south and west of
the trenches occupied by the Canadian Division They were constantly
shelled with varying intensity, and all through those critical days
waited, with ever-growing impatience, for the order that never came to
take part in the battle to the north, where their kinsmen were
undergoing so cruel an ordeal.
On May 3rd, after the modification of the line to the north, the
Battalion was withdrawn to a subsidiary line some distance in the rear.
From eight in the evening to midnight small parties were silently
withdrawn, until the trenches were held with a rearguard of fifteen men
commanded by Lieut. Lane. Rapid fire was maintained for more than an
hour, and the rear-guard then withdrew without casualties.
On May 4th the Regiment occupied the new line. On the morning of that
day a strong enemy attack developed. This was repulsed with
considerable loss to the assailants, and was followed by a heavy
bombardment throughout the day, which demolished several of the
trenches. At night the Regiment was relieved by the King's Shropshire
Light Infantry and withdrawn to reserve trenches. In this unhealthy
neighbourhood no place, by this time, was safe, and on May 5th,
Lieut.-Colonel Buller was unfortunate enough to lose an eye from the
splinter of a shell which exploded 100 yards away. Major Gault arrived
during the day and took over command. The Battalion was still in high
spirits, and cheered the arrival of an officer to whom all ranks were
attached.
Just after dark on the night of May 6th, the Battalion returned to the
trenches and relieved the 2nd King's Shropshire Light Infantry.
Throughout the night, and all the following day, it was assailed by a
constant and heavy bombardment. The roll call on the night of the 7th
showed the strength of the Battalion as 635.
The day that followed was at once the most critical and the most costly
in the history of the Battalion. Early in the morning, particularly
heavy shelling began on the right flank, soon enfilading the fire
trenches. At 5.30 it grew in intensity, and gas shells began to fall.
At the same time a number of Germans were observed coming at the double
from the hill in front of the trench. This movement was arrested by a
heavy rifle fire.
By 6 a.m. every telephone-wire, both to the Brigade Headquarters and
also to the trenches, had been cut. All signallers, pioneers,
orderlies, and servants at Battalion Headquarters were ordered into the
support trenches, for the needs of the moment left no place for
supernumeraries. Every single Canadian upon the strength was from that
time forward in one or other of the trenches. A short and fierce
struggle decided the issue for the time being. The advance of the
Germans was checked, and those of the enemy who were not either
sheltered by buildings, dead or wounded, crawled back over the crest of
the ridge to their own trenches. By this time the enemy had two, and
perhaps three, machine-guns in adjacent buildings, and were sweeping
the parapets of both the fire and support trenches. An orderly took a
note to Brigade Headquarters informing them exactly of the situation of
the Battalion.
About 7 a.m., Major Gault, who had sustained his men by his coolness
and example, was severely hit by a shell in the left arm and thigh. It
was impossible to move him, and he lay in the trench, as did many of
his wounded companions, in great anguish but without a murmur, for over
ten hours.
The command was taken over by Lieut. Niven, the next senior officer who
was still unwounded. Heavy Howitzers using high explosives, combined
with field-guns from this moment in a most trying bombardment both on
the fire and support trenches. The fire trench on the right was blown
to pieces at several points.[2]
At 9 o'clock the shelling decreased in intensity; but it was the lull
before the storm, for the enemy immediately attempted a second infantry
advance. This attack was received with undiminished resolution. A
storm of machine-gun and rifle fire checked the assailants, who were
forced, after a few indecisive moments, to retire and take cover. The
Battalion accounted for large numbers of the enemy in the course of
this attack, but it suffered seriously itself. Captain Hill, Lieuts.
Martin, Triggs, and De Bay were all wounded at this time.
At half-past nine, Lieut. Niven established contact with the King's Own
Yorkshire Light Infantry on the left, and with the 4th Rifle Brigade on
the right. Both were suffering heavy casualties from enfilade fire;
and neither, of course, could afford any assistance. At this time the
bombardment recommenced with great intensity. The range of our
machine-guns was taken with extreme precision. All, without exception,
were buried. Those who served them behaved with the most admirable
coolness and gallantry. Two were dug out, mounted and used again. One
was actually disinterred three times and kept in action till a shell
annihilated the whole section. Corporal Dover stuck to his gun
throughout and, although wounded, continued to discharge his duties
with as much coolness as if on parade. In the explosion that ended his
ill-fated gun, he lost a leg and an arm, and was completely buried in
the _débris_. Conscious or unconscious, he lay there in that condition
until dusk, when he crawled out of all that was left of the obliterated
trench, and moaned for help. Two of his comrades sprang from the
support trench--by this time the fire trench--and succeeded in carrying
in his mangled and bleeding body. But as all that remained of this
brave soldier was being lowered into the trench a bullet put an end to
his sufferings. No bullet could put an end to his glory.
At half-past ten the left half of the right fire trench was completely
destroyed; and Lieut. Denison ordered Lieut. Clarke to withdraw the
remnant of his command into the right communicating trench. He
himself, with Lieut. Lane, was still holding all that was tenable of
the right fire trench with a few men still available for that purpose.
Lieut. Edwards had been killed. The right half of the left fire trench
suffered cruelly. The trench was blown in and the machine-gun put out
of action. Sergeant Scott, and the few survivors who still answered
the call, made their way to the communication trench, and clung
tenaciously to it, until that, too, was blown in. Lieut. Crawford,
whose spirits never failed him throughout this terrible day, was
severely wounded. Captain Adamson, who was handing out small arms
ammunition, was hit in the shoulder, but continued to work with a
single arm. Sergeant-Major Fraser, who was similarly engaged feeding
the support trenches with ammunition, was killed instantly by a bullet
in the head. At this time only four officers were left, Lieuts.
Papineau, Vandenberg, Niven, and Clark, of whom the last two began the
war in the ranks.
By 12 a.m. the supply of small arms ammunition badly needed
replenishment. In this necessity the snipers of the Battalion were
most assiduous in the dangerous task of carrying requests to the
Brigade Headquarters and to the Reserve Battalion, which was in the
rear at Belle-Waarde Lake. The work was most dangerous, for the ground
which had to be covered was continually and most heavily shelled. From
12 a.m. to 1.30 p.m. the Battalion held on under the most desperate
difficulties until a detachment of the 4th Rifle Brigade was sent up in
reinforcement The battered defenders of the support trench recognised
old friends coming to their aid in their moment of extreme trial, and
gave them a loud cheer as they advanced in support. Lieut. Niven
placed them on the extreme right, in order to protect the Battalion's
flanks. They remained in line with the Canadian support trenches,
protected by trees and hedges. They also sent a machine-gun and
section, which rendered invaluable service.
At 2 p.m. Lieut. Niven went with an orderly to the Headquarters, in
obedience to Brigade orders, to telephone to the General Officer
Commanding the Brigade, complete details of the situation. He returned
at 2.30 p.m. The orderlies who accompanied him both coming and going
were hit by high explosive shells.
At 3 p.m. a detachment of the 2nd King's Shropshire Light Infantry, who
were also old comrades in arms of the Princess Patricias, reached the
support line with twenty boxes of small arms ammunition. These were
distributed, and the party bringing them came into line as a
reinforcement, occupying the left end of the support trench. At four
o'clock the support trenches were inspected, and it was found that
contact was no longer maintained with the regiment on the left, the gap
extending for fifty yards. A few men (as many as could be spared) were
placed in the gap to do the best they could. Shortly afterwards news
was brought that the battalions on the left had been compelled to
withdraw, after a stubborn resistance, to a line of trenches a short
distance in the rear.
At this moment the Germans made their third and last attack. It was
arrested by rifle fire, although some individuals penetrated into the
fire trench on the right. At this point all the Princess Patricias had
been killed, so that this part of the trench was actually tenantless.
Those who established a footing were few in number, and they were
gradually dislodged; and so the third and last attack was routed as
successfully as those which had preceded it.
The afternoon dragged on, the tale of casualties constantly growing;
and at ten o'clock at night, the company commanders being all dead or
wounded, Lieuts. Niven and Papineau took a roll call. It disclosed a
strength of 150 rifles and some stretcher-bearers.
At 11.30 at night the Battalion was relieved by the 3rd King's Royal
Rifle Corps. The relieving unit helped those whom they replaced, in
the last sorrowful duty of burying those of their dead who lay in the
support and communicating trenches. Those who had fallen in the fire
trenches needed no grave, for the obliteration of their shelter had
afforded a decent burial to their bodies. Behind the damaged trenches,
by the light of the German flares and amid the unceasing rattle of
musketry, relievers and relieved combined in the last service which one
soldier can render another. Beside the open graves, with heads
uncovered, all that was left of the Regiment stood, while Lieut. Niven,
holding the Colours of Princess Patricia, battered, bloody, but still
intact, tightly in his hand, recalled all he could remember of the
Church of England service for the dead. Long after the service was
over the remnant of the Battalion stood in solemn reverie, unable it
seemed to leave their comrades, until the Colonel of the 3rd King's
Royal Rifle Corps gave them positive orders to retire, when, led by
Lieut. Papineau, they marched back, 150 strong, to reserve trenches.
On arrival they were instructed to proceed to another part of the
position, where during the day they were shelled, and lost five killed
and three wounded.
In the evening of the 10th the Battalion furnished a carrying party of
fifty men and one officer for small arms ammunition, and delivered
twenty-five boxes at Belle-Waarde Lake. One man was killed and two
wounded. It furnished also a digging party of 100 men, under Lieut.
Clarke, who constructed part of an additional support trench.
On May 13th the Regiment was in bivouac at the rear. The news arrived
that the 4th Rifle Brigade, their old and trusty comrades in arms, was
being desperately pressed. Asked to go to the relief, the Princess
Patricias formed a composite Battalion with the 4th King's Royal Rifle
Corps, and successfully made the last exertion which was asked of them
at this period of the war.
On May 15th Major Pelly arrived from England, where he had been
invalided on March 15th, and took over the command from Lieut. Niven,
who, during his period of command, had shown qualities worthy of a
regimental commander of any experience in any army in the world.
At the beginning of June the Princess Patricias took up a trench line
at Armentières and remained there until the end of August. In the
middle of July Lieut. C. J. T. Stewart, a brave officer who had been
severely wounded in the early days of the Spring, rejoined the
Battalion. Other officers returning after wounds, and reinforcements
from Canada, brought the Battalion up to full strength again.
Trench work and digging then alternated with rest. About the middle of
September the Battalion moved with the 27th Division to occupy a line
of trenches held by the 3rd Army in the south.
When the 27th Division was withdrawn from this line the Princess
Patricias were moved into billets far back from the battle zone, and
for a while the Battalion was detailed to instruct troops arriving for
the 3rd Army.
On November 27th, 1915, they were once again happily reunited with the
Canadian Corps after a long separation.
Such, told purposely in the baldest language, and without attempting
any artifice in rhetoric, is the history of Princess Patricia's Light
Infantry Regiment from the time it reached Flanders till the present
day.
Few, indeed, are left of the men who met in Lansdowne Park to receive
the regimental Colours nearly a year ago; but those who survive, and
the friends of those who have died, may draw solace from the thought
that never in the history of arms have Soldiers more valiantly
sustained the gift and trust of a Lady.
[1] Commenting on the Princess Patricias at St. Eloi, in Nelson's
"History of the War," Mr. John Buchan says:--"Princess Patricia's
Regiment was the first of the overseas troops to be engaged in an
action of first-rate importance, and their deeds were a pride to the
whole Empire--a pride to be infinitely heightened by the glorious
record of the Canadian Division in the desperate battles of April.
This Regiment five days later suffered an irreparable loss in the death
of its Commanding Officer, Col. Francis Farquhar, kindest of friends,
most whimsical and delightful of comrades, and bravest of men."
[2] The German bombardment had been so heavy since May 4th that a wood
which the Regiment had used in part for cover was completely demolished.