YPRES, 1915
The Second Battle for Ypres, as the fighting at Langemarck and St.
Julien is officially designated, was largely a regimental and company
officers' battle. This does not, however, reflect adversely on the
brigade and other staffs, who did all that was humanly possible with the
information that was at hand. Even at this date there are questions
about the action that cannot be cleared up until it will be permissible
to reproduce the whole of the war diaries of the various units that took
part.
On the 2nd and 3rd Canadian Brigades fell the brunt of the fighting in
which the Canadians took part, as the 1st Brigade was in rest billets in
reserve.
But, without detracting from their work, it must be admitted that the
account by the official "Eye Witness" does not give the 1st Brigade the
credit it deserves. This, however, is inevitable. In a modern battle
one sees nothing but what happens in the immediate vicinity of the
observer, and we must therefore depend largely on the accounts furnished
by others of what occurred in other parts of the field.
It will do no harm, however, to quote from the description by an
officer, since killed, of the action of one of the battalions of this
brigade, which from respect for the censor must remain nameless.
It would, however, serve no purpose to conceal the true names of those
officers and men whom he thought fit to mention, for the majority of
them have also laid down their lives in the field.
"During the latter part of the evening of April 22nd French and Algerian
troops in large numbers began retreating through _Vlamertinghe_ in the
utmost confusion, throwing away their arms and crying 'Asphyxie!
Asphyxie!!' Empty limbers and gun teams without their guns dashed down
the road, already thick with refugees and fugitive soldiers. Captain
Culling therefore ordered the company to stand to arms and be ready to
move off as soon as orders were received.
"Orders came about 9 p.m., and we moved off to the battalion rendezvous
at the junction of the _Brielen_ road, where we found the rest of the
battalion formed up. From here we continued north easterly up the
_Brielen_ road, across the canal toward _St. Julien_.
"A short distance past the canal the battalion deployed from the road,
No. 3 Company being on our (No. 2 Company's) left and continued to
advance.
"Moving forward in this formation was very difficult owing to the thick
darkness and the ground being so cut up by hedges, but Captain Culling
got in touch with the battalion on our left, which turned out to be the
_Canadian Scottish_ under Lieutenant-Colonel Leckie, at about the
farmhouse that afterwards became our dressing station. The advance
continued slightly more to the north, and a few minutes later the
company lay deployed about fifty yards in rear of a trench (A B)
occupied by the 10th Canadian Battalion. They were enfiladed from a
German trench to their right rear (C) and an adjoining farmhouse (M G).
"Wounded men, including their commanding officer, Lieutenant-Colonel
Boyle, lay everywhere about the trench and parados, but they were too
weak to attack this short piece of trench, although it was rendering
their position quite untenable.
[Illustration]
"One of our platoons successfully attacked this trench, while another
under Mr. Doxsee attacked the neighbouring house and succeeded in
driving the enemy from it with a loss of only two men killed and another
wounded.
"Steps were then taken to improve the position by reversing the parapet
of the captured trench (C) and extending the original trench to the
right. The house (M G), too, was prepared for defence, and thus the
night was passed and no man slept.
"At dawn of the 23rd the enemy commenced shelling the house and trench,
but the losses inflicted were slight owing to the two parallel hedges,
which made both ranging and observing difficult. They then commenced an
attack on the house supported by machine-gun fire, which proved a far
more serious affair, as in the house itself we lost two men killed and
some wounded, while in the trench we lost two valuable men,
Platoon-Sergeant Abelarde and Lance-Corporal McGurk. The former had
crawled out along the hedge to a dangerous and commanding knoll, and
from there put eighteen of the enemy out of action before a sniper's
bullet found him. The dead lay exposed where they fell, and could
readily be counted from the house.
"About 9 o'clock, while Captain Culling was organising a counter-attack
on a small portion of the German trench (D E), two companies of the
Toronto Battalion under a major arrived as reinforcements, and took
cover behind our parados as there was no room in the trench. Captain
Culling asked that they take on the attack, and Mr. Doxsee volunteered
to lead it. The response was feeble, and the attack petered out to
nothing, Bugler Hunt and a man of the _Toronto_ Battalion being killed
by the side of Doxsee, who, finding himself alone, returned to the
trench unharmed.
"The _Toronto_ men now tried a flanking movement on our immediate right,
but lost eight men and had to abandon the attempt. However, coupled with
our fire from the second story of the house, the effect was sufficient
to cause the enemy to retire from this point, and the remainder of the
day passed quietly, though the enemy's artillery continued to shell our
position and a machine-gun played on the house at every sign of
movement. By evening we had some seventeen casualties, a remarkedly
small number considering the shelling.
"As soon as darkness set in, under cover of a few skirmishers, two
platoons continued our original trench (A B) along a line (B B 1) about
fifteen feet in rear of the forward hedge surrounding the house and
linked this trench to the position in our right rear with a
communication trench, the majority of this work being done with the
small entrenching tool.
"This enabled us to get the whole company under cover, and with a
machine-gun of the _10th Battalion_ in the house we felt fairly secure.
Captain Hooper held a house immediately in front of our lines called
_Hooper House_, and our original trench was held by a mixture of our own
men and the Canadian Scottish under Mr. Hugill.
"Dawn on Saturday found our positions unaltered, but about 7 o'clock
orders came from Lieutenant-Colonel Rodgers, our second in command, to
take over all of the original trench and relieve the _Scottish_.
"Simultaneously Mr. Doxsee called for reinforcements to repel a direct
frontal attack on our forward trench and machine-gun house.
"Reinforcements hurried up along the new communication trench, but were
anticipated by Mr. Scott and a score or so of men, who dashed across the
open and repelled the attack, Mr. Doxsee being unfortunately killed at
this point.
"Captain Richardson now took over _machine-gun house_, and his company
(No. 2) relieved us along our original trench. The two Toronto companies
had entrenched to our right, forming a narrow and very dangerous salient
(C F).
"All day this house was the target of the enemy's artillery and
machine-guns, the latter sweeping the building so effectively that the
garrison was forced to lie flat on the floors.
"Six attacks were made by their infantry and repulsed before they could
get closer than two hundred yards, in spite of the fact that our only
machine-gun jammed incessantly owing to the rapidity of its firing.
About 2 p.m. one of our own guns came up, and from then on both guns
remained in action.
"About this time troops in French uniforms were seen moving down a road
on our right toward _St. Julien_. At first no notice was taken of them,
but presently it became apparent that these were Germans, who had
adopted this ruse to get behind our flank.
"Fire was immediately opened on them with what rifles could be spared
from our front line, and one machine-gun was hastily posted in a barn
(G), from which it did excellent work.
"At 3.30 orders were received to retire in the direction of battalion
headquarters. (These orders had originally been sent out at 2 o'clock,
and when Lieutenant-Colonel Watson received no response he sent them
again and again until he finally saw the last company passing the
shattered house that had served alike as dressing station and battalion
headquarters, and not till then did he leave the field himself.)
"The retirement took place across open ground swept by both shrapnel and
machine-guns, and the men just seemed to melt away.
"Men straggled in for hours, and when the battalion finally assembled at
brigade headquarters at _St. Jean_ the company had lost one hundred and
thirty-nine of all ranks, of which four were officers."
It was a black situation. No one knew how other parts of the field had
fared or how much ground had been lost. British troops were being rushed
up to relieve the 2nd and 3rd Brigades, who in some incredible manner
still held on in spite of two attacks with the gas. But they had paid a
terrible price. Of the former brigade there were scarcely a thousand men
and of the latter not many more.
If this, then, is the account of what one battalion--nay, what one or
two companies--accomplished, what must be the stories, as yet untold, of
those other battalions of the First Canadian Division that filled the
gap that led to Calais?