PASSCHENDAELE.
We had not been in Fraser Camp for more than two days when we were
invited to pay a visit to some taped trenches close to Villers au Bois,
and maps of the area which they represented were freely distributed.
The successful capture of Vimy Ridge had certainly improved our
position considerably, but there was still a decided salient round the
city of Lens, which seemed to create a certain amount of uneasiness
among the H.Q. staff. To straighten out this salient was therefore the
object now in view, and to this end the entire Canadian Corps was to be
engaged. An assault through Avion and Méricourt, which were situated to
the south of Lens, combined with a strong demonstration north of that
city, was the plan of campaign to be adopted, the result of which, if
successful, would not only straighten the existing salient, but would
force the Germans to evacuate Lens itself.
Tanks were to be used in conjunction with the infantry, and in order to
become acquainted with their peculiarities we attended a demonstration
by the Tank Corps at Mailly, which was most instructive. For two solid
weeks we worked hard on this scheme, practising over the taped trenches
every day, and then suddenly the practices ceased, and strawberry jam
was substituted for the everlasting plum and apple. This generally
meant that the time for the attack was drawing near, but in this case
it did not materialize, for on the 14th of October we received orders
to move on the next day to Ourton and to entrain for Godewaersvelde, in
Belgium. This change of tactics, quite unforeseen, was not unpopular
with us, as we had not yet seen Belgium, and never having been there,
we thought we might like it, and this in spite of many prophecies to
the contrary.
After a very long and tedious train journey we arrived at our
destination and marched to billets in Caestre. After resting here for
two days and surprising the natives with our fondness for corn on the
cob, which until now they had used entirely as cattle fodder, we were
informed of the reason for our enforced presence in this district.
Operations in front of Ypres had reached a deadlock. The troops
engaged, consisting chiefly of Australians and New Zealanders, had
advanced nearly three miles under conditions that must have been almost
heartbreaking. It had poured with rain every day; the mud was well over
their knees, and they were enfiladed from both sides by the German
artillery, until finally, they were brought to a halt on the top of
Abraham Heights through sheer exhaustion and heavy casualties.
The German defences on this front consisted chiefly of "Pill
Boxes"--oblong, concrete constructions, made out of Portland cement (?)
and divided into several compartments with small, narrow entrances
either at the side or back.
The average head protection in one of these was from four to five feet
of solid concrete, and our field artillery shells would bounce off them
like tennis balls off the sidewalk.
As soon as the shelling ceased, out would come "Mr. Bosch" with his
machine guns, and from selected positions play havoc amongst our
troops, floundering around in the mud. Once in a while a twelve-inch
"how." would make a direct hit on one of these hornets' nests and then,
of course, Fritz would stay in there never to come out again. But a
twenty-five-foot target at a range of ten miles is a difficult one to
hit, and the majority of the "pill boxes" were captured by hand-to-hand
fighting.
The ground seemed to be composed of an endless series of ridges, and
you no sooner reached the top of one ridge than another more formidable
loomed up in front.
From Abraham Heights the Bellevue Spur (another name for a ridge)
dotted here and there with "pill boxes," stood out like a sentinel
keeping watch over the village of Passchendaele in the distance, and
it was plain to all around that fresh and experienced troops would be
needed at this point to effect its capture. There was perhaps no Corps
on the Western front at that time more capable of undertaking this
difficult task, or as numerically strong, as the Canadian Corps, and
that is the reason we ate corn at Caestre instead of hunting the Hun
around Lens.
Two more days' rest were given us to digest this news, and to enable
parties to visit the area of desolation and gloom which was to be the
scene of our future endeavours. Orders were then received to entrain
for Ypres, and our arrival at that historic ruin was greeted by many
cheers from the outgoing Australian units. From all they told us or
rather shouted at us as they crowded into the train we had just left,
we began to realize that we were not going to enjoy ourselves quite so
much as we thought. "Go to it, yer blighters," they yelled, and away we
went. Having occupied several "Camps" in the neighborhood of Wieltje,
the 9th Brigade, with the 116th Battalion in support, attacked the
Bellevue Spur on the morning of October 26th, and by the morning of
the 27th, after one of the fiercest and most bloody onslaughts in its
history, succeeded in destroying the entire German garrison.
On the evening of the 27th the 116th Battalion took over the front line
from the remnants of the Brigade, remaining there until relieved by
the 49th Battalion (7th Brigade)--during the early hours of the 29th
October.
We were not sorry to move away from our present gruesome surroundings;
but it was not until the 7th November that we actually said "good-bye"
to them, as we thought, and moved by bus to Vlamertinghe, and from
there to the Watou area, east of Poperinghe, having lost forty-two
other ranks killed, three officers and one hundred and one other ranks
wounded, and twelve other ranks gassed.
[Illustration: THE "ROUGH ROAD" TO PASSCHENDAELE, 1917. (Canadian
Official Copyright)]