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"THE RED WATCH"
WITH THE FIRST CANADIAN
DIVISION IN FLANDERS
[Illustration: J.A. Currie]
"THE RED WATCH"
WITH THE FIRST CANADIAN
DIVISION IN FLANDERS
BY
COLONEL J.A. CURRIE, M.P.
[Illustration]
LONDON:
CONSTABLE AND COMPANY, LTD.
1916
COPYRIGHT, CANADA, 1916
By McCLELLAND, GOODCHILD & STEWART, LIMITED
TORONTO.
PRINTED IN CANADA.
DEDICATED TO THE MEMORY
OF THE CANADIAN SOLDIERS
WHO FELL IN FLANDERS
These for the Empire stood in war array,
Barring the Hun invader on his way;
Into the battle rushed at Duty's call,
Resolved to hold their trenches or to fall;
That Britons ne'er to tyrants bend the knee
But live as they were born, unyoked and free.
Now, in the bosom of a distant land
These warriors sleep, for such is God's command.
The Fates in all decree, and have their will,
And mortals must their destiny fulfill.
J.A. CURRIE, M.P.,
_Colonel_.
CONTENTS
PAGE
Preface 9
CHAPTER I
Kilties in Canada 11
CHAPTER II
"The Red Watch" or 48th Highlanders 18
CHAPTER III
The Newer Colonial Policy 22
CHAPTER IV
The Call to Arms 28
CHAPTER V
Organizing Imperial Battalions 37
CHAPTER VI
The New Armada 46
CHAPTER VII
Salisbury and the Stones of Stonehenge 63
CHAPTER VIII
Under Field Marshal Earl Roberts 72
CHAPTER IX
Moulding an Army 81
CHAPTER X
His Majesty the King, and Field Marshal the Right
Hon. Viscount Kitchener 90
CHAPTER XI
Off for France 100
CHAPTER XII
Somewhere in Flanders 112
CHAPTER XIII
With Field Marshal Sir John French 116
CHAPTER XIV
Under Hiex Shells 122
CHAPTER XV
The Flare-lit Trenches of Fromelles 132
CHAPTER XVI
With General Sir Douglas Haig 146
CHAPTER XVII
The Battle of Neuve Chapelle 155
CHAPTER XVIII
Billets and Bivouacs 174
CHAPTER XIX
With General Sir Horace Smith-Dorrien 182
CHAPTER XX
The Historic Salient at Ypres 189
CHAPTER XXI
The Red Cock Crows 197
CHAPTER XXII
German Gas and Turcos 204
CHAPTER XXIII
The Battle of St. Julien 216
CHAPTER XXIV
Hanging on 228
CHAPTER XXV
All that was Left of Them 245
CHAPTER XXVI
Digging in with General Snow 257
CHAPTER XXVII
Twelve Glorious Days 267
CHAPTER XXVIII
Winning Another Championship 275
CHAPTER XXIX
An Appreciation of Valor 281
CHAPTER XXX
Wanted, More and More of Them 286
Index 289
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
PAGE
Col. John A. Currie Frontispiece
Capt. R. Clifford Darling, Adjutant 24
Officers of the 48th Highlanders 40
Group of Non-Commissioned Officers, 48th Highlanders 56
Aboard Ship in Winter Garb 72
Our Pullman Coach 88
48th Highlanders at Church Service near Messines 104
Church Steeple where V.C. was Won 120
Signallers in Flanders 136
The Trenches in Winter 152
First Aid in the Trenches 168
Trenches at Neuve Chapelle 184
Map of the Original Salient at Ypres 194
The Famous Road to Ypres 200
Map of the Break in the Salient 206
Sniping Through a Port Hole 216
A narrow Escape 232
Map of the Salient Flattened 248
The Muster of the 48th Highlanders after the Battle of
St. Julien 264
PREFACE
The kind reception given to the rough notes from the Author's Diary,
which appeared first in the daily papers in Canada, encouraged the
production of this book. These notes, in order to make them more
readable, have been put in narrative form. There is no pretence that
this is a history of the war. It is only a string of pen pictures
describing life and incidents of the campaign common to almost every
corps in the field.
Where anything is omitted it must be borne in mind that the author
cannot give any information of a military character which might assist
the enemy while the war is in progress.
Opinions and observations on military matters are omitted. Discussions
on the merits of the various arms, equipments, rifles, work of the
staff, errors, omissions and criticisms of the manner in which the war
is conducted, must wait for a future volume.
It is hoped that this publication will encourage all young men to
"take their places in the ranks" and bear arms for the King and
Empire, regardless of whether our military system be volunteering,
conscription or National service.
It is more evident every day that there is need for the mobilization
and consolidation of all the resources of the Empire. Consolidated and
mobilized the Empire is self-sustaining and invincible. Its military
and financial powers would be quadrupled. There is nothing to justify
any delay in accomplishing this object except political expediency.
In union there would be not only immediate strength, but confidence
and harmony.
The world is just as full of brave deeds and stirring events as ever.
The British Empire is yet a lump of clay unfashioned and formless on
the wheel of the potter. That is the colonial view. It is for us to
help "Mould it nearer to our heart's desire."
It is a great privilege to live in this age when such glorious deeds
are being performed and history is being written. It is better still
to be permitted to die, doing brave deeds, that our Empire may live,
greater, freer and happier than ever.
TORONTO, OCTOBER 2ND, 1916.
CHAPTER I
KILTIES IN CANADA.
With this book as with many others the first chapter should be read
last. The reason it is placed first is that the chronological order
must be maintained. Besides, when stirring deeds by brave men are
recalled, it matters not how briefly, they demand better treatment
than being embalmed in an appendix.
This chapter deals with the first appearance of the Highland soldier
in Canada. That appearance was both interesting and tragic. The
stories and legends surrounding the campaigns of these brave men have
furnished many themes for the poet and novelist. This chapter can only
briefly refer to them.
If you search the great plains and rugged mountains of Canada from end
to end, you will find many beautiful plants and flowers, but not a
single spray of heather. Only in one spot in the whole vast Dominion
will you find the plant that is so characteristically Scottish,
growing naturally, and that is in Point Pleasant Park, Halifax.
Tradition has it that on this spot, in 1757, the soldiers of the
"Black Watch," the 42nd Highlanders, first set foot on Canadian soil.
Here in this park, one of the most beautiful in America, the visitor
is shown a plot of Scottish heather, flourishing vigorously in spite
of souvenir hunters and vandals.
The Black Watch arrived at Halifax in the spring of 1757 to take part
in the expedition against Louisburg, under General Abercrombie. Some
say that the men of the Regiment, desirous of perpetuating the badge
of so many of their clansmen, planted the heather seed where it now
grows. Others, that the palliasses or mattresses of the soldiers were
emptied here after the voyage, and the heather with which they had
been filled in Scotland provided the seed from which this plot grew.
It matters very little how it came. The heather still flourishes on
the spot where the Black Watch first pitched its tent in Canada.
The expedition against Louisburg was abandoned, but the following year
the regiment took part in the operations against the French under
Montcalm at Lake George. Visitors there are shown the ruins of the
ramparts of Ticonderoga. Around these ruins cling many legends and
stories, but the name of Ticonderoga will live forever in the weird
tale immortalized by Sir Thomas Dick Lauder, Parkman and the poem of
Robert Louis Stevenson. It is told how on the eve of the battle there
appeared to Duncan Campbell, of Inverawe, Major of the Black Watch,
the wraith of a relative, murdered by a man to whom Campbell had
granted sanctuary. This wraith had years previously appeared to him
and warned him that he would meet him at "Ticonderoga." The following
day Major Campbell died at the head of the assaulting columns of the
Black Watch, and that brave regiment lost 655 officers and men, nearly
equalling the losses of the "Red Watch," the 48th Highlanders of
Canada, at the Battle of St. Julian in Flanders, when their roll
showed 691 casualties.
The charge of the Black Watch at Ticonderoga was one of the bravest
exploits of British arms. The gallant Highlanders advanced against the
log redoubts and abattis of the French under Montcalm, hacking at the
branches with their broadswords, climbing the ramparts with the
assistance of their comrades, only to be hurled back, torn and
bleeding, with the grape shot from hidden guns and musket-fire from
many loopholes. They assaulted again and again, and finally had to be
withdrawn.
For their gallant conduct at Ticonderoga the "Black Watch" were made a
"Royal" regiment by the King.
The Black Watch was quartered for many years afterwards in Canada and
quite a few of the descendants of these old warriors helped to make
history for the Canadians in this latest and "Greatest War."
The second appearance of the armed Highlander in Canada was
characteristically dramatic. They came in the persons of Fraser's
Highlanders, hard on the heels of the gallant Black Watch. This
regiment, known as the old 78th, was celebrated in many ways. This is
the corps raised by Lord Lovat, that Pitt was said to have had in mind
when in the British House of Commons he delivered the famous panegyric
on the Highland troops.
This regiment distinguished itself first at the taking of Louisburg.
It was the first to climb the Heights of Abraham and its fame has come
down through history with that of Wolfe's victory at Quebec. The
fierce charge of this regiment at Quebec which broke through the
French line as if it were paper, is accounted for by the story that
the Highlanders were rendered frantic by the fall of Wolfe whom they
idolized, as the young staff officer who, on the day after Culloden,
dared the anger of his Commander by refusing to pistol a wounded
Highlander. A Canadian poet, Mr. Duncan Anderson, in describing the
Battle of the Plains of Abraham, refers to the Frasers thus:
"And the shrill pipe its coronach that wailed,
On dark Culloden moor, o'er trampled dead,
Now sounds the 'Onset' that each clansman knows,
Still leads the foremost rank where noblest blood is shed."
While Fraser's regiment were in garrison in Quebec, an incident
occurred that was later on duplicated in Flanders. Owing to the
inclement weather in Quebec, some of the officers in authority decided
that the men should discard their kilts and don trousers. The officers
and men of the regiment would not hear of it, and the historian of the
regiment says that the kilt was retained winter and summer and that
"in the course of six years the doctors learned that in the coldest
of winters the men clad in the Highland garb were more healthy than
those regiments that wore breeches and warm clothing."
In the trenches at Neuve Chapelle an agitation arose to give the
kilted Canadian soldier in the trenches trousers. With the snow on the
ground and half an inch of ice on the water pails in the morning, they
would not hear of anything but the kilt. Their health was similarly
good, colds being unknown.
Along with Fraser's regiment there came also the Montgomery
Highlanders, the 77th, raised by Hon. Arch. Montgomery, son of the
Earl of Eglington. This regiment took its full share of the operations
against the French at Fort DuQuesne and elsewhere.
Romantic interest clings around the memories of the Montgomery
Highlanders. This regiment was known as the "Lost Regiment." The
legend says that one of its gallant leaders, Major Charteris, fell in
love with a young woman of his native parish of Perth before he went
to the War. She promised to wait till he returned when he would have
carved a name for himself with his good broadsword, which was his only
fortune. Whilst his regiment was in America his letters failed to
reach her, and finally the troop ship on which Charteris sailed for
home was driven ashore and his regiment took eight months to make the
voyage. All hands were given up as lost, and Major Charteris'
sweetheart consented to marry another officer, a "slacker" who had not
gone to the war. While the wedding bells were ringing, the regiment
marched into Perth, but half an hour too late. Charteris returned to
America and died the death of a soldier. His name is still perpetuated
in that of a town in Illinois, Ft. Charteris.
The first Highland Regiment to be enlisted in Canada was the Royal
Highland Emigrants, still known in the army list as the 84th. No
regiment ever embodied in the British service deserves kindlier
remembrance in Canada than this gallant corps. The name and number
has been perpetuated in the British Army List. Its exploits will never
be forgotten and should be cherished by all Canadians. This regiment
was enlisted in 1775 when the Revolutionary War broke out, from the
Highlanders of Fraser's, Montgomery's and the Black Watch regiments
that had settled in America.
When the Revolutionary War broke out Lieut.-Col. Allan McLean, of
Torlousk, and Capt. John Small of Strathardle, in Athole, proceeded to
embody the members of the Highland regiments that had settled in
America. These old Highlanders rallied to the colors of the new
battalions, two in number, and they served with great distinction
throughout the revolutionary period. McLean raised one battalion in
the States among the loyal Highlanders of Virginia and the Carolinas.
He was assisted by Capt. McLeod, a former officer in Fraser's
regiment. Through many perils and devious routes the men who enlisted
found their way to the battalion rendezvous, and when they had all
gathered they marched to Quebec, and virtually took charge of the
stirring defence of that famous fortress against the American army
under Montgomery and Arnold. Throughout the siege, the order and
gallantry of the Highlanders animated the garrison and it was before
the muskets of the Royal Highland Emigrants that Montgomery fell at
the barrier beneath the citadel.
No greater service was ever given to the British Crown than that given
at Quebec by the Royal Highland Emigrants, during the second siege.
Their undaunted conduct stirred to emulation the brave French-Canadians
who mustered to assist the British, and by their joint efforts the
American invasion and siege came to an end.
The second battalion served in Nova Scotia during the war. Five of the
companies accompanied Lord Cornwallis in his operations in New York
and the Southern coast States. Later the two battalions were formed
into the 84th Regiment, Sir Henry Clinton being appointed
Colonel-in-Chief.
History repeats itself and the descendants of the gallant Royal
Highland Emigrants, more than a hundred years later, in the ranks of
the "Red Watch," or 48th Highlanders of Canada, fought side by side in
the same brigade in Flanders with the gallant Royal Montreal Regiment,
composed largely of French-Canadians.
When the Royal Emigrants were disbanded in Canada after the war, the
men returned to their farms. Colonel McLean's battalion settled
chiefly in Ontario. Many of their descendants still live on their
original homesteads and have filled honourable positions in the public
and private life of their country. The members of Small's battalion
settled in Nova Scotia, and their descendants were in evidence when a
Highland corps was organized by Lieut.-Col. Struan Robertson of
Pictou, to take part in the "Greatest War."
During the War of 1812, a regiment was raised amongst the Highlanders
of the County of Glengarry, Ontario, known as the Glengarry Fencibles.
Descendants of these soldiers were amongst the first to offer their
services for Flanders in 1914. One gallant officer of the 48th,
Captain Archibald McGregor, who gave his life at the Battle of St.
Julien, was a descendant of these men of Glengarry.
The Glengarry Fencibles fought amongst the foremost at the Battle of
Lundy's Lane alongside the 100th Prince of Wales Regiment, which at
that period was uniformed in kilts.
Many distinguished highland regiments served in Canada during the
nineteenth century. Amongst those that are still held in kindly
remembrance are the following: The Highland Light Infantry, the 73rd,
74th, 78th, 79th and 93rd. Many of the officers and men of these
regiments bought out in Canada or else settled in the country at the
end of their period of service.
Thus it will be seen that the kilted soldiers have played a prominent
part in the pioneer life and settlement of Canada, where men of
Scottish blood have always found a congenial home. The highest offices
in the gift of the people have gone to the men of Scottish origin
like Sir John Macdonald, Alexander Mackenzie, George Brown and Sir
Oliver Mowat, whose genius for organization and government made
possible Confederation. In the financial and industrial life of the
country the names of Lord Strathcona, Sir James Drummond and many
other Scots will always be cherished.
It matters not whether the Scottish lad comes from the "dim shieling"
or the ancestral castle, when he reaches the shores of Canada he finds
the Field Marshal's baton in his pocket, and he can be a leader in
whatever sphere of life he chooses.