By LORD BEAVERBROOK.
[C] _From “Canada in Flanders” (Vol. I.). By Sir Max Aitken.
(Hodder & Stoughton.)_
The end of the month was marked by one or two very daring
reconnaissances by Lieutenant Owen, of the 7th (British Columbia)
Battalion, up the bed of the Douve River, and by a great aeroplane
battle.
The aeroplane battle occurred upon a morning warm and bright with
sunshine. The conditions were admirable for flying and observing, and,
as usual, a German Albatross took advantage of them. Soaring high
against the warm blue of the sky, over Bailleul, over the headquarters
of a division, over our brigades and trenches and back again, it
glinted like silver in the morning sun. The snow-white blobs of
bursting shrapnel from our anti-aircraft guns followed its graceful
sweeps and curves--followed and followed, but never caught it up; and
thousands of our men stared after it. But a more dramatic spectacle was
in store for the watchers on the brown roads and in the brown trenches.
A British machine appeared suddenly low against the blue, mounting
and flying out of the west. The men in the Albatross were evidently
so intent on their task of observing the landscape beneath them and
keeping well ahead of our blossoming shrapnel that they failed to
observe the approach of the British ’plane as soon as they should have
for their own good. They were heading west when they saw their danger,
and instantly the Albatross swerved round and sped towards home. But
the British flier had the heels of the German and the advantage of the
position. It circled and dipped, and down through the clear air aloft
came the rippling “tap-tap-tap” of the aërial machine-guns. Again and
again the enemy’s frantic efforts to escape were frustrated by the
skill and daring of the British pilot and the hedging fire of the
British guns. Suddenly the gun of the German ’plane jammed and ceased;
the pilot was hit and wounded; the Albatross commenced a rapid descent,
in which it was followed by the British ’plane to within 1,000 feet
of the ground. Then, under heavy shell-fire from German batteries the
victorious machine rose and flew away undamaged, and the unfortunate
Albatross struck the earth between the front and support trenches of
the 14th (Montreal) Battalion and turned turtle. The German pilot was
dead; the observer, slightly wounded, crawled to our support trenches
and surrendered. The German batteries kept up a hot fire of high
explosives and shrapnel on the machine with the object of smashing it
beyond hope of repair before the Canadians could salvage it. They made
several direct hits, but our men sapped out to the wreck and managed
to bring most of it in, piece by piece. Among the articles brought in
was the machine-gun that had jammed in the heat of the fight. This was
found to be a Colt gun. Closer examination proved it to be one of the
original guns of our 14th Battalion--to whose lines it had just made
such a dramatic return! The gun had been abandoned during one of the
desperate and confused fights of the Second Battle of Ypres half a year
before.
In these months of September and October great efforts were expended
on improving the line. Work in the front positions was done by the
occupying battalions, and the troops in reserve came up night after
night to assist their labours and to create new secondary positions
and drive through fresh communication trenches. Even the training of
new units was occasionally and rightly sacrificed to the performance
of this essential task. The weather was, on the whole, favourable for
these operations, with the exception of three days of rain early in
September and a wet week late in October. The 1st Division, long on
the ground and fortified by the experience of what good trenches mean
for comfort and safety, was pre-eminent in these exertions, as would
be proved by the trench-map with its continuous increase, month after
month, in the black and zigzag lines of new work. Each tiny scrawl on
the surface of such a map represents the labours of hundreds of men,
extended over many nights. Second and third lines grew apace, so that
a sudden attack of the enemy would still leave trenches to be held and
would reduce the German bite to mere nibbles at the forward trench.
The communication trenches are driven true and straight from well in
the rear, and up these the ration parties toil in safety night after
night under their burdens of food, water, ammunition, and R.E. material
to feed the front line. These parties know well enough the difference
between well-made lines and bad ones. Stooping under the heavy weights
as they struggle on through the dark, they will bless in army fashion
a smooth and dry surface underfoot and a sound high parapet which
protects them from the casual German shells which are searching for
them, or the intermittent whistle of the long-range bullet humming on
its errand in the dusk. Messengers or stretcher-bearers with their
burdens can move backwards or forwards even by day along the well-built
hollow, and all those who pass are protected both from the arrow that
flieth by night and the terror which walketh in the noonday. Very
different is the story of a badly-kept line. It finds carrying parties
struggling in, hours late, exhausted by wading through mud and water,
and delayed by continually climbing out and walking outside the trench
to avoid impassable sections. Here an unlucky shell or a casual bullet
may take its toll. The men struggle back with difficulty, arriving
hardly before the dawn, and with their period of supposed rest and
recuperation turned into the most arduous of labours. It is not too
much to say that the efficiency of a regiment or division can be tested
by a comparison between the state in which it takes over and that in
which it leaves its trenches.
The creation of secondary positions is as important as that of
communication trenches, and on this task the Canadian Corps worked
unsparingly throughout the autumn.
The disposition of a brigade is two, or on occasion three, battalions
in the front line and one or two in support or reserve trenches. But
in most cases even the leading regiments will not have their whole
strength in the firing trench. One or two companies lie close up in
support or reserve to reinforce any threatened point. The nearness of
these supports is a very present help in time of trouble, and gives
confidence to officers and men, who would be nervous if they knew that
no assistance was nearer than a mile away in distance and an hour in
time. But these lines must be dug under cover of dark, so the men
toiled with the spade through the nights of autumn and blessed the
dawn which put a term to their labours. Their record is written on
the scarred earth from St. Eloi down to Ploegsteert. Let us hope that
the corps which took their place in March was duly grateful for the
blessing of a well-constructed line.
[Illustration: YPRES AFTER BOMBARDMENT.
_Reproduced by permission of “The Sphere.”_]