The war was no new thing, many Canadians were veteran soldiers and many
were in Flanders graves, when Kerr decided that his services were more
urgently required on the field of battle than on his own new acres in
the Province of Alberta. He had gone north and west shortly before the
outbreak of war, from the home of his family in Cumberland County, Nova
Scotia, to virgin land on Spirit River, fifty miles from the nearest
railway.
Kerr found other "homesteaders" on Spirit River who saw eye to eye with
him in this matter--a dozen patriotic adventurers who were determined to
exchange safe establishments in life for the prospects of violent
deaths. Together they "footed" the fifty miles to the railway. In
Edmonton they enlisted in a body in the 66th Battalion.
Early in June, 1916, four hundred officers and other ranks were drafted
from the 66th, then training in England, to the 49th, then fighting in
France. Private J. C. Kerr was a more or less unconsidered unit in that
draft. These reinforcements, with others, reached France shortly after
the Battle of Sanctuary Wood, an engagement in which the Germans
attacked with so crushing a superiority of men and metal and the
Canadians fought so stubbornly as to necessitate the withdrawal of
fragments of battalions of a whole division for reorganization. The 49th
Battalion was represented by one of these indomitable fragments.
The Canadians marched from the Salient to the Somme in the autumn of
that year. The 49th, up to strength once more and with its old spirit
renewed, reached Albert on the 13th of September.
Forty hours later it took up a battle position at a point near the
Sunken Road, before and to the left of the village of Courcelette, with
other battalions of the same brigade.
In the great Canadian advance of September the 15th, in which our
morning and evening attacks drove the Germans from the Sugar Refinery,
Courcelette, and many more strongholds and intricate systems of defence,
the 49th Battalion supported the Princess Patricia's and the 42nd
Battalion on the extreme left of our frontage of aggressive operations.
These battalions advanced the line to the left of Courcelette, keeping
abreast of the units that assaulted and occupied the village and mopped
up its crowded dug-outs and fortified houses. Their activities were
devoted entirely to the subjection and occupation of strong trenches and
trench machine-gun posts. They moved irresistibly forward, cleaning
things up as they went. They reached and occupied their final
objectives--with the exception of a length of trench about 250 yards in
extent, which remained in the hands of the enemy until the following
day. But the defenders of that isolated section of trench could not
retreat, for the head of their communicating trench was blocked, they
dared not attempt a rearward flight on the surface and they were flanked
right and left by the Canadians. So the matter rested for the night,
with no more stir than an occasional exchange of bombs across the
flanking barricades.
On the afternoon of the 16th, a party of bombers from the 49th Battalion
undertook to clear this offending piece of trench and so make possible
the consolidation of the entire frontage gained in the previous day's
offensives. Here is where the ex-homesteader from Spirit River steps
into that high light which illuminates more frequently and glaringly the
feeble activities of the music-hall stage than the grim heroics of the
battle-field.
Private John Chipman Kerr, as first bayonet-man, moved forward well in
advance of his party. He twitched himself over the block in the
communicating trench in less time than he had ever taken to negotiate a
pasture fence on the home-farm. He advanced about thirty yards into the
hostile position before a sentry took alarm and hurled a grenade. Kerr
saw the grenade coming and, in the fraction of a second at his disposal,
attempted to protect himself with his arm. He was partially successful
in this, for when the bomb exploded it did no more than blow off the
upper joint of his right fore-finger and wound him slightly in the right
side.
By this time the other members of the assaulting party were close to his
heels. The exchange of bombs between the defenders and attackers now
became general, though an angle in the trench hid each party from view
of the other. Good throwing was done by our men, who were all experts;
but Kerr felt that the affair promised to settle into a stationary
action unless something new and sudden happened. So he clambered out of
the trench and the shocks of that blind fight and moved along the
parados until he came into close contact with, and full view of, the
enemy. He was still armed with his rifle and two grenades; and, despite
loss of blood, he was still full of enterprise and fight. He tossed the
grenades among the crowded defenders beneath him and then opened fire
into them with his rifle. Mud jambed the bolt of his rifle, whereupon he
replaced it with the weapon of the second bayonet-man, Private Frank
Long, who had followed him out of the trench and had just then caught up
with him.
While Kerr pumped lead into the massed enemy beneath his feet he
directed the fire of his bombers so effectively, by voice and gesture,
that the defenders were forced back to the shelter of the nearest bay.
He immediately jumped down into the trench and went after them, with all
the Canadian bombers and bayonet-men at his heels. A dug-out was
reached; and while this was being investigated Kerr went on alone,
rounded a bay and once again joined battle with the defenders of the
trench. But the spirit of combat, even of resistance, had gone out of
them. Up went their hands!
Before having his wounds dressed, Private Kerr escorted the 62 Germans
across open ground, under heavy fire, to a support trench, and then
returned and reported himself for duty to his company commander.
The official recommendation says: "The action of this man at this
juncture undoubtedly resulted in the capture of 62 prisoners and the
taking of 250 yards of enemy trench."
This seems to be a conservative statement of the case. It takes no
account of the other Germans who were involved in that brisk affair.
They have been dead a long time.
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