Major MacDowell won his D.S.O. on November 18th, 1916, for his quick
decision and determined action in an attack made by his battalion--the
38th, from Ottawa--on the British front, south of the Ancre, against
Desire Trench and Desire Support Trench. With "B" Company, of which he
was Captain, he advanced to within throwing distance and bombed three
German machine-guns which had been holding up the advance, capturing,
after severe hand-to-hand fighting, three officers and fifty of the
enemy crews. It was this enterprise which cleared the way for the
advance to the final objective.
The same qualities of courage and swift decision were manifested on the
occasion on which he won the Victoria Cross during the action of Vimy
Ridge on the 9th of April, 1917. MacDowell delights in battle detail. He
wants to know just where he is going when he enters an engagement, and
before the big attack on Vimy he studied all the available Intelligence
Reports and aeroplane maps, even selecting the particular German
dug-out in which he intended to establish his headquarters after the
position was won.
The 38th, having been reorganized after the battle on the Somme, had
moved up to the trenches at Vimy just after Christmas Day, 1916. For
four long winter months the battalion remained in front of the famous
ridge until, on that day in April, it went up, in conjunction with other
Canadian units, in full battle array and snatched the position from the
enemy.
It is impossible to over-estimate the strategic value of Vimy Ridge. Its
two spurs, flung out west and south-west in a series of heights which
dominated the western plain, were regarded by military experts as the
backbone of the whole German position in France. The Ridge was not only
a naturally strong position made as impregnable as German skill could
make it; it was more than that. Upon it, it was argued, hinged--and
still hinges--the entire strategy of the enemy's retreat in the west.
The enemy had held the heights since the third month of the war. They
were the great bastion of his lines. Four times had the Allies attacked
the position, biting deep into the German line; but still the enemy held
the Ridge, though the holding of it had cost him sixty thousand men. It
was to obtain possession of this famous series of hills that the
Canadian battalions climbed out of their trenches at 5.30 a.m. on that
April day.
Few men slept soundly on the night before the great attack. The stern,
hard training for the operation which had been in process for some weeks
had tightened and toughened every link in the chain from the highest
rank to the lowest, and the last few hours dragged fitfully. All watches
had been synchronized and immediately 5.30 o'clock ticked a roar of
artillery, awe-inspiring and stupendous, burst from the batteries, the
hiding-places of which were only revealed by the short, sharp flashes;
and Vimy Ridge was all afire with cataclysmic death and destruction.
Behind the barrage, driving through No Man's Land towards their
objective, went the Canadian battalions. Captain MacDowell reached the
German line about fifty yards to the right of the point for which he was
aiming; but most of his men, having worked slightly farther to the
right, became separated from their leader, who found himself alone with
two runners. The German dug-out where he aimed at establishing himself
could be seen in the shell-torn line, but there was no time to collect a
party to clean the place up. But on the way to his destination MacDowell
captured two enemy machine-guns as an aside. He bombed one out of
action, then attacked the other. The second gunner did not wait, but ran
for shelter to a dug-out whither MacDowell followed and got him.
Working their way along to the big dug-out the three Canadians saw that
the place was more formidable than they had anticipated. It stretched
far underground. MacDowell bawled down the deep passage, summoning the
German occupants to surrender. No answer came from out the depths to his
demand; but that Germans were down in the underground there seemed no
doubt. The captain decided to go down and find out. It was a gigantic
game of bluff he was playing, and it succeeded by reason of its very
audacity.
A flight of fifty-two steps led to the earthen floor below, and down
those fifty-two steps went Captain MacDowell. Along a narrow passage he
went and then, suddenly, as he turned a corner, which led into the main
room of this subterranean fortress, he found himself face to face with
a large group of the enemy. There were seventy-seven of them--though he
did not know the exact number till afterwards, when they were
counted--mostly Prussian Guards. Now, by all the laws of arithmetic and
logic Captain MacDowell ought to have been taken prisoner or killed. But
he was not out to be governed by the laws of arithmetic or logic. He was
out to capture Boches and to kill those he could not capture.
Quick as a flash he turned and began to shout orders to an imaginary
force behind him--and up went the hands of the seventy-seven stalwart
Guards. "_Kamerad!_" they said.
It was one thing, however, to accept the surrender of this large party
and quite another to get them out of the dug-out, for there was more
than a chance that when they discovered there were but three Canadians
to look after them they would try to overwhelm their captors. The
captain decided to send the Germans up in batches of twelve, and the two
runners, Kebus and Hay, marshalled them in the open at the top. Among
the prisoners were two officers.
What had been expected, once the Germans were marched up into the
daylight, occurred. Some of them were furious at the trick which had
been played on them and one of them caught up a rifle and shot at one of
the Canadians. The rebellion did not last long, for it was checked by
quick, drastic measures.
That afternoon, when the riot of the attack had quietened somewhat,
MacDowell and his two men made a thorough exploration of the dug-out and
a report on the position was sent back to headquarters. Here is the
report in his own hurried words, written with a stump of pencil, with
his notebook on his knee as the German shells were crashing all around
the entrance to the dug-out:
"While exploring this dug-out we discovered a large store of what
we believe to be explosives in a room. There is also an old sap
leading down underground in the direction of No. -- Crater. This
was explored ... we have cut all the wires, for fear of possible
destructive posts. The dug-out has three entries, and will
accommodate easily 250 or 300 men, with the sap to spare. It is
seventy-five feet underground and very comfortable. The cigars are
very choice and my supply of Perrier water is very large....
"They are firing at us all the time with their heavy guns from the
south-east, but I have no casualties to report since coming in
here, except being half scared to death myself by a 'big brute'....
"We have taken two machine-guns that I know of; and a third and
possibly a fourth will be taken to-night. This post was a
machine-gun post and was held by a machine-gun company. I believe
they are the Prussian Guards; all big, strong men who came in last
night. They had plenty of rations; but we had a great time taking
them prisoners.
"It is a great story. My two runners, Kebus and Hay, did invaluable
work getting them out of the dug-out.... There is a large number of
wounded in front of here, as I can see by the rifles stuck in the
ground. We are using German rifles as ours are out of commission."
Five days later, when the enemy artillery slackened, reinforcements were
sent up and succeeded in reaching the captain; and when, finally, he was
relieved from the position and reported himself at his battalion
headquarters, one can imagine that his brother officers--those who were
left--were glad to see him.
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