When Captain Stinson, of the 27th Canadian Battalion, received a message
from a breathless runner during the darkness of early morning on May
3rd, 1917, to the effect that Lieutenant R. G. Combe had but five men
left out of his entire company, he realized that matters were serious on
the right wing of the attacking formations. How serious he did not know
until later. By the time he had sent reinforcements and investigated the
situation, Lieutenant Combe had lost his life and won the Victoria
Cross.
It had been planned by headquarters that the attack on the German
front-line system in the vicinity of Acreville should take place before
dawn. But Lieutenant Combe and a handful of followers were the only men
of the 27th Battalion (City of Winnipeg) who reached their objective.
Darkness and the enemy's concentration of artillery were responsible for
the hold-up of the other sections of the advance.
The battalion was in the ridge line with headquarters at Thelus Cave
just prior to the attack, and they relieved troops who were already
weary after a strenuous spell in the trenches. The attack began at 3.45
a.m. on the 3rd May; but the Germans had guessed very accurately the
time of the intended assault, and two hours before our barrage opened
they began to shell the assembly area with determined severity. So heavy
was the fire that the attacking forces sustained many casualties before
they were in the jumping-off trenches, and it was plain to the leaders
that the problem of maintaining any kind of formation would be a
difficult one.
The 31st Battalion worked on the left of the 27th. It was still dark
when the first waves of infantry went over the top and forward behind
our barrage. They left in perfect order, walking into a darkness as
intense as that of the Pit, save for the fitful flash of exploding
shells. Terrible gaps were torn in their ranks as they advanced; whole
groups of men were blown out of the line, and those who continued to
stumble on soon lost touch with their fellows. The fears of the
battalion commanders were fulfilled. Formation was impossible, and it
was only with small groups that touch could be kept.
The leading companies were forced to take cover at a distance of seven
hundred yards from the German front line. They lay down in shell-holes
and on the torn, trembling earth, scratching feebly at the hard surface
to secure cover while they got their second wind. In a short time they
were up and stumbling forward again; but they had only gone two hundred
yards when the German artillery shortened range and the full force of
the barrage fell on them.
Under that staggering blow men collapsed in dozens, crushed by the
weight of uptorn earth or blown to fragments. In the right company,
Lieutenant Combe was the only officer who had survived so far. His
company was but a tattered remnant of what it had been a few moments
before; but Combe had his orders surging at the back of his head, and he
meant to carry them out. Collecting the handful of men left to him he
began to work his way through the German barrage. He managed it. He
brought his followers safely through that terrible curtain of fire, only
to find that if he would reach the German line he must also get through
the barrage of our own guns. He steadied his men and accomplished the
second journey also. Just how he piloted them through the hail of shells
it is impossible to explain; these things can only be guessed at. But he
did it; and he had only five men left when he reached the German
trenches.
Back in the rear, Captain Stinson, of the supporting company, saw the
advance checked on the right; but there was no sign of failure on the
left. He concluded that the latter wing had reached its objective. With
a runner he scrambled forward towards the German line. When he was
within twenty yards of the enemy trench he stopped, amazed, for the
Germans were lining their parapet, waiting to meet the assaulting
battalions. That was how Captain Stinson discovered that the 31st
Battalion had not reached its objective. He retired with the
information.
It was then that he received the message from Lieutenant Combe, asking
for reinforcements and stating his position. Captain Stinson ordered
Sergeant Boddington, of "A" Company, to send forward twenty men to help
Combe. The Captain himself went forward in advance, with a runner. He
found Combe in the act of winning his posthumous decoration.
Combe and his men had entered the German trench after a terrible
struggle, aided by a few men of another company whom they had picked up.
They bombed the Germans along the trench with German bombs, having
exhausted their own long before. Eighty prisoners had been captured and
were on their way back to our lines, and 250 yards of trench were in the
hands of the invaders.
Again and again the gallant little band charged the enemy, Combe always
at their head, leading them around traverses and into dug-outs. Along
the whole of that 250 yards of trench lay dead and dying Germans.
Combe was killed by a rifle bullet as he was leading his gallant bombers
up the trench in the climax of his triumph.
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