The fighting about Lens in August, 1917, called for more individual dash
and initiative on the part of the troops engaged than had been required
before. The house-to-house fighting, the repeatedly isolated and
difficult positions, the many knotty problems which required instant
solution--all these combined to make leadership, whether of a section or
a battalion, more arduous and responsible and, with it all, much more
fascinating. Such fighting is after the hearts of most Canadians. As was
expected, our men did well at it.
After the successful attack on Hill 70, incessant fighting was forced
upon our troops to maintain the new positions. The enemy's bombardment
was constant and intense. It was decided to continue the offensive and
improve our line. The 10th Brigade was instructed to capture Green
Crassier and the enemy's defences about this point, and accordingly the
attack was arranged for the 21st, with two companies each of the 50th,
46th and 47th Battalions, the 47th Battalion on the right to attack
through Cité du Moulin to the Lens-Arras Road and Alpaca Trench.
At 4.35 a.m. our men went forward, penetrating the immediate German
barrage without hesitation, and moving as if on parade. The morning was
bright and sunny, and our fellows got away in splendid style, though
they were badly harassed by machine-gun fire from Green Crassier, a
barren expanse of slagheaps and broken railway tracks on the right
front. However, our smoke barrage was most effective, and the drums of
blazing oil thrown upon the enemy's communication lines and attempted
formations did much to take the heart out of his resistance. Crossing
the Lens-Arras Road, the troops plunged into the ruined houses beyond,
and stiff fighting, in cellars, long dark tunnels, and comparatively
deserted outhouses, ensued. Many were the isolated heroic combats that
took place, and many men were reported missing after the battle who had
fought out their lives in some underground chamber.
Corporal Konowal was in charge of a mopping-up section. In fighting of
this description it is an undecided point whether the original
assailants or the moppers-up get most excitement. The main attack sweeps
on; but in such a rabbit-warren of broken houses and tunnelled
foundations many Germans and frequent machine-guns are left to be
eliminated at some cost by our following waves. The buildings about the
Lens-Arras Road proved difficult enough to clear. The main body of our
troops had passed through and continued to the objectives beyond, but a
couple of buildings still held Germans and German machine-guns, and
there was heavy firing upon the rear of our advancing men. Entering one
of these houses Konowal searched for the Germans, and finding no living
traces of their occupation, dropped daringly into the cellar. Three men
fired at him as he landed, but this he escaped unharmed. Then ensued a
sanguinary battle in the dark, a mêlée of rifle fire and bayonets, with
the odds three to one. Finally the scuffling ceased and Konowal emerged
into the daylight--he had bayoneted the whole crew of the gun!
But this is all taken for granted in the business of mopping-up, and the
corporal and his section continued their way along the road, every
sense alert to locate the close rifle-crack that might betray the wily
sniper. There was a large crater to the east of the road, and from the
bodies of our good men before the edge it seemed obvious that a German
machine-gun had been in position there. Halting his men, Konowal
advanced alone. Upon reaching the lip of the crater he saw seven Germans
endeavouring to move the ubiquitous machine-gun into a dugout. He opened
fire at once, killing three, and then, charging down upon them,
accounted for the rest with the bayonet.
These drastic methods rapidly concluded the clearing of their section of
the line, and the corporal and his men moved on up to our new front,
where the enemy was delivering heavy and incessant counter-attacks.
Heavy fighting continued throughout the night, and in the morning troops
of the 44th Battalion, who were making an attack upon the Green
Crassier, requested the aid of a party of the 47th in a raid upon a
machine-gun emplacement in a tunnel about Fosse 4. Corporal Konowal was
an expert in this subterranean fighting, and his party succeeded in
entering the tunnel. Two charges of ammonal, successfully exploded,
somewhat demoralized the German garrison, and then Konowal, dashing
forward in the darkness with the utter disregard of his own safety he
had displayed all through the fighting, engaged the machine-gun crew
with the bayonet, overcoming and killing them all. Altogether this good
fighting man killed sixteen men in the two days of the actual battle,
and continued his splendid work until he was very severely wounded.
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