[Illustration: Map--Canadian Operations on the Somme]
CANADA IN FLANDERS
By MAJOR CHARLES G. D. ROBERTS
THE OFFICIAL STORY OF THE
CANADIAN EXPEDITIONARY FORCE
VOLUME III
CANADA IN
FLANDERS
By Major Charles G. D. Roberts
VOLUME III
WITH A PREFACE BY
LORD BEAVERBROOK
HODDER AND STOUGHTON
LONDON NEW YORK TORONTO
MCMXVIII
PREFACE
In writing this preface to Vol. III of "Canada in Flanders" I am saying
good-bye to my task as author of the first two volumes. The increasing
pressure of other duties has made it impossible for me to pay those
prolonged visits to the Front which alone keep a writer in vivid touch
with the constantly developing realities of modern war, or to spare the
time for the proper study of the historical material. Under these
circumstances it seemed better to retain the Editorship of "Canada in
Flanders," but to hand over the story of the Somme to the practised pen
of Major Charles G. D. Roberts, who was present with the Canadian Corps
during that Autumn Campaign.
But in doing this it is necessary to make good as far as possible the
errors and slips which have come to light and been pointed out by the
critics in the text of Vol. II.
As in the case of Vol. I., the majority of the mistakes is in the
misspelling of names or the confusion of identity between officers with
the same surname. I particularly regret the mistake by which the
leadership of the advance on the lost craters at St. Eloi on the night
of April 6th is ascribed to Lieutenant V. P. Murphy, of the 25th
Battalion, instead, as it ought to have been, to Lieutenant G. D.
Murphy, of the 28th Battalion (pp. 129, 132). Similarly, on p. 42, the
name of Sergeant-Major Benton should have been inserted as the
sergeant-major who went out with Private Donoghue to the rescue of the
wounded; while the commanders of the raiding party of the 19th
(Ontario) Battalion in August, 1916, should have been given as Captain
C. E. Kilmer and Lieutenant H. B. Pepler (p. 68).
In the description of the battle of Sanctuary Wood there are several
mistakes of the same character. Lieutenant Glassco, of the P.P.C.L.I.,
has his name misspelt on pp. 181 and 182, and Captain A. G. Wilken, the
heroic chaplain of the 1st C.M.R.'s, is reported as being killed,
whereas in reality he was taken prisoner. On p. 216 it should be made
clear that the Colt guns under Lieutenant Ziegler, which played so
important a part in the defence of the Hooge position on June 6th,
belonged to the Machine Gun Company of the 7th Brigade. On p. 70
Lieutenant-Colonel C. H. Hill, D.S.O., is wrongly given as the Colonel
of the Royal Canadian Regiment when the 3rd Division was formed in
January, 1916, instead of Lieutenant-Colonel A. H. MacDonnell, D.S.O.;
while the Commander of the 5th C.F.A. Brigade at the same period was
Lieutenant-Colonel W. O. H. Dodds, and not Lieutenant-Colonel E. A.
Carruthers.
Among more general errors it may be noted that Lieutenant Elliot is
described on p. 104 as the "signal" instead of the "signalling"
officer, and that the German unit opposed to us at St. Eloi was the
214th Regiment, and not the 214th Battalion--a German regiment
consisting of three battalions and approximating more in numbers to our
brigade.
On more general questions, such as the position and actions of units,
only one controversy has been raised, and that is concerned with the
early stages of the Battle of St. Eloi. This difficulty is to some
extent inevitable, for with the exception of the Second Battle of Ypres
there has been no action in this history of the Corps in which the true
facts have been more difficult to obtain than in that confused fighting
in the mud on the dreary dawn of April 6th of 1916, which lost us the
craters and the advanced line. But all the available evidence has been
sifted with the greatest care, and nothing has been brought to my
attention which makes me inclined to modify or alter the provisional
account given in the second volume. This does not mean in the least
that in the future quite fresh material, both from Canadian and German
sources, may not become available after the war and throw a totally new
light on certain episodes. With this additional evidence before him
the future historian may be able to rewrite parts of the story from the
standpoint of this fuller knowledge. There is, however, one particular
correction which can be made at once. I find that I have done
something less than justice to the work of the 2nd Pioneer Battalion
during the St. Eloi fighting. Their task here was one of incredible
difficulty owing to the conditions of the weather, the state of the
ground, to the severe and continuous shelling to which the whole area
was subjected, and the uncertainty as to positions which wrapped the
whole action in a fog. Yet the Pioneers' work was carried through with
great courage and energy. In particular, the reconstruction of the old
front British line from Shelley Farm to No. 2 Crater, which is ascribed
on p. 144 to the infantry of the 5th Brigade, was in reality done by
the Pioneers, who also took a large share in placing No. 2 Crater
itself in an adequate state of defence.
There is an inevitable tendency to give to the work of the troops
immediately behind the firing-line less attention and credit than they
deserve.
The infantry sustain most of the hard knocks when it comes to climbing
the parapet, and in return obtain the greater notice from the
historian. But behind the thin and scattered lines, which wave after
wave fall or go plodding on, the gunners, the sappers, and the pioneers
are preparing or consolidating the victory. The battle is no longer
between the opposing lines of the infantry, for to win a position you
must hold it, and to hold it you must have brought up swiftly and
safely from the rear bombs, ammunition, wire rations, and a means of
entry for the supporting and relieving troops, the area of the battle
is no longer the front line, it is behind this that the enemy barrage
descends, and over a wide field of fire the German shells are searching
for all those who would bring up succour and relief. It is under these
conditions that the pioneers must do their work. In the night, only
illumined by the fitful flare of the star-shells shedding a pale and
sudden luminance behind the front line and leaving the darkness more
intense than ever, the old and battered communication trench of the
Germans has to be made good to the front line. The trench from
previous occupation is well known to the enemy, and as the pioneers
shovel out the mud and the dirt to the left and right a new
illumination is provided by the sudden glare and suffocating fumes of
the heavies bursting right or left or in the trench itself. But night
at least gives the appearance, if not the reality, of safety. As the
infantry go forward the work must often be done in the broad daylight,
the trench driven through to the new line, or a new resistance built to
face the counter-attack. The men of the Pioneers who have to undertake
this task must do it in cold blood. They are robbed of that excitement
of personal conflict which can carry the fighting man through the most
desperate dangers in a frame of mind which hardly remembers the horrors
through which he passes, and crowns the story of his achievements with
a halo and a fascination not granted to work less interesting but no
less vital.
The achievements of the 2nd Pioneer Battalion at the Somme will take
rank with any of those of the infantry. At Courcelette their duty was
to follow on the heels of the 2nd Division, to drive communication
trenches through without delay to the new lines, and to relieve the
infantry immediately of the final consolidation of the captured
trenches. In the darkness before the assault Lieutenants McGhee and
Davis crawled out into No Man's Land and pegged out the line of
trenches to be dug next day. The moment the 2nd Division had taken the
German front line the Pioneers started out to drive these trenches
through in broad daylight and under a sweeping rain of heavies.
Lieutenant McGhee exhibited great courage and devotion to duty; he was
three times buried by the explosion of heavy shells close to him, and
three times dug himself out with his entrenching tool and continued to
mark out the line of the advancing trench for his men. What the effect
of such shelling may be is illustrated by the extraordinary and
gruesome story of the death of Lieutenant Tracy of the same regiment
some days before. While prospecting in advance of the line a German
shell burst right on him. A rescue party of Pioneers went out
immediately to find him on the spot of the shell-burst. Not a sign of
the unfortunate officer could be found, and the search was abandoned.
On the day of Courcelette his body was found by the advancing infantry
fifty yards from where he had been struck down. For the Pioneers this
kind of work must be done, day in and day out, or night in and night
out, for weeks at a time. When the infantry is too exhausted by its
efforts to make good the line, the Pioneers must be called up to
supplement their efforts. If a strong point has to be built, it is to
the Pioneers that the engineer officer will look to carry out his
instructions, and in the achievement of all these tasks the Pioneer
Battalions of the Canadians have covered themselves with glory.
It is now my duty to hand over to my successor. Major Charles G. D.
Roberts continues in Vol. III. of Canada in France and Flanders, for
France has now given us the names of the Somme and of Vimy, the story
of the Autumn Campaign of 1916. I retire gladly in favour of one who
has a real claim to literary and historical fame. The first and second
volumes were the hasty product of one who was an amateur in the art of
describing, but who, as an amateur, did his best. Major Roberts is a
professional in the sphere of letters and of history, and therefore
sets up a new and higher standard for the volumes which are to follow.
In the sphere of letters he is well known throughout the Empire for his
stories of the life of the men and the denizens of the wild, through
which there blows, like the breeze shaking the pine-trees in the snows,
both the warm wind of romance and the cold breath of reality. His
History of the Dominion is equally familiar to all Canadians who care
to consult the past of their country. In his record of the great deeds
of the Canadian Corps on the Somme we shall find combined the two
qualities which make letters last, the imagination which can convey to
the future the agonies and heroisms of the past, and the chiselled
style shaping the rough outlines of the records into a clean-cut and
enduring narrative.
BEAVERBROOK.
_Cherkley_, 1918.
CONTENTS
CHAPTER I.
THE FOURTH DIVISION
CHAPTER II.
HOLDING THE LINK
CHAPTER III.
ON THE SOMME
CHAPTER IV.
THE SUGAR FACTORY AND COURCELETTE
CHAPTER V.
COURCELETTE (_continued_)
CHAPTER VI.
HOLDING THE NEW GROUND
CHAPTER VII.
MOUQUET FARM
CHAPTER VIII.
REGINA
CHAPTER IX.
REGINA (_continued_)
CHAPTER X.
DESIRE TRENCH
APPENDIX
CANADA IN FLANDERS
CHAPTER I
THE FOURTH DIVISION
In the first and second volumes of this history Lord Beaverbrook has
told the war-story of Canada from the mobilisation of the 1st Canadian
Division at Valcartier in August, 1914, to the conclusion of our work
in the Ypres salient in June, 1916. He has dealt progressively with
from one to three divisions, bringing the second and third in turn into
his narrative, recording the organisation of each as it came into
being, and then co-ordinating its military exploits with the exploits
of its sister divisions.
During all that time the 4th Canadian Division was on its way. It was
struggling into existence. Its battalions were forming, training,
being reduced to skeletons by the necessities of the veteran units in
France, and recovering strength by the absorption of raw material. The
44th Battalion was mobilised in the winter of 1915, while the 1st
Division was still on Salisbury Plain; yet it was not until the autumn
of 1916 that it reached France as a unit of the 4th Canadian Division.
Between the date of its mobilisation and that of its first contact with
the enemy it supplied many drafts of officers and men to reserve and
fighting battalions in England and France, and absorbed drafts of all
ranks from junior units. It was so with all the infantry battalions
which, in time, went to the composition of the new Division, only to a
lesser degree than in the case of the 44th.
Of the infantry brigades of this Division only the 10th is of purely
Western origin, its battalions--the 44th, 46th, 47th, and 50th--having
been recruited in Winnipeg, Southern Saskatchewan, British Columbia,
and Calgary respectively. These battalions had comprised the 14th
(Reserve) Canadian Infantry Brigade during their period of training in
England previous to the formation of the 4th Division. The brigade
sailed for France on August 10th, 1916, and took a place in the front
line for the first time twelve days later, when it relieved our 4th
Brigade in a section of our tortured defences before Ypres.
During the first five months of its active service the 10th was
commanded by Brigadier-General W. St. Pierre Hughes. On January 18th,
1917, it was taken over by Brigadier-General Edward Hilliam, D.S.O.,
late C.O. of the 25th Battalion. The story of this Brigade's offensive
and defensive operations is to be found in subsequent chapters of this
history incorporated in the general narrative of Canadian activities.
The 11th Canadian Infantry Brigade, organised in May, 1916, lost two of
its original battalions in the following month, owing to the great and
immediate need of reinforcements at the front in consequence of the
bitter fighting of June in the Ypres salient. These units were
replaced by others; and when it commenced its actual war-service it
consisted of the 54th from Kootenay, the 75th from Toronto, the 87th of
Montreal, and the 102nd of Northern British Columbia. This Brigade was
originally commanded by Brigadier-General F. O. W. Loomis, D.S.O., who
had previously commanded a battalion of the 1st Canadian Division; but
after Major-General Mercer was killed in action in June, the 2nd
Brigade contributed its G.O.C., Major-General Lipsett, to the 3rd
Division, Loomis was recalled to France to take the 2nd Brigade, and
Lieutenant-Colonel V. W. Odlum, D.S.O., of the 7th Battalion, was
promoted to the command of the 11th Brigade and the rank of
Brigadier-General.
The 12th Canadian Infantry Brigade was organised from the 16th
(Reserve) Brigade in May, with Brigadier-General Lord Brooke in
command. It originally consisted of the 51st, 72nd, 73rd, and 87th
Battalions, but in June twenty-four officers and more than seven
hundred other ranks of the 51st were drafted to France, and their place
in the Brigade was filled by the 78th. The 87th was transferred to the
11th Brigade. The final composition of the 12th Brigade was as
follows:--38th Battalion of Ottawa (its _personnel_ representing such
well-known Canadian Militia regiments as the Governor-General's Foot
Guards, the Duke of Cornwall's Own Rifles, the Brockville Rifles, the
Lanark and Renfrew Regiment and the Stormont and Glengarry
Highlanders), the 72nd Battalion of Vancouver, the 73rd of Montreal,
and the 78th of Winnipeg.
Shortly after its arrival in France the command of the 12th Canadian
Infantry Brigade was transferred to Brigadier-General J. H. MacBrien,
D.S.O.
From the date of its organisation the 4th Canadian Division has been
commanded by Major-General David Watson, C.B.
This Division has been fortunate from the first in the matter of the
_personnel_ of its higher commands and senior appointments.
Major-General Watson commenced his military service in this war in
August, 1914, as a Lieutenant-Colonel. He did splendid work with his
battalion--the 2nd (Central Ontario)--during the Second Battle of Ypres
and until he was promoted to the command of the 5th Brigade in the
autumn of 1915.
Brigadier-General Edward Hilliam, who took over the command of the 10th
Brigade in January, 1917, has had a career of distinguished activity
since the first day of Canada's military participation in the war. As
a Captain of the 5th Battalion he was wounded at Gravenstafel Ridge on
April 25th, 1915, while engaged on a service of exceptional danger and
importance. The story is told in Vol. I. of this history. After
months more of hard service with the 5th, and a step in rank, he was
promoted Lieutenant-Colonel and transferred to the 25th (Nova Scotia)
Battalion. His success continued unfalteringly with his new command,
as the splendid work of the Nova Scotians at Courcelette on September
15th, 1916, has proved to the world.
Brigadier-General Loomis, who commanded the 11th Brigade for a time in
England, is another survivor of the Second Battle of Ypres. His
original battalion was the 13th Royal Highlanders of Canada. From the
11th Brigade he was recalled to France in June, 1916, to command the
2nd Brigade. His Brigade-Major, Captain Gardner, a veteran of the 7th
Battalion, returned to France at the same time and took over the 7th
from Lieutenant-Colonel Odlum, who was appointed to the command of the
11th Brigade.
Brigadier-General V. W. Odlum, D.S.O., before his promotion to a
brigade had commanded the 7th (British Columbia) Battalion at the front
since the death of Lieutenant-Colonel Hart-McHarg in April, 1915. To
those who know, this statement sufficiently explains Odlum's fitness
for any fighting command.
Brigadier-General J. H. MacBrien, commanding the 12th Brigade, was at
one time D.A.A. and O.M.G. of the 1st Canadian Division, and in
recognition of his services in this capacity he was mentioned in
despatches and made a Companion of the Distinguished Service Order. He
was afterwards promoted to the General Staff of the Canadian Corps.
Lieutenant-Colonel W. E. Ironsides, D.S.O., Major K. D. B. Murray,
D.S.O., and Captain A. A. Aitken, General Staff officers, first,
second, and third grade of the Division, all have served actively on
one or more of Britain's fighting fronts since the first days of the
war. Captain R. M. Redmond was drawn from the Casualty Centre after he
had seen service with the 60th Battalion of the 3rd Division. All
other officers of the Divisional Staff had seen previous service in
France, and a number of them had been decorated for their good work.
By hard work or hard fighting Lieutenant-Colonel E. B. Panet, Colonel
H. A. Chisholm, and Captain F. R. Burnside had won the D.S.O., and
Captain Meurling and Hon. Major the Reverend A. M. Gordon the Military
Cross, long before the materialisation of the 4th Canadian Division.
The 3rd Canadian Divisional Artillery, which was organised and trained
in England during the spring and summer of 1916, and went to France
with the 4th Division, consists of the 8th, 9th, 10th, and 11th
Canadian Artillery Brigades and the Divisional Artillery Ammunition
Column. The batteries and sections of which this force was formed came
originally from almost every corner of Canada, north and south, east
and west.
For a time the Brigades were composed as follows:--The 8th, of the
30th, 31st, 40th, and 41st Field Batteries; the 9th, of the 32nd, 33rd,
45th, and 46th Field Batteries; the 10th, of the 37th, 38th, 39th, and
44th Field Batteries; and the 11th (Howitzer) Brigade of the 29th,
35th, 36th, and 43rd Howitzer Batteries. This organisation was not
satisfactory. The 29th (Howitzer) Battery was left with the 11th
Brigade, and to it were added the 41st, 44th, and 46th Field Batteries.
To replace these field batteries in the other Brigades the 35th
(Howitzer) Battery went to the 8th, the 36th to the 9th, and the 43rd
to the 10th. Thus each Brigade was composed of three field batteries
and one howitzer battery.
The 8th Brigade, Canadian Field Artillery, which was brought from
Canada to England by Lieutenant-Colonel Gillies, passed into the hands
of Lieutenant-Colonel D. T. V. Eaton, of the Royal Canadian Horse
Artillery, on March 9th, 1916. Eaton had commanded the R.C.H.A. with
our 1st Division in France in 1915. He is a professional as well as a
practical artillery officer, with years of theoretical and scientific
study behind his experience in the field.
The command of the 9th Brigade, C.F.A., went to Lieutenant-Colonel H.
G. Carscallen, who had long ago been mentioned in despatches for his
work at the Front with the 11th Battery; that of the 10th to
Lieutenant-Colonel G. H. Ralston, who distinguished himself as far back
as June, 1915, at the "Duck's Bill," when two guns of his battery were
established and fought in our front-line trench, seventy-five yards
distant from the German trench, with disastrous results to the enemy's
wire, parapets, and machine-gun emplacements (see Vol. I., p. 133).
Lieutenant-Colonel A. G. MacNaughton, late of the 2nd Brigade, C.F.A.,
was appointed to the 11th Brigade.
These four Brigades and their ammunition column went to France under
the command of Brigadier-General J. H. Mitchell, late of the 3rd
Brigade, C.F.A. This officer had been mentioned in despatches and
awarded the Legion of Honour, Croix d'Officier, a year before.
The 4th Canadian Division went to France in August, 1916, the 10th
Infantry Brigade arriving on the 11th, the 11th Brigade on the 14th,
and the 12th Brigade on the 15th. On the 17th they assembled, and
within the week were moved into positions on the war-torn front of the
Ypres salient. There they remained until the first week in October,
when they joined the Canadian Corps on the Somme. During their
occupation of the Ypres salient each of the three Brigades was
withdrawn in turn for a course of tactical training.
So it was that the autumn of 1916 saw the Canadian Army in France
flooding to and beyond the one hundred thousand mark. Four Divisions,
according to the old establishment, which gave twenty-two thousand men
of all ranks and arms to a division, would account for eighty-eight
thousand Canadians in France at that time, but the development of the
machine-gun service and the creation of trench-mortar batteries long
ago caused the outgrowth and consequent revision of that establishment.
And still, without the addition of a further Division, the Canadian
Army Corps continued to grow, waxing greater daily to meet every
progressive need and condition of modern warfare. By January, 1917,
Canada's man-power in France reached the significant total of one
hundred and twelve thousand. This figure takes no account of the
wastage of battle. The seriously wounded and work-worn who are
returned to England are, like the dead, immediately struck out of the
tally. This figure stands for fit Canadians actively employed at the
moment in first-hand combat with the enemy.
In the past, great battles have been won and long wars brought to a
swift and violent end, tyrants have been broken, races enslaved, and
thrones overturned by armies far weaker in numbers and in spirit than
these fighting legions of Canada.
To enforce the significance of this Canadian Field Army of 112,000, we
may compare the numbers engaged in some of the decisive battles of the
past. The army of Napoleon, for instance, numbered but 70,000 men when
he broke the power of Austria and Russia at Austerlitz. Wellington won
the crushing victory of Vittoria, in the Peninsular War. with a force
of 65,000; and at Waterloo he commanded rather less than 68,000. The
terrific battle of Gettysburg, in the American Civil War, was fought by
78,000 Federals against the slightly smaller forces of the Southern
Confederacy. Even at the great battle of Sedan, which decided the
issue of the Franco-Prussian War in 1870, the army of France, on which
all her hopes were staked--and lost--numbered but 150,000. From such
figures may be estimated the importance of Canada's contribution in the
present gigantic struggle for liberty and right.
In the summer of 1914 Canada was a land of peace, of self-interest, of
political warfare, and commercial and agricultural prosperity; and now
her thousands lie dead on foreign battlefields; thousands of her sons
have returned to her, maimed, broken, and blind; her forward army
fights on, continually bleeding yet continually growing in strength,
reinforced from her trained troops in England; and to her own home
camps and garrisons her sons continue to gather from counting-house,
school, and farm.