HOLDING THE LINE
The Battle of Sanctuary Wood was fought and endured throughout the
first two days of June, 1916. Canada's resistance to that terrific and
overwhelming onslaught of metal and men will live as long and
gloriously as any victory in the great story of our arms. During those
two fateful days Canadian trenches were obliterated--blown out of the
ground; dug-outs were buried and strong points crushed; woods in our
positions were mown and torn to earth; Major-General Mercer was killed
and one of our Brigade commanders wounded and taken prisoner. The
Canadian front was crushed by that indescribable deluge of exploding
metal--but it was not broken.
Between the heroic actions in the Ypres salient in June (1st to 15th)
and the commencement of our strenuous thrusts on the Somme front in
mid-September, no unit of the Canadian Corps was in any major offensive
operation. But the routine work of holding and strengthening our
positions continued with the full measure of that activity for which
the Canadians have become famous. The vitality of our opposition to
the confronting masses of men and machinery did not lessen for an
instant. Relieved from the recent terrific efforts of defence and
counter-attack, we were stationary yet aggressive. Hostile trenches
and strongholds were raided and bombarded, wire was cut by hand and
smashed by shell-fire, and mines were sprung. All arms continued to
carry on enthusiastically, and the mental peace and physical security
of the occupants of opposing positions were shattered constantly by
bayonet and grenade, trench-bomb, bullet, and shell. The following
instances will serve to illustrate the nature of our activities
throughout this period of waiting, of preparation, and of so-called
quiet.
Dominion Day (July 1st) was celebrated by the 26th (New Brunswick)
Battalion in a manner little appreciated by the grey ranks across the
way. Supported by the fire of our artillery and trench-mortars, two
officers and twenty-five other ranks operated against a convenient
point in the German front-line trench. The assaulting party were
observed and subjected to a brisk but inaccurate fire of machine-guns
and rifles before they had passed the enemy's inner wire. They pressed
forward without a pause and rushed the parapet. The garrison of the
trench immediately retired from this threatened point except for three
men, who stuck to their loopholes and continued firing. Lieutenant
Fleming accounted for one of these by thrusting his revolver into a
loophole and returning the fire. The trench was then entered and its
remaining defenders disposed of. After our party had investigated
about forty yards of the trench they were driven out by a heavy
bombardment of rifle-grenades and mortar-bombs. They then returned to
our own lines with a few slight casualties, some useful information,
and a quantity of German equipment.
An encounter in No Man's Land between a patrol of the 22nd (French
Canadian) Battalion and a German patrol on the night of July 4th
resulted in the dispersion of the enemy and our capture of two
prisoners.
Ten nights later a reconnoitring patrol from the 25th (Nova Scotia)
Battalion attacked an enemy listening-post at the moment of its being
strongly reinforced. After a brisk exchange of grenades the Germans
ran for their trench, leaving the field and one of their wounded to us.
On the night of the 25th a large German mine was blown in our lines on
the Bluff. This was not the enemy's first attempt to possess himself
of that advantageous position. It will be remembered that he attained
his object in January of the same year and was not driven out until a
month later, and then only at a heavy cost of killed and wounded.
Fortunately the second attempt to secure a foothold on that ground
failed utterly, thanks to the alertness and prompt action of our troops
immediately concerned. Briefly, the story of the foiled effort is
this:--
The 1st Canadian Division, which had taken over the Bluff sector on the
22nd of the month, received warning two days later from Major North, of
the 1st Canadian Tunnelling Company, that the enemy might be depended
upon to blow a mine very soon somewhere in the vicinity. The
localities which were considered with the liveliest suspicion were a
point known as the Bean and Trench 33. The Division immediately warned
the 2nd Infantry Brigade of the menace; the G.O.C. the Brigade ordered
reductions in the garrisons of the threatened positions, the covering
of that section of front by machine-guns, and the detailing of parties
for counter-attack and of other parties for the vital work of
consolidation should a mine be blown.
The early hours of the night of the 25th were unusually quiet about the
Bluff. Artillery was silent. Snipers and machine-gunners seemed
half-hearted in their activities. The 7th (British Columbia) Battalion
was engaged in preparing for a relief which was to be completed by
midnight.
At ten o'clock the quiet was shattered by a tremendous convulsion.
Earth, fire, rock, and smoke belched to heaven. Trenches vanished,
engulfed. Instantly the S.O.S. rocket went up. Our machine-guns
responded like crackling echoes of the explosion.
Within thirty seconds of the rocket-signal for help the guns of Dodd's
Group commenced a crushing bombardment of the German positions which
threatened the new crater. Our counter-attacking parties advanced,
armed with rifles, grenades, and machine-guns. They occupied the
forward lip of the crater, the flanking shell-holes overlooking its raw
depths, certain points commanding the canal, and a ridge running
between an historic old crater and the new.
The Germans, reinforced and ready for the dash from cover and the
occupation of the Crater swarmed to their parapets, and swayed and
seethed there for a little while like a headed wave about to break and
flood forward. Then the wave broke and subsided--backward instead of
forward.
The great attack was dead, dead in the first half-minute of its furious
and painful life, killed by the smashing fire of our artillery and the
whipping hail of our machine-guns.
Within one and a half hours of the blowing of the mine the O.C. the 7th
Battalion reported to his Brigadier that the menace was past, and that
the new crater was being swiftly absorbed by our defensive positions.
Our artillery reduced its fire by one-half. Five minutes later the
German artillery retaliation ceased, the fire of our machine-guns and
artillery dropped to normal, and the relief of our infantry--which had
been interrupted and delayed for nearly two hours--was calmly continued.
Owing to the precaution of thinning the garrisons in the threatened
locality, our casualties were wonderfully light--less than fifty all
told in killed, wounded, and missing. It is safe to say that the enemy
casualties, caused by our artillery, machine-guns, Stokes and
trench-mortar batteries, were much heavier; and, in addition to their
loss of life and limb, the Germans lost their adventure. The months of
toil devoted to the laying of the mine and the tons of explosive which
comprised it failed to strengthen their position by a tittle or to
weaken ours by a jot.
On the night of the 28th a patrol from the Nova Scotian Battalion
(25th), consisting of a lieutenant, a sergeant, and four men, carried
out a daring raid on a small scale. They bombed the German trench at
the point where they intended to enter, and were about to negotiate the
parapet when a party of eight enemy bombers attacked them on the flank.
In the brief but desperate fight which followed this unexpected
distraction three of the Canadians were wounded and the eight Germans
were disposed of. Lieutenant Wise, with Sergeant Anderson and Private
Johnson, then entered the hostile trench and discovered that their
preliminary grenade-fire had killed five of the garrison. They drove
the enemy down the trench, until Anderson was wounded. Lieutenant Wise
ceased his offensive to help the sergeant over the parapet, and while
thus engaged he received three wounds. Johnson continued to drive the
enemy until all his grenades were thrown. He then escaped from the
trench, returned to our lines, collected a rescue party, and led the
way back to the scene of action. All our wounded were found and
brought in with the exception of Sergeant Anderson.
At half-past eight on the morning of the 29th the 19th (Ontario)
Battalion made a daylight raid into the enemy trenches on the St. Eloi
front between Ruined Farm and the Canal. Two officers and the scouts
of the Battalion had devoted every day and night of the preceding week
to reconnoitring the ground over which the attack was to be made.
During the night of the 28th the enemy's wire in front of the point
selected for entry was hand-cut by two men of the Battalion.
Machine-gun fire on the hostile parapet at the threatened point muffled
the sound of the clipping of the wire. The raiding party, consisting
of Captain C. L. Kilmer Lieutenant H. B. Pepler, and eighteen N.C.O.'s
and men, covered three-quarters of their journey between the lines by
way of an old ditch, doubled across the remaining forty-five yards,
passed through the gaps in the wire, and went over the parapet before
they were discovered by the enemy. They moved to the right and left
along the trench, shooting and bombing. Upon the approach of strong
German reinforcements along a communication trench, the signal to
retire was given and successfully obeyed. During the evacuation of the
trench the raiders suffered a few slight casualties from grenade-fire,
and the two officers and a sergeant sustained shrapnel wounds. Captain
Kilmer was the last to leave the trench. One of his ankles had been
broken in the fight. As he was unable to reach our lines unassisted,
and unwilling to delay the retirement, he crawled into a shell-hole
situated about eight yards in front of the German wire. He was rescued
from this insecure retreat by Lieutenant Burnham, Corporal Wilson, and
Private Newton, who, covered by an accurate barrage from the guns of
Stewart's Group, moved out to the shell-hole and back to our lines
under a heavy fire of machine-guns and rifles.
In this, the first of our daylight raids, no prisoners were taken. The
action was too swift and the encounters were too violent to permit of
the removal of a single living Hun; but the operation was highly
successful. The occupants of the trench were identified as the Royal
Württembergers; valuable information of a technical nature was
obtained; two machine-guns were put out of action and other machine-gun
and trench-mortar emplacements located; many of the garrison of the
trench were shot, and four large dug-outs, crowded with men, were
effectively bombed; and it is reasonable to suppose that the casualties
inflicted by our artillery were severe. Lieutenant H. R. Dillon,
Canadian Field Artillery, who acted as Forward Observation Officer
throughout the operation, did splendid service, especially during the
rescue of Captain Kilmer, when he stood fully exposed in No Man's Land
at a point within forty yards of the German trench, and from there
directed the fire of his battery. Lieutenant Hooper, of the 19th
Battalion, whose active command during the raid included a Lewis gun,
snipers, and a telephonist, also did fine work.
On the night of August 5th-6th the 27th (City of Winnipeg) Battalion
sent a raiding party into the enemy trenches opposite their front, with
the usual objects of obtaining prisoners and information and inflicting
casualties. This raid was daringly executed; but the fighting in the
trench was so severe that no prisoners were taken. Lieutenant Harris
was wounded while carrying a wounded German toward the point of entry.
Two unwounded Germans were caught, but owing to their struggles and the
depth of the trench the efforts of their captors to expel them over the
parapet were ineffectual.
Eight nights later Lieutenant Clarkson of this same Battalion led
another party into the enemy's lines and succeeded in bringing out a
prisoner. The garrison of the invaded trench suffered heavily. Of
Clarkson's party only one man was wounded.
A party from the 28th (North-West) Battalion, supported by the
artillery of Stuart's Group, our trench-mortars, and Stokes guns,
entered the enemy's trenches in the neighbourhood of Ruined Farm on the
night of August 10th-11th. Lieutenant T. L. O. Williams, who commanded
the raiders, was wounded. The enemy and his trenches were severely
knocked about and a prisoner was brought back.
A dummy raid on the hostile positions at the Hollandscheschuur Farm and
Quarante Wood salients was successfully practised by Dodd's Group,
C.F.A., and the 10th (Ontario) Battalion in the early hours of August
15th. The object of this long-headed enterprise was to draw the
Germans in force into their front-line trenches and there drub them
thoroughly with the combined fire of our field batteries, Stokes guns,
and machine-guns.
At 3.45 a.m. three white flares were sent up from our lines, and at the
same time the enemy's entanglements were violently shaken by means of
strong wires which connected them with our forward positions. The
Germans immediately took alarm and subjected their own entanglements to
a heavy grenade bombardment along the whole front from the Quarante
Wood to the Chemin de Poperinghe. Our artillery and Stokes guns then
opened heavily and accurately on selected targets on the enemy front
and support trenches. The Germans promptly attempted a retaliation
with the fire of a five-point-nine battery; but as their first two
shells fell in their own lines at the Farm, the third in No Man's Land,
and the next thirty-seven on various points behind and in their own
defences, they soon became discouraged.
In addition to the casualties and material damage inflicted by our
fire, the enemy must have suffered heavily from the erratic performance
of his own five-point nines.
On the 17th a new strong point in the system of enemy trenches known as
"the Loop," in Sanctuary Wood, about two thousand yards east of
Zillebeke, was subjected to a concentrated bombardment by our 6-inch
howitzers and partially destroyed. To complete its destruction the
bombardment was resumed during the night of the 17th and 18th, and
under cover of this bombardment a raid was undertaken by a party from
the Royal Canadian Regiment against an advanced trench sector and
bombing post in the immediate neighbourhood of "the Loop." The idea
was to take the enemy by surprise while their attention was occupied by
the bombardment, and to capture prisoners. In both these respects,
however, the operation was a failure, as the Germans were found fully
prepared and "standing to," with the post heavily manned, and not only
were no prisoners taken, but not one of our men succeeded in getting
into the trench. The affair was memorable, however, for the amazing
courage and audacity with which it was pushed, in the teeth of
overwhelming and ready numbers, and for the resourcefulness and heroic
devotion with which the three officers--Lieutenant Bole, leader of the
raiding party, and Lieutenants Churchill and Munn, who had come to his
assistance--succeeded in bringing all the wounded back to our lines.
It was remarkable, too, for the slaughter inflicted in the crowded
trench by this greatly daring handful of raiders. The raiding party
consisted of sixteen N.C.O.'s and men under Lieutenant Bole. A gap was
blown in the enemy wire by the explosion of an ammonal tube.
Immediately Lieutenant Bole, who had gathered his men at the head of
the sap running outward from our front line, led the way through the
broken wire in the hope of gaining the position in one rush. They were
met, however, by a storm of bombs and machine-gun fire, and fell
rapidly. But even the wounded, if not utterly disabled, kept on
hurling their bombs. Lance-Corporal Reynolds, though already hit,
succeeded in reaching the enemy's parapet and delivering all his bombs
with deadly effect among the packed ranks. Then, finding himself
alone, he withdrew, and dropped, with two more wounds, a few yards back
from the parapet. By this time every member of the party was down
except Lieutenant Bole, who occupied himself calmly with the task of
rescuing his wounded. Lieutenant Churchill came to his aid in this,
while Lieutenant Munn, taking his Lewis gun out into No Man's Land,
played it along the enemy's parapet to keep down their fire. Under
cover of this gun, and of a trench-mortar barrage which was presently
dropped along the trench, Lieutenant Bole got all his wounded, one by
one, back through the sap and into our lines. And so the affair
ended--not, indeed, with success, but with great distinction for all
concerned, and with the consolation of having exacted a heavy toll in
German lives.
It may be in place here to give an interesting instance of the work
that was being done by our Tunnelling Companies--work calling for not
only great courage and devotion, but also the highest technical skill
and resource. The work of a tunnelling company at the Front is like a
duel with knives in a dark room, where one may feel at any moment the
stealthy adversary's knife in one's back. The tunnellers' ears,
nerves, and intuition are ceaselessly on the strain. And just when he
has successfully mined his opponents and is about to blow them up, he
may be counter-mined himself and hurled into eternity. At the position
known as "The Bluff," overlooking the Canal, a mine had been blown by
the enemy on July 25th, forming a new crater of which we had at once
taken possession. By the explosion a lip was formed on the east side
of the crater, which was capable of being transformed into an extremely
strong position. But it was impossible to work on this position with
any degree of safety, as it was certain that the enemy's gallery, from
which he had laid the mine, ran somewhere beneath the lip, and was
occupied. Any work we should attempt on the position would inevitably
be heard in the gallery and could be frustrated, disastrously for us,
by the explosion of another mine. It was decided to try to tunnel into
the gallery from another direction. Bore-holes, therefore, were driven
in the supposed direction of the gallery, in the hope of being able to
locate it exactly by listening. In this the borers were so successful
that they came upon the gallery before they expected to. The enemy
made them aware of their success by exploding a charge beneath the
bore-holes, killing three of our men and injuring others. From this,
however, it was obvious that the main charge was not yet laid in the
gallery. Plans were therefore made at once for endeavouring to sap
into the gallery from No Man's Land and blow it in, so as to cut it off
at some distance from the crater, and thus, if possible, gain the
crater end of it for our own use. In order to begin the work far out
in No Man's Land it was absolutely necessary to obtain some cover
there, and cover of such a nature that the enemy should not recognise
its purpose. The problem might well have seemed an insurmountable one;
but Major North, O.C. 1st Tunnelling Company, Canadian Engineers,
solved it successfully, outwitting the Germans by an ingenious ruse.
In the words of the Official Report:--"One hundred pounds of ammonal
were taken over the parapet, and, after a rather difficult
reconnaissance, were placed about fifty feet in front of the new
crater.... This charge was wired back to _Thames Street_. In
co-operation with the 5th Battalion, two 60-pound trench-mortars were
fired at the German line in front at a prearranged time, and at one
minute interval. A minute later our charge was exploded, and after
another minute another trench-mortar was fired, the object being to
make the enemy believe that our charge was a trench-mortar fallen
short. This charge made a crater about 4 ft. deep and about 8 ft. in
diameter, breaking the tough surface layer of roots and gravel. We
entered the crater immediately after it was blown, placed another
charge of 200 pounds of ammonal, and blew it. The next night we
entered the crater, finding it about 8 ft. deep and about 25 ft. in
diameter." From this effective cover our boring went on unsuspected,
and a number of charges were laid in different bore-holes close to
where the gallery was judged to run. When these were simultaneously
exploded our calculations were proved correct. A sector of the gallery
was found completely wrecked, effectually cutting the communications,
and we entered into possession of the undamaged portion, about 112 ft.
in length, extending up into the new crater. We thus secured a
valuable post of vantage from which to conduct other mining operations,
and the crater was consolidated into a strong point of considerable
importance to our line.
By these and many similar small operations the enemy were kept at a
tension and subjected to continual harassing annoyance; and our own men
were encouraged and stimulated while perfecting themselves in the art
of modern war.