ON THE SOMME
It is around the part played by the Canadian Forces in the gigantic and
long-drawn-out struggle known as "the Battle of the Somme" that the
interest of this third volume of our records must centre. The
operations which began, on July 1st, 1916, with the ponderous thrusts
of the British and French Armies from before Albert and Bray, and ended
with the capture of Bapaume and Peronne on March 17th and 18th, 1917,
constituted, according to the nomenclature of war before these days of
Armageddon, not one battle, indeed, but a campaign of many great
battles. In this war, however, all is on a scale so colossal that
standards and terms of comparison have to be enlarged in due
proportion. All that unparalleled outpouring of agony and splendour,
of sacrifice and endurance, of heroism and destruction, which the
Germans have so poignantly--and significantly--designated as "the
blood-baths of the Somme," may be taken as one battle, a battle in
whose vast rhythm the old values of hours and days are supplanted by
weeks and months. Yet never before in the world's history was there a
battle in which minutes have been held so priceless, the seconds
themselves so reckoned upon with meticulous precision. To present an
adequate picture of the battle as a whole, or even of the specific part
played in it by this or that particular corps, is a task that will tax
the powers of the inspired historian, viewing the great subject at such
a distance that he can see it as a whole and in its true perspective.
He will need to be a new Thucydides, equipped, not only with grasp and
vision, but also with mastery of the magic of words. And even so, the
story will never be half told. Men will continue digging into the
records and unofficial accounts as an inexhaustible mine, forever
discovering new jewels of wonder and terror and pity. The utmost that
can be attempted in this unpretending narrative is to set down the
salient facts as to the achievements of our own Divisions, with such
detail as can be sifted out, more or less at hazard, while the dust of
the stupendous conflict is still in the air.
On September 1st the Canadians began to move from their sector of
comparative calm toward the vortex of the gigantic struggle, which was
at this period raging with special fury around Mouquet Farm and over
the blood-soaked undulations between Pozières, Courcelette, and
Martinpuich. The quality of our troops, and the estimation in which
they were held by the Higher Command, may be judged by the fact of
their being allotted to this vital area, which included the key
positions on the direct road to Bapaume. How they justified this
confidence, and at what a cost, the sequel will show.
The 1st Canadian Division, General Currie's veterans of Ypres, was the
first to move south, and its headquarters were shifted to Rubempré, a
few kilometres due west from shell-torn Albert. On the 3rd we find
certain battalions supporting the Australians at Tom's Cut; and by the
4th the whole division had moved up through Albert and out along the
Bapaume road into the stress of the conflict, taking over from the 4th
Australian Division under heavy shell-fire, a hotly-contested line of
trenches running from a little behind Mouquet Farm to the junction of
Munster Alley with Cameron and Highland trenches, about a mile to the
south of Courcelette. On the following day the headquarters of the
Division were transferred from Rubempré to the precarious shelters and
dug-outs of Tara Mill, on the Bapaume Road, near the grim collections
of calcined rubble which had been La Boiselle and Ovillers. On the 6th
the 1st Canadian Divisional Artillery arrived, and took over from the
2nd Australian Divisional Artillery in support of General Currie's
line. All the time, from the moment of their arrival, our troops were
kept under a very destructive bombardment from 5.9, 8-inch, and 11-inch
guns, the enemy hoping thus to shake their morale before they could get
settled into their new positions; and the communication trenches were
so effectively blotted out that the front line could only be reached by
going overland. The relief was no more than satisfactorily completed
when the war-worn old Division was given a chance to show that its
mettle had not deteriorated in the transfer from "the Salient" to the
Somme.
In the early morning of the 8th an exposed section of our front trench,
about seventy-five yards in extent, held by Lieutenant G. B. Murray, of
the 14th Battalion, with Lieutenant B. L. Cook and twenty-four other
ranks under his command, was attacked with the bayonet by some two
hundred of the enemy, who succeeded at the first rush in forcing their
way into the position. The little party of defenders, however, held
their ground with bomb, rifle, and cold steel till reinforcements came
up, whereupon the assailants were expelled with heavy loss. On the
following day came the opportunity which the tried and seasoned
Division was waiting for. But it came to one Battalion only--the
"Fighting Second" from Eastern Ontario, commanded by Lieutenant-Colonel
A. E. Swift, D.S.O.
At exactly twenty-five minutes past one in the afternoon of September
9th, the 2nd Battalion relieved the 4th along the sector of trench, on
the right of the Canadian position, from which the attack was to be
made. Some 250 yards to the front, south-east of the Windmill on
Bapaume Road and near the northern extension of the trench called
Walker Avenue, was a blunt salient of German trench, 550 yards or so of
it, which was strongly held and proving a thorn in our side. It hung
doggedly and defiantly athwart our plans for the advance on
Courcelette, a mile away to the north. It was this blunt salient that
the "Fighting Second" had been appointed to bite off in order to clear
the way for greater enterprises. At a quarter to five precisely the
first wave of our attack went over the parapet behind an intense
barrage from all our guns. The first three companies of the Battalion
only were engaged in the attack, No. 4 Company being held in reserve
close by, in Luxton Trench and Walker Avenue. In spite of the
punishment which the Germans had been receiving from our barrage, the
assaulting wave encountered a sturdy resistance when it reached its
objective, and for a few minutes the enemy trench was a pandemonium of
savage hand-to-hand struggles with bomb and bayonet. It was a
reversion to the ancient form of individual fighting, when great issues
so often hung upon the personal prowess of this or that one hero. In
this mad encounter individual heroism was too universal to admit of
particularisation, but the exploit of Corporal Clarke lifts itself into
prominence even in that splendid company. Attacking with a squad of
bombers on the extreme left of the wave, he jumped into the trench and
found himself alone among a swarm of extremely lively and unsubdued
Germans. With the remainder of his bombs he cleared a way for himself.
Then with his revolver he accounted for eighteen opponents, two of them
being officers, and found himself undisputed master of two bays of the
trench. Even more splendid, perhaps, by reason of its self-sacrificing
devotion, was the action of Lieutenant Pringle. Leading his platoon
against the centre of the enemy's line, he caught sight of a
machine-gun hurriedly being mounted on the parapet in such a position
that it would be able to wipe out his platoon. Pushing forward at top
speed through the storm of shell and bullets, he threw himself
single-handed upon the gun-crew before they could get their deadly
weapon into action. It never came into action. His men, following
close behind, found his body sprawled across the muzzle of the gun,
with the crew lying dead around him. Along the rest of the sector the
fighting fervour of our men was not to be denied, and the survivors of
the enemy presently flung up their hands. In just twenty-two minutes
from the beginning of the assault the whole objective was in our hands,
138 prisoners had been gathered in, and the second, or consolidating,
wave of the attack was settling itself to the task of making secure the
captured position, reversing parapets and firing-step, and commencing
new communication trenches back to the old line under the continuing
shelter of our barrage. In the meantime, the assaulting wave, taking
their Lewis guns with them, moved on and occupied a strong line of
shell-holes in front of the trench, while the bombing parties, in the
face of desperate opposition, fought their way along the trench and
established their blocks some sixty yards to either flank. The price
of this victory was two officers killed--Lieutenant Pringle and
Lieutenant Stuart--and nine wounded, the wounds of three--Major
Williams, Major A. E. McLaughlin, and Lieutenant Bishop--later proving
fatal; and of other ranks 69 killed and 190 wounded.
In view of the narrow frontage involved in the attack and the small
number of troops engaged, this operation must, of course, be classed as
a minor one. But by reason of its soundness of conception, the
precision and completeness of its execution, and the importance of its
bearing upon our enterprise against Courcelette a few days later, it
takes rank with affairs of much greater magnitude and renown. It
reflects unbounded credit upon the commanding officer Colonel Swift,
whose operation orders were remarkable for their clarity, foresight,
and exactness of detail, and upon his second-in-command, Major
Vanderwater, who led the attack and carried out those orders with such
accuracy. The Battalion was congratulated by General Plunier, the Army
Commander, on the following day in terms of unusual commendation.
In the meantime, the 2nd and 3rd Canadian Divisions, following hard
upon the heels of the 1st, had moved down from the north to Rubempré
and La Plouy, close behind the battle area. On the 11th Major-General
Turner, V.C., C.B., D.S.O., commanding the 2nd Division, transferred
his headquarters to Tara Hill, and assumed command of the sector which
had been so ably controlled by General Currie since the 4th.
Throughout the nights of the 10th and 11th the 2nd Division was
occupied in relieving the 1st Division, the relief being carried out
under extremely trying conditions and at the cost of a good many
casualties; for not only the line to be relieved, but all the stripped
and tortured waste behind it, was swept by an unceasing storm from the
German gun positions across the Ancre and around Pys and Warlencourt.
Our communication trenches in many places had been pounded out of
existence and landmarks obliterated, with the consequence that some
platoons went astray in the darkness and the bewildering uproar, and
were hours late in reaching their allotted sectors of trench.
Moreover, along with their shrapnel and high explosive, the enemy were
sending over many gas and tear shells, which added greatly to the
strain of the situation. But the nerve of our Battalions refused to be
shaken by this stern ordeal. There was no going back, no wavering. By
the morning of the 12th the relief had been completed, and our lines
were held by fresh units keen for the test which was already being
prepared for them.
On this day the 1st Division went into rest camp at Rubempré, and the
3rd Division, under Major-General L. G. Lipsett, C.M.G., moved up to
Usna Hill, their arrival being greeted that same night by a furious
attack from the Germans at Mouquet Farm. The brunt of this attack was
borne by the 2nd Battalion of the Canadian Mounted Rifles. The
assaulting waves were hurled back upon their entrenchments after heavy
punishment by our machine-guns and Stokes trench-mortars.
And now we come to COURCELETTE--and write the name in capital letters,
as it is one of the shining names in the story of Canadian valour. The
storming of that heap of ruins which had once been a sunny Picardian
village nestling amid its orchards was an achievement which must make
its day--September 15th, 1916--for ever memorable in Canadian history.
Of course, as the men who fought and won at Courcelette would be the
first to protest, the action, splendid as it was, does not stand in the
same category with the Second Battle of Ypres. It is necessary, in
writing of it, not to let one's sense of proportion be obscured by its
brilliancy and completeness. In the final analysis it will show as a
great operation perfectly planned, and executed with a courage,
swiftness, and thoroughness calling for the highest praise. Even so,
it constitutes but a single stride in the great advance known as the
Battle of the Somme. Had it failed, the result would not have been
disaster to the Somme operations as a whole, but merely a costly, and
perhaps depressing, postponement. The Second Battle of Ypres, on the
other hand, belongs not to Canada and the Empire alone, but to the
world. It must rank among those few outstanding achievements of
uncalculated and self-sacrificing heroism which serve as an incentive
to noble spirits for all time. There was that of the miraculous about
it which startles and grips the imagination. There was that mingling
of high tragedy and terror and devotion which purges national pride to
the purest patriotism. It tore victory--men hardly know how to this
day--from the jaws of overwhelming and seemingly inevitable defeat; and
had it failed, who can set a limit to the catastrophe that might well
have followed? Finally, at the Second Battle of Ypres a young nation
came suddenly to full manhood through a well-nigh unparalleled
initiation of blood and splendour and tears. It is right that the name
of YPRES should stand apart, and its imperishable glory not be
infringed upon when allotting their meed of praise to other notable
operations of the Canadian Forces.
The capture of Courcelette was the pre-eminent achievement of the
Canadians during the year 1916. The glory of it belongs to the 2nd
Canadian Division, which, under happy augury, fought the battle on the
anniversary of its arrival in France. The Division was highly trained
and well seasoned to war by a year of strenuous duty in the tormented
area of "the Salient." It had learned all the lessons of endurance and
defence in the engulfing mud of Flanders, in the holding of shattered
trenches against unrelenting shell-fire and obstinate assault. It had
played its part with distinction in the grim struggles around St. Eloi
and Hooge. When, therefore, it was selected by Sir Julian Byng the
G.O.C. the Canadian Corps, for the great thrust against Courcelette,
the General felt that he was employing a weapon of tried keenness and
temper which could be depended upon neither to turn nor to break in his
hand. The result, as will be seen, more than amply justified his
confidence.
[Illustration: Map--COURCELETTE Sept. 15th to Oct. 3rd (incl.) 1916]
The capture of Courcelette, it must be borne in mind, was not an
isolated operation. It was an enterprise carried out by the Canadian
Corps in conjunction with an attack by our Fourth Army, and by the
French Army operating on our right, south of the Somme. The battle was
fought in two distinct actions, one in the early morning by the 4th and
6th Brigades, the other in the late afternoon and evening by the 5th
Brigade. The first, properly speaking, was the action planned for the
day, its objective being the capture of the formidable defences known
as Sugar Trench and the Sugar Factory, which barred the way to
Courcelette itself. It was, indeed, an ample undertaking for one day;
but the success of the attack was so swift and overwhelming, and our
troops so straining on the leash, that it was decided to thrust on
again at once for the greater prize without giving the dishevelled
adversary time to recover. The second, and major, portion of the
operation, therefore, may be regarded as an improvisation on the
battlefield. At 3.30 in the afternoon the order came for the 5th
Brigade, which had been held in reserve during the morning advance, to
take Courcelette that same day. Brief as was the notice, within two
hours the new operation orders had been issued, and officers and
N.C.O.'s fully instructed as to their individual duties. At 6.15 a.m.
the barrage lifted and the attacking battalions "went over." Before
7.30 p.m. the whole of Courcelette, with some 1,300 prisoners and much
booty, was in our hands, and the position was being consolidated. The
second phase of the operation, though planned out with such haste, had
worked no less smoothly and according to schedule than the first, and
had resulted in a success no less decisive. All through the night, and
for several days thereafter, the Germans strove, by furious shelling
and desperate counter-attacks, to regain the stronghold from which they
had been so precipitately expelled. But our troops proved no less
dogged in holding on than they had been dashing in attack, and all the
enemy's efforts to retrieve his loss resulted only in further loss of
ground and further punishment.
An added interest attaches to the action against Courcelette from the
fact that in this engagement appeared for the first time those amazing
engines of war known as the "Tanks." The cold official designation of
these monsters is simply "Heavy Machine-Gun Battery." But Tommy
Atkins, with his fine sense of the fitness of things and his gift for
apt nomenclature, could not possibly leave this most daringly original
offspring of our military inventiveness to labour under so commonplace
a designation. He took this uncouth but invincible ally to his heart
at once, and in humorous appreciation christened it a "Tank." And a
Tank the amazing creation will remain, except for the purpose of some
formal official documents. How effectively the Tanks played their
novel _rôle_ in the fight for Courcelette will appear in succeeding
chapters in course of the detailed account of the individual units
involved. Suffice it to say here that the high opinion formed on this,
their first appearance, as to the fighting value of this new engine of
attack has been more than justified by its later performances, which
have confounded the jeers of the pessimist and the sceptic.