HOLDING THE NEW GROUND
Meanwhile, the 26th Battalion, the men of New Brunswick, under
Lieutenant-Colonel A. E. G. McKenzie, though denied the exultation of
the first irresistible onward sweep to victory, were none the less
getting their fill of hard fighting and contributing their full share
to the splendid achievement of the day. They came in for sharp
punishment, too in passing through the barrage which the enemy had
promptly put up for the purpose of walling off the assault from its
support. And the task which had been set them, of "mopping up" behind
the assaulting waves proved to be a long, strenuous, and costly one.
As the first waves of our attack raged across the village, numbers of
the enemy flung away their rifles in panic, shouted the customary
Kamerad! Kamerad!" and held up their hands in surrender. They were
spared, and ordered to go back behind the lines. But after the wave
had passed on, many of these, though essentially prisoners on parole,
picked up their rifles again and fell to sniping our troops in the rear
from convenient hiding-places in the gardens and cellars. When the New
Brunswickers came along these traitors usually put up a desperate
fight, having little reason to expect further mercy. The New
Brunswickers, however, in spite of their many casualties, were in a
triumphant mood and not inclined to inquire too closely into the
deserts of their captives; and those who made haste to surrender again
got the benefit of the doubt. All this business of "mopping up" gave
opportunity for individual prowess, and the woodsmen and river-men,
small farmers and independent townsmen of the sturdy Loyalist province
threw themselves into it with peculiar zeal. By nightfall their task
was nominally complete, and Colonel McKenzie was able to throw two of
his companies into the trenches on the right of Courcelette in support
of the 22nd Battalion, while the other two companies he posted on the
left to support the 25th. But during all that night and the greater
part of the following day he had small parties out scouring the ruins
and the cellars, unearthing fresh dug-outs and discovering
craftily-hidden sniping-posts. The Battalion suffered in all about 300
casualties, of whom 11 were officers. But the casualties which they
inflicted upon the enemy, chiefly in their fierce bombing and bayonet
work, were very heavy, and of unwounded prisoners alone they took just
over 600, making a sufficiently handsome balance to their credit.
General McDonnell, in a letter to Colonel McKenzie immediately after
the relief of the Battalion, wrote: "New Brunswick may justly be
thrilled with pride at the deeds done by her lads in this particular
fight."
As the 25th Battalion had taken about 300 prisoners, and the 22nd
approximately the same number, during their final sweep through the
village, the total of prisoners to the credit of the 5th Brigade in
this brief and brilliant action amounted to about 1,200, exclusive of
the wounded. Among these prisoners were two colonels, one a regimental
and the other a battalion commander. There was also substantial booty,
including three 4.1 guns, seven machine-guns, seven trench-mortars, a
locomotive and several railway trucks, with quantities of bombs,
ammunition, and stores.
The village having thus been carried by storm, with such fine _élan_
and disciplined valour, by the men of Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and
Quebec, the exultant victors had now an even sterner test to undergo.
During three nights and two days they had to hold what they had gained
against the most desperate efforts of a powerful and exasperated
adversary to retake it. For this duty the 5th Brigade was reinforced
by two additional Battalions, the 18th from the 4th Brigade and the
27th from the 6th; and General McDonnell was given command of the whole
divisional front. On their right the 15th Division (Imperials),
pounding their way onward through the twin village of Martinpuich, had
kept an even front with the Canadian advance. But on their left the
progress of the 3rd Division had been delayed by a formidable trench
system known as the Fabeck Graben. The captured village, therefore,
constituted the point of a dangerous wedge driven defiantly into the
heart of the German position. It was not only a salient narrow and
awkward, therefore, which General McDonnell, on this night of the
triumphant September 15th, found himself called upon to consolidate and
to hold, but it was one which both invited assault by its exposure and
insistently challenged by its menace. Throughout the night, however,
the enemy made no response to the challenge except by incessant
shelling, their infantry, apparently, being for the time too much
demoralised to face the conquerors again. By the afternoon of the 16th
they had recovered, and being heavily reinforced, they made a desperate
effort to recover their lost ground. From the trenches which they
still held on the right of our position, by the cemetery, and from the
direction of Destremont Farm, they launched no fewer than seven
counterattacks upon the apex and the eastern side of the salient.
This, as we have seen, was the frontage held by the French-Canadian
Battalion, worn and weary, but elated by its dashing successes of the
previous evening. Supported by a portion of the New Brunswick
Battalion on their right, and by a strong advanced post from the Nova
Scotian Battalion on their left front, the French-Canadians beat off
all these assaults without yielding up a foot of their hard-won ground.
In the meantime the Nova Scotians were dealing drastically with four
counterattacks against their own front where they had hastily but
thoroughly consolidated themselves along a line several hundred yards
beyond the north-western outskirts of the village. It was during this
consolidation that an adventurous Nova Scotian bomber--by name Private
McIntyre--went scouting up a section of German trench, encountered a
party of twelve Germans, coolly summoned them to surrender and marched
them all in as prisoners. The results of these counter-attacks against
the Nova Scotians were so unsatisfactory to the enemy that he did not
repeat them, but turned his attention once more to the north-eastern
face of the position, where the fact that he still held, with abundance
of machine-guns, an obscure tangle of trenches between the Quarry and
the Bapaume Road seemed to offer him better prospects of success. Here
the 22nd Battalion, and the 26th, who had taken over the frontage
between the Cemetery and the Bapaume Road to enable the diminished
companies of the 22nd to shorten their line, on the nights of the 16th
and 17th hurled back six more counter-attacks which were pressed with
fierce determination. Upon the failure of these the Germans appeared
sullenly to accept the loss of Courcelette, and confined themselves to
harassing us with shell-fire and sniping. They found themselves fully
occupied in blocking our ceaseless efforts to gnaw our way ever a
little farther along the left of the road. On the afternoon of the
17th these efforts developed into a sharp attack by the 22nd and 24th
Battalions upon that troublesome maze of trenches already referred to,
just beyond the Cemetery. This attack was successful upon its left and
centre, but was held up on its right by overwhelming machine-gun fire.
It resulted, however, in a decided improvement of our position on the
exposed eastern flank of the village.
While the 22nd and 24th Battalions were making this attempt on the
right the Nova Scotians threw forward one company and a party of
bombers on the left, endeavouring to seize a swell of ground just north
of their lines. Though a minor attack, the men of Nova Scotia pressed
it with great determination, their recent successes having rendered
them unwilling to acknowledge that any obstacle could baulk them. This
time, however, they found themselves held up, and were forced to draw
back into their trenches after heavy casualties. Encouraged by this
small flicker of success, the enemy sought to follow it up by a series
of counter-attacks. As these grew more and more severe the reserve
company of the New Brunswickers (the 26th Battalion) was thrown in to
take a hand in the strenuous game. This went on throughout the night.
Finally, during the progress of the heaviest counter-attack of all, a
company of the 4th Battalion, 1st Brigade, came up to begin the relief;
and the enemy was hurled back with severe punishment. On the morning
of the 18th, the 2nd Division, battle-weary but triumphant and covered
with distinction, was relieved, and drew off for a few days in rest
camp at Rubempré; while the veteran 1st Division took over its proud
lines on the left.
It is impossible to conclude the story of the winning of Courcelette
without paying tribute to the heroic and extraordinarily efficient work
of the Canadian Engineer and Pioneer companies throughout the whole
course of the struggle. In consolidating our newly-won positions, in
siting and digging communication trenches, in running up light railways
to the new front, they laboured under the severe and incessant scouring
of shell and machine-gun fire and endured heavy casualties without the
stimulus of being able to strike back at their opponents. The daring
and devotion of the Field Ambulance Service were such as to make all
praise seem poor; and the deeds of heroic sacrifice in the rescue of
the wounded were not less splendid than those enacted in the fighting
itself. Among those who gave their lives in this noble work was the
gallant officer directing it in the forward area, Lieutenant-Colonel R.
P. Campbell, who fell in the hail of shrapnel. The arduous duties of
carrying food and supplies for the fighting lines, throughout the
engagement, were performed, at heavy cost, by the 24th Battalion, which
thus contributed in fullest measure to the victory--and the casualty
list--though deprived, except during the operation on the afternoon of
the 17th, of its hoped-for share in the fighting. The gratitude of
their fellow battalions, whose hands they so efficiently upheld, had to
compensate them for their loss of the acclaim and exaltation of the
great attack.
Of the 22 officers who went into the attack with the French-Canadian
Battalion (the 22nd), 6 were killed and 11 wounded; and the Nova
Scotian Battalion, by a curious coincidence, suffered the same number
of casualties among its officers, viz., 5 killed, 8 wounded, and 4
missing--in all, 17 officer casualties for each of the two Battalions.
With the 11 already noted in the 26th Battalion, 9 in the 24th,[1] 2 in
the 5th Canadian Machine-Gun Company, 1 brigade bombing officer, and 1
O.C. Trench-Mortar Battery, we have a total of 58 officer casualties in
the Brigade incurred during the actual operations of the 16th, 17th,
and 18th. Of other ranks our casualties numbered 1,267.
[1] _Incurred during the perilous and essential duties of "carrying"
for the Brigade throughout the whole operation_.