As I have previously said, there is always a certain amount of rivalry
between the Battalions. In illustration of this we got word that a
Battalion on our right was going to pull off a raid. Our Colonel
immediately ordered Lieut. Wise (he went over with the 25th as a
Sergt. and is now a Major and second in command of the Battalion) to
take a party of men and make a raid into Fritz's trench. They set off
and after wandering around "No Man's Land" for a while found an
opening in his wire. They got into his trench and bombarded him right
and left, killing quite a few and bringing back valuable information.
Unluckily we had a few wounded, and Sergt. Anderson got no further
back than Fritz's wire when he was hit. Lieut. Wise made three or four
gallant attempts to get him out, but, owing to the machine gun and
rifle fire, it was impossible. Lieut. Wise, who was badly wounded got
the Military Cross and Cross de Guerre, and several of the boys got
the Military Medal, so the Battalion on our right had to postpone
their raid.
A few nights later we planned another. There were three parties, one
under Lieut. Matheson, one under Lieut. Daley, and one under Lieut.
Hiltz, the whole being under the command of Major Grant. Lieut.
Dennis Stairs also took part in this. We were all ready to raid the
trench when we got orders that the Battalion on our right was going to
pull off a raid and that we must postpone ours. The same night that
Lieut. Wise pulled off his raid so successfully, the Fourth Brigade
"put one over" on the Hun. They raided his trench, bringing back some
prisoners and doing quite a lot of damage to his trench.
But one of their men had been missing and had been given up for lost.
Two days later one of the Artillery officers, while observing our
fire, noticed a chap wandering around No Man's Land, and he would have
fired at him only the man turned round and the observer saw his black
face and knew right away that it was the missing man. A couple of boys
crawled out and brought him in. He was quite delirious. It seemed that
he had been wounded and bled quite a lot and became unconscious. The
sun dried the wound, but left him insane and he had started wandering
around No Man's Land.
Just before we left the St. Eloi front we had some of the Fourth
Division in with us, and we showed them what they had to do and left
them to play their part and show the Huns that they were
Canadians--and this they have undoubtedly done.
The Somme fighting was on about this time. I well remember the 1st of
July. Our aeroplanes went over the German lines and brought down about
six or seven of their observation balloons before you could say "Jack
Robinson." It was pretty slick work, with some new explosive that our
fellows had kept very secret.
In leaving the St. Eloi front we marched for three days to a little
town quite close to St. Omer called ----, where we drilled from five
in the morning till seven or eight at night, doing the usual training
so as to get us fit for the fray. By this time I was a full fledged
Lance Corporal in charge of "C" Company's Lewis guns. We had a great
time here. A couple of days in the week we would have sports and then
we would play games of baseball. Some of the boys would help the
French girls make up their crops. Another thing that helped to make us
so comfortable here was the difference in the people. They were most
hospitable and could not do enough for us. We would scatter our straw
on the floor, spread our blanket and go to sleep as happy and
contented as possible. I tell you when you have a tiled floor for a
mattress, your pack for a pillow and your overcoat for a blanket you
can appreciate such a comfort as straw and blankets.
We all knew that we were going to the Somme to take part in that big
show and we were very anxious to get down upon them. The First
Division had gone down a little ahead of us, but we were going to show
them that the 25th could play its part as well as any of the
Battalions and we did so.
We stayed a while here in training and then we started on our journey.
We would march about fifteen miles each day and would camp or bivouac
for the night. Before turning in to sleep we would have a sing-song,
all the men being in the best of spirits for at last we knew we were
going to have a real scrap with the Hun, and although we had been in
France twelve months, we had always been on the defensive and that is
always the hardest kind of fighting. As we had quite a lot of old
scores to pay off, we were just eager to get at the foe. After a long
march we finally arrived at the brickfield in Albert, and there we saw
for our first time the brass statute on the Church of Albert which
was hanging head down. You would think that it would fall at any
moment, but it was well secured so that the person who made the
prophecy that when the statute on the church at Albert fell, the war
would end, must have known that the war would last a long time.
Well here we were. Thousands of troops ready for a big attack. One day
we saw some queer looking objects coming along the road. We were all
wondering what sort of war machines they were. There were all sorts of
rumors as to what they were and what they could do. We did not find
out what they were until the 15th of September and then we knew that
they were the much-talked of "tanks." Fritz also found that out--much
to his loss. We did several working parties here, going up through
Contalmaison, Pozieres and other villages. We should not have known
that they had been villages only that there were signs there to inform
us to that effect.
Anybody who has seen the German trenches here, and the deep dugouts
and steep ridges which the British troops had to swarm over could
scarcely believe it possible to take any of their positions; but we
had a leader in General Haig and he knew what he was doing. The
Artillery pounded the Hun with such vigor that if any were left they
were properly demoralized, and then the infantry went over and caught
the Germans down in their dugouts. By the night of Sept. 14th we were
ready to launch our attack. The great Somme fight was on!