THE BATTLE GLORY OF CANADA.
Every Briton may thank God that the Canadians were where they were when
the cloud of poison gas sent the Turcos fleeing in panic to the rear.
These sons of the eldest daughter of the Empire, who prior to the war
knew little or nothing of the art and discipline of warfare, were now
called upon to save the situation when all seemed lost. They, too, had
been "gassed;" and though they had not suffered so severely as the
French, many of them were already out of action. Against the 3rd
Canadian Brigade four divisions of Germans now flung themselves. They
were working round to the rear when General Turner threw back his left
flank until his line ran roughly thus:--
[Illustration]
This movement had to be carried out while the air was foul with
poisonous fumes, while shells were bursting all around, and bullets were
flying from scores of machine guns and hundreds of rifles. By nightfall
the left wing of the 3rd Brigade was in its new position. Then, under
the flickering light of burning farmhouses and cottages and the fitful
rays of the moon, the men dug themselves in and prepared to hold on,
come what might. By midnight two battalions of the reserve had been
brought up, and the Canadians had settled down to their desperate task.
So fierce was the German curtain of fire that no food could reach the
trenches for twenty-four hours, and then only bread and cheese. A
company of the Buffs which attempted to bring relief was altogether
destroyed.
* * * * *
The story of the Second Battle of Ypres is mainly the story of how the
Canadian Division--outflanked, and outnumbered by four to one, stormed
at with shot and shell by the heaviest artillery known to warfare,
stupefied by poisonous vapours, unsupported by big guns, unaided by
reinforcements, and short of food and water--fought through the day and
through the night, and then through another day and night, losing
heavily hour by hour, but enduring gloriously, and finally retiring with
the proud knowledge that by its superb endurance it had saved the day.
* * * * *
When the French Colonials fled from their trenches, the enemy captured
four British guns in the little wood which you see to the east of St.
Julien. The teams were miles away, and the guns could not be carried off
during the hurry and confusion of changing position. It was gall and
wormwood to the Canadians to think these guns should be lost, and they
were eager to recover them. Towards midnight, Colonel Leckie and Colonel
Boyle led the Canadian Scottish (the 16th Battalion of the 3rd Brigade
and the 10th Battalion of the 2nd Brigade) into the wood in a desperate
endeavour to win back the guns. Let me tell you the story of this fine
charge in the words of an officer who took part in it:--
"It wanted but a few minutes to midnight when we got to a hollow
which was at most three hundred yards from the wood. The moon
now reappeared at intervals, and we could have done without her.
The shrapnel fire had completely ceased, and we had a second
spell of a 'silence which could be felt.'
"Whispered orders were given to fix bayonets, which were obeyed
in a flash. Overcoats, packs, and even the officers' equipments
were dropped, and we immediately advanced in light order.
"Scarcely had we reached a low ridge, in full view of the wood,
when a perfect hail of fire was loosed on us from rifles and
machine guns, which the Germans had placed in position behind
the undergrowth skirting the wood.
"Instantly the word was given to charge, and on we rushed,
cheering, yelling, shouting, straight for the foe. At first the
Germans fired a little too high, and our losses until we came
within fifty yards of them were comparatively small. Then some
of our chaps began to drop; then the whole front line seemed to
melt away, only to be instantly closed up again.
"Cheering and yelling all the time, we jumped over the bodies of
the wounded and tore on. Of the Germans with the machine guns
not one escaped, but those inside the wood stood up to us in a
most dogged style. We were so quickly at work that those at the
edge of the wood could not have got away in any case. Many threw
up their hands, and we did not refuse quarter.
"Pressing on into the wood itself, the struggle became a
dreadful hand-to-hand conflict; we fought in clumps and batches,
and the living struggled over the bodies of the dead and dying.
At the height of the conflict, while we were steadily driving
the Germans before us, the moon burst out. The clashing bayonets
flashed like quicksilver, and faces were lit up as by limelight.
"Sweeping on, we came upon lines of trenches which had been
hastily thrown up and could not be stubbornly defended. Here all
who resisted were bayoneted; those who yielded were sent to the
rear."
Another officer who took part in the attack described how the men about
him fell under the fire of the machine guns, which, in his phrase,
played upon them "like a watering-pot." He added quite simply, "I wrote
my own life off." But neither he nor his men wavered. When one man fell
another took his place, and with a final shout the two battalions flung
themselves on the wood. The Germans were thrust back by the impetuous
advance of the Canadians, who reached the far side of the wood and there
entrenched themselves. They retook the guns, but were sorely
disappointed to discover that the Germans had rendered them useless.
They also captured a number of prisoners, including a colonel.
That night a terrible artillery fire swept the wood "as a tropical storm
sweeps the leaves from a forest," and the Canadians fell back from the
position which they had won at the price of many a brave life. All
through the night the fighting went on without pause. The attacks
constantly grew in strength, and it seemed hardly possible that the
Canadians could resist much longer.
At six on the morning of Friday the enemy began an outflanking movement
that looked very dangerous. In order to relieve the strain a
counter-attack on the first line of German trenches was ordered. This
was carried out by the Ontario 1st and 4th Battalions of the 1st
Brigade, under General Mercer. The advance was made across 2,300 yards
of open country, every yard of which was under hot shell fire.
"It is safe to say," writes Sir Max Aitken, the Canadian record
officer, "that the youngest private in the ranks, as he set his
teeth for the advance, knew the task in front of him, and the
youngest subaltern knew all that rested on its success. It did
not seem that any human being could live in the shower of shot
and shell which began to play upon the advancing troops.
"They suffered terrible casualties. For a short time every other
man seemed to fall, but the attack was pressed ever closer and
closer. The 4th Canadian Battalion at one time came under a
particularly withering fire. For a moment--not more--it wavered.
Its most gallant commanding officer, Lieutenant-Colonel
Birchall, carrying, after an old fashion, a light cane, coolly
and cheerfully rallied his men, and at the very moment when his
example had infected them, fell dead at the head of his
battalion. With a hoarse cry of anger they sprang forward (for,
indeed, they loved him) as if to avenge his death.
"The astonishing attack which followed, pushed home in the face
of direct frontal fire, made in broad daylight, by battalions
whose names should live for ever in the memories of soldiers,
was carried to the first line of the German trenches. After a
hand-to-hand struggle, the last German who resisted was
bayoneted, and the trench was won."
The Canadian left was now safe. The German trench was occupied, and
held against all comers in the teeth of every kind of deadly missile
that could be hurled against it. It was still in the hands of the
victors on Sunday, 25th April, when all that remained of the war-broken
battalions was relieved.
At 4 a.m. on the morning of Friday, the 23rd, the Germans sent a great
discharge of poison gas against the 2nd Brigade, which held the line
running north-east, and upon the 3rd Brigade, which had continued the
line up to the pivotal position and had then spread down in a
south-easterly direction. In two minutes a cloud seven feet high rolled
from the German trenches into those of the Canadians. The defenders had
no respirators, but some of them wrapped wet handkerchiefs about their
mouths, and thus obtained a little relief. They dared not retire, even
if they had wished to do so, for the gas would follow them, and the
exertion would cause them to draw deeper breaths of the deadly vapour.
So, with blue, swollen faces and bloodshot eyes almost bursting from
their sockets, they held on. Men went sick and giddy a thousand yards
behind the line, and even the grass and trees grew white as the fumes
passed over them.
[Illustration: Gassed!
(_From the picture by F. Matania. By permission of The Sphere._)
"The green mist came rolling towards the parapet from the enemy's empty
front trench, several hundred yards away. It looked like a vapour rising
from a marsh, and the wind was strong enough to carry it rapidly towards
the parapet. One battalion had time to fire two rounds through the
screen of gas before it came pouring over the sand-bags, penetrating
into every crevice of the dug-outs, and choking the men who lay there.
It was so thick at first that objects three feet distant could scarcely
be seen."]
Many of the men were struck down by the fumes, and the Royal Highlanders
of Montreal, 13th Battalion, and the 48th Highlanders, 15th Battalion,
specially suffered. For a short time the 48th were obliged to withdraw a
short distance from their trench. Soon, however, they were their own men
again, and they advanced and reoccupied their old position. The Germans,
as you know, had long been striving to drive back the devoted 3rd
Brigade, in order to sweep round and overwhelm its left wing. In the
course of the attacks a large number of the enemy managed to slip in
between the wood and St. Julien. For a time it seemed as though the
Germans had succeeded, and that the last obstacle to their advance would
be swept away. Not only the men of the 13th Battalion, but of every
other battalion, fought like heroes to avert the danger. All that mortal
men could do they did. Major Norsworthy, who had already been disabled
by a bullet, was bayoneted and killed while rallying his men. Major
M'Cuaig, who had been seriously wounded in a hastily-constructed trench,
insisted on being left behind lest he should be a hindrance. So fierce
and constant were the German attacks that orders were now given for the
brigade to retire.
The men were very unwilling to withdraw, and they insisted, at great
risk, on carrying with them their belongings. A wounded officer,
following the example of Major M'Cuaig, refused to move, and asked his
comrades to leave him alone in the trench. He begged them to give him
two loaded Colt revolvers, and with these and his own weapon ready at
hand, he prepared to sell his life dearly.
On Friday afternoon the left of the Canadian line was strengthened by
the arrival of seven battalions of British troops. But the artillery
fire of the enemy grew fiercer and fiercer, and it was clear that the
Canadian salient could not be held against the fierce and constant
attacks which were being launched against it; so, slowly and stubbornly
contesting every yard of ground, the defenders fell back upon St.
Julien, and then still farther south, until the deserted village was
half a mile in front of their new lines. The Germans swarmed into the
village, but before they could call it their own they had to reckon with
detachments of the Royal Highlanders of Montreal and of the Royal
Montreal Regiment, unavoidably left behind when the main body retired.
What befell these devoted fellows in St. Julien we shall probably never
know, but as the crack of their rifles did not cease for a long time, we
may rest assured that they fought and died as worthy sons of Canada.
The success of the Germans in capturing St. Julien threatened a new and
dangerous attack by the enemy. In order to check it a British brigade
was ordered to advance. The thrust was made through the Canadian left
and centre, and as the troops went forward, many of them going to
certain death, they broke out into loud cheers for Canada. There was no
man in the British army who was not filled with admiration for the
Canadians that day. The advance was very costly, but it succeeded. For a
time the Germans were checked.
Now let us see how the 2nd Brigade fared. At five o'clock on Thursday it
was still holding the whole of its original line of trenches. Now that
the 3rd Brigade had retired, General Curry, who was in command, had to
do as General Turner had done--that is, throw back his left flank to
protect his rear. It is the glory of the 2nd Brigade that they never
lost their trenches. They hung on from Thursday at five o'clock until
Sunday afternoon. Then there were no trenches left; they had been wiped
out by the German shell fire. General Curry withdrew his unbroken and
undefeated troops from the tumbled heaps of earth and sand-bags, but not
before many a deed of heroism had been done.
At Grafenstafel, the extreme north-eastern point of the Ypres salient,
the position was held by the 90th Winnipeg Rifles, under
Lieutenant-Colonel Lipsett. His battalion had been driven from its
trenches by gas early on Friday morning, but in three-quarters of an
hour it had recovered itself and retaken its old quarters. When the 3rd
Brigade retired, as described above, a gap was left, through which the
Germans strove desperately to force their way. Had they done so they
would have been in the rear of the 28th Division, and the whole eastern
section would have been in perilous plight. Colonel Lipsett, however,
held on to this key to Ypres, though his left was "in the air," and kept
the Germans out of the gap until the arrival of two British regiments.
It is said that Lieutenant Bellew, a machine-gun officer of the 7th,
stuck a loaf on his bayonet and hoisted it upon the parapet in defiance,
while he worked his gun. It was smashed to pieces, but he afterwards
continued the fire with relays of rifles. On Sunday evening the 2nd
Brigade was relieved for much-needed rest. The 3rd Brigade had been
relieved on the previous night.
Monday morning broke bright and clear, but it was a day of terrible
anxiety, and every man was needed in the firing line.
[Illustration: The Fight in the Wood by Moonlight. Canadian Scottish and
the 10th Infantry recapture lost guns at the point of the bayonet.
(_By permission of the Illustrated London News._)
"Instantly the word was given to charge, and on we rushed, cheering,
yelling, shouting, straight for the foe. . . . Pressing on into the wood
itself, the struggle became a dreadful hand-to-hand conflict; we fought
in clumps and batches, and the living struggled over the bodies of the
dead and dying. At the height of the conflict, while we were steadily
driving the Germans before us, the moon burst out. The clashing bayonets
flashed like quicksilver, and faces were lit up as by limelight." (See
pages 194, 196.)]
Monday morning broke bright and clear, but it was a day of terrible
anxiety, and every man was needed in the firing line. So the 2nd
Brigade, now less than a thousand strong, was ordered back. "The men are
tired," said General Curry, "but they are ready and glad to go again to
the trenches." They had to cross a zone of shell fire in daylight before
they regained their old position, and this was no easy task for men who
had lived through such shattering days. They held the trenches all day
on Monday; on Tuesday they were withdrawn to reserve trenches, and on
Wednesday were relieved, and retired to billets in the rear.
In this account of a great and glorious feat of arms I have confined
myself to the work of the infantry. A word must be said as to the
behaviour of the other units. The signallers proved themselves cool and
resourceful. During the fierce bombardment the telegraph and telephone
wires were constantly cut, and in carrying out the repairs many brave
men lost their lives. The dispatch carriers, as usual, showed the utmost
bravery. One of them, sore wounded, gasped out his message to a passing
officer before swooning away. The artillery never flagged, and not a
single Canadian gun was lost in the long and confused battle. On one
occasion the gunners of a battery were compelled to swing two of their
guns round, and to fire on the foe in front and in the rear at the same
time. Canadian engineers and the medical corps also played a devoted
part, and are entitled to share with their comrades of all arms in the
glory of a great achievement.
* * * * *
So ended the great ordeal of the Canadians in the Second Battle of
Ypres. When the story of their glorious courage and endurance was
flashed across the sea, Britons everywhere throughout the wide Empire
were thrilled with pride. Consider for a moment what they had done. They
had stemmed the onrush of an enemy which outnumbered them by four to
one, and they had done it in spite of the deadly poison gas that choked
and blinded and stupefied them. They had no heavy artillery to assist
them; they were without reinforcements; they were unceasingly assailed;
they held on for days and nights of incessant struggle and anxiety; yet
so undismayed were they that they could counter-attack with fiery
courage. And when, after enduring such trials, they were called from a
brief rest to re-enter the zone of death, they were glad to return. Sir
John French confessed that "by their gallantry and determination they
had undoubtedly saved the situation." While the British Empire can boast
such men, its future and its fame are secure.
Messages of congratulation were showered upon the gallant fellows. Here
is the King's message, which was sent to the Duke of Connaught as
representing Canada:--
"Congratulate you most warmly on the splendid and gallant way in
which the Canadian Division fought during the last few days
north of Ypres. Sir John French says their conduct was
magnificent. The Dominion will be justly proud.--George."
* * * * *
Great was the price of victory. Three battalion officers died--Colonel
Birchall of the 4th, Colonel M'Harg of the 7th, and Colonel Boyle of the
10th. Only ten officers of the 5th Battalion survived; only five were
left alive in the 7th, only seven in the 8th, and eight in the 10th.
When the long fight was over the machine gunners of the 13th Battalion
only mustered thirteen out of fifty-eight, and there was but a single
survivor of those attached to the 7th Battalion. Up to 2nd May the
Canadian Division had lost in killed, wounded, and missing 252 officers
and 6,332 men. When the tale of losses was unfolded there were many
bleeding hearts in Canada; but mingled with the grief there was a
sorrowful pride, and even those who had lost their dearest and best were
as resolute as ever to continue the struggle to a triumphant end.
"The graveyard of Canada in Flanders is large. It is very large. Those
who lie there have left their mortal remains on alien soil. To Canada
they have bequeathed their memories and their glory."
"On Fame's eternal camping-ground
Their silent tents are spread,
And glory guards with solemn round
The bivouac of the dead."
[Illustration: The Charge of the 4th Canadian Battalion.
(_From the picture by Christopher Clark. By permission of The Sphere._)
"The 4th Canadian Battalion at one time came under a particularly
withering fire. For a moment--not more--it wavered. Its most gallant
commanding officer, Lieutenant-Colonel Birchall, carrying, after an old
fashion, a light cane, coolly and cheerfully rallied his men, and at the
very moment when his example had infected them, fell dead at the head of
his battalion. With a hoarse cry of anger they sprang forward as if to
avenge his death. . . . After a hand-to-hand struggle the last German
who resisted was bayoneted, and the trench was won."]