It was on May 25th, too, that Sergeant Morris, of 2nd King Edward's Horse, accompanied the Brigade grenade company, who were sent to assist the Post Office Rifles of the 47th London Division in an attack on a certain position on the evening of that day.
Morris led the attack down the German communication trench, and all the members of his party, with the exception of himself, were either killed or wounded. He got to a point at the end of the trench and there maintained himself—to use the cold official phrase—by throwing bombs and by the work of his single rifle and bayonet. By fighting single-handed he managed to hold out until the extreme left of the Post Office Rifles came up to his relief.
On the following day, the 26th, Corporal Pym, Royal Canadian Dragoons, exhibited a self-sacrifice and contempt for danger which can seldom have been excelled on any battlefield. Hearing cries for help in English between the British and German lines, which were only sixty yards apart, he resolved to go in search of the sufferer. The space between the lines was swept with incessant rifle and machine gun fire, but Pym crept out and found the man, who had been wounded in both thigh-bones and had been lying there for three days and nights. Pym was unable to move him without causing him pain which he was not in a state to bear. Pym therefore called back to the trench for help, and Sergeant Hollowell, Royal Canadian Dragoons, crept out and joined him, but was shot dead just as he reached Pym and the wounded man.
Pym thereupon crept back across the fire-swept space to see if he could get a stretcher, but having regained the trench he came to the conclusion that the ground was too rough to drag the stretcher across it.
Once more, therefore, he recrossed the deadly space between the trenches, and at last, with the utmost difficulty, brought the wounded man in alive.
Those were days of splendid deeds, and this chapter cannot be closed without recording the most splendid of all—that of Sergeant Hickey, of the 4th Canadian Battalion,[10] which won for him the recommendation for the Victoria Cross. Hickey had joined the Battalion at Valcartier from the 36th Peel Regiment, and on May 24th he volunteered to go out and recover two trench mortars belonging to the Battalion which had been abandoned in a ditch the previous day. The excursion promised Hickey certain death, but he seemed to consider that rather an inducement than a deterrent. After perilous adventures under hells of fire he found the mortars and brought them in. But he also found what was of infinitely greater value—the shortest and safest route by which to bring up men from the reserve trenches to the firing line. It was a discovery which saved many lives at a moment when every life was of the greatest value, and time and time again, at the risk of his own as he went back and forth, he guided party after party up to the trenches by this route.
Hickey's devotion to duty had been remarkable throughout, and at Pilckem Ridge, on April 23rd, he had voluntarily run forward in front of the line to assist five wounded comrades. How he survived the shell and rifle fire which the enemy, who had an uninterrupted view of his heroic efforts, did not scruple to turn upon him, it is impossible to say: but he succeeded in dressing the wounds of all the five and conveying them back to cover.
Hickey, who was a cheery and a modest soul, and as brave as any of our brave Canadians, did not live to receive the honour for which he had been recommended. On May 30th a stray bullet hit him in the neck and killed him. And so there went home to the God of Battles a man to whom battle had been joy.
On May 31st the Canadian Division was withdrawn from the territory it had seized from the enemy and moved to the extreme south of the British line. Here the routine of ordinary trench warfare was resumed until the middle of June.[11]
[1] The detailed plan of the engagement was as follows:—Sir Herbert Plumer with the 2nd Army was to protect Ypres while the 3rd Corps held Armentières. The 1st Army under Sir Douglas Haig was to carry the entrenchments and redoubts on the right of the Crown Prince Rupprecht's Army. Sir John French had arranged for the 4th Corps to attack the German position at Rouges-Bancs, to the north-west of Fromelles. The 1st Corps and the Indian Corps were first to occupy the plain between Neuve Chapelle and Givenchy, and afterwards take the Aubers Ridge.
[2] Lt.-Colonel Meighen led his troops with capacity and judgment. He had already won distinction at Ypres. In accordance with the English custom of recalling men who have acquired experience in the field for training purposes at home, Colonel Meighen has been sent to Canada, and given charge of the instructional scheme of the Canadian Forces from the Atlantic to the Pacific, with the temporary rank of Brigadier-General.
[3] Our men were very anxious to get to grips with the enemy on this day (May 18th), as it was the birthday of Prince Rupprecht of Bavaria, who had issued an order that no prisoners were to be taken. Some idea of the efforts made to incite the enemy's forces to further outrages against the conventions of war may be gathered from the following paragraph extracted from theLille War News, an official journal issued to the German troops:—"Comrades, if the enemy were to invade our land, do you think he would leave one stone upon another of our fathers' houses, our churches, and all the works of a thousand years of love and toil? ... and if your strong arms did not hold back the English (God damn them!) and the French (God annihilate them!) do you think they would spare your homes and your loved ones? What would these pirates from the Isles do to you if they were to set foot on German soil?"
[4] The casualties of the 10th Battalion during the fighting in April and May were 809. The casualties at Ypres alone were 600 of all ranks.
[5] Coy. Sergt.-Major G. R. Turner (now Lieutenant), of the 3rd Field Company, Canadian Engineers, who served with courage and coolness throughout the second battle of Ypres, and particularly distinguished himself on the nights of April 22nd and 27th by bringing in wounded under severe artillery and rifle fire, again attracted the attention of his superior officers by his courageous conduct at Festubert. From May 18th to 22nd he was in command of detachments of sappers employed in digging advanced lines of trenches, and generally constructing defences. This work was carried through most efficiently, although under fire from field guns, machine guns, and rifles.
[6] It was during this bombardment that Captain McMeans, Lieut. Smith-Rewse, and Lieut. Passmore were killed, and Lieut. Denison was wounded. The fate of Captain McMeans was particularly regrettable as he had on all occasions borne himself most gallantly. Such was the force of his example that, when he himself, and all the other officers, as well as half the men of the Company, had been killed or wounded, the remainder clung doggedly to the position. The conduct of Captain J. M. Prower also calls for mention. He was wounded, but returned to his command as soon as his wounds were dressed, and though again buried under the parapet, continued to do his duty. He is now Brigade Major of the 2nd Infantry Brigade. On the same day Coy. Sergt.-Major John Hay steadied and most ably controlled the men of his Company after all the officers and 70 men out of the 140 had been put out of action.
[7]Casualties of 8th Battalion.—About 90 per cent. of the original officers and men of the 8th Battalion have been casualties. Only three of the original officers of the battalion have escaped wounds or death.
[8] This was an attack made by the 7th Prussian Army Corps which had been very strongly reinforced. The German efforts to break through the Canadian lines were very determined, and they advanced in masses, which, however, melted away before our fire.
[9] Casualties of 5th Battalion during Ypres, Festubert, and Givenchy about 60 per cent. Casualties at Festubert alone, 380, all ranks.
[10] The 4th Canadian Battalion was under continuous fire at Festubert through ten days and eleven nights. On the morning of May 27th all communication wires between the fire-trench and the Battalion and Brigade Headquarters were cut by enemy fire, and at nine o'clock Pte. (now Lieutenant) W. E. F. Hart volunteered to mend the wires. Hart was with Major (now Lieut.-Colonel) M. J. Colquhoun at the time, and they had together twice been partially buried by shell fire earlier in the morning. Pte. Hart mended eleven breaks in the wires, and re-established communication with both Battalion and Brigade Headquarters. He was at work in the Orchard, under shrapnel, machine-gun, and rifle fire, without any cover, for an hour and thirty minutes. Hart, who is now signalling officer of the 4th Battalion, is a young man, and the owner of a farm near Brantford, Ontario. He has been with the Battalion since August, 1914.
[11] The following is Sir John French's official reason for bringing the battle of Festubert to a close:—"I had now reasons to consider that the battle which was commenced by the 1st Army on May 9th and renewed on the 16th, having attained for the moment the immediate object I had in view, should not be further actively proceeded with...." "In the battle of Festubert the enemy was driven from a position which was strongly entrenched and fortified, and ground was won on a front of four miles to an average depth of 600 yards."
Minor engagements—A sanguinary battle—Attacks on "Stony Mountain" and "Dorchester"—Disposition of Canadian troops—An enemy bombardment—"Duck's Bill"—A mine mishap—"Dorchester" taken—A bombing party—Coy.-Sergt.-Major Owen's bravery—Lieut. Campbell mounts machine-gun on Private Vincent's back—How Private Smith replenished the bombers—Fighting the enemy with bricks—British Division unable to advance—Canadians hang on—"I can crawl"—General Mercer's leadership—Private Clark's gallantry—Dominion Day.
"Of fifteen hundred Englishmen,Went home but fifty-three;The rest were slain in Chevy-Chace,Under the greenwood tree."OLD SCOTCH BALLAD.
Between the close of the battle of Festubert, on May 26th, and the beginning of the great conflict at Loos, on September 25th, there was a series of minor engagements along the whole British front, in which Givenchy stands out as another red milestone on Canada's road to glory.
The brief mention of Givenchy in the official despatch in which Sir John French reviewed the operations of the British Army between Festubert and Loos, conveys no idea of the desperate fury or the scope of the fighting in which the Canadians again did all, and more than all, that was asked of them.
That in the end they were forced to fall back from the fortified positions they had won with so much heroism and at so much cost, was due to difficulties in other portions of the field, which prevented the 7th British Division from coming up in time.
Givenchy may appear but an incident in a long chain of operations when one is taking a bird's-eye view of the campaign on the Western Front as a whole, but it was in reality a very considerable and sanguinary battle, the story of which should appeal to every Canadian heart.
The 7th British Division had been directed to make a frontal attack on a fortified place in the enemy's entrenched position known to our troops as "Stony Mountain," and the 1st Canadian (Ontario) Battalion, commanded by Lieut.-Colonel Hill, of the 1st Brigade, was detailed to secure the right flank of the British Division by seizing two lines of German trenches extending from "Stony Mountain" 150 yards south to another fortified point known to us as "Dorchester." Working parties from the 2nd and 3rd Canadian Battalions were detailed to secure the lines of trenches taken by the 1st Battalion, to connect these with our trenches, and finally to form the defensive flank wherever it might be required.
After a few days of preparation the 1st Canadian Battalion (Ontario Regiment) moved up, and at three o'clock on the afternoon of June 15th, the Battalion reached our line of trenches opposite the position to be attacked, when the 2nd Canadian Battalion, under Lieut.-Colonel Watson, which was holding the trench position, withdrew to the right to make room for them.
The trench line on the right of the attacking Battalion was held by the 2nd and 4th Canadian Battalions as far as the La Bassée Canal, with the 3rd Canadian Toronto Regiment in support. The left was held by the East Yorks.
Map--ATTACK MADE BY 1ST CANADIAN BATTALION JUNE 15TH 1915Map—ATTACK MADE BY 1ST CANADIAN BATTALION JUNE 15TH 1915
From three o'clock until six in the evening, the Ontario Regiment awaited the command to charge, and sung their chosen songs—all popular but all unprintable. The enemy bombarded our position heartily, though our artillery had the better of them. Fifteen minutes before the attack was timed to take place, two 18-pounder guns, which had been placed in the infantry trenches under the cover of darkness on the instructions of Brigadier-General Burstall, opened fire upon the parapets of the enemy trenches. One gun, under Lieut. C. S. Craig, fired over 100 rounds, sweeping the ground clear of wire and destroying two machine-guns. Lieut. Craig, who was wounded at Ypres early in May and again while observing near Givenchy, was seriously wounded after completing his task here. Lieut. L. S. Kelly, who was in command of the other gun, succeeded in destroying a machine-gun, when his own gun was wrecked by an enemy shell, and he was wounded. The gun shields themselves were tattered and twisted like paper by the mere force of musketry fire.[1]
Just before six o'clock a mine, previously prepared by the sappers, was exploded. Owing to the discovery of water under the German trenches, its tunnel could not be carried far enough forward, and the Canadian troops had accordingly been withdrawn from a salient in the Canadian line, known as "Duck's Bill," to guard against casualties in our own trenches, when it went off. However, to make sure that the explosion would reach the German line, so heavy a charge had to be used that the effects upon the Canadian trench line were somewhat serious. Several of our own bombers were killed and wounded, and a reserve depôt of bombs was buried under thedébris. Another bomb-depôt was blown up by an enemy shell about this time. These two accidents made us short of bombs when we needed them later on, and we had to rely entirely on the supply of bombs which the bombers carried themselves.
Lieut.-Colonel Beecher, second in command, who escaped injury from the first explosion in our trench, was killed by a splinter from a high explosive shell at this moment.
The leading company, under Major G. J. L. Smith, rushed forward, with the smoke and flying dirt of the mine explosion for a screen, and met a withering fire from the German machine-guns placed in "Stony Mountain." But their dash was irresistible, and almost immediately the company was in possession of the German front trench and "Dorchester"; but those who were opposite to "Stony Mountain" were stopped by fire from that fort, all being killed or wounded.
The leading company was followed by bombing parties on the right and left flanks, and by a blocking party of eight sappers of the 1st Field Company Canadian Engineers. Lieut. C. A. James, who was in charge of the right bombing party, was killed at the time of the explosion of the mine. Those who remained advanced without a leader. Lieut. G. N. Gordon, in charge of the bomb party on the left, advanced in die direction of "Stony Mountain," but his bombers were almost all shot down. A few reached the first-line trench, including Lieut. Gordon. He was soon wounded, and was afterwards killed by a German bomb party while lying in the German first-line trench with two other comrades who had exhausted their supply of bombs. They were almost the only survivors of the bombing party. The members of the blocking party, too, had all been killed or wounded, save Sapper Harmon, who, being unable to follow his vocation single-handed, loaded himself with bombs which he hurriedly collected from the dead and dying and wounded bombers and set out to bomb his way along the trench alone. He retired, with ten bullet wounds in his body, only after he had thrown his last bomb.
The second company, under Captain G. L. Wilkinson, at once followed the leading company and the bombers, and both companies charged forward to the second-line trench, where the enemy presented a firm front, although stragglers were retreating through the tall grass in the rear. The bombers went to work from right to left to clear the trench. Many resisting Germans were bayoneted, and some prisoners were taken and sent back, and later, with some of their escort, were killed by machine-gun and rifle fire from "Stony Mountain" itself.
Captain Wilkinson's company was followed almost immediately by the third company under Lieut. T. C. Sims, as the other company officers, Captain F. W. Robinson and Lieut. P. W. Pick, had been killed by a shell at the moment our mine blew up. This company began to consolidate the first-line German trench which had been captured—that is to say, it reversed the sandbag parapet and turned the trench facing enemy-wards. It had suffered heavily in its advance across the open space between the opposing lines, and Captain Delamere's company was the fourth sent forward to support. Captain Delamere had been wounded and the command devolved upon Lieut. J. C. L. Young, who was wounded at our parapet. Lieut. Tranter took command, and was killed in a moment. Company-Sergeant-Major Owen then assumed command, and led the company with bravery and good sense.
Lieut. F. W. Campbell, with two machine-guns, had advanced in the rear of Captain Wilkinson's company. The entire crew of one gun was killed or wounded in the advance, but a portion of the other crew gained the enemy's front trench, and then advanced along the trench in the direction of "Stony Mountain." The advance was most difficult, and, although subjected to constant heavy rifle and machine-gun fire, the bombers led the way until further advance was impossible owing to a barricade across the trench which had been hurriedly erected by the enemy. The bomb and the machine-gun bear the brunt of the day's work more and more as time goes on, till one almost begins to think that the rifle may come to be superseded by the shot-gun. The machine-gun crew which reached the trench was reduced to Lieut. Campbell and Private Vincent (a lumberjack from Bracebridge, Ontario), the machine-gun and the tripod. In default of a base, Lieut. Campbell set up the machine-gun on the broad back of Private Vincent and fired continuously. Afterwards, during the retreat, German bombers entered the trench, and Lieut. Campbell fell wounded. Private Vincent then cut away the cartridge belt, and, abandoning the tripod, dragged the gun away to safety because it was too hot to handle. Lieut. Campbell crawled out of the enemy trench, and was carried into our trench in a dying condition by Company-Sergeant-Major Owen. In the words of Kinglake, "And no man died that night with more glory, yet many died and there was much glory."
The working parties detailed for the construction of the line adjoining our trenches with the hostile line which had been captured, moved out according to arrangement, but the heavy machine-gun fire from "Stony Mountain" forced them back to the cover of our trench, and all further attempts to continue work while daylight lasted came to nothing. The efforts of the Battalion were now confined to erecting barricades just south of "Stony Mountain" and north of "Dorchester," and to holding the second-line trench.
The supply of bombs ran short, and Private Smith, of Southampton, Ontario, son of a Methodist Minister, and not much more than nineteen, was almost the only source of replenishment. He was, till Armageddon, a student at the Listowell Business College. History relates he was singing the trench version of "I wonder how the old folks are at home," when the mine exploded and he was buried. By the time he had dug himself out he discovered that all his world, including his rifle, had disappeared. But his business training told him that there was an active demand for bombs for the German trenches a few score yards away. So Private Smith festooned himself with bombs from dead and wounded bomb-throwers around him, and set out, mainly on all-fours, to supply that demand. He did it five times. He was not himself a bomb-thrower but a mere middleman. Twice he went up to the trenches and handed over his load to the busy men. Thrice, so hot was the fire, that he had to lie down and toss the bombs (they do not explode till the safety pin is withdrawn) into the trench to the men who needed them most. His clothes were literally shot into rags and ravels, but he himself was untouched in all his hazardous speculations, and he explains his escape by saying, "I kept moving."
So through all these hells the spirit of man endured and rejoiced, indomitable.
But, after all, the supply of bombs ran out, and the casualties resulting from heavy machine-gun and rifle fire from "Stony Mountain" considerably increased the difficulties of holding the line. The bombers could fight no more. One unknown wounded man was seen standing on the parapet of the German front-line trench. He had thrown every bomb he carried, and, weeping with rage, continued to hurl bricks and stones at the advancing enemy till his end came.
Every effort was made to clear out the wounded, and reinforcements from the 3rd Battalion were sent forward.[2] But still no work could be done, and a further supply of bombs was not yet available. Bombs were absolutely necessary. At one point four volunteers who went to get more were killed, one after the other; upon that, Sergeant Kranz, of London, England, by way of Vermillion, Alberta, and at one time a private of the Argyll and Sutherland Regiment, went back, and, fortunately, returned with a load. He was followed by Sergeant Newell, a cheese-maker from Watford, near Sarnia, and Sergeant-Major Cuddy, a druggist from Strathroy. Gradually our men in the second German line were forced back along the German communication trench, and the loss of practically all of our officers hampered the fight. The volunteers who were bringing forward a supply of bombs were nearly all killed, and the supply died out with them.
The British Division had been unable to advance on the left owing to the strength of the fortified position at "Stony Mountain," and the German line north of that fort. The Canadians held their ground, however, hoping for the ultimate success of the attack on the left, in the face of heavy pressure on their exposed left flank.
The enemy meanwhile had been accumulating strong forces, and finally, at about half-past nine, the remnants of the Battalion were forced to evacuate all the ground that had been gained. The withdrawal was conducted with deliberation, through a hail of bullets, but it cost us heavily.
One splendid incident among many may perhaps explain the reason. Private Gledhill is eighteen years of age. His grandfather owns a woollen mill in Ben Miller, near Goderich, Ontario. Ben Miller was, till lately, celebrated as the home of the fattest man in the world, for there lived Mr. Jonathan Miller, who weighed 400 lbs., and moved about in a special carriage of his own. Private Gledhill, destined perhaps to confer fresh fame on Ben Miller, saw Germans advancing down the trench; saw also that only three Canadians were left in the trench, two with the machine-gun, and himself, as he said, "running a rifle." Before he had time to observe more, an invader's bomb most literally gave him a lift home, and landed him uninjured outside the trench with his rifle broken. He found another rifle and fired awhile from the knee till it became necessary to join the retreat. During that manoeuvre, which required caution, he fell over Lieut. Brown wounded, and offered to convoy him home. "Thanks, no," said the lieutenant, "I can crawl." Then Private Frank Ullock, late a livery stable keeper at Chatham, New Brunswick, but now with one leg missing, said, "Will you takeme?" "Sure," replied Gledhill. But Frank Ullock is a heavy man and could not well be lifted. So Gledhill got down on hands and knees, and Ullock took good hold of his web equipment and was hauled gingerly along the ground towards the home trench. Presently Gledhill left Ullock under some cover while he crawled forward, cut a strand of wire from our entanglements and threw the looped end back, lassoo fashion, to Ullock, who wrapped it round his body. Gledhill then hauled him to the parapet, where the stretcher-bearers came out and took charge. All this, of course, from first to last and at every pace, under a tempest of fire. It is pleasant to think that Frank Ullock fell to the charge of Dr. Murray Maclaren, also of New Brunswick, who watched over him with tender care in a hospital under canvas, of 1,080 beds—a hospital that is larger than the General, the Royal Victoria, and the Western of Montreal combined. Gledhill was not touched, and in spite of his experiences prefers life at the front to work in his grandfather's woollen mills at Ben Miller, near Goderich, Ontario.
Out of twenty-three combatant officers who went into this action only three missed death or wounding. They are Colonel Hill, who fought his men to the bitter end with high judgment and courage; Lieut. S. A. Creighton and Lieut. (now Captain) T. C. Sims, who did their work soldierly and well.
Although the whole plan of attack was prepared by the Corps Commander, the operations of the 1st Canadian Battalion (Ontario Regiment) were brilliantly directed by General Mercer, who commanded the Brigade. He is a man of mature years, a philosopher by nature and a lawyer by profession, always calm and even-tempered, and not given to too many words.
For twenty-five years he took an active part in Canadian Militia affairs, and the 2nd Queen's Own of Toronto held him in high esteem as their Commanding Officer.
As a soldier, in the face of the enemy, he has gained vast experience since he set foot in France, But, in addition, he has the inestimable possession of shrewd common sense, great courage, and an instinctive knowledge of military operations. There can be no finer tribute to his personality than the respect and affection of the men about him.
On the day following the attack, a wounded man was seen lying in the open between the British and the German lines. Lance-Corporal E. A. Barrett, of the 4th Battalion, and at one time the steward of the Edmonton Club, at once went out in broad daylight under heavy shell and rifle fire and brought the wounded man in.
Two days later, on the 18th, Private G. F. Clark, of the 8th Battalion (Winnipeg Rifles), displayed even greater coolness and daring.
About midday, in the neighbourhood of "Duck's Bill," Lieut. E. H. Houghton, of Winnipeg, machine-gun officer of the 8th Battalion, saw a wounded British soldier lying near the German trench. As soon as dusk fell he and Private Clark, of the machine-gun section, dug a hole in the parapet, through which Clark went out and brought in the wounded man, who proved to be a private of the East Yorks. The trenches at this point were only thirty-five yards apart. Private Clark had received a bullet through his cap during his rescue of the wounded Englishman, but he crawled through the hole in the parapet again and went after a Canadian machine-gun which had been abandoned within a few yards of the German trench during the recent attack. He brought the gun safely into our trench, and the tripod to within a few feet of our parapet. He wished to keep the gun to add to the battery of his own section, but the General Officer Commanding ruled that it was to be returned to its original battalion, and promised Clark something in its place which he would find less awkward to carry. Private Clark comes from Port Arthur, Ontario, and, before the war, earned his living by working in the lumber-woods.
After several days of heavy artillery fire our troops were relieved and the Headquarters moved to the north. Here a trench line was taken over from a British Division.
When Dominion Day came they remembered with pride that they were the Army of a Nation, and those who were in the trenches displayed the Dominion flag, decorated with the flowers of France, to the annoyance of the barbarians, who riddled it with bullets. Behind the lines the Day was celebrated with sports and games, while the pipers of the Scottish Canadian Battalions played a "selection of National Airs."
But the shouting baseball teams and minstrel shows, with their outrageous personal allusions, the skirl of the pipes and the choruses of the well-known ragtimes, moved men to the depths of their souls. For this was the first Dominion Day that Canada had spent with the red sword in her hand.
[1] On June 12th the 4th Battery, Canadian Field Artillery, commanded by Major Geo. H. Ralston, received orders to place two guns in our front-line trench, at "Duck's Bill," and to have them dug in and protected by sandbags by the morning of the 15th. The German trench was only 75 yards away at this point, and the purpose of the two guns was to cut wire, level parapets, and destroy machine-gun emplacements on a front of 200 yards.
The positions for the field guns in our trench were ready by the night of the 14th, and at 9.30 of the same night the two guns, their wheels muffled with old motor tyres, left the battery's position near the canal, and, in charge of Captain Stockwell and Sergeant-Major Kerry, passed through Givenchy. At this point the horses were unhooked, and the guns were hauled to their places in our front-line trench by hand. Shells were also drawn in by hand, in small armoured wagons. The guns were protected by one-quarter-inch armour plate, and their crews remained with them throughout the night.
The Right Section gun was commanded by Lieut. C. S. Craig, with Sergeant Miller as No. 1, and the Left Section gun by Lieut. L. S. Kelly, with Sergeant E. G. MacDougall as No. 1.
On the afternoon of the 15th, the batteries of the Division commenced firing on certain selected points of the enemy's front. At 5.45 the infantry, working to the minute on advance orders, knocked down our parapet in front of the two entrenched guns and so uncovered their field of fire. The guns opened fire instantly on the German position, and by six o'clock had disposed of six machine-gun emplacements, levelled the German parapets and cut the wire to pieces. Our infantry attacked immediately after the firing of the last shot, and just as the German batteries began to range on our two guns. A shell burst over and behind the Right Section gun, killing three of its crew and wounding Lieut. Craig and Corporal King, who died of his wounds. Lieut. Kelly was wounded a few minutes later. Sergeant MacDougall found Lieut. Craig lying helpless among the dead and wounded, and carried him back to a dressing station. Later, the Right Section gun was smashed by a direct hit.
Sergeant MacDougall, who comes from Moncton, New Brunswick, and is a graduate of McGill University in Electrical Engineering, again did valuable work on the following night in removing the two guns from the trench back to safety.
[2] The 3rd (Toronto) Battalion has now only five of its original officers serving with it; 85 officers have been on the strength of the Battalion at one time and another since its organisation. Of other ranks, about 240 of the original members of the Battalion are still with it.
Review in Lansdowne Park—Princess Patricia presents the Colours—South African veterans and reservists—Princess Patricias in the trenches—St. Eloi—Major Hamilton Gault—A dangerous reconnaissance—Attack on a sap—A German onslaught—Lessons from the enemy—A march to battle—Voormezeele—Death of Colonel Farquhar—Polygone Wood—Regiment's work admired—A move towards Ypres—Heavily shelled—A new line—Arrival of Major Gault—Regiment sadly reduced—Gas shells—A German rush—Major Gault wounded—Lieut. Niven in command—A critical position—Corporal Dover's heroism—A terrible day—Shortage of small arms ammunition—Germans' third attack—Enemy repulsed—Regiment reduced to 150 rifles—Relieved—A service for the dead—In bivouac—A trench line at Armentières—Regiment at full strength again—Moved to the south—Back in billets—Princess Patricias instruct new troops—Rejoin Canadians—A glorious record.
"Fair lord, whose name I know not—noble it is,I well believe, the noblest—will you wearMy favour at this tourney?"—TENNYSON.
On Sunday, August 23rd, 1914, on a grey and gloomy day, immense numbers of people assembled in Lansdowne Park, in the City of Ottawa, to attend divine service with the Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry, and to witness the presentation to the Battalion of the Colours which she had worked with her own hand. The Regiment, composed very largely of South African Veterans and Reservists, paraded with bands and pipers, and then formed three sides of a square in front of the grand stand. Between the Regiment and the stand were the Duchess of Connaught, Princess Patricia, and their Ladies-in-Waiting. The Princess Patricia, on presenting the Colours to Colonel Farquhar, the Commanding Officer of the Regiment, said: "I have great pleasure in presenting you with these Colours which I have worked myself; I hope they will be associated with what I believe will be a distinguished corps; I shall follow the fortunes of you all with the deepest interest, and I heartily wish every man good luck and a safe return."
Not even the good wishes of this beautiful and gracious Princess have availed to safeguard the lives of the splendid Battalion which carried her Colours to the battlefields of Flanders; but every member of the Battalion resolved, as simply and as finely as the knights of mediæval days, that he would justify the belief in its future so proudly expressed by the lady whose name he was honoured to bear.
It is now intended to give some account of the fortunes of the Battalion since the day, which seems so long ago, when with all the pride and circumstance of military display, it received the regimental colours amid the cheers of the citizens of Ottawa.
The Princess Patricias, containing a far larger proportion of experienced soldiers than any other unit in the Canadian Division, was not called upon to endure so long a period of preparation as the rest of the Canadian Expeditionary Force; and at the close of the year 1914 they sailed from England at a moment when reinforcements were greatly needed in France, to strengthen the 80th Brigade of the 27th Division, and to take their part in a line thinly held and very fiercely assailed. For the months of January and February the Regiment took its turn in the trenches, learning the hard lessons of the unpitying winter war. A considerable length of trenches in front of the village of St. Eloi was committed to its charge. Its machine-guns were planted upon a mound which rose abruptly from the centre of the trenches.
The early days were uneventful and the casualties not more than normal, although some very valuable officers were lost. On February 28th, 1915, the Germans completed a sap, from which the Battalion became constantly subject to annoyance, danger, and loss. It was therefore determined by the Battalion Commander to dispose of the menace. Major Hamilton Gault and Lieut. Colquhoun carried out by night a dangerous reconnaissance of the German position, and returned with much information. Lieut. Colquhoun went out a second time, alone, to supplement it, but never returned. He is to-day a prisoner of war in Germany.
The attack was organised under Lieut. Crabbe; the bomb-throwers were commanded by Lieut. Papineau. The last-named officer, a very brave soldier, is a lineal descendant of the rebel of 1837. He is himself loyal to his family traditions except when dangers and wars menace the Empire. At such moments, in spite of himself, his hand flies to the sword. The snipers were under Corporal Ross. Troops were organised in support with shovels ready to demolish the parapet of the enemy trench. The ground to be traversed was short enough, for the sappers' nearest point was only fifteen yards from the Canadian trench. The attacking party rushed this space and threw themselves into the sap. Corporal Ross, who was first in the race, was killed immediately. Lieut. Crabbe then led the detachment down the trench while Lieut. Papineau ran down the outside of the parapet throwing bombs into the trench. Lieut. Crabbe made his way through the trench, followed by his men, until his progress was arrested by a barrier which the Germans had constructed.
In the meantime, troops had occupied the rear face of the sap to guard against a counter-attack. A platoon under Sergeant-Major Lloyd, who was killed, attacked and demolished the enemy parapet for a considerable distance. The trench was occupied long enough to complete the work of demolishing the parapet. With dawn, orders were given for the attackers to withdraw, and as the grey morning light began to break, they made their way to their own trenches, with a difficult task well and successfully performed. Major Gault was wounded in the course of the engagement, in which all ranks behaved with dash and gallantry, although the men had been for six weeks employed in trench warfare under the most depressing conditions of cold and damp.
On March 1st the enemy made a vigorous attack on the Princess Patricias with bombs and shell fire. Between the 1st and the 6th, a fierce contest was continually waged for the site of the sap which the Battalion had destroyed. Sometimes the Princess Patricias defended it; sometimes the British battalions, with whom they were brigaded and whose staunch and faithful comrades they had become.
On March 6th, carrying out a carefully concerted plan, our men withdrew from the trench lines, which were still only twenty or thirty yards from the German trenches; and our artillery, making very successful practice, obliterated the sap and the trench which the enemy had used for the purpose of creating it. The enemy were blown out of the forward trenches, and fragments of dead Germans were thrown into the air, in some cases as high as sixty feet. The bombardment was carried out with high explosive shells.
The Canadian soldier is always adaptable, and the Battalion learned, when they captured the sap on February 28th, that the German trenches were five feet deep with parapets two feet high, and yet that every day they were pumped and kept dry. This knowledge resulted in a considerable improvement in the trenches occupied by the Regiment. The experience was welcome, for the men had been standing in water all through the winter months and the Regiment had suffered much from frostbite.
On March 13th, while the Princess Patricias were in billets, the Germans, perhaps in reply to our offensive at Neuve Chapelle, made a vigorous attack in overwhelming numbers upon the trenches and mound at St. Eloi. The attack, which was preceded by a heavy artillery bombardment, was successful, and it became necessary to attempt by a counterattack to arrest any further development.
The Battalion was billeted in Westoutre, where, at 5.30 on March 14th, peremptory orders were received to prepare for departure. At 7 p.m. the march was begun. At Zevecoten the Princess Patricias met a battalion of the King's Royal Rifle Corps, and marched to Dickebush. At 9.30 it reached the cross roads of Kruistraathoek. Here a short halt was made, after which the Battalion reached Voormezeele, where it was drawn up on the roadside. While it was in this position reports were brought in that the Germans were advancing in large numbers towards the eastern end of Voormezeele. The Battalion Commander, therefore, as a precaution against surprise, detailed Number 4 Company of the Battalion to occupy the position on the east. Soon after 2 a.m. orders were received to co-operate with a battalion of the Rifle Brigade in an attack on the St. Eloi mound, which had been lost early in the day. The zone of the operations of the Battalion was to the east of the Voormezeele-Warneton road.
The following rough diagram may make the position clear:—
Map--the Voormezeele-St. Eloi areaMap—the Voormezeele-St. Eloi area
The actual situation in the front line was still obscure. It was known that the mound and certain trenches to the west of it, were in German hands. It was also known that towards the east we had lost certain trenches known to our Intelligence Staff as P and A. It was uncertain whether the trench T was still held by our troops. It was decided, in a matter in which certainty was unattainable, to proceed towards a farm building which was an easily recognised objective. This course at least promised information, for if trench T had fallen it was certain that the Battalion would at once be heavily attacked. If it was still intact the Battalion would, it was hoped, cover the commencement of an assault along the German line against trenches A and P and the mound, successively.
The alternative was to advance southwards with the Battalion right on the Ypres-St. Eloi road. The adoption of this plan would have meant slow progress through the enclosures round St. Eloi, and the subsequent attack would have been exposed to heavy flanking fire from trenches A and P.
The progress of the Battalion was necessarily slow; the street in Voormezeele was full of stragglers. Touch was difficult to maintain across country without constant short halts. It was necessary always to advance with a screen of scouts thrown out.
It was ascertained in St. Eloi that trench A had been retaken by British troops. This knowledge modified the plan provisionally adopted. The Battalion altered its objective from the farm building to a breastwork 200 yards to the west of it. This point was reached about twenty minutes before daylight, and an attack was immediately organised by Number 2 Company against trench P, approaching it from the back of trench A. The attack was made in three parties.
The advance was made with coolness and resolution, but the attackers were met by heavy machine-gun fire from the mound. No soldiers in the world could have forced their way through, for the fire swept everything before it. It was clear that no hope of a surprise existed, and to have spent another company upon reinforcement would have been a useless and bloody sacrifice. Three platoons were, therefore, detailed to hold the right of the breastwork in immediate proximity to the mound, and the rest of the Battalion was withdrawn to Voormezeele, reaching Dickebush about 8 a.m.[1]
The forces engaged behaved with great steadiness throughout a trying and unsuccessful night, and at daylight withdrew over open ground without Voormezeele, reaching Dickebush about 8 a.m.
On March 20th the Battalion sustained a severe loss in the death, by a stray bullet, of its Commanding Officer, Colonel Farquhar. He had been Military Secretary to the Duke of Connaught. This distinguished officer had done more for the Battalion than it would be possible in a short chapter to record. The Regiment, in fact, was his creation. A strict disciplinarian, he was nevertheless deeply beloved in an army not always patient of discipline tactlessly asserted; he was always cheerful, always unruffled, and always resourceful. Lieut.-Colonel H. C. Buller succeeded him in command of the Regiment.
After the death of Lieut.-Colonel Farquhar, the Battalion again retired to rest, and it has not since returned to the scene of its earliest experience in trench warfare. On April 9th it took up a line on the Polygone Wood, in the Ypres salient, and there did its round of duty with the customary relief in billets. By this time the men were becoming familiar with their surroundings, and gave play to their native ingenuity. Near the trenches they built log huts from trees in the woods, and it was a common thing for French, Belgian, and British officers to visit the camp to admire the work of the Regiment. Breastworks were built also behind the trenches under cover of the woods, and the trenches themselves were greatly improved.
The Battalion presently moved into billets in the neighbourhood of Ypres, and on April 20th, during the heavy bombardment of that unhappy town which preceded the immortal stand of the Canadian Division, it was ordered to leave billets, and on the evening of that day moved once again to the trenches.
From April 21st and through the following days of the second battle of Ypres the Regiment remained in trenches some distance south and west of the trenches occupied by the Canadian Division They were constantly shelled with varying intensity, and all through those critical days waited, with ever-growing impatience, for the order that never came to take part in the battle to the north, where their kinsmen were undergoing so cruel an ordeal.
On May 3rd, after the modification of the line to the north, the Battalion was withdrawn to a subsidiary line some distance in the rear. From eight in the evening to midnight small parties were silently withdrawn, until the trenches were held with a rearguard of fifteen men commanded by Lieut. Lane. Rapid fire was maintained for more than an hour, and the rear-guard then withdrew without casualties.
On May 4th the Regiment occupied the new line. On the morning of that day a strong enemy attack developed. This was repulsed with considerable loss to the assailants, and was followed by a heavy bombardment throughout the day, which demolished several of the trenches. At night the Regiment was relieved by the King's Shropshire Light Infantry and withdrawn to reserve trenches. In this unhealthy neighbourhood no place, by this time, was safe, and on May 5th, Lieut.-Colonel Buller was unfortunate enough to lose an eye from the splinter of a shell which exploded 100 yards away. Major Gault arrived during the day and took over command. The Battalion was still in high spirits, and cheered the arrival of an officer to whom all ranks were attached.
Just after dark on the night of May 6th, the Battalion returned to the trenches and relieved the 2nd King's Shropshire Light Infantry. Throughout the night, and all the following day, it was assailed by a constant and heavy bombardment. The roll call on the night of the 7th showed the strength of the Battalion as 635.
The day that followed was at once the most critical and the most costly in the history of the Battalion. Early in the morning, particularly heavy shelling began on the right flank, soon enfilading the fire trenches. At 5.30 it grew in intensity, and gas shells began to fall. At the same time a number of Germans were observed coming at the double from the hill in front of the trench. This movement was arrested by a heavy rifle fire.
By 6 a.m. every telephone-wire, both to the Brigade Headquarters and also to the trenches, had been cut. All signallers, pioneers, orderlies, and servants at Battalion Headquarters were ordered into the support trenches, for the needs of the moment left no place for supernumeraries. Every single Canadian upon the strength was from that time forward in one or other of the trenches. A short and fierce struggle decided the issue for the time being. The advance of the Germans was checked, and those of the enemy who were not either sheltered by buildings, dead or wounded, crawled back over the crest of the ridge to their own trenches. By this time the enemy had two, and perhaps three, machine-guns in adjacent buildings, and were sweeping the parapets of both the fire and support trenches. An orderly took a note to Brigade Headquarters informing them exactly of the situation of the Battalion.
About 7 a.m., Major Gault, who had sustained his men by his coolness and example, was severely hit by a shell in the left arm and thigh. It was impossible to move him, and he lay in the trench, as did many of his wounded companions, in great anguish but without a murmur, for over ten hours.
The command was taken over by Lieut. Niven, the next senior officer who was still unwounded. Heavy Howitzers using high explosives, combined with field-guns from this moment in a most trying bombardment both on the fire and support trenches. The fire trench on the right was blown to pieces at several points.[2]
At 9 o'clock the shelling decreased in intensity; but it was the lull before the storm, for the enemy immediately attempted a second infantry advance. This attack was received with undiminished resolution. A storm of machine-gun and rifle fire checked the assailants, who were forced, after a few indecisive moments, to retire and take cover. The Battalion accounted for large numbers of the enemy in the course of this attack, but it suffered seriously itself. Captain Hill, Lieuts. Martin, Triggs, and De Bay were all wounded at this time.
At half-past nine, Lieut. Niven established contact with the King's Own Yorkshire Light Infantry on the left, and with the 4th Rifle Brigade on the right. Both were suffering heavy casualties from enfilade fire; and neither, of course, could afford any assistance. At this time the bombardment recommenced with great intensity. The range of our machine-guns was taken with extreme precision. All, without exception, were buried. Those who served them behaved with the most admirable coolness and gallantry. Two were dug out, mounted and used again. One was actually disinterred three times and kept in action till a shell annihilated the whole section. Corporal Dover stuck to his gun throughout and, although wounded, continued to discharge his duties with as much coolness as if on parade. In the explosion that ended his ill-fated gun, he lost a leg and an arm, and was completely buried in thedébris. Conscious or unconscious, he lay there in that condition until dusk, when he crawled out of all that was left of the obliterated trench, and moaned for help. Two of his comrades sprang from the support trench—by this time the fire trench—and succeeded in carrying in his mangled and bleeding body. But as all that remained of this brave soldier was being lowered into the trench a bullet put an end to his sufferings. No bullet could put an end to his glory.
At half-past ten the left half of the right fire trench was completely destroyed; and Lieut. Denison ordered Lieut. Clarke to withdraw the remnant of his command into the right communicating trench. He himself, with Lieut. Lane, was still holding all that was tenable of the right fire trench with a few men still available for that purpose. Lieut. Edwards had been killed. The right half of the left fire trench suffered cruelly. The trench was blown in and the machine-gun put out of action. Sergeant Scott, and the few survivors who still answered the call, made their way to the communication trench, and clung tenaciously to it, until that, too, was blown in. Lieut. Crawford, whose spirits never failed him throughout this terrible day, was severely wounded. Captain Adamson, who was handing out small arms ammunition, was hit in the shoulder, but continued to work with a single arm. Sergeant-Major Fraser, who was similarly engaged feeding the support trenches with ammunition, was killed instantly by a bullet in the head. At this time only four officers were left, Lieuts. Papineau, Vandenberg, Niven, and Clark, of whom the last two began the war in the ranks.
By 12 a.m. the supply of small arms ammunition badly needed replenishment. In this necessity the snipers of the Battalion were most assiduous in the dangerous task of carrying requests to the Brigade Headquarters and to the Reserve Battalion, which was in the rear at Belle-Waarde Lake. The work was most dangerous, for the ground which had to be covered was continually and most heavily shelled. From 12 a.m. to 1.30 p.m. the Battalion held on under the most desperate difficulties until a detachment of the 4th Rifle Brigade was sent up in reinforcement The battered defenders of the support trench recognised old friends coming to their aid in their moment of extreme trial, and gave them a loud cheer as they advanced in support. Lieut. Niven placed them on the extreme right, in order to protect the Battalion's flanks. They remained in line with the Canadian support trenches, protected by trees and hedges. They also sent a machine-gun and section, which rendered invaluable service.
At 2 p.m. Lieut. Niven went with an orderly to the Headquarters, in obedience to Brigade orders, to telephone to the General Officer Commanding the Brigade, complete details of the situation. He returned at 2.30 p.m. The orderlies who accompanied him both coming and going were hit by high explosive shells.
At 3 p.m. a detachment of the 2nd King's Shropshire Light Infantry, who were also old comrades in arms of the Princess Patricias, reached the support line with twenty boxes of small arms ammunition. These were distributed, and the party bringing them came into line as a reinforcement, occupying the left end of the support trench. At four o'clock the support trenches were inspected, and it was found that contact was no longer maintained with the regiment on the left, the gap extending for fifty yards. A few men (as many as could be spared) were placed in the gap to do the best they could. Shortly afterwards news was brought that the battalions on the left had been compelled to withdraw, after a stubborn resistance, to a line of trenches a short distance in the rear.
At this moment the Germans made their third and last attack. It was arrested by rifle fire, although some individuals penetrated into the fire trench on the right. At this point all the Princess Patricias had been killed, so that this part of the trench was actually tenantless. Those who established a footing were few in number, and they were gradually dislodged; and so the third and last attack was routed as successfully as those which had preceded it.
The afternoon dragged on, the tale of casualties constantly growing; and at ten o'clock at night, the company commanders being all dead or wounded, Lieuts. Niven and Papineau took a roll call. It disclosed a strength of 150 rifles and some stretcher-bearers.
At 11.30 at night the Battalion was relieved by the 3rd King's Royal Rifle Corps. The relieving unit helped those whom they replaced, in the last sorrowful duty of burying those of their dead who lay in the support and communicating trenches. Those who had fallen in the fire trenches needed no grave, for the obliteration of their shelter had afforded a decent burial to their bodies. Behind the damaged trenches, by the light of the German flares and amid the unceasing rattle of musketry, relievers and relieved combined in the last service which one soldier can render another. Beside the open graves, with heads uncovered, all that was left of the Regiment stood, while Lieut. Niven, holding the Colours of Princess Patricia, battered, bloody, but still intact, tightly in his hand, recalled all he could remember of the Church of England service for the dead. Long after the service was over the remnant of the Battalion stood in solemn reverie, unable it seemed to leave their comrades, until the Colonel of the 3rd King's Royal Rifle Corps gave them positive orders to retire, when, led by Lieut. Papineau, they marched back, 150 strong, to reserve trenches. On arrival they were instructed to proceed to another part of the position, where during the day they were shelled, and lost five killed and three wounded.
In the evening of the 10th the Battalion furnished a carrying party of fifty men and one officer for small arms ammunition, and delivered twenty-five boxes at Belle-Waarde Lake. One man was killed and two wounded. It furnished also a digging party of 100 men, under Lieut. Clarke, who constructed part of an additional support trench.
On May 13th the Regiment was in bivouac at the rear. The news arrived that the 4th Rifle Brigade, their old and trusty comrades in arms, was being desperately pressed. Asked to go to the relief, the Princess Patricias formed a composite Battalion with the 4th King's Royal Rifle Corps, and successfully made the last exertion which was asked of them at this period of the war.
On May 15th Major Pelly arrived from England, where he had been invalided on March 15th, and took over the command from Lieut. Niven, who, during his period of command, had shown qualities worthy of a regimental commander of any experience in any army in the world.
At the beginning of June the Princess Patricias took up a trench line at Armentières and remained there until the end of August. In the middle of July Lieut. C. J. T. Stewart, a brave officer who had been severely wounded in the early days of the Spring, rejoined the Battalion. Other officers returning after wounds, and reinforcements from Canada, brought the Battalion up to full strength again.
Trench work and digging then alternated with rest. About the middle of September the Battalion moved with the 27th Division to occupy a line of trenches held by the 3rd Army in the south.
When the 27th Division was withdrawn from this line the Princess Patricias were moved into billets far back from the battle zone, and for a while the Battalion was detailed to instruct troops arriving for the 3rd Army.
On November 27th, 1915, they were once again happily reunited with the Canadian Corps after a long separation.
Such, told purposely in the baldest language, and without attempting any artifice in rhetoric, is the history of Princess Patricia's Light Infantry Regiment from the time it reached Flanders till the present day.
Few, indeed, are left of the men who met in Lansdowne Park to receive the regimental Colours nearly a year ago; but those who survive, and the friends of those who have died, may draw solace from the thought that never in the history of arms have Soldiers more valiantly sustained the gift and trust of a Lady.
[1] Commenting on the Princess Patricias at St. Eloi, in Nelson's "History of the War," Mr. John Buchan says:—"Princess Patricia's Regiment was the first of the overseas troops to be engaged in an action of first-rate importance, and their deeds were a pride to the whole Empire—a pride to be infinitely heightened by the glorious record of the Canadian Division in the desperate battles of April. This Regiment five days later suffered an irreparable loss in the death of its Commanding Officer, Col. Francis Farquhar, kindest of friends, most whimsical and delightful of comrades, and bravest of men."
[2] The German bombardment had been so heavy since May 4th that a wood which the Regiment had used in part for cover was completely demolished.
The Prime Minister's visit—Passing of Politics—End to domestic dissensions—The Imperial idea—Sir Robert's foresight—Arrival in England—At Shorncliffe—Meeting with General Hughes—Review of Canadian troops—The tour in France—A Canadian base hospital—A British hospital—Canadian graves—Wounded under canvas—Prince Arthur of Connaught—Visiting battle scenes—Received by General Alderson—General Turner's Brigade—Speech to the men—First and Second Brigades—Sir Robert in the trenches—Cheered by Princess Patricias—Enemy aeroplanes—Meeting with Sir John French—The Prince of Wales—With the French Army—General Joffre—A conference in French—The French trenches—The stricken city of Albert—To Paris—The French President—Conference with the French War Minister—Shorncliffe again—Canadian convalescent home—A thousand convalescents—Sir Robert's emotion—His wonderful speech—End of journey.
"I think I can trace the calamities of this country to the single source of our not having had steadily before our eyes a general, comprehensive, well-connected, and well-proportioned view of the whole of our dominions, and a just sense of their true bearings and relations."—BURKE.
"And statesmen at her council metWho knew the seasons when to takeOccasion by the hand, and makeThe bounds of freedom wider yet."—TENNYSON.
The news that the Prime Minister had arranged a visit to England and to the battlefield in France aroused great and general interest. Since the commencement of the titanic struggle which is now convulsing the world, the standards by which we used to measure statesmen have undergone great modification. The gifts of brilliant platform rhetoric, the arts of partisan debate, the instinct for a conquering election issue, all these have dwindled before the cruel perspective of war into their true insignificance. It is felt here in England to-day, and not least by some of us who are ourselves chargeable in the matter, that it will be long before the politicians at home clear themselves at the inquest of the nation from the charge of having endangered the safety of the Empire by their absorption in those domestic dissensions which now seem at once so remote and so paltry.
And there is already at work a tendency to adopt wholly different standards in measuring men who, in the wasted years which lie behind us, kept steadfast and undeluded eyes upon the Imperial position; who thought of it and dreamed of it, and worked for it, when so many others were preaching disarmament in an armed world, sustaining meanwhile the combative instinct by the fury with which they flung themselves into insane domestic quarrels.
Sir Robert Borden's was not, perhaps, a personality which was likely to make a swift or facile appeal to that collective Imperial opinion whose conclusions matter so much more than the conclusions of any individual part of the Empire. Modest, unassuming, superior to the arts of advertisement, he never courted a large stage on which to exhibit the services which he well knew he could render to the Empire. To-day it is none the less recognised that Borden has won his place by the side of Rhodes and Chamberlain and Botha, in that charmed circle of clear-sighted statesmen whose exertions, we may hope, have saved the Empire in our generation as surely as Chatham and Pitt and Clive and Hastings saved it in the crisis of an earlier convulsion.
Sir Robert Borden is the first Colonial statesman who has attended a British Cabinet, a precedent which may be fruitful in immense Constitutional developments hereafter.
I wonder whether any of those whose deliberations he assisted recalled the prescience, and the grave and even noble eloquence, with which Sir Robert closed his great speech—delivered how short a time ago!—upon the proposed Canadian contribution to the British Fleet. The passage is worth recalling:—
"The next ten or twenty years will be pregnant with great results for this Empire, and it is of infinite importance that questions of purely domestic concern, however urgent, shall not prevent any of us from rising to the height of this great argument. But to-day, while the clouds are heavy, and we hear the booming of the distant thunder, and see the lightning flash above the horizon, we cannot, and we will not, wait and deliberate until any impending storm shall have burst upon us in fury and with disaster. Almost unaided, the Motherland, not for herself alone, but for us as well, is sustaining the burden of a vital Imperial duty, and confronting an overmastering necessity of national existence. Bringing the best assistance that we may in the urgency of the moment, we come thus to her aid in token of our determination to protect and ensure the safety and integrity of this Empire, and of our resolve to defend on sea as well as on land our flag, our honour, and our heritage."
This gift of wise and spacious speech has been used more than once with extreme impressiveness—notably at the Guildhall—during the Prime Minister's recent visit. "All that," he said, "for which our fathers fought and bled, all our liberties and institutions, all the influences for good which penetrate humanity, are in the balance to-day. Therefore we cannot, because we must not, fail in this war."
It was my duty to accompany Sir Robert Borden on the visit which he paid to the front, and I gladly embrace this opportunity of substituting for the stories of bloodshed and glory, which have engaged my pen so much, the record of a mission which, though peaceful, was of profound and often of most moving interest.
Sir Robert Borden arrived in England in the middle of July. On Friday, the 16th, he motored to Shorncliffe, accompanied by Sir George Parley and Mr. R. B. Bennett, M.P. There he met General Hughes. At nine o'clock on the morning of the 17th the Canadian troops of the 2nd Division marched past the Prime Minister. It was impossible to watch without emotion, if one came from Canada, this superb body of men gathered from every part of the Dominion, and animated in all ranks by the desire to take their place side by side with the 1st Division, and, if possible, to wrest from the war laurels as glorious as theirs. Certainly, on the view, no finer body of men could be imagined, and if to a critical eye it seemed that the tactical efficiency of the Western regiments was a shade higher than that of the Eastern, the reflection readily occurred that the whole of the 1st Division was criticised, on this very ground, and that this war, of all wars, is not to be determined on the parade ground.
Sir Robert Borden's tour began on Tuesday, July 20th. Accompanied by Mr. R. B. Bennett and a military staff, he embarked for France. Colonel Wilberforce, the Camp Commandant, who had served on the staff of a former Governor-General of Canada, met him at the pier on his arrival. After lunch he visited a Canadian base hospital, commanded by Colonel McKee, of Montreal. It was pathetic to see the pleasure of the wounded at his presence, and the plainness with which they showed it, in spite of the pain which many of them were suffering.
The next visit was paid to a British hospital, where Sir Robert saw Captain George Bennett, of the Princess Patricias, who was just fighting his way back to consciousness after one hundred and twenty-five days of burning fever.[1]
From the hospital the Prime Minister went to the graveyard, where he planted seeds of the maple tree on the graves of our dead officers and men. The scene was touching, and Sir Robert was deeply moved. Side by side with the British dead, lie Captain Muntz, of the 3rd Battalion Toronto Regiment, Major Ward, of the Princess Patricias, whose fruit farm in the Okanagan Valley lies fallow, and Lieutenant Campbell, of the 1st Battalion Ontario Regiment, who won the Victoria Cross and yet did not live to know it. How he won it, against what odds, and facing how certain a death, has been fully told in another chapter.
Sir Robert then visited the McGill College Hospital, commanded by Colonel Birkett, the Canadian Base Hospital, in charge of Colonel Shillington, and Colonel Murray MacLaren's Hospital, under canvas, in the sand dunes fringing the sea. Everywhere one noticed the same patience under suffering, the same gratitude for all done to relieve pain, and the same sincere and simple pleasure that the Prime Minister of Canada had wished to see them and to thank them.
Perhaps the long corridor tents in the sand dunes impressed themselves most upon the memory. The convalescents stood to attention to receive the Colonial Prime Minister. Some would not be denied whom the medical staff would perhaps rather have seen sitting. Nor was it less moving to notice how illustrious in private life were many members of the brilliant staff which had assembled to meet the first citizen of Canada. Colonel Murray MacLaren, Colonel Finlay, Colonel Cameron, and many others, if they ever reflect upon the immense private sacrifices they have made, would draw rich compensation from the knowledge that their skill and science have in countless cases brought comfort in the midst of suffering to the heroic soldiers of Canada. Sir Robert, in a few sentences of farewell, made himself the mouthpiece of Canada in rendering to them a high tribute of respect and gratitude.
Early on Wednesday morning the Prime Minister set forth to visit the Canadian troops at the front. He was joined in the course of his journey by Prince Arthur of Connaught, who came to represent the Governor-General of Canada.
The road followed took the party near to where Canada, at the second battle of Ypres, held the left of the British line. The Prime Minister examined the position with the greatest care and interest, and looked upon the ruined city of Ypres, and far in the horizon identified the shattered remnants of Messines. And before he left he spoke to those about him, with deep pride and thankfulness, of those who stood and died for the honour of Canada in that great critical day in the Western Campaign.
At noon Sir Robert reached the Canadian Divisional Headquarters, where he was received by General Alderson. Two familiar faces were missing from the number of those who had made the staff dispositions in the great battle. Colonel Romer, then Chief General Staff Officer, always cool, always lucid, always resourceful, had become a Brigadier. He is an extremely able officer, and if a layman may hazard a prediction as to a soldier's future, he has in front of him a very brilliant and perhaps a very high career. However brilliant and however long it may prove, he will never, I think, forget the second battle of Ypres, or the brave comrades whose exertions it was his duty, under the General, to co-ordinate and direct.
And we missed, too, the quiet but friendly personality of Colonel Wood (now Brigadier-General), who had been transferred to Shorncliffe to organise the Corps Staff. He has returned again to the front, and is now in charge of our "Administration." General Wood spent some years at the Royal Military College at Kingston, Ontario, and there acquired a great knowledge of, and sympathy with, the Canadian point of view. He is devoted to the Canadian troops, of whom he is intensely proud, and they on their part understand and trust him.