[undercoverbrother]

The anniversary of Vimy and some discussion regarding the use of chemical weapons in Syria made me think of this.

http://www.canadiangreatwarproject.c...#_Toc130652611


Ypres:

Spoiler!

he Second Battle of Ypres

A hurried order from Brigade H.Q. was received at 5.20p.m. notifying Colonel Boyle to have his battalion ready to move to the trenches at 6 p.m. The battalion paraded at the junction of the Ypres-St. Jean Road, but was at once swallowed up in the terrible confusion of men and transport which prevailed. Masses of wildly fleeing French Colonial troops surged on the roads and over the fields making towards Ypres and Vlamertinghe, many of them exhausted and gasping for breath, their faces twisted and distorted with pain. Asphyxiating gas of great intensity had been projected into their trenches, and thousands had been overcome before they abandoned the line. To add to the terror and confusion, the German guns had the range of the Cross Roads outside Ypres, and their thickly falling shells were snatching numerous victims from among the horror stricken refugees.

In order to extricate his battalion, Colonel Boyle had to split it up into small parties, and these proceeded independently to Wieltje.

At this time the position on the battle front was as follows: Three infantry brigades of the Canadian Division were holding about 5,000 yards of front line trenches, extending from the Ypres-Roulers Railway to the Ypres-Polecappelle Road. The French were on the left flank in touch with the 3rd Brigade, the 2rid Brigade was on the right, the 1st Brigade being held in reserve.

The enforced withdrawal of the French Colonial troops, which left a gap of nearly 1,000 yards in the line, gravely exposed the Canadians' left, making it possible for the Huns to break through and cut off the entire division. The situation was desperate.

The General Officer Commanding the Canadians. decided upon a bold stroke. He withdrew his left flank southwards, protecting his rear and establishing a new front, and prepared to counter-attack upon St. Julien Wood, which the Huns had captured, two miles in rear of the original French position.

Reinforcements had arrived - not a moment too soon. Two battalions of the 1st Brigade and one from the 2nd Brigade had been switched to the trenches in support of the 3rd Brigade. The “Tenth,” also of the 2nd Brigade, which we left on the way to Wieltje, was intercepted and diverted to the same ground. A counter-attack - a forlorn hope - was to be carried out immediately.

Darkness had fallen. A waning moon was faintly illumining the murderous melee of the battlefield. The stabbing flashes of bursting German shells marked the Canadian position. German guns were trying to blast a pathway through for their infantry. Machine gun and rifle flashes flickered like a million fireflys in the gloom, and the swishing bullets flew literally in sheets over the broken ground and battered trenches where the 3rd Brigade was hanging on indomitably.

The forlorn hope, consisting of the 10th and the 16th (Canadian Scottish) Battalions, moved up rapidly to the attacking point, from which St. Julien Wood could be seen, looming up darkly in the faint moonlight, five hundred yards away.

The "Tenth " Attack

The order to advance was given at 11.45 p.m. The "Tenth" led the way, the 16th following almost immediately behind; both battalions were moving forward in waves, each wave two companies strong. Although the ground was much cut up from shell fire, little noise was made by the marching men, upon whom the necessity for strict silence had been impressed.

More than two-thirds of the distance had been covered, and as yet they had not been discovered. Fifty yards from the fringe of the wood a hedge was unexpectedly encountered. There was nothing for it but to smash a way through. The snapping branches aroused the enemy's sentries, and a murderous fire from rifles and machine guns was opened upon the "Tenth."

Colonel Boyle, who was following behind the second wave, urged on his men. They were falling in two's and three's under the storm of lead, but they never wavered. Working frantically with rifle butts they burst through the hedge cleared the intervening open space at a bound, and reached the first German trench at the wood's edge. This was bayoneted clear in five minutes. Without hesitation the 10th and the 16th clambered out of the trench and charged into the wood. Every tree-trunk sheltered a Hun rifleman, while machine guns enfiladed the approaches and open spaces with a withering fire. It seemed impossible that anything could live in that maelstrom of flying lead. But the Canadians, now thoroughly aroused, were not to be denied, and, fighting grimly with the bayonet every foot of the way, gradually drove their more numerous adversaries backward. Hundreds of Germans were eager to surrender. Their dead lay in heaps.

In the advance a party of the “Tenth” came upon the four naval guns which the Germans captured in their first irresistible rush. They had been rendered useless by the hastily retreating enemy.

Now the battalions were fighting side by side. Death had taken frightful toll of the 10th, and the men of the 16th had filled up the gaps in the first attacking lines. The Germans rallied their broken infantry and brought up more machine guns. The Canadians lost their formation. They fought singly and in small groups, pressing ever onwards. They advanced wherever the Germans were in numbers.

Unconsciously they had swerved somewhat to the right and were moving north-east through the wood, instead of swinging around by the south-west front as intended. Here, exhausted and caught by new blasts of enfilade rifle and machine gun fire, they were forced to dig themselves in. The position was untenable. Masses of artillery concentrated its fire upon the wood. Shrapnel and high explosive rattled and smashed through the trees, creating indescribable chaos. Machine guns, concentrated in groups, chattered death at every moving thing. Withdrawal was inevitable - otherwise annihilation.

These Canadians had now been fighting a hand-to- hand death-struggle against unbelievable odds in men and guns for nearly three hours. They were badly stricken, but unbeaten. They would have gone for- ward to annihilation if ordered to do so; but fortunately the complete sacrifice was unnecessary, for their charge had accomplished its object.

The withdrawal was successfully carried out at 12.30 p.m. and a new line was constructed running along by the hedge which had impeded them in the original advance.

Astounding Heroism

A reconnaissance was undertaken by Major Ormond to ascertain the position at the battalion's left flank, which rested near the south-west corner of the wood. The sound of rapid fire suggested that the enemy might be advancing from a new direction. His fears were not realized; but he found a party of men - thirty-four in all - of the 10th and 16th Battalions, holding a portion of the first German trench on the fringe of the wood and putting up a spirited fight against an enemy bombing and machine gun party which occupied an advanced redoubt some fifteen yards away. To ensure the safety of his main line this post would have to be destroyed.

Lieutenant Lowry, 10th Battalion, and ten men volunteered to enter the wood and attack the post from the flank; the remainder of the little force was to rush it as soon as the flanking party should open fire. The charge was made - and broken. Eighteen men fell as. they clambered over the parapet, withered by machine gun fire. The flanking party was equally unlucky.

A cross trench was dug to cope with the fire from the hostile redoubt and to connect up with the old German line, which Major Ormond found to be in fairly good condition and to contain many interesting trophies.

A German Colonel of infantry and several other wounded German officers lay among the stricken who littered the trench, and at least two regiments were identified through their dead - the 2nd Prussian Guards and 234th Regiment, Bavarians - crack Hun troops.

The Germans, angered at the occupation of this trench, showered explosives upon its devoted little garrison. They could bring fire to bear from three directions - and they did - a lashing concentration of shells, bombs, machine guns and rifles.

With the coming of dawn an effort was made to ascertain the exact location of some small parties which had become detached during the withdrawal from the wood.

It was found that a small composite force of the two battalions was holding about two hundred yards of German trench fringing the S.W. corner of the wood and to the left of the hedge line to which our main body had withdrawn. Working parties were detailed to connect the two positions. In the readjustment the 10th Battalion took over the left flank. A gap of about two hundred yards existed between the right of the 16th Battalion and the Divisional position now occupied by the 1st Reserve Brigade.

About this time it was discovered that the Germans were digging a trench to the right of our new position, which if finished and occupied in force would seriously jeopardise the entire line. Lieut.-Col. Boyle, who had been with his men in the thick of all the fighting, decided that the enemy must be driven out and the work destroyed.

The assault was made with splendid gallantry, despite the men's exhausted condition • but it never had a chance to succeed. Batteries of machine guns at short range "played like a watering pot," as one officer said, upon the small attacking force. Colonel Boyle, who was leading, fell mortally wounded. Major MacLaren, the second in command, Major Ormond, the Adjutant, Major Lightfoot, and several other officers were also hit, and the rank and file suffered proportionately. The remnants fell back upon their trench, firing as they withdrew.

In six hours of fighting the battalion had lost in killed and wounded nineteen officers and nearly six hundred N.C.O.'s and men, out of a total strength of eight hundred and sixteen. The Tenth had indeed had its baptism of blood.

Major MacLaren, an exceptionally able and gallant officer, was killed by a shell while on the way to hospital.

Major Ormond, though severely wounded, refused to leave the field and took command of the battalion.

The daylight hours of April 23rd were spent in organising the defences and removing the wounded, many of whom lay in the open. Attempts to bring in the sufferers were met by hostile rifle fire; but despite this typically Hunnish act many were rescued. Those unfortunates who lay far out had to be left to their fate.

All day long the German guns pounded at the Canadian lines, attempting to crush out the defenders' marvelous spirit of resistance by sheer weight of metal.

As darkness approached patrols were sent into the wood to ascertain the lie of the German trenches, but their attempts to get into touch with the enemy outposts were swept to failure by heavy machine gun fire. One of these patrols discovered the positions of three of the 4.7 guns which the use of gas had enabled the enemy to capture. These guns were partially destroyed and literally buried with dead - Turcos, British and Germans. As it was impossible to move them, snipers were detailed to cover them, awaiting a favourable opportunity to get them safely away to our lines.

A Grim Ordeal

The second night of ordeal had come. Ammunition was exhausted, there were no surgical dressings or stretchers with which to ease and- transport the deplorably large numbers of wounded, and the emergency rations had been eaten by the hungry men long since. No one had had any water for hours. Machine guns were urgently needed to supplement the pitifully weak rifle strength, and it was equally necessary that telephonic communication should be established with Brigade H.Q.

Another attack by the enemy seemed imminent, signs of great activity being manifested in the hostile lines less than one hundred yards away.

After many perilous journeys to Brigade H.Q., Lieut. W. R. Critchley succeeded in obtaining some flares and a flare pistol, also a telephone. Machine guns could not be spared. S.Q.M.S. Haylett also got through with a meagre supply of rations, and at midnight the day's fast was broken. The men were suffering badly from thirst and the nerve strain of the continuous shelling. Many slept where they stood from sheer exhaustion, unmindful of the din of bursting shells and of death ever present in the droning shrapnel and flying bullets.

An alarm reached the battalion at 3 a.m. April 24th - the Germans were about to attack. Half an hour later the enemy's guns opened up a furious bombardment, and successive projections of gas could be seen rolling in dense waves towards the Canadian trenches some distance to the right. In the half-light of the early dawn the onlookers saw the pulsing walls of evil- looking vapour creep with grim certainty towards the flame-smeared trenches where helpless men crouched and defiantly awaited its breath of death.

A message was received from Brigade H.Q. ordering the 10th Battalion to move to a position on the Gravenstafel Ridge, in support of the 8th Battalion, which was being hard pressed. Arrangements were at once made with the 16th Battalion to extend their left. When the 10th was ready' to move it was broad daylight and the sun's rim was just showing above the horizon. The only means of egress from the front line was by way of a recently dug, shallow trough barely' offering cover to prone men. It crossed a ridge exposed to German fire from three directions; yet by skilful handling the men were brought safely away without the enemy being aware of the movement.

After a tedious march the badly spent battalion now only a hundred and fifty strong with three officers, reached support trenches on the slope of the Gravenstafel Ridge. Almost immediately an imperative call for help came from the 8th Battalion, which was defending the ridge to the N.E. of St. Julien. Extending into open order, the 10th Battalion scrambled up the slope, gathering many stragglers from other units on the way, and occupied a trench to the left of that held by small parties of the 8th and 7th Battalions.

The Germans seemed to be attacking all along the line, using artillery and gas unsparingly and then hurling masses of men upon the suffocating defenders. Time and time again the enemy threw his full force against the mauled trenches, but always his infantry staggered back beaten by mere handfuls of unconquerable Canadians.

Captain Arthur was now in command of the 10th Battalion, Major Ormond having been wounded again. The latter had displayed unusual resolution and resource in handling his sorely tried command.

The gas clouds gradually drifted towards the 10th Battalion trenches, blinding and choking the defenders, while the massed German guns sowed the ground with death-spreading high explosive and shrapnel. The battlefield was an inferno - a reeking shambles haunted with the groans of the dying.

Fighting To The Last

There were now only 146 men and five officers - including many stragglers from other units - left to defend a long stretch of trench, yet the thought of retreat never seemed to have occurred to them. Under Captain Lowry's leadership they beat back several fierce attacks in the next few hours. Who shall know the bodily and mental anguish which these Canadians endured during these awful hours of struggle, when the fate of Belgium and Calais hung by the fine golden thread of their valour ?

The German guns never slackened in their efforts to blot out the Canadians, and Major Ormond records in his diary that his men were being blown out of the trench in groups, mutilated beyond recognition by the rending high explosive.

Towards 6 a.m. the enemy succeeded, by a series of short rushes, in working forward on the left of the 10th Battalion with machine guns. Our rifle fire was too weak to stop him. The greater part of our position was garrisoned now only by our dead and wounded. The survivors of the 10th Battalion were isolated. The position was hopeless.

At noon a runner reached Captain Lowry with an order to withdraw. It came not a moment too soon, for the enemy was massing for a final rush. The retirement was successfully carried out under the eyes of the enemy. By 1 p.m. all that was left of the 10th Battalion was safely entrenched in the new position in time to see the last round fired by the only British battery left in action. There was no more ammunition for the guns.

The battalion was exhausted by sixty hours of fierce and continuous fighting, but that night its remnants, together with those of the 7th Battalion were ordered up to the support of an English regiment that was in difficulties, no other reinforcements being available. They moved up shortly after midnight, dug themselves in and sat tight while the German artillery sought methodically to wipe them out. They beat off a desperate attack which was delivered under the heaviest gun fire as dawn began to flush the East, though nearly every man was ill and suffering acutely from' gas poisoning. With marvellous tenacity and spirit they maintained their positions throughout the day. They continued to hold on grimly throughout the bitter fighting round Fortuin and St. Julien on April 27th and 28th, when the Germans, by sheer weight of men and guns, temporarily broke through.

On Monday morning April 29th, the 100 worn-out men who remained of the battalion were relieved. They staggered to billets at Vlamertinghe.

The second battle of Ypres was over. The full might of German arms, estimated at four divisions with surplus artillery, had exhausted itself against the stubborn, immovable defence of men who could not realize when they were beaten. Canadian valour had marked an epoch in the history of British arms. Memories of the heroism of those citizen soldiers can never die while civilization endures.

Vimy:

Spoiler!

Preparations for Vimy

In mid-March the Battalion moved into the Labyrinthe sector - plans were maturing for a great attack on Vimy Ridge. The weather had resumed its "frightfulness" and seemed to preclude the possibility of action, but tremendous offensives involving armies cannot wait upon weather. Too much depends upon the secret massing of men - the element of surprise - which cannot be concealed for long from the eyes of the modern armies - balloons and aerolanes.

The 10th Battalion took part in the scheme of preliminary reconnaissances and raided the enemy lines during the last hours of April 8th. The operations took but an hour, and despite the most desperate opposition, all objectives were reached. Immense damage was done to permanent works, and eleven prisoners were captured, besides many secret documents, which proved invaluable to the General Staff. Information regarding the enemy's strength and dispositions was now adequate, and preparations were rapidly completed for the assault on Vimy Ridge - one of the strongest bulwarks of the German defences on the Western front. This honour was to be conferred upon the Canadians.

There was really nothing new in the Canadian system of attack beyond a perfect application of the artillery barrage. Every movement of each attacking unit was to be covered by protective shell curtains, timed to advance in front of the troops with mathematical precision. The rest was left to the valour of the men, in whom the Higher Command placed absolute confidence, born of well-tried experience.

The Attack

Lieut.-Col. D. M. Ormond was now commanding the 10th Battalion. They were to operate on the left flank of the 2nd Brigade, whose objective was the Arras-Lens Railway, well over the Ridge itself. The general advance was timed for 5.30 a.m., April 9th. As the dawn began to streak the sky with shafts of light, a snowstorm raged over the battlefield, covering the ground in a thin mantle of white. To the second of time the British artillery barrage opened up, descending like a wall of flame-driven smoke upon the German front line crowning the Ridge. The thunder of the guns was deafening, all-pervading, and the whine of the speeding shells merged into a crescendo of shrieking whistles as the guns, big and little, settled down to their work.

S.O.S. rockets hovered in showers above the enemy lines, and his guns answered these frantic appeals for help with a scattered ill-directed barrage, much less effective than the fire maintained by his machine guns and snipers. British counter-battery work was stifling the German gunfire.

The 10th Battalion left the "jumping-off" trench immediately the signal was given, and trudged through the muddy shell craters after the barrage, stolidly and imperturbably, indifferent to the bullets which sang and hummed through the shell-smoke like hiving bees. Men crumpled up and fell into the water-filled craters right and left, but the advance continued relentlessly.

At 6.30 a.m. the first objective, the German front line, was reached. Gun crews still fought their weapons and snipers lying in the broken ground were still firing from hot rifles as fast as they could load. "Mopping up" parties systematically cleared the dug-outs, and scores of prisoners were herded towards the Canadian lines. German dead in blood-spattered heaps blocked the trench ways.

The 10th Battalion with only one officer left, continued the advance towards the enemy's second line, encountering the same form of opposition - machine guns and snipers. The Hun had modified his method of warfare. His infantry could no longer be depended upon to cross bayonets with the British. His principal defence now consisted of picked machine gun crews and snipers, either forced or sworn to fight to the last. Many were found chained to their guns.

Shortly after 9.0 a.m. the 10th Battalion reached its second and final objective. Messy work with the bayonet and bomb quickly stifled the opposition, and in an incredibly short time the second herd of erstwhile fighting Bavarians were running eagerly towards the safety and hospitality of the Canadian lines. They were unfeignedly glad to be out of it, and required no escorts.

The advance to the railway line was continued by supporting battalions, while the 10th Battalion settled down to consolidate the captured positions. They had suffered very severely and the men were exhausted from the heavy "going," but they turned to with a will proud in the knowledge that they had borne a good part in the taking of Vimy Ridge.

Aftermath

During the ensuing day the advance was continued by the Canadians, who drove the Germans from a large section of territory beyond the Lens-Arras Railway, almost to Willerval. The 10th Battalion supported in all these movements, and finally took up a line running from Farbus Wood for several hundred yards along the railway line. For many days the weather rang the changes on every variation of winter, bringing untold hardships and misery to the Canadians, who had to hang on to the semi-destroyed positions, littered with un- buried dead and the foul from the debris of battle, always knee-deep in the icy cold mud and under heavy shell fire.

The 10th Battalion were not relieved until April 21st, when they marched out to billets at Mont St. Eloi, a sad remnant of the splendid battalion that left the "jumping-off" trench on the morning of April 9th.

The "Arleux Loop," an intricate system of trench fortifications enmeshing the village of Arleux-en-Gohelle, was next marked out for assault, and the taking of the village itself was allotted to the 2nd Brigade. The Arleux ruins bolstered up with concrete, encircled with deep belts of wire and pitfalls, and protected by countless machine guns, should have been impregnable, according to German calculations. All these horrors failed, however, to keep back the 5th, 8th and 10th Battalions when they attacked at midnight, April 27th-28th. They drove the Germans foot by foot from every hidden fort and shelter by sheer fighting ability. Desperate hand to hand battles were fought by small groups and individuals as the men ferreted among the cellars and ruins, clearing out the cornered Huns. Arleux was won and the Canadians pushed on rapidly and established themselves in the wood beyond, leaving behind in each battered gun emplacement little mounds of dead - the picked men of the German Army.

The 10th Battalion was relieved on the night of April 29th 30th and marched wearily to billets in Mont St. Eloi, but here luck dealt hardly with the resting men. The Germans, enraged by their defeat, brought up heavy naval guns mounted on railway trucks, and on May 1st began the systematic bombardment of the billeting area, causing many casualties.

A move to the Loos-Lens sector in mid-July presaged further fighting. The 10th Battalion took over trenches facing Lens, north of Cite St. Emile-Lens, a mining town surrounded by a ring of tributary villages and bulwarks of slag, each of which had been fortified to the last degree, was to be the objective of a series of actions.

The 10th are perpetuated by the Calgary Highlanders.