Chapter II: Introduction

BY RT. HON. SIR ROBERT L. BORDEN, G.C.M.G.

More than a year ago the bugles of the Empire sounded throughout the world the call to duty. The justice of the cause was recognised in every quarter of the King's dominions, and nowhere more fully than in Canada; it has since been confirmed by the judgment of the civilised world. Within a week Canada had sprung to arms; within three weeks 35,000 men were marshalled on Valcartier Plain, which had been transformed, as if by magic, into a great military camp; within six weeks from the outbreak of war a Canadian Division, fully organised and equipped in every branch of the service, with a surplus of guns and ammunition nearly sufficient for another Division, and with a detail of reinforcements amounting to 10,000 men, was ready to proceed overseas.

Twice in September of last year I saw these forces march past under review by the Duke of Connaught. Later, I visited every unit of the contingent, addressed their officers, and bade them all God-speed. The Armada which left the shores of Gaspé on October 3rd, 1914, carried the largest army that ever crossed the Atlantic at one time.

In the midst of the following winter they went to the front. Few of them had any previous experience of war. They had lived in a peace-loving country; they had been gathered from the varied avocations of our national life; they had come from the hills and valleys and surf-beaten shores of the Maritime Provinces; from the banks of the St. Lawrence and its hundred affluents in the two great central Provinces; from the mining and lumber camps of the north; from the broad prairie Provinces and their northern hinterlands; from the majesty of the mountains that look to the east upon the prairies and to the west upon the Pacific; from the shores of the great western ocean; from all the far-flung communities of our Dominion they had hurried, quickly responsive to the call.

Almost in the dawn of their experience at the front there came to them an ordeal such as has seldom tested the most tried of veterans. An unknown and terrible means of warfare, which temporarily shattered the gallant forces that held the line at their left, poured upon them torture and death. The bravest and most experienced troops might well have been daunted and driven back by the fierceness of the onslaught to which they were exposed and by the horrible methods of the attack. Assailed by overwhelming numbers on front and flank, the held their own in a conflict which raged for days; they barred the path against the German onrush and saved the day for the Empire, for the Allies and for the world.

The story of their tenacity, their valour, and their heroism has been well told in the pages that follow. But it can never be completely told. Many of those upon whom memories along splendid incidents of that story were indelibly engraven lie beneath the sod in Northern France and in Belgium.

On more than one stricken field the record thus made by the 1st Canadian Division has held good. From the lips of those who fought at Festubert and at Givenchy, from dauntless survivors of the Princess Patricia's Regiment, I have heard, in many a hospital and convalescent home in the Motherland, what their comrades had dared and done.

No Canadian can ever look forth unmoved upon that valley where Ypres lies shattered in the distance, and the sweep of the hills overlooks the graves of more than 100,000 men who fell because a remorseless militarist autocracy decreed this war.

In the years to come it will be the duty and the pride of Canada to rear, both in this Dominion and beyond the ocean, monuments which will worthily commemorate the glorious deeds of her sons who offered the supreme sacrifice for liberty and civilisation.

R. E. BORDEN.

OTTAWA, _December_ 6_th_, 1915.

"'Carry the word to my Sisters--
To the Queens of the East and the South,
I have proven my faith in the Heritage
By more than the word of the mouth.
They that are wise may follow
Ere the world's war-trumpet blows:
But I--I am first in the battle,'
Said our Lady of the Snows."
--KIPLING.

AUTHOR'S NOTE

I am so conscious of the imperfections of the chapters which follow that I was for long unwilling to publish them in the form of a book. They were written under great difficulties and in many moods; nor am I unaware that the excuse for collecting them is very slender. It was, however, represented to me by persons of much authority, that the subjects dealt with excited an interest so lively in Canada that imperfections in the workmanship would be readily overlooked in the Dominion.

I therefore publish my impressions of the fortunes of the 1st Canadian Division and of Princess Patricia's Regiment. Some of the scenes described fell in whole, or in part, under my own observation. In dealing with others I have had access, in the discharge of my duties, to a large number of military diaries and official documents.

It may be stated that the greatest care is being taken by the Canadian Government to collect and preserve every authoritative document which may hereafter throw light upon the military history of the Canadian Expeditionary Force. Nor is there reason to doubt that the official historian of Canada (whoever he may prove to be) will find abundant material for a grave and adequate work. Perhaps such a one may find here and there in these hurriedly written pages a contemporary echo, however faint and elusive, of the clash and passion of war which the author has attempted to describe.

I shall be content if one Canadian woman draws solace from this poor record of her dead husband's bravery; if even one reader recognises for the first time the right of the Canadians to stand as equals in the Temple of Valour with their Australian brothers who fought and died at Anzac; if the task of consolidating our Imperial resources, which may be the one positive consequence of this orgy of destruction, counts one adherent the more among those who have honoured me by reading these records.

And of Englishmen I ask nothing but that they shall hereafter think of my countrymen as "Brothers in whom a man trusts even if a great quarrel arises."

W. M. AITKEN.

CONTENTS

CHAPTER I

MOBILISATION

War without warning--Canada's loyalty--Improvising an Army--Efforts of the Minister of Militia--Camp at Valcartier--Canadian Armada sails--Arrival at Plymouth--Lord Roberts's interest--King's visit to Canadian Camp--Training completed--Sailing for France

CHAPTER II

WARFARE

"Plug Street"--British Army in being--At General Headquarters--Rest billets--Mud or death--The trenches--Buzzing bullets--Sir Douglas Haig--The Front--Restrictions on the narrative--Reviewed by Commander-in-Chief--Canadians in the trenches--Our men take to football--"Jack Johnsons"--A German challenge--General Alderson--The General's methods--His speech to the Canadians--A fine Force

CHAPTER III

NEUVE CHAPELLE

Canadians' valuable help--A ride in the dark--Pictures on the road--Towards the enemy--At the cross-roads--"Six kilometres to Neuve Chapelle"--Terrific bombardment--Grandmotherly howitzers--British aeroplanes--Fight with a Taube--Flying man's coolness--Attack on the village--German prisoners--A banker from Frankfort--The Indians' pride--A halt to our hopes--Object of Neuve Chapelle--What we achieved--German defences under-rated--Machine gun citadels--Great infantry attack--Unfortunate delays--Sir John French's comments--British attack exhausted--Failure to capture Aubers Ridge--"Digging in"--Canadian Division's baptism of fire--"Casualties"--Trenches on Ypres salient

CHAPTER IV

YPRES

Canadians' glory--A civilian force--Ypres salient--Poelcappelle road--Disposition of troops--Gas attack on French--Plight of the 3rd Brigade--Filling the gap--General Turner's move--Loss of British guns--Canadian valour--St. Julien--Attack on the wood--Terrible fire--Officer casualties--Reinforcements--Geddes detachment--Second Canadian Brigade bent back--Desperate position--Terrible casualties--Col. Birchall's death--Magnificent artillery work--Canadian left saved--Canadians relieved--Story of 3rd Brigade--Gas attack on Canadians--Canadian recovery--Major Norsworthy killed--Major McCuaig's stand--Disaster averted--Col. Hart-McHarg killed--Major Odlum--General Alderson's efforts--British reinforce Canadians--3rd Brigade withdraws--General Currie stands fast--Trenches wiped out--Fresh gas attack--Germans take St. Julien--British cheer Canadians--Canadians relieved--Heroism of men--Col. Watson's dangerous mission--The Ghurkas' dead--Record of all units--Our graveyard in Flanders