Thirty Canadian V. Cs., 23d April 1915 to 30th March 1918 Part 5

The first stage of the attack ended on the 18th; and that night, under severe sh.e.l.ling, the 29th Battalion took over Commotion trench from the junction of Caliper and Conductor trenches to the junction of Nabob Alley and Commotion trench. On the morning of the 21st August the second stage of the offensive was resumed. It was then the battalion took an active part in the struggle.

The opening of the second phase was timed for 4.35 a.m. At 1 a.m. the companies began to move into the a.s.sembly positions. At 3.15 a.m. the scouts reported that the tapes had been laid, the companies were getting into position uneventfully and none of the enemy was to be seen.

But about 4.10 a.m. the German artillery began to plump sh.e.l.ls along the front of the parapet, increasing the intensity of the barrage towards 4.30, when a sudden deluge of "fish-tails" descended on the trenches.

Accompanying this bombardment was a curious kind of bomb, square in shape, which exploded with a great flame and sent out a dense, suffocating smoke. One of those dropped in the trench occupied by "D"

company, wounding practically every man in a platoon.

While attempts were being made to clear the debris, Sergeant Croll, who was stationed near the corner of Nun's Alley and Commotion trench, heard the word pa.s.sed along: "Heine has broken through the 25th and is coming down the trench."

Croll collected five unwounded men and kept the advancing Germans at bay by bombing them till reinforcements arrived from the 28th Battalion and drove the enemy out.

Major Grimmett, who was in command of "A" company in support, hearing the bombing and concluding that something had gone wrong with "D"

company, sent forward a platoon under Captain Abbott. Our opening barrage by this time had begun and was moving forward. Abbott's platoon took up the fight, carried it into Nun's Alley and established a block there.

The other companies--"B," "C" and the remainder of "D"--had gone forward behind the barrage. One platoon of "D" company, which attempted an overland attack on Nun's Alley, was wiped out almost to a man by machine-gun fire. "C" company, attacking in the centre, was badly mauled. The left platoon was swept away by German machine-gun fire before it reached its objective. The right platoon had almost reached its objective--Cinnebar trench--when it ran into a strong enemy machine-gun post surrounded by barbed wire. Lieutenant Carter, who had already been wounded, was killed in an attempt to drive the Germans out of this stronghold.

Lieutenant Sutherland, on the extreme right, got into Cinnebar trench and gave the order for rapid fire on a party of Germans who were advancing overland. In the act of picking up a rifle he was mortally hit by a sniper's bullet. Sergeant Stevens, who then took command, was lifting Sutherland's rifle when he too was shot through the head. A corporal took the sergeant's place. A moment later he also was killed.

The remainder of the men fought on desperately till a platoon of the 28th Battalion came to their aid.

In the meantime "B" company, to which Sergeant-Major Hanna belonged, had reached the objective in Cinnebar trench. Believing that all was well with "C" company, Lieutenant Gordon, the commander, was about to send off the pre-arranged signal when it was discovered that the signal cartridges were wet. Before a subst.i.tute could be found word was brought that "C" company, on the left, was being badly smashed, all the officers having been killed. Lieutenant McKinnon was sent along with a bombing party to aid "C" company. He was killed just as he joined the fight.

Gordon then went along to the relief of the company on his left, after ordering Lieutenant Montgomery to get a party of snipers outside the trench so that they could take toll of the enemy. Gordon was badly wounded in the arm. Lieutenant Montgomery was soon afterwards killed by a German sniper. The leadership fell upon Sergeant-Major Hanna.

Hanna saw that the crux of the position was a German post protected by a heavy wire and armed with a machine gun. He collected a party of his men and led them against the post amid a hail of rifle and machine-gun fire.

Rushing through the wire he bayoneted three of the Germans, brained a fourth, and overthrew the machine gun. The redoubt was captured.

The Germans arrived in force and counter-attacked. Hanna, who was now short of bombs, built a block. Again and again the enemy tried to rush his position; but he and his handful of men held it until they were relieved later that day. Next day the battalion frontage was taken over by another Canadian unit and the 29th went back to a well-earned rest.

[Ill.u.s.tration]

SERGEANT FREDERICK HOBSON, 20TH BATTALION

The men of the 20th Canadian Battalion lay down in their trenches before Hill 70 on the night of the 14th August, 1917, in a soft drizzle of rain. They were to take part in the attack on the hill early next morning and the artillerymen behind had already trained their guns on the enemy trenches, ready to let loose the bellow of destruction when the word was pa.s.sed.

Hill 70 lies near the La Ba.s.see-Lens road, in the vicinity of Loos, the village of Cite St. Auguste on its right, Bois Hugo and Chalk Pit on its left. Its sides and crest are scarred with trenches and bruised by much sh.e.l.ling. The Allies have taken it from the Germans and have been pushed out of it by the Germans more than once. On the 14th August, 1917, it was in German hands.

Precisely at 4.25 o'clock on the morning of the 15th, just as a red streak smeared the horizon, the word for which the Canadians had been waiting was given and the artillery barrage fell like a hammer stroke on the German front line. For six minutes it pounded the trenches into pulp, then lifted to a hundred yards farther on, tore a line of devastation there for another six minutes, lifted again in another hundred yards' stride and so continued its work of destruction at similar intervals.

As the curtain of our sh.e.l.ls rose from the German front line the men of the 20th Battalion, with other units, leaped from their jumping-off trenches and waded across No Man's Land. They found the Germans--all who remained of the front line garrison--shaken, bruised, more or less subdued. Where they surrendered they were taken prisoners; where they resisted they were killed. In Cowley trench only one enemy machine-gun was working and soon it was out-flanked and captured. In Commotion trench an emplacement was in action. It was smothered.

Sergeant Frederick Hobson and some men of "A" company went forward up the enemy trench known as Nabob Alley. They bombed their way along, beating back the Germans, who retreated slowly and grudgingly; and, having conquered about seventy yards of the trench, they established a post at that point. The objectives of the battalion elsewhere were also gained and the position was consolidated. The attack was a success.

All this happened on the 15th of August. But to take a position is one thing: to hold it is another. For three days the Germans kept probing various parts of the line, hoping to find a spot which would yield. At 1.40 a.m. on the 18th, their artillery opened a heavy bombardment on the whole Canadian Corps front and for half an hour sh.e.l.ls were rained on every part of the line. The general bombardment slackened for a short time, during which the village of St. Pierre received an avalanche of gas-sh.e.l.ls; and at twelve minutes past four o'clock every gun the enemy could muster opened again on the front.

The concentration of artillery was nerve-racking. It was almost demoralizing. Up in the advance posts the majority of the Lewis gun positions were obliterated, men and guns being buried in the vast upheavals. Twenty minutes after the sh.e.l.ling began the headquarters of the 20th Battalion was. .h.i.t by a heavy sh.e.l.l and vanished. Every wire leading to the posts was cut, every light extinguished. And in the darkness and confusion came word from the battalion stationed on the right of the 20th to the effect that the Germans were out in No Man's Land, coming to attack.

Sergeant Hobson in his trench saw the grey figures swarming across the open ground. The Lewis guns had all been wiped out except one--and as this one was being brought into action a German sh.e.l.l landed beside it.

When the smoke cleared, only one man of the crew remained alive, and he and the gun were buried in the debris. Hobson was no gunner, but he knew the importance of the position. He raced forward, seized an entrenching tool and hauled the dazed survivor out of the mud.

"Guess that was a close call," said the survivor, Private A. G. Fuller.

"Guess so: let's get the gun out," replied Hobson.

They began to dig. Across the open ground came the Germans, firing at the two men as they advanced. A bullet hit Hobson, but he took no notice of his wound. Together he and Fuller got the gun into position and opened up on the Germans, who were now pouring down the trench. They were holding the enemy well when the gun jammed.

Hobson picked up his rifle.

"I'll keep them back," he said to Fuller, "if you fix the gun!"

He ran towards the advancing enemy, a lonely, wounded, desperate man against many and with bayonet and clubbed rifle barred their pa.s.sage. No man knows how many Germans were killed by Sergeant Hobson in that fierce encounter; dead and wounded were heaped in front of him when a shout from Fuller intimated that the gun was again ready for action.

And just at that moment a German pushed his rifle forward and fired point blank at the Canadian Horatius.

As Hobson fell Gunner Fuller pressed the trigger of his Lewis gun and threw a stream of death into the German mob. A few minutes later reinforcements from "B" company took the enemy in the flank and chased them back across No Man's Land; and the machine-guns of "B" company cleaned them up as they ran.

They found Sergeant Frederick Hobson where he had fallen, still grasping his deadly rifle. His enemies were sprawled around him, silent witnesses to his prowess. His heroism had saved the situation--and he had fought his last fight.

[Ill.u.s.tration]

PRIVATE MICHAEL JAMES O'ROURKE, 7TH BATTALION

Down by the docks of the city of Victoria, B.C., you may observe a man who keeps a fruit stall and wears about an inch of dark red ribbon on his left breast. That fruit vendor is Michael James O'Rourke, late of the 7th Canadian Battalion; and the inch of dark red ribbon means that he has won the Victoria Cross.

O'Rourke gained the decoration when he was a stretcher-bearer in the 7th Battalion during the big attack on the German positions near Lens which began on the 15th August, 1917, and continued for several days.

At 4.25 on that morning the 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th Canadian Brigades attacked and captured Hill 70 and the German defences about Cite St.

Laurent. In conjunction with this operation a gas attack was successfully launched in the Avion sector and a subsidiary attack west of Lens.

The opening of the main operation was no surprise to the enemy.

Prisoners taken during the attack admitted that they had expected it and had been "standing-to" for a fortnight in antic.i.p.ation; and orders which were captured confirmed this statement, for they contained elaborate instructions in the method of procedure to be adopted when the attack was launched.

Two hours before the advance began that summer morning the Germans were sending streams of gas sh.e.l.ls into the district around Maroc and the Lens-Bethune road, while a 5.9 howitzer was playing on Loos at intervals of five minutes.

When our barrage opened the 7th Battalion went forward and formed up in No Man's Land in the rear of the 10th Battalion which was to capture the front German line. At first there was a slight mix-up of battalions owing to enemy fire, but before long, though only after heavy fighting, the objectives were gained with the exception of the centre where our men were held up by machine-gun fire from Cite St. Auguste and the brickworks. In time, however, reinforcements arrived and that obstacle was removed.

For three days the fighting was the fiercest the Canadian battalions had up till then experienced. The Germans were in no mood to give up their positions without stubborn resistance and the struggle ebbed and flowed day and night with bitter violence. On the front on which the 2nd Division attacked many Germans held out in small parties hidden in ruined houses and in deep cellars until cleared out by bomb and bayonet, while counter-attack after counter-attack was thrown against the battalions which had succeeded in clearing the German trenches.

With the 7th Battalion were sixteen stretcher-bearers, including O'Rourke. Out of that sixteen, two were killed and eleven were wounded, for the Germans sniped at them as they worked to carry the wounded from the field. During those three days and nights O'Rourke worked unceasingly rescuing the wounded, dressing their injuries under fire and bringing food and water to them. The area in which he worked was continually subjected to the severest sh.e.l.ling and was frequently swept by machine-gun and rifle fire.

Several times he was knocked down and partially buried by sh.e.l.l-bursts.