CANADA'S BATTLE IN 1915.
The Ypres Times
237
It is now eight years since Canadians became a force to be reckoned with in a
European war. Until those fateful April days when they withstood the first German
gas attacks little was known of their fighting value. But never was there a more gallant
company than the first contingent, that loyally responded in August, 1914, to the call
of the Motherland. With few exceptions the officers had carried commissions in the
militia, and knew something of the art of war the rank and file were volunteers, quick
to learn and quick to act. While some may have been animated by a stern sense of duty
alone, it was essentially the spirit of high endeavour, transcendent of all hardship and
suffering, that was the chief attribute of the Canadian Division. Taken individually or
collectively, that was a remarkable body of men. The weeks of organization at Valcartier,
the transatlantic voyage, the trials of Salisbury Plain, the journey to the front, the schooling
under British units in the trenches and lastly the responsibility of holding a section of
the line, had all served to complete the education of civilians already experienced in many
walks of life, and had definitely if insensibly produced a military formation, a fighting
element of the British Army.
On that sunny April afternoon, when the poison-laden breeze had stifled the French
Colonial troops on the Canadian left, and the pressing enemy had opened there a breach
both deep and wide, the first thought was Where is the enemy the second Where
should we strike Soon it became known that the main attack had forced our allies
back on the Ypres-Dixmude canal, but their reserves were moving forward and they
were preparing to restore the line. Meanwhile the German wedge driven in between
the two armies had penetrated 4,200 yards, had reached Boesinghe and was now within
3,500 yards of Ypres. The whole of the British forces to the south were in imminent
danger. If the Canadian flank could be turned the Allied line must go.
Decisions were quickly made two Canadian battalions would attack to recapture
the Bois de Cuisiniers west of St. Julien at midnight, and two more would attack up the
Ypres-Pilckem road at dawn. For the rest the old front line would be held, some of the
artillery would withdraw to cover the open flank, and the whole position would be linked
up by making use of other battalions from support and reserve. Without strong re
inforcements the line could hardly hold. With steadiness and dash the counter-attacks
went forward. The Canadian battalions had few traditions of their own, but they shared
the blood and the traditions of the British army they, too, were well aware that the
Salient must be held they, too, would stand their ground. But a yet more powerful
impulse was present here. When freeborn men go out to fight they surely fight with a
will, and so it was now, for each man had already counted the cost and each man bore
his part with no apprehensions as to the future. Before a day had passed the long exposed
flank was made good and the enemy was checked.
Dawn on the 24th of April brought the heaviest blow of all. A gas cloud projected
from near Wallemolen passed over the centre of the old trench line the enemy followed
in close order and surged up the slopes of the Gravenstafel ridge. The Canadian guns
were busy outranged, outweighed, and outnumbered, they yet delayed the repeated
assaults and eased the pressure on the line. The gas cloud rolled to leeward, but the
defending infantry still remained. Shells destroyed their feeble parapets on the skyline
and bullets raked them from the flank numbers were dwindling, rifles jamming, ammuni
tion running low, but noon passed before St. Julien was swallowed by the tide.
Again the line was brokenbut even if the enemy knew that the way was clear,
the fresh troops that should have thrust forward through the gap had been used up in
the assault. The opening did not exist for long and the advance went no further. Before
the last Canadian had left the old front line at the point of the Salient the long-looked-for
assistance had arrived British battalions hurrying forward had gone straight into action
