From the Rideaii to the Rhine and Back.55
The 6th Field Coy., and Bn. Canadian Engineers.
22
THE YPRES TIMES
The machine-gunner guarding the rear pressed his thumbs and a stream of
molten nickel sprinkled the, attackers until a lance pinned him to the ground. The
line passed on, leaving stragglers struggling in the mud as they straggled from this
life under writhing horses in the clinging clay.
In among the guns they charged, snarling, cursing, hissing and plunging,
blades penetrating dry and leaving wet. A gunner, in the act of pushing a shell
home in the breach, paused to receive a swinging blow from a spade that split his
head to the chin, and the sergeant, passing before a gun as it roared, was no more.
The machine-gunners drew automatic pistols that streamed forth death. A
sharp exclamation as a blade sank home, a moan from the man who made the thrust,
a scream as the blade was withdrawn and a squeal from the horse as he fell across
the gun.
Dismount! Dismount, I tell you."
Dismount for action!"
Riderless horses galloping hither and thither, heaps of struggling humanity and
squirming horses, sticks striking left and right, and revolvers clubbed, and then, the
moans of dying men, of men who hoped to die and sobs of men who knew they
would die.
Are you all right, any of you?"
Some of us, sir."
All objectives secured?"
Never mind the objectives, where's myhorse?"
The tale has been told before, in canteen messes and by the fireside, hew the
horse-holders saved the situation, and how the column passed over the only bridge
in long and weary crowds, dragging their footsteps before the mightiest offensive
in the world's history, back to the defensive line. A thousand of such incidents
passed in those days of arriving and departing, when men arrived and men departed,
in sorrow and in anguish, some to return and some to pass to eternity.
Lest we forgetGreater love hath no man than this
BY MAJOR K. WEATHERBE, M.C.
This handsome volume is printed by the Hunter-Rose Company of Toronto, and published by the
Trustees of the 6th Battalion Canteen Fund at 4 dollars. Former members of the two units, or their
next-of-kin, may obtain a copy at half-price.
The 6th Field Company formed part of the 2nd Canadian Division, and was formed with the rest
of the Division towards the end of 1914, assembling for training at Ottawa. It had no especial local
attachments, but a number of recruits from the Queen's University, Kingston, under an officer who
was a Professor of Engineering in civil life, early joined the Company and had much influence upon
it clearly there were many educated men in the ranks, and N.C.Os. and Sappers were leaving to take
commissions all through the war.
The Company was fortunate in serving throughout with its own Division, and in escaping those
devastating casualties that so often destroyed the identity of infantry units. Its career in brief was
much like that of other newly formed units, first a period of training in Canada, then in April, 1915,
a voyage to England and more training, and finally in September the crossing to France.
The Kemmel Sector was their first destination in the field, and they had their taste of the Salient
and the Somme, and in particular had a long stay in the middle sector, the region of Lens, Vimy and
