The brief mention of Givenchy in the official despatch in which Sir John French reviewed the operations of the British Army between Festubert and Loos, conveys no idea of the desperate fury or the scope of the fighting in which the Canadians again did all, and more than all, that was asked of them.
That in the end they were forced to fall back from the fortified positions they had won with so much heroism and at so much cost, was due to difficulties in other portions of the field, which prevented the 7th British Division from coming up in time.
Givenchy may appear but an incident in a long chain of operations when one is taking a bird's-eye view of the campaign on the Western Front as a whole, but it was in reality a very considerable and sanguinary battle, the story of which should appeal to every Canadian heart.
The 7th British Division had been directed to make a frontal attack on a fortified place in the enemy's entrenched position known to our troops as "Stony Mountain," and the 1st Canadian (Ontario) Battalion, commanded by Lieut.-Colonel Hill, of the 1st Brigade, was detailed to secure the right flank of the British Division by seizing two lines of German trenches extending from "Stony Mountain" 150 yards south to another fortified point known to us as "Dorchester." Working parties from the 2nd and 3rd Canadian Battalions were detailed to secure the lines of trenches taken by the 1st Battalion, to connect these with our trenches, and finally to form the defensive flank wherever it might be required.
After a few days of preparation the 1st Canadian Battalion (Ontario Regiment) moved up, and at three o'clock on the afternoon of June 15th, the Battalion reached our line of trenches opposite the position to be attacked, when the 2nd Canadian Battalion, under Lieut.-Colonel Watson, which was holding the trench position, withdrew to the right to make room for them.
The trench line on the right of the attacking Battalion was held by the 2nd and 4th Canadian Battalions as far as the La Bassée Canal, with the 3rd Canadian Toronto Regiment in support. The left was held by the East Yorks.
Map—ATTACK MADE BY 1ST CANADIAN BATTALION JUNE 15TH 1915
From three o'clock until six in the evening, the Ontario Regiment awaited the command to charge, and sung their chosen songs—all popular but all unprintable. The enemy bombarded our position heartily, though our artillery had the better of them. Fifteen minutes before the attack was timed to take place, two 18-pounder guns, which had been placed in the infantry trenches under the cover of darkness on the instructions of Brigadier-General Burstall, opened fire upon the parapets of the enemy trenches. One gun, under Lieut. C. S. Craig, fired over 100 rounds, sweeping the ground clear of wire and destroying two machine-guns. Lieut. Craig, who was wounded at Ypres early in May and again while observing near Givenchy, was seriously wounded after completing his task here. Lieut. L. S. Kelly, who was in command of the other gun, succeeded in destroying a machine-gun, when his own gun was wrecked by an enemy shell, and he was wounded. The gun shields themselves were tattered and twisted like paper by the mere force of musketry fire.[[1]]