The early days were uneventful and the casualties not more than normal, although some very valuable officers were lost. On February 28th, 1915, the Germans completed a sap, from which the Battalion became constantly subject to annoyance, danger, and loss. It was therefore determined by the Battalion Commander to dispose of the menace. Major Hamilton Gault and Lieut. Colquhoun carried out by night a dangerous reconnaissance of the German position, and returned with much information. Lieut. Colquhoun went out a second time, alone, to supplement it, but never returned. He is to-day a prisoner of war in Germany.
The attack was organised under Lieut. Crabbe; the bomb-throwers were commanded by Lieut. Papineau. The last-named officer, a very brave soldier, is a lineal descendant of the rebel of 1837. He is himself loyal to his family traditions except when dangers and wars menace the Empire. At such moments, in spite of himself, his hand flies to the sword. The snipers were under Corporal Ross. Troops were organised in support with shovels ready to demolish the parapet of the enemy trench. The ground to be traversed was short enough, for the sappers' nearest point was only fifteen yards from the Canadian trench. The attacking party rushed this space and threw themselves into the sap. Corporal Ross, who was first in the race, was killed immediately. Lieut. Crabbe then led the detachment down the trench while Lieut. Papineau ran down the outside of the parapet throwing bombs into the trench. Lieut. Crabbe made his way through the trench, followed by his men, until his progress was arrested by a barrier which the Germans had constructed.
In the meantime, troops had occupied the rear face of the sap to guard against a counter-attack. A platoon under Sergeant-Major Lloyd, who was killed, attacked and demolished the enemy parapet for a considerable distance. The trench was occupied long enough to complete the work of demolishing the parapet. With dawn, orders were given for the attackers to withdraw, and as the grey morning light began to break, they made their way to their own trenches, with a difficult task well and successfully performed. Major Gault was wounded in the course of the engagement, in which all ranks behaved with dash and gallantry, although the men had been for six weeks employed in trench warfare under the most depressing conditions of cold and damp.
On March 1st the enemy made a vigorous attack on the Princess Patricias with bombs and shell fire. Between the 1st and the 6th, a fierce contest was continually waged for the site of the sap which the Battalion had destroyed. Sometimes the Princess Patricias defended it; sometimes the British battalions, with whom they were brigaded and whose staunch and faithful comrades they had become.
On March 6th, carrying out a carefully concerted plan, our men withdrew from the trench lines, which were still only twenty or thirty yards from the German trenches; and our artillery, making very successful practice, obliterated the sap and the trench which the enemy had used for the purpose of creating it. The enemy were blown out of the forward trenches, and fragments of dead Germans were thrown into the air, in some cases as high as sixty feet. The bombardment was carried out with high explosive shells.
The Canadian soldier is always adaptable, and the Battalion learned, when they captured the sap on February 28th, that the German trenches were five feet deep with parapets two feet high, and yet that every day they were pumped and kept dry. This knowledge resulted in a considerable improvement in the trenches occupied by the Regiment. The experience was welcome, for the men had been standing in water all through the winter months and the Regiment had suffered much from frostbite.
On March 13th, while the Princess Patricias were in billets, the Germans, perhaps in reply to our offensive at Neuve Chapelle, made a vigorous attack in overwhelming numbers upon the trenches and mound at St. Eloi. The attack, which was preceded by a heavy artillery bombardment, was successful, and it became necessary to attempt by a counterattack to arrest any further development.
The Battalion was billeted in Westoutre, where, at 5.30 on March 14th, peremptory orders were received to prepare for departure. At 7 p.m. the march was begun. At Zevecoten the Princess Patricias met a battalion of the King's Royal Rifle Corps, and marched to Dickebush. At 9.30 it reached the cross roads of Kruistraathoek. Here a short halt was made, after which the Battalion reached Voormezeele, where it was drawn up on the roadside. While it was in this position reports were brought in that the Germans were advancing in large numbers towards the eastern end of Voormezeele. The Battalion Commander, therefore, as a precaution against surprise, detailed Number 4 Company of the Battalion to occupy the position on the east. Soon after 2 a.m. orders were received to co-operate with a battalion of the Rifle Brigade in an attack on the St. Eloi mound, which had been lost early in the day. The zone of the operations of the Battalion was to the east of the Voormezeele-Warneton road.
The following rough diagram may make the position clear:—