In the winter of 1914-15 the British line in Flanders was very thin and the P. P. C. L. I's. being a trained regiment was sent over to France several weeks before the first Canadian division. It soon earned the name of a regiment of extraordinarily hard-fighting qualities and was all but wiped out before spring arrived. The immortal story of this gallant unit must be read in detail if one wishes to obtain any clear conception of their deeds of valor—of what it is possible for man to go through and live. However, it was but one regiment whose exploits were later equaled by other Canadian regiments and it would therefore be invidious to select anyone for special praise. After operating as a separate regiment for nearly two years and having been recruited from the regular Canadian depots in England, it became in composition like other Canadian regiments and was finally incorporated in the third Canadian division.
In the spring of 1915, a Canadian cavalry brigade was formed in France made up of Strathcona's Horse, King Edward's Horse, the Royal Canadian Dragoons and Canadian Mounted Rifles.
After the second battle of Ypres, the Canadians after resting and re-organization, were moved to a section of the line near LaBassee. Here they fought the battle of Festubert—a series of infantry attacks and artillery bombardments, which gained little ground.
Shortly afterwards they fought the battle of Givenchy, equally futile, as far as material results were concerned. Both of these battles had the double object of feeling out the strength of the German line and of obtaining the Aubers Ridge, should the attacks prove successful. In both battles the Canadians showed great aptitude for attack, and tenacity in their hold of captured trenches. They also learned the difficult lesson that if an objective is passed by the infantry the latter enter the zone of their own artillery fire and suffer accordingly.
In September, 1915, the Second Canadian Division arrived in Flanders and took its place at the side of the First Canadian Division, then occupying the Ploegsteert section in front of the Messines-Wytschaete Ridge. The rest of the winter was spent more or less quietly by both divisions in the usual trench warfare, and battling with mud, water and weather.
It was here that the Canadians evolved the "trench raid," a method of cutting off a section of enemy trench, killing or taking prisoners all the enemy inhabitants, destroying it and returning with little or no loss to the attacking party. This method was quickly copied from one end of the Franco-British line to the other; it proved a most valuable method of gaining information, and served to keep the troops, during the long cold winter months, stimulated and keen when otherwise life would have proved most dull and uninteresting.
The Third Canadian Division was formed in January and February, 1916. One infantry brigade was composed of regiments which had been acting as Canadian corps troops, including the Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry, and the Royal Canadian Regiment. The second infantry brigade was made up of six Canadian mounted rifle regiments, which had comprised part of the cavalry brigade. These two brigades, of the Third Division, under the command of General Mercer of Toronto, almost immediately began front-line work.
During this period, the Germans, making desperate efforts extending over weeks of time, did their utmost to break through the French line at Verdun and exhaust the French reserves. To offset these objects, a fourth British army was assembled, which took over still more of the French line, while a series of British attacks, intended to pin down the German reserves all along the line, was inaugurated. One of these developed into a fight for the craters—a terrible struggle at St. Eloi, where, blasted from their muddy ditches, with rifles and machine guns choked with mud and water; with communications lost and lack of artillery support, the men of the Second Canadian Division fought gamely from April 6th to April 20th, but were forced to yield the craters and part of their front line system to the enemy.
Notwithstanding this the men of the Second Canadian Division at St. Eloi fought quite as nobly as had their brothers of the First Division just a year before, at the glorious battle of Ypres, a few miles farther north. But it was a bitter experience. The lesson of failure is as necessary in the education of a nation as that of success.
On June 2d and 3d, the Third Canadian Division, which then occupied part of the line in the Ypres salient, including Hooge and Sanctuary Wood, was smothered by an artillery bombardment unprecedented in length and intensity. Trenches melted into irregular heaps of splintered wood, broken sand bags and mangled bodies. Fighting gallantly the men of this division fell in large numbers, where they stood. The best infantry in the world is powerless against avalanches of shells projected from greatly superior numbers of guns. The Canadian trenches were obliterated, not captured.