Over the top with the 25th: Chronicle of events at Vimy Ridge and Courcellette

by R. Lewis

Chapter Eight[ToC]

he reaction had started to set in by this time. I cannot describe it to you properly, but there are a lot of people under the impression that a soldier gets a glass of rum before he "goes over." The reason I write about this is because people have often said the same thing about me. I'll tell you, the British soldier does not need rum to buck his courage up. I believe that it was given to the men before they went over in the beginning, and that after the effect wore off it left the man drowsy. Once you start "over," you do not give a curse for anything. All you think about is that there is an objective, and that there is nothing in this world to stop you and you keep that spirit up until you have everything securely in your hands, and then perhaps a couple of hours after a certain amount of reaction sets in. Then is the time for the rum. In France it is used, "never abused." The reaction generally works off after a few hours and then you are fit for anything.

During the night Fritz made several counter attacks on the 22nd. We were not quite sure how they were making out, but a runner came up and told us that everything was O.K.

I do not remember anything eventful happening that night. We had a couple killed, and Sergeant Tickle of the Machine Gun Section, whilst reconnoitering, ran into a German strong point. He bombed them and got back safely. But when daylight came there was quite a few of our chaps getting nipped off from the right, so a message was sent out to Major MacAvity, who was brigade major. He came up, and that afternoon the Third Division made an attack and took the trench from which they were sniping, and also 100 prisoners. We knew that there were papers of importance in a house in the village which had been used as headquarters and Fritz was quite determined that we should not get them, for he put shell after shell into the village. But whenever there is information to be had, there is somebody who will get it and we got those papers and believe me they proved to be of great significance.

We had everything consolidated and the artillery had wires right up to our front line for observation purposes. To make matters worse we had a little drizzly rain. The next afternoon Major Tupper was killed, and as "A" company was to make a small attack—Major Nutter took over "A" company, and Lieutenant Matheson, who was now acting officer commanding "C" company took charge of operations. I am sorry to say we had many casualties that day in "A" company. We were relieved on the coming morning by the First Division. There were some machine gun crews to be relieved and as all the other companies and details were relieved the colonel wanted to stay and see them relieved, but he finally decided to let me stay behind and take this matter in hand.

On the 9th of April, in my rank as officer, I reported for duty to Colonel Bauld and was glad to be once more with the glorious fighting boys of the grand old Twenty-Fifth. Some few days later we took part in the Arleux fighting; my company, "D," formed the flank. We were able to take all our objectives and consolidate them. It was in this scrap that I "got mine," for I was hit in the arm, leg, back and behind the ear. After twenty and a half months in France to have escaped death and even a serious injury, I consider it to have been most fortunate, and feel persuaded that someone at home must have been remembering me in their prayers. After my wound, I managed to crawl out and was then sent to a clearing station, subsequently to England, and them home to Nova Scotia. Here I am at the present and to be candid I am not over anxious to return, but if I should be wanted—well, I am ready to go and strike another blow for King and Empire, Liberty and God.

After holding these trenches we were glad to get out and get a rest. The first day we got as far as The Reserve trenches. There we had plenty of rations issued to us and we rested here where there were some very large and comfortable dugouts which our most amiable friend Fritz had built for us. We enjoyed them and although we had lost quite a few of our best pals we knew that we all had gone through that same ordeal and those of us who were lucky enough to come out of the scrap never gave a thought to what we had gone through. A good thing, for if we did a few of us would be good patients for a lunatic asylum. We stayed here for the night and the next morning we got as far as the Brickfields near Albert where there were a lot of the old London Motor Buses waiting to take us back to a little village clear of the shell fire so that we could reorganize and get another go at Fritz. We were all as happy as larks, singing "Are we downhearted," "The Canadians took Courcelette, they can fight you just bet" and other trench songs. Some of the boys had on Fritz helmets and others had Fritzs' revolvers; we all had souvenirs of some description. We arrived at this town after a couple of hours ride. There was our Pipe Band with the Battalion Mascot, the goat, which we got in 1915. It is still with the battalion and always leads the band. When we reached this village the very first thing we had to do was to shave and clean up, for were we not the best unit in France? We always thought so and we used always to show an example to the others. That is "esprit de corp." We had a pretty good time in this village. Some of the boys sold their souvenirs as they said we were going back and could get lots more. Our old Colonel was still with us but his hand was now bandaged up. I forgot to tell you when he was coming through Albert the 22nd gave three cheers for "Col. Hilliam." He turned around and said, "If there is any credit give it to the boys, they deserve it." He quite forgot that we looked upon him as something more than a man, the way he would go around through a bombardment. Out here we had the usual parades and reorganization, but we only had the old battalion to reorganize as we got no reinforcements. However, we were still the "25th" and could show the Germans what we could do. It soon got spread around that we were going back to have another go at Fritz. So we got our guns fixed up and the afternoon before we went in Col. Hilliam made an inspection of the battalion. I had my Lewis Gun team formed up in rear of "C" Co. When the C.O. came around I called them to attention and saluted. He said "What is your name my lad?" I replied "Lewis, Sir." "Oh, a very appropriate name to have charge of the Lewis Guns." I said, "Sir, I try to do my best." He says, "You have done wonderfully, my lad." I thought it the greatest honor that I have ever got. We started for the Brickfields next morning, Col. Bauld in command of the Battalion. Col. Hilliam had to go to hospital for a few days. We arrived at the Brickfields and there we were given our full instructions as to what we had to do and went through the usual performance of being fully equipped with all the necessary equipments of war before we went in. Capt. John D. MacNeil was now O.C. of "C" Co., and one night we got the order to move up to the reserve trenches. All this time the troops who were occupying the trenches were steadily advancing. We had taken quite a lot of their strongpoints, including —— and other villages. After a long tedious march we arrived at our reserve trenches and made ourselves as comfortable as possible, such as digging a hole in the side of a trench and perhaps a couple of sheets of corrugated iron, and finally we got settled away and went to sleep. It was very comfortable when you consider the circumstances. Certainly now and again one of Fritz large shells would burst somewhere near you but that was all in the game. If it was going to get you it would. But keeping awake would not save us. So Fritz's shells had no more effect than the vermin which we had got quite used to. The next night at 7 o'clock, runners came down from the 14th Battalion to guide us to the front line. We were very inquisitive and began asking those chaps about where they were, what sort of fighting they had and other questions too numerous to mention, for strange to say, no matter how long you are there, when you got into a new position you always want to know what it is like before you go in it, and if you are told that it is a lovely place and that you can have a good time you can depend that it is going to be worse than hell. That is what happened in this case. The guide told us that it was a nice, quiet little spot. We found out the difference before we got out. We toiled through the shell-torn ground for about six hours before we got to where Battalion Headquarters were. Sometimes, our guides lost themselves. At other times Fritz would put a barrage across. We would lie down then in a shell hole and start talking about old times, never giving a thought to the shells which would burst quite close to us. In fact they got a few of our boys on the way up. But one has to be there to realize how callous a person appears to shell fire. By that I do not mean to say that he holds it in contempt for he doesn't He has a mighty regard for it. But you always want to show that you are as brave as your next door neighbour. Sometimes they came a little too close and one of the boys would sing out "Say let's make a move, for I don't mind getting Blightie but the way that one burst it will be France" or some other such remark. When we arrived at Headquarters it was in a large sunken road which our boys had captured a few days before. We hear quite a lot of —— and here were quite a lot of wounded Germans who had been taken prisoners that day calling out for water, and although we were going in and we did not know when we were coming out, some of the boys gave them some of theirs. I hope they will do the same. We waited here for a while and then we started out for the trench. We had some night. We would go to one trench and then to another; our guides did not know where to take us. About 4 o'clock in the morning we started wandering around No Man's Land. At 7 o'clock, broad daylight, (we were laying down in the grass at the time), some of the boys saw somebody moving and as we saw that they were our own boys we made a rush and got into what was known as the Subsidiary trench. That is how "C" Co. relieved the 14th Battalion on the Somme. There was quite a chain-work of trenches here. What we held was named "Subsidiary Line." It really was not a trench but a system of outposts. In front of us were the famed "Kenora" and "Regina." Their names will always linger in the memory of the Canadians, for we did some very hard fighting around here. There were also a lot of trenches in rear of us held by some of our other companies. On our left were the 24th and C.M.R. I really do not know who were on our right. As I said what we were holding was only a system of strongpoints. There were five of them altogether and as I had three Lewis guns I put one on each flank and one in the centre. About 9 o'clock the same morning we saw somebody waving to us from out of No Man's Land. When we saw that he was one of our own lads, Lieut. Alexander, Corp. McEarley, (these two were both killed four days later) and myself, took a rubber sheet and doubled out and got him, expecting to be fired on at any time by Fritz. But he could not have seen us or else he did not want to give his position away. Anyway we got the chap in. He belonged to the 14th Battalion and had been out there for three days. His wounds had stiffened up so that he could not move. Poor chap, he said that he would have gone crazy that day if we had not brought him in.

Some very hard fighting took place here for there was an awful lot of dead Huns lying around. All that morning we made our positions as secure as possible. At about two that afternoon word came from Col. Bauld that we were to attack and that the Co. Commanders were all wanted at Battalion Headquarters. When Capt. MacNeil came back he gave us the outline of the scheme and told me that I was to stay in the Subsidiary trench until they had things consolidated, or if they had to fall back under a heavy counter attack I was to cover the retirement and hold the trench at all costs. All right! Our barrage opens up; our fellows go over; up goes Fritz's S.O.S. signals, his artillery starts. It is maddening where we are. His artillery is playing all round us, knocking in our trenches in places but never getting any of my guns or men. Then there is a tremendous fire of machine guns from Fritz's trench no man could live through. The bullets are just singing through the air. But our men are quick to grasp the game and get into some shell holes and wait until it gets a little dark and then crawl back to our own line. We have quite a few wounded and some killed. Nothing though when you look at the resistance. One chap by the name of Porter came crawling into the trench with an ugly head wound and blood pouring all over his face. He started swearing at Fritz and ended up by asking for a chew of tobacco before he went out to the dressing station. We got settled away once more all prepared for the wily Hun if he should come over.

There were several of attacks on our left that night. It sort of got our wind up a little. Outside of that everything went well and we passed a very comfortable night, smoking and tell stories, for there was no such thing as sleep in the outposts. The next morning at daylight we took a good observation and everything seemed normal, so after giving out the rations of food, water and rum, we took turns and had a sleep until about 11 o'clock when for some reason Capt. MacNeil was ordered to take his company back to the sunken road in rear of the trenches so they could have a sleep I had to stay there with my three gun teams and hold the trench against all attacks. About 2 o'clock that afternoon when everything seemed very quiet and normal, Fritz started up with a bit of a bombardment and they were all landing around our trench. At times they would just cover us with mud. Luckily for us it never got anybody. He was also landing them between us and "A" Co., so I began to get a bit worried and decided that I should send a message back to Headquarters as they were shelling pretty bad. I did not think it fair to send one of my men so took a message across to "A" Co., and had them send it back to H.Q. I then went back to my own men, arrived there safely and cuddled up against the side of the trench expecting any minute to go up in the air, but we still kept on joking each other. Neither one of us would let on that we were scared. About 5 o'clock that afternoon I saw about twenty men leave "A" Co. trench and make a dash across No Man's Land. They were a reconnoitring patrol in charge of Lieut. Canning and they were going to find out if the Kenora trench was occupied. Well they did. Fritz stopped shelling us and turned his machine guns and artillery on to this small party. They had to fall back and I believe they had four or five killed, including Lieut. Houston. Shortly after that our own Company came back and I can tell you I was not sorry to see them for it was no enviable position having responsibility for a couple of hundred yards of your front line. We got an issue of rum from the Captain when he came and we needed it bad. About eight that night a ration party came up with our rations and water. Say, you should have tasted it; full right up with the taste of petrol, but still it was good to us. You know we lose all fancy ideas about taste in the trenches.