On the 4th November an American officer was attached to the regiment—one swallow does not make a summer, but this was a welcome sign of what was to be expected later on. On the 6th one of our patrols at night, being south of Ascencion Wood, came across a similar party of the enemy, and both immediately opened fire, the Buffs losing two killed and five wounded in the little affair. Life towards the end of the year was uneventful. On the 23rd November a post under Sgt. Smith was attacked by thirty or forty Germans, but they were driven off without casualties to us, and one dead officer and a N.C.O., badly wounded, were found on our wire afterwards. The average company strength during the month of November was only eighty-four.
The 3rd December found the battalion in the line again and expecting a hostile attack, but on the 7th it was back in Hancourt. About Christmas a good deal of movement on the enemy’s part appeared to be going on around Bellicourt. The Buffs being then opposite, at Montigny, Christmas was kept on the 31st of the month at Montigny.
On the 1st January, 1918, the brigade moved back a few miles to Vraignes, but only for a short time. On the 21st, whilst at Hancourt, orders arrived that the 8th Battalion of the Buffs and the 12th Battalion of the Royal Fusiliers were to be disbanded, so, on the 30th, all employed men of these units rejoined, and on the 6th February the drafts of men already noted[25] started for the 1st and 6th Battalions. Thus ended the only 8th Battalion the regiment ever had. Ever since the 26th September, 1915, when it suffered so severely near Loos, and when it lost the gallant Romer, this unit had borne a brave share in the great struggle. Very few, if any, of the men raised by the gallant Colonel Romer in 1914 were passed on in February, 1918 (Major J. Vaughan, M.C., being one of the exceptions), but the regimental spirit was still a living thing, and it was a right and happy order that the men should remain Buffs and no new badge should replace the ancient dragon.
CHAPTER XII
THE QUEEN’S OWN RIFLES OF CANADA
As members of the Queen’s Own Rifles of Canada were fighting from early in 1915 till the end of hostilities, perhaps the centre of the war history between the more or less evenly contested portion of the struggle and the beginning of the end would be a suitable place to insert a short chapter describing who and what this regiment was and is, for no war history of the Buffs would be complete without reference to their allied regiment of Canadian Militia.
This was an existing corps long before August, 1914, and so could hardly be referred to in our third chapter, which dealt chiefly with the raising of new units. On reference to the official Army List it will be seen that, under the headings of certain of our regiments, such for example as the Somerset Light Infantry, the Suffolk Regiment, the Black Watch and our own, are entered the words:—
- Allied regiment of Dominion of New Zealand.
- Allied regiment of Australian Commonwealth, or
- Allied regiment of Canadian Militia.
The idea is a very pretty one, naturally induces the very best of cordial good feeling, and emphasises in a pleasant and soldierly way the idea of blood brotherhood which exists between warrior Englishmen and their soldier cousins over the seas.
The regiment is an old one and belongs to Toronto, Ontario. The foundation of the Canadian Militia was practically laid by the gallant band of loyalists who, in spite of ill-treatment on the part of old England to her colonists, stuck manfully to their King during the American upheaval of the year 1776. This militia turned out again in the war between England and the United States in 1812, in which struggle the Canadians saw some great fighting and succeeded in keeping their country safe and intact in spite of their powerful neighbour.
The actual formation of the Toronto regiment was in 1860, and it first paraded on Queen Victoria’s birthday of that year. More active service was experienced during the Fenian raids of 1864, 65 and 66, and in the Red River rebellion of 1870; but it is not of course possible, nor even desirable in this place, to give the regimental history as a whole, and reference is merely made to these campaigns in order to show the reader that our allied regiment is of no new growth.