Nova Scotia's Part in the Great War

by Unknown

Major Day, second in command, who had been acting as a Brigade liaison officer during the attack, immediately assumed command of the Battalion and directed it in the advance on the following day when the towns of Vrely and Meharicourt were taken. After having advanced twelve miles in two days, the 2nd Division gave place to the 4th, who carried on to the outskirts of Hallu. This attack was certainly the most successful in which the 25th Battalion had thus far been engaged. An immense area of beautiful country with some important towns had been taken from the Hun, with surprisingly few casualties.

After a few days in the line in front of Hallu, the Battalion was moved to Berneville, near Arras, where the details were left behind and we were into it again—over Telegraph Hill and down the eastern slope to the Cojuel River on August 26th—a distance of four miles—fighting all the way; then across the dried-up bed of the stream on the 27th to Cherisy and past the Sensee River to the heights beyond; and then a tightening up of the Hun resistance, which meant a fruitless hammering at the strongly wired positions in front of Upton Wood and “the Crow’s Nest” on the 28th.

The 2nd Division had not rested since the 5th of August, and had penetrated to great depths in the enemy’s lines on two fronts. The tired troops could accomplish no more. The writer can testify that men actually fell asleep on their feet on the night of the 28th–29th of August, when a counter-attack was imminent. The state of mind of men when so thoroughly exhausted as our boys were at the end of the third day, is one that cares not what may happen to a body so completely worn out. It is then that sentiment—love of home, Battalion pride, and the shame of weakness—asserts itself and supports a man when everything tangible is wobbling.

CAPT. M. L. TUPPER.

“C” Company lost a splendid officer when Capt. M. L. Tupper was killed. A relative of Major J. H. Tupper, who “paid the price” at Courcellette in 1916, he had shown a fearlessness in the face of the enemy and a conscientiousness in all his duties which well merited his appointment as O.C. “C” Company.

The Battalion had a respite of two days at Hautes Avesnes, on the Arras-St. Pol Road, over the anniversary of the landing in France and the Battle of Courcellette, September 15th, and was then continuously in the forward area until after the fall of Cambrai on October 9, 1918, engaging the Hun in the Inchy-Moeuvres and the Marcomg Switch Sectors, and clearing the Hun from the towns of Eseadoeueres and Ievuy, on the northern outskirts of Cambrai. “B” Company, under Lieutenant (now Major) MacRae, M.C. (two bars), did splendid work at Inchy on the 21st and 22nd September, when they captured seven machine guns, killing the crews and straightening out a kink in our line.

In this wonderful last hundred days of the War, when the Hun had to be dislodged from the positions he had been preparing since his first check at the Marne in 1914, the deeds of valor which were enacted daily and hourly were too numerous to refer to here at any length. But mention may be made of some of the more notable recipients of War Decorations awarded officers, N.C.O.’s and men, who served with the 25th Battalion.

First in the list must come Lieut.-Colonel (now Brig.-General) Hilliam, who won the D.S.O. and two bars for personal gallantry in the field and was mentioned in despatches four times. He was also invested with the insignia of a Companion of the Bath (C.B.) and that of a Companion of the Order of St. Michael and St. George (C.M.G.). Another officer who carries two rows of medals on his breast is Major G. McL. Matheson, D.S.O., M.C., and M.M. Lieut.-Colonel Wise wears the D.S.O. and the M.C., with the French Croix de Guerre. Lieut. M. M. Jordan wears the M.C., D.C.M. and Bar.

Capt. Max MacRae was awarded the Military Cross three times. Company Sergt.-Major Dauphinee and Corporal Leggett each were awarded the Military Medal three times. Regimental Sergt.-Major Hurley was awarded the Military Cross, D.C.M. and French Croix de Guerre. Company Sergt.-Major Boudreau received the Croix de Virtute (Roumanian) besides the D.C.M., M.M. and Bar. Private Mickarek won the Russian Cross of St. George. And many officers and men won Military Crosses, D.C.M.’s, M.M.’s and Bars. A summary of the Battalion’s record of awards is given further below.