It was decided to attack on the strength of information that had been obtained and an assault was organized by Lieutenant Crabbe, the bomb throwers being commanded by Lieutenant Papineau, the last a lineal descendant of the rebel of 1837. Corporal Ross was in command of the snipers. A body of troops were organized in support with picks and shovels to destroy the parapet of the enemy trench, which at the nearest point was only about fifteen yards away. Corporal Ross, who was in the lead when the party ran forward and flung themselves into the sap, was killed. Lieutenant Papineau with his bombers ran along the outside of the parapet bombing the occupants of the trench, while Lieutenant Crabbe followed up with his detachment through the trench to "clean up" until a barricade which the Germans had built barred farther progress.
While troops held the rear of the sap to beat off counterattacks, Sergeant Major Lloyd led a platoon which demolished the German's parapet. In the course of this operation the gallant Lloyd was killed. Just as the day was breaking, the party completed the job and were ordered back to their trenches. There were casualties, among the wounded being Major Gault, but the work had been carried out so successfully that none regretted the cost.
On March 1, 1915, the Germans made a fierce attack with bombs and shells to recover the site of the sap, which had been demolished by the battalion, and the struggle continued until the 6th. On this date, after the men had withdrawn from the trenches, which were only twenty or thirty yards from the Germans, British artillery wiped out the sap and the trench which the enemy had used in making it, the enemy being blown high in the air by the explosive shells.
Here, for a time, we leave the Princess Patricias and return to the Canadian Division on the eve of the Battle of Neuve Chapelle. The Canadian infantry was not especially engaged in this contest, but Canadian artillery played an important part in the bombardment that preceded the British attack. The Canadians were ready waiting during the struggle for an order to join the fight, but they were not called upon. The main purpose of the British offensive was to break the German lines and occupy Aubers Ridge, which dominates Lille. Had they succeeded, the enemy would probably have been forced out of this part of France.
The Battle of Neuve Chapelle was the first great effort made by the British to pierce the German lines since the fighting around the Marne and the Aisne. All the British gained in this costly operation was about a mile of territory on a three-mile front.
After Neuve Chapelle quiet reigned in the trenches of the Canadian Division. In the last days of March the troops were withdrawn and went into rest camps.
The Princess Patricias were in billets when the Germans made a powerful attack on the intrenchments around St.-Eloi on March 13, 1915. It became necessary to organize a counterattack to relieve the pressure, and hurried orders were sent to the battalion at Westoutre to proceed at once to St.-Eloi. The Princess Patricias marched off at 7 p. m. and joining a battalion of the King's Royal Rifle Corps proceeded by way of Dickebush to Voormanzeele. While the troops were drawn up along the road, news came in that Germans in large numbers were moving toward the eastern end of the village. The battalion commander detailed Number 4 Company to occupy a position on the east as a precaution against surprise. The St.-Eloi mound and trenches to the west of it had been captured by the Germans, and the battalion was ordered to cooperate with the rifle brigade in an endeavor to recover the lost positions.
At St.-Eloi it was learned that trench A, as it was known to the Intelligence Staff, had been retaken by the British. The battalion occupied a breastwork to the west of a farm building, which was to be their first objective. It was just before daybreak when the battalion arrived, and an attack was at once organized by Number 2 Company against trench P, the approach being made in three parties from the back of trench A.
The Germans had possession of the mound from which their guns could sweep the approaches. To have attempted to cross that fire-swept field would have been a useless sacrifice of men. Three platoons therefore were detailed to hold the right of the breastwork near the mound while the remainder of the battalion was withdrawn to Voormanzeele.
The troops left at the breastwork held fast during the long and trying night, which was all that could have been expected of them. At daybreak they withdrew and joined the battalion then at Dickebush.