“A sharp fight ensued and a large
number of
casualties were caused to the
Bosche”-
Major
R E Partridge, Bde. Major,
12th
Canadian Infantry Brigade[1]
Shortly after
sunrise on the 19th of February, 1917, a small raiding party from
the 78th (Winnipeg Grenadiers) Battalion stormed the enemy’s front
line trench directly opposite the battalion’s position.
Upon the signal
to withdraw, the party being led by Lieutenant Wilfred Derbyshire, exfiltrating
via a sap leading to a feature known as “Kennedy Crater” “met stubborn
resistance from a body of HUNS.”[3] Lt. Derbyshire’s men had no choice but to
fight their way through, most of the party becoming casualties in the
scrap. “In this engagement, the work of
Lieut. Derbyshire, Pte. Fulton and Pte. H A Andrew was particularly
meritorious.”[4] All three returned to No man’s Land in an
attempt to fetch back the wounded left on the field. In this they succeeded- none who could be
saved were left behind, although in the effort, Fulton himself was severely
wounded and Andrew killed*.
This brief, but
intense encounter at Kennedy Crater resulted in the majority of the casualties
sustained by the entire raid, a total of nine killed and fifteen wounded. It was sufficient to get the Grenadier’s blood
up. Such that, when the 38th
(Ottawa) Battalion, in trenches to the right of the 78th, proposed a
similar raid, the Winnipeg Grenadiers decided to have a go directly against
Kennedy Crater. The war diary conceals
nothing of what this attempt was to be: “Arrangements being made to launch a
second attack on KENNEDY CRATER and endeavor to avenge the losses of the
previous raid and to obtain the bodies of the men who had fallen.”[5]
Orders called
for the 38th “To enter (the enemy’s) trenches at dusk in five or six
parties totalling about 90 officers and other ranks, clear his trenches and
return after remaining for ten minutes.”[6] In this, the Ottawa Battalion’s raid was
decidedly similar to that of the 78th’s prior enterprise. Smashing through the German front lines in
such a way might prove distraction enough for the Winnipeg effort- a much
smaller force, less than thirty men, whose sole purpose would be to cut off all
access to the crater and the sap which led from it back to German
trenches. Ostensibly, the instructions
indicated they were to “capture the sentry post,”[7]
however, no such intention remained among men who had been so roughly handled by
the same enemy troops in the days before:
“Our men were out to kill BOSCHE.”
Timing set for
dusk with the advantage of a damp, misty day was expected to help conceal the
approach to German lines. Despite this,
the men of the 38th “were quite visible to the enemy directly they
emerged…all are of the opinion that the enemy was thoroughly prepared for the
Raids.”[8]
No-man’s Land
was heavily broken and churned; the difficult ground facing the 38th
delaying their advance. In the centre of
the five parties, No.’s 2 and 3 “immediately
encountered heavy fire from three Machine guns…and rifle fire from a party of
between 25-30 Huns.” Preliminary work
by the artillery had not been effective here.
Lieutenant Ketcheson, O.C. No. 2 Party was slightly wounded but carried
on forward. Trying to move ahead, even
at a crawl was proving difficult. Lt.
Ketcheson and his counterpart with No. 3 Party, Lt. Stott “decided to rush the
objective. Lieut. Ketcheson was again
wounded, this time severely; several other casualties occurring.” Parties 2 and 3 reached a point five yards
from the enemy trench, where “an active bombing fight ensued, resulting in a
considerable number of enemy casualties.”
During the exchange of grenades, Lt. Stott and some of his men gained
lodgement in the enemy trench which “at point of entry was almost waist deep in
mud and water.”[9] Before much else could be done, time had
lapsed and the men were required to withdraw.
The other
parties of the 38th also met determined resistance, but all managed
to breach the German line in hard fights punctuated by liberal use of grenades
and mobile charges. Two men, Pte.’s Labelle and Lalonde of No.’s 4 and 5
Parties , respectively, would be decorated for picking up enemy bombs which had
landed nearby and throwing them back- in both cases killing several Germans.
At the end of
the ten minutes allotted, all involved returned to their rally points, having accounted
for “thirty-three dead Huns…six dugouts were bombed, estimated that the enemy
sustained at least forty other casualties,”[10]
in exchange for four killed and 27 wounded.
Meanwhile, the
retaliatory effort of the 78th Battalion against Kennedy Crater was
in full swing. The main body, Party ‘B’
of twenty men under Lt. Symonds, divided into three squads upon entering the
front line trench. “One squad, after
considerable opposition, established a block,” at the point of entry, “another
blocked FLT to the South,” the remaining squad, exactly as detailed beforehand,
proceeded north along the trench towards the sap out to Kennedy Crater. Here, again “a sharp fight ensued and a large
number of casualties were caused to the Bosche.”[11] Some enemy troops attempted to gain refuge in
two dugouts. Both were demolished with
mobile charges.
Major Thornton
and seven other men making up Party ‘A’ were holding the crater for Party ‘B’
to withdraw through. They had also
employed two mobile charges with great effect.
Everything had gone to tick, “the rear covering party were forced to
bomb the F.L. Trench continuously to cover the withdrawal.”[12] At the expense of eight men wounded “Not
serious”[13]
the Grenadiers had reaped a revenge of almost fifty enemy casualties. Most importantly, “one of the bodies of the
Battn’s casualties in the previous raid…was brought back.”[14] It would remain, unfortunately that only three
of the nine dead of the 19th February were recovered. The remaining six are named on the Vimy
Memorial to the Missing.[15]
The raid, for
its violent purpose, “could not have gone better and a great number of the
enemy were killed.”[16]
The rush of raids, the tension of late night patrols, a great Canadian battle and men on the razor's edge between life and death are all part of my acclaimed premier novel
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[1] Partridge, RE, Maj. “Report on Raid Carried Out by 12
Canadian Infantry Brigade on 22 February” 4th Can. Div. War Diary
Feb. 1917 App. “J”
[2] 78th (Winnipeg Grenadiers) Battalion War
Diary, 19 February 1917
[3] 78th Battalion, ibid.
[6] 12th Canadian Infantry Brigade Operations
Order No. 51
[7] 78th Battalion Operations Order No. 51
[8] Partridge, RE, Maj. “Report on Raid Carried Out by 12
Canadian Infantry Brigade on 22 February” 4th Can. Div. War Diary
Feb. 1917 App. “J”
[9] All quotes from Partridge, RE, ibid.
[10] 38th (Ottawa) Battalion, War Diary, 22
February 1917
[13] 78th Battalion, War Diary, 22 February 1917
[15] CWGC.org
* Lt. Derbyshire would receive the Military Cross for his
actions, Pte Fulton the Military Medal. Pte Andrew, not eligible for a posthumous
decoration would be, instead, “Mentioned in Sir Douglas Haig’s Despatches of
9.4.17 for ‘Distinguished and Gallant Service and devotion to duty in the
field.”(Supplement to the London Gazette No. 30107)
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