The completed plans showed that the
operation was
a minor attack rather than a
retaliatory raid.”
- Capt.
K. Beattie, 48th Highlanders of Canada pg. 206
With slow and
deliberate movements, and using the shadows of a dark night to shroud them, the
small raiding party wormed through the double apron of wire to a stone’s throw
distance from the enemy trench. Of
course, it wasn’t stones they threw, but grenades, leaping down into the front
line only moments after the synchronous detonation. No one was here, so the raiders spread out,
one group quickly encountering a burly sergeant trying to raise the alarm. In a blink, the fellow was set upon, roughed
up and clubbed senseless. His mates had
been quick to act, and the trench was now becoming a hot place to be. Dragging their inert prize with them, the
bold raiders slipped back into the murky night.
“Then occurred,”
a historian would later write, “the incident which transformed all kind
thoughts…into a deep desire for revenge….In a swift surprise raid about 4a.m.
February 25th, Sgt. J.E. King of No. I Company was captured by the
Germans.”[1] King, only just twenty years of age, who had
earned his stripes and an MM at the Somme would spend the remainder of the war
as a “guest of the Kaiser.” It may have
been over for him, but his mates in the 15th (48th
Highlanders) Battalion weren’t willing to let such audacity go unanswered. Their front-line neighbours, the 14th
(Royal Montreal Regiment) Bn. had been similarly visited, having two of their
number made prisoner as well as a handful of other casualties.
Their Brigade
was quick to issue a directive. “The
Germans have raided the front line of the 3rd Canadian Infantry
Brigade successfully no two occasions.
In order to retaliate for these, to inflict loss on the enemy and
capture prisoners it has been decided to carry out the following raids-”[2] Brigade had put forward the notion of three
separate raids, undertaken on consecutive days, through circumstances would
prevent all but the first from execution.
A major reason
for this was the start of what was to be this sequence of raids by the 14th
and 15th Battalions was delayed by a postponement of twenty-four
hours due to an operation by the 4th Canadian Division scheduled for
the morning of 1st March.
Much larger in scale and requiring support of resources which would then
be unavailable to the 1st Division, 4 Can Div’s effort took
precedence. It was more of a probe of
the enemy defences than a raid; it involved a gas attack prior to a strong
assault on German front line trenches by infantry from the 11th and
12th Canadian Infantry Brigades advancing “on a front of about 2,000
yards, with a strength of about 1 man every 2 yards formed in a wave, followed
by strong patrols with demolition materials.”[3]
Actions proposed
by the 3rd Brigade were miniscule in comparison, but there certainly
was more personal motivation than anything of tactical significance. They had been taken off guard, “so plans were
laid, ambitious ones this time, to even the score.”[4] It was to be a front line smash only- a quick
job of no more than fifteen minutes on site.
With the 4th Division’s task successfully out of the way,
this pocket operation was then set for 2 a.m. the following morning, March 2nd. Ample support had been laid on with
artillery, trench mortars and heavy machine guns firing in concert to cover the
advance. On the left, the 14th’s
raiding parties- three officers and 77 men- were able to get within forty yards
of the barrage cracking down on the German line. When it lifted to concentrate on support
trenches there was only that distance to bound to gain entry. Lt. Beagly and his No. 3 Party provided flank
protection with a pair of Lewis guns laid perpendicular to the trench while
Lt.’s McRae and Pitcher led their men in.[5] Working in opposite directions from each
other, Parties 1 & 2 had immediate contact with an enemy intent on
repelling them.
At the head of
his squad, Corporal Price was shot dead, his assailant quickly captured by Lt.
McRae. Further ahead, “a stiff fight
took place with bombs….A group of about seven was stationed here, four were
left dead and the remainder escaped.”[6] Another prisoner was taken at a dugout which
was subsequently destroyed when the remaining occupants refused to
surrender. There were two more dugouts
found. One being more of a shallow
scrape was treated with bombs. The
other, a substantial construction, yielded another prisoner. Before any more Germans could be persuaded to
give themselves up, the return signal- Strombos air horns blasting from the
Canadian lines- was heard. Lt. McRae
ordered charges to be set to destroy this dugout before they left.
Lt. Pitcher and
his men had several short scraps, taking four prisoners. “Nothing further of the enemy was
encountered,” as the men reached the extent of their advance, when, “two
Germans were met, one of these a stretcher bearer, with a large red cross on
his sleeve. He pointed a revolver at our
men and cried ‘hands up’ in English.
Both were disposed of by a bomb and rifle shot.”(Report) It was here another dugout was discovered
which was also destroyed by a mobile charge when entreaties to come up were
rebuffed. On the way out, “one other
German was found skulking at the bottom of the trench…he was brought along.”[7]
On the right,
the Highlanders weren’t able to keep as close to the barrage, and had a slightly
greater
Trench raids, by
nature of the close quarters had more in common with a street fight between
rival gangs than a battle of armies. The
men of the 15th Bn. had outfitted themselves accordingly, “they had
the usual raid equipment- rifles, Mills, wire-cutters, cog-wheels on
entrenching tool handles to be used as persuaders, and various private
inventions….These were anything from captured German fist-daggers to
policemen’s billies. They were a
fearsome and determined crew.”[9]
Both officers
leading parties, Lt.’s Neily and Reeves, were wounded during entry, Neily quite
seriously. However, both continued to
direct their men, displaying courage and gallantry deserving of a Military
Cross each.[10] With only a quarter hour to press their
revenge, “the two parties worked…blocked communications, and whether the enemy
liked it or not were in complete charge of his front-line.”[11] Dugouts encountered were subject to the same
treatment doled out by the 14th Bn., “many trapped Germans were
killed when they did not come up to submit to capture when ordered.”[12]
Time was up, the
recall signal sent; and either it wasn’t heard, or it was ignored during the
grim act of vengeance. History is
unclear, except that the Highlanders were several minutes behind schedule at
their rally point, 3rd Brigade making note that the 15th
Battalion “had a very stiff fight during the whole period it was raiding.”[13]
What was telling in this was that both officers had been wounded, along with
fourteen other ranks. Three O.R.’s had
been killed outright, two more would later die of their wounds. Of the 14th, the sole casualty was
the death of Cpl. Price, for a bag of nine prisoners. The 15th took three.
Exhilarated by
the experience, the returned men were mustered out of the front line, but not
everyone was accounted for. A party of
stretcher bearers, carrying the bodies of two 15th men killed on the
raid “lost their way and did not reach our lines until nearly 4 a.m. They had placed the two bodies in a shell
hole and repeated attempts were made later to locate them, but without
success.”[14] Both Cpl. D. MacDonald and Pte. H.R. Foden,
48th Highlanders of Canada, are named on the Vimy Monument to the
Missing.
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
Now available from Amazon sites worldwide.
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[1] Beattie, Kim “48th Highlanders of Canada
1891-1928”, Toronto, 1932 pg. 204
[2] 3rd Canadian Infantry Brigade Operations
Order No. 130, 27 February 1917
[3] 4th Canadian Division “Report on Operations
with Gas on Night of February 28th/March 1st” War Diary,
March 1917 Appendix ‘A’
[5] 14th (Royal Montreal Regiment) Bn. “Report
on Minor Operations March 1st-2nd 1917” War Diary, March
1917 Appendecies
[10] Supplement to the London Gazette, No. 30023, 17 April
1917 pg.3689
[13] 3rd Canadian Infantry Brigade, War Diary, 2nd
March 1917
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