we had not been in fraser camp for more than two days when we were invited to pay a visit to some taped trenches close to villers au bois, and maps of the area which they represented were freely distributed.
the successful capture of vimy ridge had certainly improved our position considerably, but there was still a decided salient round the city of lens, which seemed to create a certain amount of uneasiness among the h.q. staff. to straighten out this salient was therefore the object now in view, and to this end the entire canadian corps was to be engaged. an assault through avion and méricourt, which were situated to the south of lens, combined with a strong demonstration north of that city, was the plan of campaign to be adopted, the result of which, if successful, would not only straighten the existing salient, but would force the germans to evacuate lens itself.
tanks were to be used in conjunction with the infantry, and in order to become acquainted with their peculiarities we attended a demonstration by the tank corps at mailly, which was most instructive. for two solid weeks we worked hard on this scheme, practising over the taped trenches every day, and then suddenly[50] the practices ceased, and strawberry jam was substituted for the everlasting plum and apple. this generally meant that the time for the attack was drawing near, but in this case it did not materialize, for on the 14th of october we received orders to move on the next day to ourton and to entrain for godewaersvelde, in belgium. this change of tactics, quite unforeseen, was not unpopular with us, as we had not yet seen belgium, and never having been there, we thought we might like it, and this in spite of many prophecies to the contrary.
after a very long and tedious train journey we arrived at our destination and marched to billets in caestre. after resting here for two days and surprising the natives with our fondness for corn on the cob, which until now they had used entirely as cattle fodder, we were informed of the reason for our enforced presence in this district.
operations in front of ypres had reached a deadlock. the troops engaged, consisting chiefly of australians and new zealanders, had advanced nearly three miles under conditions that must have been almost heartbreaking. it had poured with rain every day; the mud was well over their knees, and they were enfiladed from both sides by the german artillery, until finally, they were brought to a halt on the top of abraham heights through sheer exhaustion and heavy casualties.
the german defences on this front consisted chiefly of “pill boxes”—oblong, concrete constructions, made out of portland cement (?) and divided into several com[51]partments with small, narrow entrances either at the side or back.
the average head protection in one of these was from four to five feet of solid concrete, and our field artillery shells would bounce off them like tennis balls off the sidewalk.
as soon as the shelling ceased, out would come “mr. bosch” with his machine guns, and from selected positions play havoc amongst our troops, floundering around in the mud. once in a while a twelve-inch “how.” would make a direct hit on one of these hornets’ nests and then, of course, fritz would stay in there never to come out again. but a twenty-five-foot target at a range of ten miles is a difficult one to hit, and the majority of the “pill boxes” were captured by hand-to-hand fighting.
the ground seemed to be composed of an endless series of ridges, and you no sooner reached the top of one ridge than another more formidable loomed up in front.
from abraham heights the bellevue spur (another name for a ridge) dotted here and there with “pill boxes,” stood out like a sentinel keeping watch over the village of passchendaele in the distance, and it was plain to all around that fresh and experienced troops would be needed at this point to effect its capture. there was perhaps no corps on the western front at that time more capable of undertaking this difficult task, or as numerically strong, as the canadian corps, and that is the reason we ate corn at caestre instead of hunting the hun around lens.
[52]
two more days’ rest were given us to digest this news, and to enable parties to visit the area of desolation and gloom which was to be the scene of our future endeavours. orders were then received to entrain for ypres, and our arrival at that historic ruin was greeted by many cheers from the outgoing australian units. from all they told us or rather shouted at us as they crowded into the train we had just left, we began to realize that we were not going to enjoy ourselves quite so much as we thought. “go to it, yer blighters,” they yelled, and away we went. having occupied several “camps” in the neighborhood of wieltje, the 9th brigade, with the 116th battalion in support, attacked the bellevue spur on the morning of october 26th, and by the morning of the 27th, after one of the fiercest and most bloody onslaughts in its history, succeeded in destroying the entire german garrison.
on the evening of the 27th the 116th battalion took over the front line from the remnants of the brigade, remaining there until relieved by the 49th battalion (7th brigade)—during the early hours of the 29th october.
we were not sorry to move away from our present gruesome surroundings; but it was not until the 7th november that we actually said “good-bye” to them, as we thought, and moved by bus to vlamertinghe, and from there to the watou area, east of poperinghe, having lost forty-two other ranks killed, three officers and one hundred and one other ranks wounded, and twelve other ranks gassed.
