Battle of Festubert:
The Canadian soldiers were still reeling from the Second Battle of Ypres when they were forced to march to Festubert in May, 1915. South of the Ypres salient, the walk there forced many soldiers to collapse under the weight of exhaustion due in part to the distance but also because of the toll the previous battle had taken on them. Unfortunately, it was far from a welcoming party that would be waiting for them once they arrived; what would follow was a bloodbath of limited success and needless loss of life due to poor planning from up high.
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| In desperate need of soldiers the Canadian army began a beaver recruitment campaign. While ferocious and distinctly Canadian, a lack of opposable thumbs made weapon firing a difficult ordeal. |
Festubert was not a glorious battle. Many of the soldiers felt the fighting was simply for fighting's sake, being forced to take points on a map that hardly matched up to how it looked in reality due to so much of the area being bombed into oblivion. The attacks they threw at the targets came at poor times, often during daylight hours that would often spell certain death. Although the Canadians made the furthest forward into the enemy lines (pushing into a small area of trees and claiming it, thereby renaming it "Canadian Orchard") it was still what could only be described as minimal.
The Brigadier Arthur Currie was disappointed in the organization and purpose behind the attacks. They were told to attack a point called K5, a heavily defended point in the German defence that was almost indistinguishable on the map as they only really knew it was there from crawling through mud and barbed wire to see the place. Why they had to attack that felt baffling to the men leading those in the front lines, but, sadly, orders were orders; if you were told to attack, you did so. Richard Turner, the Brigadier that at Ypres had fallen back to a trench and thus left the flanks open in an attempt to save his men was also upset at the mismanagement of the men at headquarters.
Turner was a complex figure; on one hand, he showed himself to be lacking in leadership, often getting many men killed under his watch. When looking back on his decision making it's often quite poor, sometimes egregiously so. However, you cannot question his devotion to his troops and to the cause; often his mistakes were due to honest attempts to save as many as he could, and he got the position in the first place due to his courage and valour in the Boer War. From what I can tell, Turner was a great soldier - brave and honest, always willing to stand up for his men - but perhaps not the greatest commander.
Anyways.
The plan to take K5 fell on the Canadian troops again. A high level of artillery bombardment was ordered to take place, hopefully dismantling the German defences to soften them up for a ground assault. However, they could see quite clearly the bombardment failed to hit where they hoped it would, meaning machine gun nests and barbed wire was still all around the battlefield. Currie attempted to delay the assault due to the near impossible attacking conditions, but found no such help from on high. The assault went through, but it was hopeless; the only way through to K5 was through a thin communication trench, and when the Germans figured out the Canadians were pouring through that one space they placed the greatest focus on that point, slaughtering the Canadians as they went through the same area on repeat. The assault completely failed, and while a subsequent assault pushed them forward at least slightly, it was too late; the battle was a loss, and many Canadian lives were thrown away pointlessly.
Battle of St. Eloi:
It was almost a year since the last major operation for the Canadian troops. In April 1916 (1916 would prove to be a truly awful year, just for humanity as a whole) the Canadians would go to fight five kilometres south of Ypres. The Germans held a high ground position named The Mound, ideal for artillery barrages on the Canadian and British troops. The goal was to take The Mound, allowing for a means to spread out from that point as the high ground was of critical importance. However, it's quite clear where the point of assault would commence, and therefore the Germans would be ready and waiting for them.
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| Just men! Stay at home, dames! The only skirts we need are the Scottish Highlander divisions! |
Richard Turner attempted to convince the command that taking the craters was useless, but his words fell on deaf ears. Canadian and British troops stormed in, battling over the newly exploded areas. The new terrain posed a number of significant difficulties; with the lay of the land entirely changed, no clear battle lines could be drawn. Communication suffered as it was a mess trying to get messages between the front lines in the craters and the base where the artillery would be firing. Worse yet, the Germans had the clear advantage of having the high ground to better see where their soldiers and the enemy were situated. To further confuse the Canadians, the holes were consistently changed sizes by being exploded even further by shellfire. Suddenly there were more than just the seven originals - and who knows who held what?
Soon the bottom of the craters, early in the battle mostly held by Canadian and British forces, were slowly taken over. The men would die and roll to the bottom, causing for massive pile-ups of corpses. Occasionally a shell would hit the bottom of those craters, creating a grotesque explosion of corpses, raining flesh and blood on the soldiers still alive to defend them. Even for war... man.
The situation never improved. Most battles were won or lost by artillery and with bad weather not allowing any sight of the battlefield shells frequently fell well wide of the craters or, worse yet, fell on friendly Canadian forces believing they were held by Germans. The later happened disturbingly frequently as they just couldn't figure out who was holding what. Most of the separated groups were torn to shreds as they could never be reinforced as the main army didn't even know they were still out there and alive. A lack of reconnaissance made the battle impossible, and the result was a rout. The Canadians fell back with their heads low and their reputation sorely wounded - but don't blame the soldiers. The operations were rarely lost by the soldiers themselves, but rather a lack of cohesion between artillery and the front line and damaged communication lines resulting in horrible decisions by the HQ.
As a result, someone had to take a fall. At first it appeared Richard Turner would take the fall but due to a number of backroom political dealings (in part due to his lack of support for the Canadian Ross Rifle as it was replaced by the British Lee-Enfield) General Edwin Alderson got the boot. To be fair, he was dealt a horrible hand. As the rope in a tug of war between British command and Canadian interests he simply couldn't make both sides happy, ultimately leading to his being kicked to the curb. His replacement, however, proved to be a phenomenal choice - if not immediately. Julian Byng, a well respected Brit with a storied military history, took the reins and began to slowly add discipline to the rowdy colonials that were the Canadian forces.
Mount Sorrel:
So we're back to the Ypres salient. Considering the horrors of the previous expedition there you could only imagine how terrible the troops must have felt about the return. Their role this time was to defend a position of high ground that was critical to the success in the area. The Germans would be attacking it soon in an attempt to draw forces away from the Somme, a massive assault that will cause the deaths of countless soldiers on both side for little territory (more about that terrible battle of mud, rain and blood coming up next blog - nothing but fun on the Idiot Historian). To open up the assault, the Germans poured countless shells into the Canadian trenches, totalling the largest bombardment to date. Some of the most forward battalions suffered a ninety percent casualty rate by the time the Germans followed in and cleared them out.
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| "Get into Khaki NOW!" later became an Old Navy slogan. |
The only bright spot on the butchery was from one of the most respected, veteran forces in the Canadian military holding a position against all odds and holding on. That particular battalion was the Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry - perhaps the least intimidating name for a tough-as-nails force of hardened soldiers ever. (Perhaps My Little Pony will name a red and white horse named in their honour!) With few men still alive and running out of ammunition, it was an incredible feat of selfless bravery to fight on in their weakened and compromised state - a German officer later spoke of them, saying "the resistance of the officer and some men who remained to the last in a portion of an almost obliterated trench was magnificent." If there's one thing about the World Wars that gets my patriotic blood flowing (I've discovered my blood cells are red and white, I kid you not) it's when the enemy forces speak highly of the bravery of the Canadian troops.
Regardless of the PPCLI's heroic last stand, it was hard to ignore the fact that the Canadians had lost in several battles lately. They had to counter attack, mostly due to pride. However, pride can be a dangerous force (see Napoleon, Hitler, America in 1812, and sports movies featuring highly skilled teams against underdogs) and the attack commenced without artillery properly ready to fire, as well as a lack of proper scouting. It was essentially a suicide mission; they were shelled and gassed, thrown into chaos and cut to ribbons. The disorganized counter fell to pieces.
Days later a second counter attack (at that point does it qualify as an attack?) came through again, but this time with organization. Planes could see the lines and a heavily bombardment preceded the assault. An artillery barrage with infantry support proved much more effective when working in conjunction, with 218 highly powered artillery weapons fighting against them (not all Canadian). The four days of shelling gave Currie the opportunity to attack an exhausted force under the cover of darkness and the German line fell under the weight of a Canadian led bayonet charge.
Mount Sorrel resulted in no significant changes in territory but 8,700 Canadian casualties. For World War I, that seems to be the norm.
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