World War, 1914-1918 -- Campaigns -- Western Front; World War, 1914-1918 -- Personal narratives
That was certainly a very gallant feat in face of many difficulties of
ground and most savage fire. They completely surrounded the village and
caught its garrison in a trap from which they had no escape. After brief
fighting with bombs and bayonets the survivors surrendered, to the
number of eight officers and about 200 men belonging to the Fifteenth
Reserve Division of Prussians. What made them sick and sorry men is that
two of their battalions had just arrived in high spirits, having troops
in front of them who were weak, they had been told, and they were
ordered to attack Arleux this morning. The Canadians attacked first, and
by six o'clock these Prussians were sadder and wiser men. The prisoners
escaped our shell-fire, but were nearly done to death behind our lines
by their own guns. I saw this incident this morning. They had been put
in an enclosure, next to a Canadian field dressing-station flying the
Red Cross, when suddenly the enemy's guns began to shell the area with
five-point-nines. They burst again and again during half an hour with
tremendous crashes and smoke-clouds.
"If those Germans are still there," said a Canadian, "there won't be
much left of them."
When the shelling eased off I went towards their place but found it
empty. As soon as the shelling started their guards hurried them away to
safety farther back behind the lines, and the Canadian wounded were
diverted to another route. One of these Prussian officers was shown his
old lines captured on April 9, and he asked what regiment had done such
gallant work. "The Canadians did it," he was told, "and the same fellows
that captured Fresnoy this morning." The Prussian officer could hardly
believe it, but when he was convinced of its truth he complimented the
Canadian troops who had fought so hard and so far. They were proud young
officers, and when I spoke to one or two they would not admit that they
had been mastered in this war. They seem to have an unbounded faith in
Hindenburg's genius, and in the effects of submarine warfare.
I found no such spirit among the non-commissioned officers and men. They
spoke as men under an evil spell, hating the war, but seeing no end to
it. "Neither side will win," said one of them, "but who will stop it?
The papers write about the conditions of peace, but one party says one
thing and one party says another, and we don't know what to believe."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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