Horrors and Atrocities of the Great War: Including the Tragic Destruction of the LusitaniaMarshall, Logan
History
Horrors and Atrocities of the Great War: Including the Tragic Destruction of the Lusitania
Marshall, Logan
World War, 1914-1918 -- Atrocities
“After a very formidable attack the enemy succeeded in capturing the
village of St. Julien, which has so often been referred to in describing
the fortunes of the Canadian left. This success opened up a new and
formidable line of advance, but by this time further reinforcements had
arrived. Here again it became evident that the tactical necessities of
the situation dictated an offensive movement, as the surest method of
arresting further progress.
“General Alderson, who was in command of the reinforcements, accordingly
directed that an advance should be made by a British brigade which had
been brought up in support. The attack was thrust through the Canadian
left and center, and as the troops making it swept on, many of them
going to certain death, they paused an instant, and with deep-throated
cheers for Canada gave the first indication to the division of the warm
admiration which their exertions had excited in the British army.
“The advance was indeed costly, but it could not be gainsaid. The story
is one of which the brigade may be proud, but it does not belong to the
special account of the fortunes of the Canadian contingent. It is
sufficient for our purpose to notice that the attack succeeded in its
object, and the German advance along the line, which was momentarily
threatened, was arrested.
“We had reached, in describing the events of the afternoon, the points
at which the trenches of the second brigade had been completely
destroyed. This brigade and the third brigade, and the considerable
reinforcements which by this time filled the gap between the two
brigades, were gradually driven, fighting every yard, upon a line
running, roughly, from Fortuin, south of St. Julien, in a northeasterly
direction towards Passchendale. Here the two brigades were relieved by
two British brigades, after exertions as glorious, as fruitful, and,
alas! as costly, as soldiers have ever been called upon to make.
“Monday morning broke bright and clear, and found the Canadians behind
the firing line. This day, too, was to bring its anxieties. The attack
was still pressed, and it became necessary to ask Brigadier-General
Curry whether he could once more call upon his shrunken brigade.
A HERO LEADING HEROES
“‘The men are tired,’ this indomitable soldier replied, ‘but they are
ready and glad to go again to the trenches.’ And so once more, a hero
leading heroes, the general marched back the men of the second brigade,
reduced to a quarter of its original strength, to the apex of the line
as it existed at that moment.
“This position he held all day Monday. On Tuesday he was still occupying
reserve trenches, and on Wednesday was relieved and retired to billets
in the rear.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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