World War, 1914-1918 -- Canada; World War, 1914-1918 -- Nova Scotia
The 2nd Division had completed ten days.of what was to be a months’ rest
when the long-expected Hun offensive broke away south on the British
right on March 21st. The 25th Battalion had only started their syllabus
of training and recreation when they were ordered south. The northern
limits of this effort of the Hun was marked by the southern boundary of
the Canadian Corps’ front, and here the 2nd Division took over the
completely disorganized line of the Imperial troops. The sector was
known as the Mercatel-Neuville Vetasse Sector. Here the 25th Battalion
was engaged three months in punishing the German Division opposite. Each
period of six days spent in the front line was marked by a raid on the
enemy outposts, and sometimes our boys penetrated three-quarters of a
mile into the Hun lines. So completely terrorized was Fritz by the
vigorous onslaughts which occurred almost nightly and several times in
broad daylight that no resistance was offered in most cases, and at
length the news was gleaned from some of the last prisoners that the
whole Division had to be withdrawn for re-equipment.
[Illustration:
LIEUT.-COL. J. WISE, D.S.O., M.C., CROIX DE GUERRE.]
The 25th Battalion established themselves as the “Master Raiders” of the
Canadian Corps, and were called on for some officers and
non-commissioned officers to instruct the famous Guards Division in the
new and most effective art of keeping Fritz worried. Six of the raids
conducted on this front were led by one officer, Lieut. (now Major) Max
MacRae, every one of which netted prisoners, besides machine guns and
documents. Among the other officers taking part in these raids were
Captains Anderson and Holmes, Lieutenants Lounsbury, Hawes, Bell,
Johnstone, Holly, Burchell, Spurr, and Wright. It was here that the
Battalion established its record of successful raids and became known
throughout the 1st and the 4th Armies as the “Raiding Battalion,”
putting on about thirty raids in this sector.
Lieut.-Colonel (now Colonel) Blois, D.S.O., was granted leave to Canada
and handed the Battalion over to Major (now Lieut.-Colonel) Wise in May,
1918.
At the battle of Amiens, August 8, 1918, when the Canadian Corps was
first launched into the grand offensive which broke the German morale
and brought them begging for peace, the 25th Battalion was on the left
of the Canadian Corps and in touch with the dashing Australian Corps on
their left. The attack, like that of nearly two years previous at
Courcellette, was made with the 4th Brigade taking Villers, Brettonneux,
and Marcelcave on the Amiens-Roye Railway, and a considerable stretch of
country to the right of those towns. The plans were so well guarded and
the assemblage of troops, guns, etc., so effectively concealed, that the
enemy was utterly stunned at the suddenness of the attack and the speed
with which it was pushed.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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