Part 2 (1/2)

Few men slept soundly on the night before the great attack. The stern, hard training for the operation which had been in process for some weeks had tightened and toughened every link in the chain from the highest rank to the lowest, and the last few hours dragged fitfully. All watches had been synchronized and immediately 5.30 o'clock ticked a roar of artillery, awe-inspiring and stupendous, burst from the batteries, the hiding-places of which were only revealed by the short, sharp flashes; and Vimy Ridge was all afire with cataclysmic death and destruction.

Behind the barrage, driving through No Man's Land towards their objective, went the Canadian battalions. Captain MacDowell reached the German line about fifty yards to the right of the point for which he was aiming; but most of his men, having worked slightly farther to the right, became separated from their leader, who found himself alone with two runners. The German dug-out where he aimed at establis.h.i.+ng himself could be seen in the sh.e.l.l-torn line, but there was no time to collect a party to clean the place up. But on the way to his destination MacDowell captured two enemy machine-guns as an aside. He bombed one out of action, then attacked the other. The second gunner did not wait, but ran for shelter to a dug-out whither MacDowell followed and got him.

Working their way along to the big dug-out the three Canadians saw that the place was more formidable than they had antic.i.p.ated. It stretched far underground. MacDowell bawled down the deep pa.s.sage, summoning the German occupants to surrender. No answer came from out the depths to his demand; but that Germans were down in the underground there seemed no doubt. The captain decided to go down and find out. It was a gigantic game of bluff he was playing, and it succeeded by reason of its very audacity.

A flight of fifty-two steps led to the earthen floor below, and down those fifty-two steps went Captain MacDowell. Along a narrow pa.s.sage he went and then, suddenly, as he turned a corner, which led into the main room of this subterranean fortress, he found himself face to face with a large group of the enemy. There were seventy-seven of them--though he did not know the exact number till afterwards, when they were counted--mostly Prussian Guards. Now, by all the laws of arithmetic and logic Captain MacDowell ought to have been taken prisoner or killed. But he was not out to be governed by the laws of arithmetic or logic. He was out to capture Boches and to kill those he could not capture.

Quick as a flash he turned and began to shout orders to an imaginary force behind him--and up went the hands of the seventy-seven stalwart Guards. ”_Kamerad!_” they said.

It was one thing, however, to accept the surrender of this large party and quite another to get them out of the dug-out, for there was more than a chance that when they discovered there were but three Canadians to look after them they would try to overwhelm their captors. The captain decided to send the Germans up in batches of twelve, and the two runners, Kebus and Hay, marshalled them in the open at the top. Among the prisoners were two officers.

What had been expected, once the Germans were marched up into the daylight, occurred. Some of them were furious at the trick which had been played on them and one of them caught up a rifle and shot at one of the Canadians. The rebellion did not last long, for it was checked by quick, drastic measures.

That afternoon, when the riot of the attack had quietened somewhat, MacDowell and his two men made a thorough exploration of the dug-out and a report on the position was sent back to headquarters. Here is the report in his own hurried words, written with a stump of pencil, with his notebook on his knee as the German sh.e.l.ls were cras.h.i.+ng all around the entrance to the dug-out:

”While exploring this dug-out we discovered a large store of what we believe to be explosives in a room. There is also an old sap leading down underground in the direction of No. -- Crater. This was explored ... we have cut all the wires, for fear of possible destructive posts. The dug-out has three entries, and will accommodate easily 250 or 300 men, with the sap to spare. It is seventy-five feet underground and very comfortable. The cigars are very choice and my supply of Perrier water is very large....

”They are firing at us all the time with their heavy guns from the south-east, but I have no casualties to report since coming in here, except being half scared to death myself by a 'big brute'....

”We have taken two machine-guns that I know of; and a third and possibly a fourth will be taken to-night. This post was a machine-gun post and was held by a machine-gun company. I believe they are the Prussian Guards; all big, strong men who came in last night. They had plenty of rations; but we had a great time taking them prisoners.

”It is a great story. My two runners, Kebus and Hay, did invaluable work getting them out of the dug-out.... There is a large number of wounded in front of here, as I can see by the rifles stuck in the ground. We are using German rifles as ours are out of commission.”

Five days later, when the enemy artillery slackened, reinforcements were sent up and succeeded in reaching the captain; and when, finally, he was relieved from the position and reported himself at his battalion headquarters, one can imagine that his brother officers--those who were left--were glad to see him.

[Ill.u.s.tration]

LIEUTENANT FREDERICK MAURICE WATSON HARVEY, LORD STRATHCONA'S HORSE.

The first Canadian cavalryman to win the Victoria Cross in this war is Lieutenant Harvey, of Lord Strathcona's Horse.

The Strathconas, raised for service in South Africa, and originally recruited largely from the Royal North-West Mounted Police, distinguished themselves in the Boer War and afterwards were established as a unit of the Canadian Permanent Militia. Along with the other regiments of our cavalry brigade they fought as infantry in the trenches throughout the autumn and winter of 1915-16. The brigade was then withdrawn from the line, rehorsed and embarked upon a long course of training and waiting.

March, 1917, found the Canadian Cavalry Brigade serving with the 15th Army Corps, north of Peronne on the Somme. At this time the brigade consisted of the Royal Canadian Dragoons, Lord Strathcona's Horse, the Fort Garry Horse, the Royal Canadian Horse Artillery, the Canadian Cavalry Machine-Gun Squadron and a field ambulance.

On the morning of March 24th the brigade received orders to form on a twelve-mile frontage, with Nurlu as its centre, and from there to advance beyond our infantry positions. By the evening of the same day the Royal Canadian Dragoons were in possession of several hostile positions, including the woods to the south-west of Lieramont; and during the night the Fort Garry Horse, on the left of the advance, took the villages of Ytres and Etricourt.

On the afternoon of the 25th Captain Sharpe, with his squadron of F.G.H., dislodged the Germans from the smaller of two woods that they held in strength. From this first wood he launched an attack upon the second and larger, in open order at the gallop, and drove the enemy through and out of that cover and into the shelter of a trench beyond.

This was the first instance, in more than two years, of cavalry riding straight at a position held by rifles and machine-guns.

At six o'clock of the following day (March 26th) the Strathconas gained a wood south-east of Equancourt, where they dismounted, and from which they advanced upon and captured the village at the point of the bayonet.

At the same time the Fort Garry Horse, attacking from the north, made their objectives in spite of heavy machine-gun fire. The admirable shooting of the R.C.H.A. had much to do with the success of the operation.