A HISTORY OF THE 3RD (TORONTO REGIMENT) BATTALION, Part Five

LATE 1917

"The word "Passchendaele" conjures vivid images of the Great War's fruitless slaughter and epitomizes the nadir of war fighting. This was the place where seemingly homicidal, chateau-dwelling generals sitting kilometers behind the lines ducked their thin gums in delight as they planned to murder off their troops in one hopeless assault after another. The horrific pervasiveness of quicksand-like mud and unburied corpses brought to mind Dante's images of hell. This blighted battlefield has maintained a firm grip on the popular memory of the war. For most of the British troops it was an unwavering horror show of defeat and destruction, but for the Canadians it provided another victory - which seemed Pyrrhic at first, but played a key role in restoring the British Army's morale, and probably saved Sir Douglas Haig's job as Commander-in-chief."  Shock Troops, Tim Cook, 2008

Private Walter Newby,3rd Battalion KIA, Nov.6, 1917
 

Early in September it was again in the line, holding the newly won trenches covering the ruined mining towns of CITE ST.EMILE and CITE ST.EDOUARD between HILL 70 and LENS. For 19 days the battalion was in the front line or in close support and always under shell-fire. It was one of the most trying tours it had ever done, - as the enemy was extremely aggressive and deluged the whole area with shell-fire, while the advanced posts were so severely hammered by guns and minenwerfer that they were only held by the greatest gallantry on the part of the garrisons and at a cost of 5 officers and 86 men killed and wounded.

Private Roy D. Loomis, Tyne Cot Cemetery
 

In the middle of October the Canadian Corps marched north to take its part in the Third Battle of YPRES, which had been in full swing for some months. The advance of the 2nd and 4th Armies had by this time almost reached the last high ground in this part of Flanders, the PASSCHENDAELE RIDGE, and to the Canadian Corps was assigned the task of capturing this important position. This was to be done in two phases, the first being assigned to the 3rd and 4th Divisions, who in the end of October secured a footing on the western spurs of the main ridge. The second phase was to be carried out by the 1st and 2nd Divisions.

With thanks to Marika Pirie
 

After ten days preparation and training near CASSEL in the rear area, the 1st Division, in the beginning of November, moved up and prepared to attack on November 6th. The attack was carried out by the 1st Brigade, with a brigade of the 2nd Division on its right. The 3rd Battalion, under Lt.-Col. Rogers, was divided, "B" Company and half of "A" Company being in support to the main attack, while "C" Company and the other half of "A" Company, supported by "D" Company, and commanded by Major Mason,delivered a subsiduary attack on VINE COTTAGES, a strong point on the GOUDBERG SPUR. This position was surrounded on three sides by almost impassible swampy ground, which cut it off from the main attack and made it very difficult of access except from the enemy's side. The position was, however,  successfully taken by Major Crawford, yielding 40 prisoners and 6 machine guns, and contact established with main attack. The strength of the position, the terrible condition of the ground and the heavy shell=fire made this a very expensive operation, the troops engaged losing 60% in casualties. Corporal Barron of "D" Company was awarded the Victoria Cross for his action on this occasion. The remainder of the battalion composed of "B" Company and half of "A" Company, under Major Cooper, during the day, moved up very gallantly through intense shell-fire to the support of the 2nd Battalion, but did not come into action. The half of "A" Company, having had all its officers killed, was led throughout the action by Company Sergeant Major Williams. Altogether the battalion had lost 9 officers and 254 other ranks.

Passchendaele - Canadian soldiers and prisoners, 1917
 

On the 7th the battalion was relieved and shortly afterwards moved south in buses, going into the line on the southern outskirts of LENS, just one month after it had left here to go north. After a few tours here, the 1st Division was relieved and moved back for a few month's Christmas rest, the battalion going to DIEVAL, south of BRUAY. Here Christmas was celebrated in much the same way as the proceeding one.





Norm Christie - The Canadians At Passchendaele
October to November, 1917

"The Battle of Passchendaele was the bloodiest and most costly battle of the First World War. Lasting from August to November 1917, it cost the Commonwealth more than 250,000 soldiers - killed, wounded or missing - for an advance of less than 6 kilometres. The losses were sadly typical of the Great War, but it was the truly repulsive conditions of soldiers attacking through knee-deep morass and the wounded drowning in the mud which gave Passchedaele its legacy as "Hell". The Canadians entered the battle in mid-October and between October 26 and November 10, launched four major attacks, finally capturing the village of Passchendaele and a piece of the ridge beyond. The two weeks of fighting cost the Canadians more than 5,000 dead and 11,000 wounded. Many of the men just vanished in the sea of mud. But the tenacity of the men never faltered and their capture of Passchendaele was a huge achievement".

Daniel G. Dancocks - Legacy of Valour, The Canadians At Passchendaele
November 6, 1917

"Pinned down by deadly fire from three machine guns in a fortified post, a number of attempts were made to rush the enemy gunners but the men were mown down each time. Enter Corporal Colin Fraser Barron. Carefully cradling his rifle to protect it from the mud, Corporal Barron began to crawl forward. There was no cover, and it appeared to those watching that Barron's approach would certainly be discovered. Miraculously undetected, he crept to within blank-point range of the enemy post. Tossing several bombs, Barron opened fire on the surprised and stunned gunners. Four were killed outright, and the rest fled. But they did not get far, as Barron shot them down with one of their own machine guns. For his bravery, Barron would be awarded the Victoria Cross".

Canon Frederick Scott (Padre 1st Canadian Division) - The Great War As I Saw It
November 6, 1917

"Then I started to walk up the terrible muddy roads till i came to the different German pill-boxes which had been converted into headquarters for the battalions. Finally, after wading through water and mud nearly up to my knees, I found myself the next afternoon wondering near Goudberg Copse, with a clear view of the ruins of Passchendaele, which was held by another Division on our right. The whole region was unspeakably horrible. Rain was falling, the dreary waste of shell-ploughed mud, yellow and clinging, stretched off into the distance as far as eye could see. Bearer parties. tired and pale., were carrying out the wounded on stretchers, making a journey of several miles in doing so. The bodies of dead men lay here and they were where they had fallen in the advance. I came across one poor boy who had been killed that morrning. His body was covered with a shining coating of yellow mud, and looked like a statue made of bronze. He had a beautiful face, with finely shaped head covered with close, curling hair, and looked more like some work of art than a human being. The huge shell holes were half filled with water often reddened with human blood, and many of the wounded had rolled down in the pools and had been drowned".

A HISTORY OF THE 3RD (TORONTO REGIMENT) BATTALION, Part Four

EARLY 1917

The remainder of the winter (1916-17) passed without incident, the battalion doing regular trench tours in the neighbourhood of Souchez and the north end of Vimy Ridge. This winter cost 17 officers and 87 other ranks killed and wounded. (interesting to note that your odds of being a casualty were much greater if you were an officer although less than 4% of the battalion were officers and 96% of the battalion were enlisted men).


Vimy Ridge Memorial April 9, 2007
 

In March, orders were received that several corps, including the Canadians, were to open the spring offensive with an attack upon the Vimy Ridge and the lines to the south of it.. Careful training and study of the ground were carried out during the following weeks and when at dawn April 9th (1917), the battalion went over the top, under Lt.-Col. Rogers, not a detail had been overlooked and everything was carried out according to plan. The battalion was on the extreme right of the corps and had the longest distance to go, but though its flank was quite up in the air, it took and passed its final objectives on time the village of Farbus and Farbus Wood and captured many prisoners and four guns (the first to be taken by the Canadians), on the eastern slope of the Ridge.The cost was only 6 officers and 179 men in casualties. During the next few days, the gains made were extended into the flat country east of the Ridge and here, on April 28th, the Second Brigade took the entrenched village of Arleux. The 3rd Battalion was in support but was not used in the successful attack, though it suffered from shell-fire.

1st Division, Vimy Ridge, April 9, 1917

A mile beyond Arleux was the entrenched village of Fresnoy and its capture assigned to the 1st Brigade. The 3rd Battalion, commanded by Major Mason, was on the right, the 2nd in the centre and the 1st on the left, the 4th being in support. The attack was launched at dawn on May 3rd and, so far as the Brigade was concerned, was entirely successful. The troops on either flank, however, were unable to come up and the enemy on their fronts brought heavy enfilade fire to bear on their positions.

A/Major W.E.Curry, KIA April 9,1917
 

So hot was the fire that even the supporting platoons could not get forward and throughout the day the position was held by the assault troops alone, commanded by Captain (later Major) Harry Hutchison, DSO,MC,MID, who, though the enemy was on three sides of them, stuck to their ground and beat off repeated counter-attacks. When darkness permitted the rushing up of reinforcements ad supplies, there remained three officers, of whom two had been hit, and a few score of men, out of the nine officers and nine platoons (about 200 men) who went into the attack, and eight of the nine Lewis guns showed marks of shell or bullet, but not a foot of the ground taken had been lost. On the evening of the following day, the battalion was relieved by Imperial troops and the entire Division moved back for a month's much-needed rest, the 3rd Battalion going to the village of Petit Servins. The whole operation cost the battalion 12 officers and 245 other ranks.

Sergeant Henry Garlick #63370, MM
 

In June the battalion went again into the line, which had now become stabilized in the flat ground east of Vimy Ridge, taking over part of the Mericourt Sector. Regular trench tours were carried out without special incident till the attack of the 1st and 2nd Divisions on Hill 70 and the ground to the south of it, in the middle of August. The attack of the 1st Division on Hill 70 was carried out by the 2nd and 3rd Brigades, the 1st being in support. Although not engaged in the actual attack, the 3rd Battalion did valuable work and suffered 117 casualties in holding the line before and after the battle. Following this brilliant and completely successful action the 1st division moved into the back area for rest and training, the battalion going into billets in Monchy-Breton.

Captain Henry Sloane Cooper, MC & Bar, OBE, MPP - 3rd Battalion
Battle of Vimy Ridge - April 9, 1917
"When we started over at 7:30 in the morning they still had a 5.9 barrage on our old front line and it looked as though our battalion would have to go through it. It stopped just as we got there. That was counter battery work that did that, that stopped it and how! Well then from then on there was relatively little shelling. We just outgunned him so much that he didn't have a chance of coming back"  CBC Flanders Fields

Pierre Berton - VIMY
Battle of Vimy Ridge - April 9, 1917
"The techniques that would be used to capture Vimy Ridge were honed and polished in the careful planning that preceded the larger raids, as early as December (1916), five officers and ninety men of the 3rd Battalion from Toronto had trained for a week using a replica of the enemy trench system located by aerial photography. These practice trenches were actually dug and the men trained to leap into them, first with dummy grenades and later with live ones. Scouts who had been over the ground guided the attacking parties to within fifteen yards of the enemy wire. The attackers flung bathmats over this obstacle and were in the enemy trenches in just eight minutes. In that time they killed or wounded one hundred Germans, cleared one hundred and thirty yards of trench, and suffered thirty-five casualties. These were not seasoned veterans. Two thirds of he party were new men who had arrived just in time to be trained for the job". VIMY, Pierre Berton, McClelland & Stewart, Toronto, 1986