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Show CANADIANS IN GREAT FIGHT ! Officer Tells How Raw Re emits Meet Terrific German Rush and Recover Guns and Ground. LINE NEVER WAVERS Advance Made Under Withering Wither-ing Fire Astonishing Attack At-tack Made Brave Charge Saves Left. Ottawa. Ont.. Mav 1 The story' of what he describes a.s a great and glor-ius glor-ius feat of arms" the desperate battle bat-tle fought by the Canadian dtvision to check the recent German advance near Ypres. was told In a cable communication com-munication from Sir Max Aitken, the Canadian record officer, given out by the militia department here today. The account describes how the Canadians, Cana-dians, the majority of them raw recruits, re-cruits, met the German rush after the latter had released the asphyxiating asphyxiat-ing gases, and how, although greatly outnumbered, they succeeded, with heavy losses, in recovering four British Brit-ish guns and much ground "On April i'L'.' the account continues, contin-ues, "the Canadian division held a line of roughly o.OOO yards extending ina northwesterly direction from the Tpres-Roulers railway to the Ypres-Poelcapelle Ypres-Poelcapelle road and connecting at its terminus with the French troops. The division consisted of three infantry brigade in addition to the artillery bridges " After telling of the release of the gas. forcing the French backward, Sir Max reported that this left the Canadian Cana-dian division ' with its left in the air" It became imperative to extend the Canadian lines to the left rear Germans Take Four Guns. "In the course of the confusion which follow upon the readjustment of position." the account says, the enemy which had advanced rapidly after his initial successes, took four British 4 7 guns iu a small wood to the west of the village St. Julien two miles in the rear of the original French trenches. "In the course of the night of tho 2l'nd. and under the heaviest machine gun fire, this wood was assaulted by inn v..auitu urn ciuiiisu ivu of the Third Brigade and the Tenth battalion of the second brigade. The batalions, after a very fierce trug-i gle took the position at the point: of the bayonet. At midnight the sec-and sec-and battalion, under Colonel Watson1 and the Toronto regiment, Queen's, own (third battalion i under Lieutenant Lieuten-ant Colonel Rennie, both of the lirsl brigade brought up much needed reinforcements. re-inforcements. "All throuch the following day andj night these battalions shared the fortunes for-tunes and misfortunes of the third brigade n officer who look part, in the attack describes how the men about him felt under the fire of the machine guns which he said played , upon them like a water pot. 1 "But the line never wavered. When on. man fell another took his place., and with a final shout the survivors' of the two battalion? flung thcmsehei into the wood Enemy Is Demoralized. The German garrison was com-j pletelj demoralized and the impetuous advance Of the Canadians did not cease until they reached the far side ! of ' be wood and entrenched theni-Belves theni-Belves in positions so dearly gained. The, had, however, the disappoint ment of finding that the guns had been blown up by the enemy and later In I the same night amost formidable con centratinn of artillery fire sweeping the wood made It impossible for them' to hold the position for which they had sacrifb ed o much "The fighting continued without in- j termission all through the night At t a m on Friday, it became appar-; eni 'hat the left was becoming more and more Involved and a powerful; German attempt to outflank it devel oped rapidly. It was therefore decided to try to cive relief by a counter attack on the French line of entrenchments, now far advanced from those origlnal- y occ upied bj the French. This wasl carried out By Ihe Ontario first and fourth battalions of the first brigade; ! under Brigadier General Morcer. acting act-ing In combination with a British bri- I gade. Canadians in Withering Fire. It did not seem that any human 1 beitiR could live in the shower of shot and shell which benan to play on the advancing troops. For a short time everv other man seemetl to tall bu the attack was pressed closer and closer. The fourth Canadian batta' ion at one moment came under a par-! ticularly withering fire. For a moment mo-ment it wavered. Its most gallant! commanding officer. Lieutenant Colo-, nel Birchall carrying, after an old , fashion, a licht cane eooly and cheerfully cheer-fully rallied his men and at the very moment when his example had Infect- ' ed them, fell dead at the head of hU battalion. With a cry of anger they sprang forward The astonishing attack which followed pushed home in the face of direct frontal fire made in broad daylight by battalions whose names should live forever In the mem-orv mem-orv of soldiers, was carried to the first lino of German trenches After a hand-to-hand struggle the last German Ger-man who resisted was bnyoneted and the trench was won. Brave Charge Save6 Left. "This trench represented in the Genn&ll advance the ap'-- n the breach which the enemy had made in the original line of 'he allies and it was two and a half miles south OI. that line. Thin charge mn- bj tneu who looked death Indifferently In the t I face, saved the Canadian left It also' secured and maintained during the j most critical moment of all, the in-1 tegrity of the allied line "At 5 a. m. on the morning of Fri I day the 23rd, a fresh emission of gas was made both upon the second bri gade, which held the line running northeast and upon the third brigade, which had continued to hold the line up to the pivotal point. The forty-eighth forty-eighth Highlanders were disma id and the trench became intolerable I The battalion retired from thp trench I recovered themselves and reoccupied it. Attack on Third Brigade. "It was clear that several German j divisions were attempting to crush or j drive back the third brigade and In I any event to use their enormous nu-I nu-I merical superiority to sweep around j and overwhelm our left wing. The last attempt partially suceeenea. ner man troops, swinging past the nn supported left of the brigade and slipping in between the wood and St. Julien, added to the anxieties of the long-drawn-out struggle "In the exertions made by the third brigade during this supreme crisis, Major orsworthv, already almost disabled dis-abled by a bullet wound was bayoneted bayonet-ed and killed. Captain McQuaig of the arae battalion wax seriously ' wounded in a hurriedly constructed, trench which he refused to leave Canadians Are Reinforced. "On Friday afternoon the left of the Canadian line was strengthened bj important reinforcements of British Brit-ish troops, amounting to seren battalions. battal-ions. From this time forward the Canadians also continued to receive further assistance ou the left from a seriea of French counter attacks pushed m a northeasterly direction: I rom the canal bank " The fire of the artillery of the enemv continually grew in intensity the account says 'It became evident; that the Canadian salieut could no longer be maintained "Contesting every yard, the defend era gave ground until the sail al gradually receded from the point where it had originally aligned with, the French, and fell back upon St. Julien. Retreat from St Julien "Soon it became evident that even St. Julien. exposed from right and, left, whs no longer tenable in the face, of overwhelming numerical superior-' it y. The third brigade was, therefore, ordered to retreat further south, selling sell-ing ever ard of ground dearly. Bull it was found impossible without ha-1 aiding far larger forces to disentangle the detachment of the Royal Higb I landers of Montreal thirteenth hat-, talion and of the Royal Montreal regiment thirteenth battalion The I brigade was ordered not a moment too soon to move back The German line rolled over the deserted village but for several hours after the enemv had become master, of the village the sullen and persistent persist-ent ritle fire which survived showed thai they were not vet master of the. Canadian rear guard. Tf they died, they died worth Of Canada. Second Brigade Holds Line. The enforced retirement of the third brigade and to have stayed, longer would have been madness-1 reprodueed for the second brigade commanded bv Brigadier General Cur-rv Cur-rv thA position of the third brigade itself at the moment of the withdrawal withdraw-al of the French General Curry rung his left flank around and in the ctIsif of this immense struggle held j his line of trenches from Thursday afternoon until Sunday afternoon He did not abandon them. There were none left They had been pbUterat I bv artillery He withdrew his undefeated unde-feated troops from the fragments of his field fortifications and the bear's of his men were as completely un broken as the parapets of his trenches trench-es were completely broken. Ninth Winnipeg Rifles "The ninth Winnipeg rifles which held the extreme left of the brigade position at the mol critical moment was expelled from the trenches early Friday morning by an omission or poisonous gases but recovering in three-quarters of an hour, ii counter attacked, retook the trenches it bad abandoned and bayoneted the enem After the third brigade had been I (Continued on l'age ") I CANADIANS IN ; A GREAT FIGHT (Continued from Page 1.) forced t retire, Lieutenant Colonel Llpsett. commander of the YViunpe; I rifles, held his position though hisnett waa in the air. until two British regiments regi-ments filled up the gap on Saturday night Lfter a verj formidable attack, the j enemy captured St Julien. opening up I a new line of advance but by this time further reinforcements had arrived ar-rived Again it became evident that the situation dictated an offensive movement as the surest method of ar testing further progress. General Al derson, commanding the reinforce ments, directed an advance by a British Brit-ish brigade which had been brought up in support |
