Two of the Battalion pipers played the boys over the top that wintry morning, and although the German band and our own artillery drowned the skirling notes of the pibroch, our lads were fired with the spirit which prompted these two noble musicians to volunteer and insist on accompanying the Battalion through the muck and mire, the death and destruction which was let loose on that fateful day. They were awarded Military Medals for their splendid example of self-sacrificing disregard for personal safety.

Lieutenant Hallisey, of Truro, was killed while proceeding to the “jumping off” position. Several officers were wounded, and the casualties among the N.C.O.’s and men were very heavy. The death of R.S.M. “Dad” Henchcliffe, M.C., father of all the N.C.O.’s and men in the Battalion, was particularly regrettable; for he was a very efficient warrant officer and a friend to all.

Lieut.-Colonel Bauld commanded the Battalion at the taking of Fresnoy and Arleux late in February. While these were only local affairs and confined to a narrow front, they were the cause of some very severe casualties. “D” and “C” Companies suffered very severely at Arleux. Captain Weare, M.C., was severely shell-shocked, Lieutenants Bell and Wallace, two very promising young officers, were killed, and scores of our men caught in the wire, in the darkness, were literally shot to pieces.

Shortly after this affair, two officers’ batmen from “C” Company went astray in the darkness with their officers’ rations and strayed into the enemy lines. Their whereabouts was a matter of conjecture until the publication of the roll of prisoners of war. In the thirty-eight months during which the 25th Battalion was in contact with the flower of the German War Lord’s Legions, only eight of our men were captured alive. The five machine-gunners have already been noted. They were detached from the Battalion at the time of their capture. The two mentioned above were the victims of a dark night and unfamiliar recently captured ground. The eighth man to be captured was taken on the Mericourt Sector early in 1918 during a raid by a party of three officers and ninety Huns on a thinly held portion of the sector. We also succeeded in capturing one of the raiding party who was unfortunate enough to get into our wire entanglements. A great deal of information was gleaned from the captive regarding the training and composition of the raiding party. The man who was captured by the enemy had only joined the Battalion a few days previously. So what information the German Intelligence Staff gleaned from him must have been purely family affairs.

Early in July, 1917, Lieut.-Colonel Bauld obtained leave of absence to visit his home, and the command of the Battalion devolved on Major Blois, D.S.O., who commanded the 25th, until he in turn was granted leave to Canada in May, 1918.

The 25th Battalion played a glorious part in the Battle of Hill 70 on August 15, 1917. The boys went over the top from the shell-holes of No Man’s Land in front of CitÉ St. Laurent. “A” Company, in the first wave, secured the Hun front line. “B” Company was through them as soon as the creeping barrage permitted and clinched the support line, while “D” Company carried on to the limits of the town. The 24th Battalion then pushed on our positions 600 yards farther to the trench “Nun’s Alley.” Considering the amount of ground gained and the nature of the fighting, in ruined streets and over demolished buildings, the casualties were very light on the 15th. But the Hun artillery promptly laid down a barrage to cover his counter-attacks, which fell behind the front line and completely churned up the debris formerly known as CitÉ St. Laurent, where the 25th Battalion was endeavoring to establish a defensive position. The counter-attacks of the Bosche gradually weakened, and by the 18th had ceased; but his artillery strafing grew more intense as the days passed, causing many casualties.

On the night of August 19–20, the 25th Battalion moved from their positions in CitÉ St. Laurent to the comparative peace and quiet of the front line. At daybreak the 6th Brigade on our immediate right were to attack and tighten the pressure already exercised on Lens. The Hun also divulged his reason for the systematic and furious shelling of our positions during the past six days when he launched an attack in force on the 6th Brigade and extending into our right (“D” Company’s front). The O.C. “D” Company, being in an advanced position and close to our own artillery barrage line, was ordered to place his men under cover, which he did, leaving only sentries at the entrances to shelters.

Zero hour for the 6th Brigade’s and the German attack coincided and both were demoralized by the intensity of the artillery fire they encountered before the assembly positions could be cleared. The result was that neither the 6th Brigade nor the Prussians opposite them left their trenches. But the artillery was not so active on the Front of our “D” Company, with the result that the Huns were throwing grenades down on our dugout steps before our men realized that they were trapped. Lieutenant Dauphinee was killed in a gallant attempt to clear the entrance to the dugout in which the whole Company was sheltered. Captain W. A. Livingstone, M.C., O.C. “D” Company, managed to force his way out by another entrance, and with a Lewis Gun spitting .303 bullets from his shoulder, he managed to clear the trench of those who escaped his fusilade. But the trench was literally filled with corpses from the attacking hordes. Nor was the situation normal as yet. A party of Huns had got in on the right of our boundary, and Lieutenant Spurr and Sergeant Jordan, after expelling them, organized the survivors of the Company of a Western Battalion, who had lost all their officers and were in a precarious condition. The boys of “D” Company, reinforced by a platoon from “B” Company, which had been led up through the intense shelling by Lieutenant Bell, were busy all day repelling bombing parties which stubbornly attempted to force their way into our lines at the Battalion boundary-the junction of Nun’s Alley and Commotion Trenches.

Captain Livingstone, whose work on this day merited the Victoria Cross, was severely wounded in the chest and collapsed immediately after he had cleared the Huns from his trenches, and Lieutenant Spurr commanded his company until relieved by a company of the Royal Canadian Regiment at night. Great credit is due Lieutenants Gibbons and Bell for their skill and judgment in rallying our boys and organizing the defences. The coolness of Sergeant Jordan saved the situation on the immediate right, when he rallied the overwrought survivors of the Western Battalion. Corporal Boudreau, Company Sergt.-Major Bragg, Corporal Veniot, and Sergt. “Dan” Fraser also distinguished themselves in inflicting punishment on the Hun and by their heroic conduct throughout the day. Company Sergt.-Major Bragg and Sergeant Jordan were awarded Distinguished Conduct Medals for their services on this occasion. Captain Livingstone, M.C., was awarded a bar, and Lieutenant Spurr, the Military Cross.

At Passchendaele, on November 10, 1917, the 5th Infantry Brigade was given the post of honor as a successful assaulting Brigade. The 1st, 3rd and 4th Divisions and the 4th Brigade of the 2nd Division had been engaged in nibbling here and there at the Hun positions and had at length captured most of the Passchendaele Ridge. But the ruined town still remained in German hands. On the morning of the 6th November the 26th Battalion attacked and captured the ruins to the eastern limits of the town and after holding their gains for four days the 5th Brigade was withdrawn from the Passchendaele Sector, and returned to Lens.

The 2nd Canadian Division remained in the Lens-Mericourt Sectors until the latter part of February, 1918. The only notable occurrence, other than the loss of one man to the Huns, as previously noted, was the stealth raid led by Lieut. P. R. Phillips, of Barrington, assisted by a covering party under Lieut. Max MacRae, of Westville. The raiding party of only five crawled over the Lens-Arras Road and made their way among the battered houses of Lens to one of the buildings of Fosse 3 and destroyed a dugout full of “Heinies,” bringing the sentry who was on duty at the entrance into our lines. The prisoner proved to be a very observant chap and a great deal of information was gleaned from him. When questioned as to the great offensive which our Staff expected daily, he said no attack would be made on the Canadians. Fritz had probably had his fill of attacking Canucks when he broke his head on them in the First Battle of Ypres, at St. Eloi and the Barrier.

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.

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.

After the 4th Brigade had established their line in front of Marcelcave the 5th Brigade carried on the attack through Wiencourt and Guillaucourt. The 25th Battalion encountered considerable opposition in a small wood south of Wiencourt; and it was there that most of the casualties occurred. Lieut. J. W. Holly, of St. John, was killed by machine-gun fire, and thirteen other officers were wounded in ousting the Huns from this wood.

At Guillaucourt, Lieut.-Colonel Wise, who was the first to arrive at the objective, fell, severely wounded by a sniper’s bullet. The Adjutant, Capt. N. H. Wetmore, utterly disregarding his own safety, sprang to his O.C.’s assistance and became the target for a better directed bullet from the same sniper and fell, never to rise again.

Major Day, second in command, who had been acting as a Brigade liaison officer during the attack, immediately assumed command of the Battalion and directed it in the advance on the following day when the towns of Vrely and Meharicourt were taken. After having advanced twelve miles in two days, the 2nd Division gave place to the 4th, who carried on to the outskirts of Hallu. This attack was certainly the most successful in which the 25th Battalion had thus far been engaged. An immense area of beautiful country with some important towns had been taken from the Hun, with surprisingly few casualties.

After a few days in the line in front of Hallu, the Battalion was moved to Berneville, near Arras, where the details were left behind and we were into it again—over Telegraph Hill and down the eastern slope to the Cojuel River on August 26th—a distance of four miles—fighting all the way; then across the dried-up bed of the stream on the 27th to Cherisy and past the Sensee River to the heights beyond; and then a tightening up of the Hun resistance, which meant a fruitless hammering at the strongly wired positions in front of Upton Wood and “the Crow’s Nest” on the 28th.

The 2nd Division had not rested since the 5th of August, and had penetrated to great depths in the enemy’s lines on two fronts. The tired troops could accomplish no more. The writer can testify that men actually fell asleep on their feet on the night of the 28th–29th of August, when a counter-attack was imminent. The state of mind of men when so thoroughly exhausted as our boys were at the end of the third day, is one that cares not what may happen to a body so completely worn out. It is then that sentiment—love of home, Battalion pride, and the shame of weakness—asserts itself and supports a man when everything tangible is wobbling.

“C” Company lost a splendid officer when Capt. M. L. Tupper was killed. A relative of Major J. H. Tupper, who “paid the price” at Courcellette in 1916, he had shown a fearlessness in the face of the enemy and a conscientiousness in all his duties which well merited his appointment as O.C. “C” Company.

The Battalion had a respite of two days at Hautes Avesnes, on the Arras-St. Pol Road, over the anniversary of the landing in France and the Battle of Courcellette, September 15th, and was then continuously in the forward area until after the fall of Cambrai on October 9, 1918, engaging the Hun in the Inchy-Moeuvres and the Marcomg Switch Sectors, and clearing the Hun from the towns of Eseadoeueres and Ievuy, on the northern outskirts of Cambrai. “B” Company, under Lieutenant (now Major) MacRae, M.C. (two bars), did splendid work at Inchy on the 21st and 22nd September, when they captured seven machine guns, killing the crews and straightening out a kink in our line.

In this wonderful last hundred days of the War, when the Hun had to be dislodged from the positions he had been preparing since his first check at the Marne in 1914, the deeds of valor which were enacted daily and hourly were too numerous to refer to here at any length. But mention may be made of some of the more notable recipients of War Decorations awarded officers, N.C.O.’s and men, who served with the 25th Battalion.

First in the list must come Lieut.-Colonel (now Brig.-General) Hilliam, who won the D.S.O. and two bars for personal gallantry in the field and was mentioned in despatches four times. He was also invested with the insignia of a Companion of the Bath (C.B.) and that of a Companion of the Order of St. Michael and St. George (C.M.G.). Another officer who carries two rows of medals on his breast is Major G. McL. Matheson, D.S.O., M.C., and M.M. Lieut.-Colonel Wise wears the D.S.O. and the M.C., with the French Croix de Guerre. Lieut. M. M. Jordan wears the M.C., D.C.M. and Bar.

Capt. Max MacRae was awarded the Military Cross three times. Company Sergt.-Major Dauphinee and Corporal Leggett each were awarded the Military Medal three times. Regimental Sergt.-Major Hurley was awarded the Military Cross, D.C.M. and French Croix de Guerre. Company Sergt.-Major Boudreau received the Croix de Virtute (Roumanian) besides the D.C.M., M.M. and Bar. Private Mickarek won the Russian Cross of St. George. And many officers and men won Military Crosses, D.C.M.’s, M.M.’s and Bars. A summary of the Battalion’s record of awards is given further below.

The last occasion on which the 25th Battalion was in hostile contact with the Hun was at the storming of Elouges, a mining town near Mons, on November 8, 1918. The casualties, though very light, only eleven men being killed, included some of the originals who had seen the thing through to this ringing down of the curtain. Some eleven, including Company Sergt.-Major George Vincent, D.C.M., Corpl. John Morrison and “Billie” Roberts, who had weathered the storm only to be swept over at the harbor’s mouth, lie asleep in the little civilian cemetery at Elouges, where their graves will be guarded and cared for by the grateful people of the town, who welcomed the Battalion as liberators.

The boys of the Battalion were enjoying their “lionization” by the populace at Mons when the news was received at 9 a.m. on November 11, 1918, that we had but two hours more of hostilities when the Armistice would become effective.

The remaining three days were given over to celebrating what had been fought for, and prayed for during the last four years—Victory. A Thanksgiving Service was held in the little chapel in the town, conducted by the brave chaplain who had stuck to us through the “Last Hundred Days”—Capt. A. J. MacDonald. And the local pastor addressed us in an impassioned Address of Thanks in French, out of which the writer distinguished only the oft-repeated phrase, “Merci beaucoup, nos liberateurs.”

On November 19, 1918, the Battalion started on the long march to the Rhine. We crossed the German border near St. Vith at 10.08 a.m., December 5th, with the Union Jack flying at the head of the column. At 10.47 a.m., December 13th, the Battalion crossed the Rhine at Bonn and proceeded to the “Cologne Bridgehead Outpost Line,” where we had the satisfaction of telling the Hun how he should act and also the pleasure of enforcing our instructions on him.

After six weeks on the Rhine, during which all ranks had an opportunity of visiting the famous cities of Cologne, Bonn and Coblenz, the Battalion returned to Belgium and went into billets at Arvelais, near Namur. On April 5, 1919, we started for Havre, and on the night of the 9th embarked on the old Prince Arthur, formerly of the Boston-Yarmouth service, and on the morning of the 10th arrived at Southampton and proceeded by train to Witley Camp in Surrey, where, after a month’s sojourn awaiting documents from the Record Office, we sailed from Southampton on the Olympic, May 10, 1919.

On board were the whole 5th Brigade and the 29th Battalion, 6th Brigade. After an uneventful though pleasant voyage, and to the accompaniment of the music of several bands and the shrill whistles of factories, boats and auto horns on both sides of Halifax Harbor, the Olympic docked at Pier 2; and after a farewell to the 22nd, 24th, 26th and 29th we lined up for our march to the Armories, which triumphal procession, to the writer, seemed to be but a part of a great dream, as the memory of the exile from home now seems but an hallucination.

Strength of Unit on proceeding to France on Sept. 15th, 1915.

Reinforcements after coming to France.

Wounded and sick to England.

Killed in action and died in hospital.