This post was intended to be posted yesterday the 90th anniversary of the final battle of the 16th Battalion in the Great War, but it wasn't finished, thanks to another, um, project.
It was the end of September 1918 and the 16th Canadian Scottish was preparing to do battle yet again. The final push of the war, the series of engagements that would come to be known as Canada’s Last Hundred Days, had taken its toll on the regiment. Indeed they had fought with distinction since the beginning of Canada’s involvement in the Great War, and had paid a heavy price through out.
This last series of battles, beginning with the attack of Amiens on August 8, 1917, saw the regiment go again and again “into the fray”, and their casualties reflected this. From the beginning of the campaign through to the end of September they had sustained 148 other ranks killed, 340 wounded, and 9 taken prisoner, there were 13 officers killed, and fifteen wounded. The worse was yet to come.
In late September the Canadian Corps crossed the Canal du Nord, but the Battalion did not play a major roll in the battle. They found themselves in Support and although two companies were ordered forward to assist the 13th and 15th Battalion the objectives had been reached before the companies arrived. The word soon arrived however that the push for Cambrai would resume on the 1st of October, and the Battalion was ordered to take part, with an objective beyond the village of Cuivillers.
The 16th would go into battle without Lt. Col Peck, suffering from illness that had plagued him, he was finally under direct orders to take a rest, in the rear areas. They would be lead by the young man who was second in charge, Major Roderick Bell-Irving. Known as B.I. he was one of the Battalion originals and had been in France with the Battalion since April 1915. He was the officer who recommended my grandfather for his commission. One of six brothers serving in the Great War, he was just 27 years old.
At 5:00 am the attack started, delayed getting into the jumping off position by bad weather the 16th only arrived 20 minutes before zero hour. Their initial advance went very well, indeed they advanced to a position south of Sancourt without a casualty, but resistance began to stiffen as they approached a railway line and the first of their company commanders was struck down. Continuing on they moved around Blecourt and captured twelve German machine guns and some eighty to one hundred prisoners. The attack continued to go well and they entered Cuviliers less than three hours after the start of the attack, having first captured a battery of German field guns.
At this stage of the war, the open mobile warfare that replaced static Trench Warfare after the Battle of Amiens, the doctrine was for attacking Battalions to proceed to their objectives regardless of what was happening on their flanks. Indeed the 16th was under orders to proceed irrespective of the situation on the flanks. It soon became evident that the situation on their flanks was far from favourable, which quickly found the 16th in an untenable position.
The battalions on either side of them had encountered heavy resistance and their attacks had not gone as smoothly, nor progressed as far as the 16th. This, however was not yet evident. Indeed Bell-Irving arrived in Cuvilliers and not only that the company cooks began making a meal inside Cuvilliers. One of the battalion officers remarked to Bell-Irving that their flanks were up in the air. Bell-Irving did not look up from the map he was consulting, but replied that he knew about the situation on their flanks, but he was proceeding to their exploitation line. Telling the other officer to deal with the flanks Bell-Irving then moved forward from Cuvilliers.
Very quickly the situation began to deteriorate, and the Battalion found itself under fire from not only their flanks, but from behind them as well. Lt. Kerans, the officer who warned Bell-Irving of the failure on their flanks re-entered Cuvilliers to discover a number of the Enemy entering it as well. The HQ group there hurriedly organized a defence, but it was clear that the situation was becoming untenable. The fog of war was quickly enveloping the 16th Canadian Scottish.
Kerans and S/M Kay realized that the outposts and exploitation line were in danger of being cut off and organized a defensive position on the flank, they were now coming under severe fire. Other parties, trying to find a friendly battalion on their flank, found nothing but enemy. Trying to inform the HQ group an officer entered Cuvilliers only to find it occupied by Germans. He literally ran for his life.
Now essentially surrounded by enemy, including those entrenched in Blecourt, which should have been occupied by Canadians, the 16th threw up one defensive position after another. Two more company commanders fell.
Meanwhile Lt. Col. Peck had heard no news as to the battle, and he resolved to ignore his orders to remain in the rear, and along with the adjutant went forward. They soon found themselves under heavy fire. Joined by the commander of the 14th Battalion, Lt. Col. Worrall, and his adjutant, Peck learned that no news had been received from his beloved 16th. The four went forward into the midst of the battle. Peck, of course, by this time had already earned the Victoria Cross for actions a month earlier and once again he found himself under heavy fire, from machine gun, snipers and enemy aircraft.
Peck organized companies of the 15th Battalion into a defensive position in a sunken road, and determined that Blecourt was either never taken or had been retired from. His adjutant, Capt Robertson, went forward and found remnants of the 16th and the 14th Battalions fighting their way back in a series of defensive positions. Peck was now put in charge of the 3rd Brigade’s front line and fighting for it continued through out the day, the position of the line changing back and forth as the day went on. It was not until 4:00 am, twenty-three hours after the start of the battle that the remnants of the Battalion were relieved off the line.
The 16th’s total casualties for the Cuvilliers battle were severe. Seventy-seven of the ranks were killed in action, a further 187 were wounded. Sixty-nine were taken prisoner, doubling the Battalion’s total for the war. Five of their officers were killed and seven more wounded. This total included three company commanders and Bell-Irving, who hadn’t been seen since he went forward from Cuvilliers. It was originally thought that B.I. had been taken prisoner but his body was found a hundred yards beyond the outpost line several days later. He was buried on the 17th of October 1918.
The sad irony of Bell-Irving’s death not that he had been killed a scant seven weeks before the end of the war that he had endured since the beginning. It was that he wasn’t supposed to be in France for this battle. On the 26th of September he had cancelled his own leave in order to lead the Battalion during Col. Peck’s enforced rest.
The battle was to be the 16th final battle in the Great War, battered, having suffered some 870 casualties since August 8th. They still were involved in some skirmishes, support and holding the line but for them Cuvilliers was their final major engagement. They fired their last shot on October 22nd and then moved into Corps Reserve. On the 6th of December they led the 3rd Brigade into Germany, the pipes playing “The Blue Bonnets Over The Border”. They had suffered a total of 4,846 casualties including 1,346 killed in action. They earned four Victoria Crosses, more than any other Canadian Battalion.
The Funeral of Major Roderick Bell-Irving
Comments
2 responses
Kia ora Clare,
I enjoyed this historical essay and you write it with a fine grasp of tactics and also bring to life some of the men who fought. Sad to think we have not advanced very far from the trenches.
Cheers,
Robb
Thanks Robb,
Yes, it’s a real pity that we continue to kill each other at an alarming rate. Why can’t we all just get along?