My friend Paul McNicholls is a keen amateur historian of the First World War. He has haunted European battlefields and recorded interviews with veterans. At a recent presentation in Duncan, BC, he spoke about "Historical Connections", and how memories of events seem at times to come together. Paul provided me with a copy of his talk, in which he discussed three examples of these connections. One of these stories follows; it has been edited only slightly.
MOREUIL
WOOD AND WALHACHIN
After
I finished Grade 8 my family took a vacation to a place called Dutch Lake just
outside of Clearwater not too far from Kamloops. On the way I remember vividly
stopping for a picnic lunch in a field at Spence’s Bridge in the Fraser Canyon.
My father had an interest in history and, as we sat munching our sandwiches, he
spoke about a time just before the First World War when a group of English
settlers arrived in the area and built a town with the intent of turning the
land into a fruit growing paradise.
Alas
the Great War intervened and the men returned to England to join up. Most did
not return. The dream of the fruit growing paradise died with the men and the
town died too.
I
may not have been really paying attention that day. I was after all 14, we were
on vacation, and I had a couple of weeks of swimming and canoeing ahead of me.
The story did remain hazy in the back of my brain though, but I suppose I
largely forgot about it.
I
grew up, went to university, got married and started my own family. Years later
my job took me to Terrace for a couple of years. On many occasions I drove that
oh so long drive between Vancouver and Terrace, sometimes in one marathon
session.
The
first time I passed through Spence’s Bridge my dad’s story from all those years
ago popped back into my head, and it did so on subsequent drives as well. Where
was he talking about? He can’t have been referring to Spence’s Bridge because,
while there might not be much there, the town did not die. ………..I never did ask
my dad about it and when he died in 2003 the opportunity was gone.
About
five years ago I was introduced to Bob Mackay. A former submariner in the
Canadian navy and now a retired lawyer, he was writing a novel the climax of
which was the charge of Lord Strathcona’s Horse at The Battle of Moreuil Wood
in March 1918.
Bob’s
father had taken part in the charge and had been badly wounded.
Bob’s
father’s squadron commander in the Strathconas , Lt Gordon Muriel Flowerdew,
was killed in the charge, subsequently being awarded a posthumous Victoria
Cross.
The
end of the First World War was not like the end of the Second.
In
the Second, as the war ground to its conclusion, there was an inevitability
that it would end with the total collapse of Nazi Germany.
But
in the First World War the final year began with great trepidation in the west.
The
end of 1917 had seen Germany knock Russia out of the war.
Though
the United States had joined the British and French, it would take time for
trained American troops to arrive in sufficient numbers to affect the balance.
The
Germans had transferred almost 50 divisions from Russia to the western front
and now had a significant superiority in manpower over the British and French.
The
British had sustained heavy losses in 1916 and 1917 and in 1918 Prime Minister
Lloyd George was reluctant to release additional troops to the army in France
fearing a repeat of the casualties of the past two years.
At
the same time the French weakness obliged the British to extend the line under
their control by relieving French units.
Everyone
knew a major German offensive was coming in the spring, but British defensive
positions, particularly in those areas recently taken over from the French,
were incomplete.
Short
of troops the commander of the British Army in France knew he could not be
strong everywhere so he kept a larger proportion of his reserves in the north.
He needed to be stronger here as, due to the closer proximity of the coast, he
had less room to manoeuvre if he was forced to fall back.
This
means that further south, not only was the line weakly developed, it was also
thinly held.
The
first German offensive began on March 21, 1918 and struck hard at the southern
end of the British front; the most vulnerable part of the line.
Using
specialized shock troops the Germans initially made large territorial gains.
Territory bloodily captured by the British in
1916 was quickly lost in 1918. The British 5th Army was largely destroyed and
the Army commander sacked.
The
Battle of Moreuil Wood took place at the height of this first German offensive
of 1918.
By
the morning of March 30 the Germans had occupied Moreuil Wood overlooking the
River Arve. Amongst the units being thrown in all along the line to stem the
German surge was the Canadian Cavalry Brigade under the command of J E B Seely,
a friend of Churchill’s and whose biography is entitled “Galloper Jack”. At
0830 on the morning of the 30th Seely sent his brigade across the River Avre
with orders to try and stop ANY German advance.
Throughout
the day much of the brigade fought dismounted inside the wood. At times they
fought hand to hand, often at bayonet point.
As
the Germans were pushed back, C Squadron of Lord Strathcona’s Horse, still
mounted, under Lt Flowerdew moved around the perimeter of the wood looking to
cut off any German retreat.
As
they rounded the wood’s north east corner they suddenly found themselves
confronted by about 300 Germans armed with rifles and machine guns.
Bob
Mackay’s book “Soldier of the Horse” has now been published and I’m going to
read you a brief excerpt. Though it is a novel, Bob went to great pains to
research the action in which his father took part. It is well worth a read and
if you are interested in a copy, I can give you Bob’s website. http://www.robertwmackay.ca.
Flowerdew ripped his
sword from its scabbard and waved it overhead. “It’s a charge boys, it’s a
charge!”
More horses and men tore up the embankment and
into the open. Riders shouted and cursed, struggling to control their excited
mounts and get into parallel lines, stirrup to stirrup. Horses spread out, some
flinging their heads, nostrils flaring. The mass of men and horses plunged
ahead.
Tom reached across his
body for his sword and jerked it from its scabbard behind his left thigh, pain
stabbing at his left arm. Over the pounding of hooves he heard the scrape of
swords as the three troops of cavalry drew their weapons, their horses’ eyes
rolling as they thundered on.
A hail of bullets came
at the Canadians, and some went down. The men roared as they leaned low over
their horses’ necks, bolting towards the Germans. From the corner of his eye
Tom saw the youthful trumpeter, Reg Longley, pull up his trumpet to sound the
charge, then disappear, his horse cut from under him. (1)
In
2008 I went to Moreuil Wood at Bob’s request. He was still working on his book,
I was touring the battlefields and he had some questions about the battle site.
He mapped out where he wanted me to go and asked me to take some pictures. I
followed the path taken by the Canadian Cavalry Brigade that fateful day and
then found the spot where C Squadron’s charge took place. There is a little
industrial complex there now covering part of the battlefield and I asked if I
could go in to get some pictures of the field where the charge took place. My
high school French actually came in handy (JUST) as I explained to the three
bemused blue collar workers just why I wanted to take pictures there.
Mon ami en Canada. Son pere
dans le Grand Guerre……..
I
stood in the field and pondered the bloody melee that had taken place there and
the sacrifice of the men from both sides....and of course the horses.
Flowerdew
was dead. Bob’s father was grievously wounded and it was thought he would lose
his leg. Thankfully he did not.
The German offensive was halted because of
desperate actions like this along the whole front as well as a host of other
reasons: casualties, exhaustion, lack of supplies, poor strategic direction.
Several other offensives would follow and each of these also ground to a halt.
By August it was the British, initially with the Canadians and Australians in
the forefront, who would take the offensive. By November the Germans, in full
retreat and nearing collapse, asked for an armistice.
And
there the story seemed to end for me. I had been happy to provide Bob with some
minor assistance in his research and also learn something of a fairly obscure
action. I now awaited the publication of his book.
One
day sometime afterwards I had some spare time on my hands and for some reason
decided to fill it by learning something more about the Strathcona’s C Squadron
commander, Gordon Flowerdew.
He
was born in Billingford Norfolk, England and before the First World War
immigrated to British Columbia where he took up ranching. Shortly before the
war he and his sister moved to the community of Walhachin in the Fraser
Canyon.
The
brainchild of American entrepreneur Charles Barnes, he envisioned thousands of
acres of lush orchards and an elegant community of gentlemen farmers from
England. Walhachin was no ordinary pioneer community. It boasted luxurious
amenities that were nearly unheard of in other towns of the era. The Walhachin
Hotel had an elegantly appointed dining room, and offered quality
accommodations. It also had a strictly enforced dress code. Many of the
townspeople lived in fine stone homes with high ceilings and large fireplaces
and had servants, maids and valets. In town, there was a Chinese laundry, a
polo field, a swimming pool, a skating rink and tennis courts. (2)
By
1914 there were 300 residents.
Located
close to….. Spence’s Bridge, the
town died as a result of the outbreak of the First World War. You see, most of the men returned to Britain
to join up and fight..............
They
did not return.
By
1922 the last resident had moved out and the town had died. …………………………….
This
is what my father had been talking about all those years ago as we ate our
lunch in the field at Spence’s Bridge.
Life
is an adventure and I look forward to future CONNECTIONS that complete stories
where I currently am only in possession of part of the tale. But with the
Walhachin connection, discovered by complete chance, I will end my talk
tonight.
Thank
you for your time and attention.
Footnotes:
(1) Mackay, Robert W., “Soldier of the Horse”, Touchwood Editions, 2011
(2) Walhachin,
BC, Wikipedia
My friend Paul McNicholls is a keen amateur historian of the First World War. He has haunted European battlefields and recorded interviews with veterans. At a recent presentation in Duncan, BC, he spoke about "Historical Connections", and how memories of events seem at times to come together. Paul provided me with a copy of his talk, in which he discussed three examples of these connections. One of these stories follows; it has been edited only slightly. 