The Battle of Moreuil Wood, 97 Years Ago

March 30th, 1918, was a dreary day in Picardy, France. The Canadian Cavalry Brigade was mounted and on the move, having bivouacked at Guyencourt. They crossed the Noye River, and at a high point of land were directed to Moreuil Wood, across the River Avre, via Castel. Brigadier J E B Seely had led the way, setting up a command post at the northwestern corner of the Wood while under fire.

Men and horses were hungry and tired after nine days of running battles. The Royal Canadian Dragoons led the way from here down to Castel and up the opposite ridge to Moreuil Wood, visible on the horizon in the photo at right. 

This is Castel in 2008, 90 years after the Brigade--Dragoons, Lord Strathcona's Horse (RC), and Fort Garry Horse--made their way down this road and over the bridge in the background. 

On the right is the the famous painting by Alfred Munnings who was in France, having been commissioned to paint the Canadian cavalry in action. He didn't witness the battle, but Lord Strathcona's Horse obligingly restaged it for him later. Sergeant Tom Mackay, my father, related his version of the battle, which is covered in my novel "Soldier of the Horse".

The Ross Rifle, and a historical debate

The Ross rifle was a dud in the eyes of Canada's Great War soldiers. Here's what I wrote about it back in February 2012:

Minister of Militia and Colonel, Sam Hughes was the driving force behind Canada's mobilization in August 1914. He was what we would call a Type-A personality, but he made a lot of mistakes.
One of Hughes' more glaring ones was his insistence that the Canadian army carry the Ross rifle. The Ross was made in Canada, and Hughes was its natural champion. Superbly accurate, the Ross was used to win international shooting competitions, but it proved to be unreliable under battle conditions. That didn't deter Hughes, however, who had so much of his own personality invested in the Ross that it was impossible for him to back down, and he continued to champion it at all costs. Early photos of Canadian troopers show them sporting the Ross during training.
In spite of that, the Canadian Mounted Brigade, made up of the Royal Canadian Dragoons, Lord Strathcona's Horse (Royal Canadians), and the 2nd King Edward Horse, crossed the Channel in early 1915 and went into battle--carrying the British-made Lee Enfield Short Rifle. It was not the only time the cavalrymen broke away from Hughes' guidance.

In an emailed post of Ausgust 17th, David Pugliese of the Ottawa Citizen had this to say, in summary:

"The salvaged Ross rifles were shipped home. Some were sold to hunters. Others were sent to Britain at the start of the Second World War, when any rifle was prized.
Some are still around, hanging on mantles, sitting in collections, or taken out every now and then when hunting season opens.
As for the Lee-Enfield, Canadian soldiers carried it through two more wars."

And, as a post-script, there are no doubt many Lee Enfields still hanging on hunting cabin walls.

Cavalry Regimental Flags at Moreuil

Thanks to my friend Jean Paul Brunel for this image of the flags of, left to right, the Royal Canadian Dragoons, Fort Garry Horse, and Lord Strathcona's Horse (Royal Canadians). They were on display at the memorial site dedicated to the battles at Moreuil and Rifle Woods, Picardy, France. The photo is dated June 10th, 2014.

Can readers comment to tell us what was going on at the time?

Canadian Cavalry Takes On Secret Service

 Last week I published three blogs describing the scene around Moreuil, France, on March 28-30, 1918. At a luncheon in honour of Moreuil Day earlier in March this year I chatted to David Sproule, a retired Royal Canadian Dragoon. He recounted the following:

"When I was in the RCD Reconnaissance Squadron (1961-63) my Officer Commanding, Major Spike Malone, a former cavalry soldier in the Dragoons prewar, was based in St. Jean Barracks south of Montreal.
"Spike was a legend in the corps and used to tell the story about the visit of President Franklin Roosevelt's visit to Quebec City in July 1936. The RCD provided a mounted Vice - Regal escort for Roosevelt's cavalcade. Captain Churchill Mann was the escort commander.
"Apparently one of the Secret Service "G" men tried to insert himself between the mounted escort and the President's sedan, an action which one of the escort NCOs objected to. He lowered his lance and ran the G man through the shoulder. Apparently there was no disciplinary action."

So, in the movie, which part goes to Clint Eastwood?

96 Years Ago Today (3) - The Battle of Moreuil Wood

March 30th, 1918.
This is the tenth day of Operation Michael. The German army has advanced through British positions over a forty mile front. Now they are concentrating on driving a wedge between the British and French armies. The Canadian Cavalry Brigade is attached to the 3rd British Cavalry Division, which has been used mounted and dismounted to struggle against the onrushing Germans.
They are bivouaced at Guyencourt.
5:30 am - Troopers are "standing to their horses". Horses have been fed and saddled. Men had a quick breakfast supplied by the cooks.
             - Word is received--move cancelled for two hours.
9:00 am - The Brigade is on the move, crossing the River Noye and heading northeast.

The road to Castel, Moreuil Wood on the horizon

Some time later a motorcycle despatch rider intercepts them.
 They change direction and proceed toward Castel. Across the River Avre at Castel is Moreuil Wood.



General Seely leads the way across the river with his signal troop, establishing a position at the northwest corner of the Wood.

The bridge across the Avre River at Castel

He is joined by the Royal Canadian Dragoons, Lord Strathcona's Horse (Royal Canadians), the CCB Machine Gun Squadron, and Fort Garry Horse.
The Brigade is already desperately undermanned.
This day they will suffer many casualties, their ranks depleted by nearly another half. Killed, wounded and missing totalled 305 men, with the Strathconas suffering the most losses.
9:30 pm - The cavalry is relieved and proceed back across the Avre River to the Bois de Senecat, just west of Castel. They are mounted on whatever horses they can find.
midnight - The troopers are able to turn in.

For a copy of my novel Soldier of the Horse, the story of one cavalry trooper's time in the Great War, please see "buy my book" to obtain same from Amazon, or go to my website for a personalized copy.

96 Years Ago Today (2)--Onward to Moreuil

Typical Picardy countryside, west of Moreuil

  March 29th, 1918.
The Canadian Cavalry Brigade is remounted, with all three regiments, Royal Canadian Dragoons, Lord Strathcona's Horse (Royal Canadians), and Fort Garry Horse all in one place. The Strathcona's billet overnight at Sains Morainvillers, Picardy.



6 am--Reveille, an hour later than the normal 5:00.
The Canadian Cavalry Brigade is beaten up, men and horses showing the strain of lack of sleep and short rations. It has been raining, but at least they managed a better than normal amount of sleep.
3 pm--the brigade is on the move, crossing to the west bank of the Noye River. They bivouac at Guyencourt Wood.
midnight--the troopers get their heads down, having set up horse lines, seen to their horses, managed something to eat.
Orders--"Stand To Your Horses" at 5:30 am tomorrow. They'd be up, horses taken care of, scant rations wolfed down, saddled up and ready to go.

96 Years Ago Today, Onward to Moreuil

A trooper in happier, training days

March 28th, 1918. Ninety-six years ago today, the Canadian Cavalry Brigade, attached to the British 3rd Cavalry Division, had for a week been in a desperate fight. The German army had broken through and overrun weakened British divisions on March 21st in Operation Michael. Men and horses are exhausted and have suffered many casualties. For a few days they had been separated into dismounted and mounted groups, but now they are remounted and back together.


4:15 am- the brigade received word of a gap in the defensive line at Montdidier.
6:30 am- the brigade moved off.
9:00 am- They were halted and ordered to bivouac.No sooner were fires started but before water for tea boiled, they were mounted and off again.
"C" Squadron, Lord Strathcona's Horse (Royal Canadians) are very busy. Lt. Flowerdew and a contingent hunt for Germans, but no contact is made. Lt. Harvey has more luck--he and his party meet a party of Germans and attack, driving them from Fontaine. On falling back, he and his men are arrested by the French, who think they are German impostors. General Seely eventually sorts this out, and Harvey is later awarded the Croix de Guerre for his work that day by the red-faced French.
The rest of the brigade spends most of the day waiting in the rain, and by 6 pm they are billeted in Sains Morainvillers.

 

Moreuil Day 2014

 By rights, Moreuil Day should always be celebrated in Moreuil, France, on March 30th. There are practicalities in life, though, so the next best thing is, for some, a luncheon on March 20th at the North Sidney Yacht Club.
The gathering this year included more than thirty veterans of Lord Strathcona's Horse (Royal Canadians), Royal Canadian Dragoons, and Fort Garry Horse--as well as one ex-submariner.
Pictured here are seven of the attendees on their way to Sidney from Tsawwassen, on board a BC Ferry.

And if they had looked forward, instead of toward the camera, here's what they would have seen, looking toward Active Pass.
A beautiful day, and a significant occasion. Thanks to the organizers and armoured corps vets for a great day.

Message from Moreuil

What follows is a google translate version of a recent email from M. Jean-Paul Brunel of Moreuil, Picardy, France. I have referred to J-P several times in the course of writing my blogs about the Canadian Cavalry Brigade in World war I. 
In his PS below, J-P refers to a ceremony he and his friends staged in 2008. Under his message is a photo taken at that time.

Mail to all my Canadian friends. English. Scots. French. Flaments the French they are very numerous and USA
  Here is the program of Ceremonies March 30, 2014, approximately one month of preparation and consultation, more than 40 emails and many phone
 Every year we innovate and our troops are reinforced and this year, a dozen horsemen and twenty extras (Ecossais.Canadiens and French)
 bivouac Wood Horn on the evening of March 29 with films and music and a large fires
 courageous and go to sleep in the tent. be revised for the centenary

      All this to pay tribute to valereux soldiers who sacrificed their lives to save France
   and especially to the families and Willougbhy Tankéré Schenato jp Brunel 
   PS the 1st Commemoration took place March 30, 2008 in the presence of Bob and Pat Mackay Vancouver
  my faithful standard-bearer and the Somme Battlefield Pipe Band

J-P is  between me and the Highlander, the leader of the Somme Battlefield Pipe Band referred to in J-P's message.

Upcoming 96th anniversary--Moreuil Wood

Below is a blog post that many enjoyed when first posted some months ago. The occasion for the repeat is the upcoming observance in the modern "Black Hat" (ie armoured) community of the Battle of Moreuil Wood. The 96th anniversary of that seminal event is March 30th this year. 

"It has been some time since I posted a blog that relates to the Canadian Cavalry Brigade, so I am indebted to a correspondent who lives on the Isle of Wight for this item.

Readers of "Galloper Jack" will know that Brigadier-General J. E. B. Seely commanded the CCB for most of the Great War, succeeded in April 1918 by Colonel R. W. Paterson of the Fort Garry Horse. In the photo at left, Seely is in the left foreground, a slim, upright man.

For a brief film clip of Galloper Jack recorded in 1933, click here. After the Canadian cavalry, Seely valued his neighbours and fellow lifeboatmen of the Isle of Wight. In the clip, Lord Mottistone, as he had become, is the tall figure in the white hat. At the centre of the action, as always.

Galloper Jack is a big part of my prizewinning novel, "Soldier of the Horse".  Check it out on Amazon here."

The Attack on Rifle Wood (Part 3)

A rare lighter moment was recorded by Sam Williams in his account of the action at Rifle Wood. He recounts how Lieutenant Bennett of the Fort Garry Horse was hit by shrapnel in the area of the crotch. Williams had this to say:

'He was saying to Captain Hutchison between sobs, "Hutch," sob, sob, "The dirty bastards," sob, sob, "Have shot my balls off." There was not a happier man in the whole hospital the following day than Bennett, when a more careful and complete examination showed him to be still a complete man.'

The Fort Garry Horse Nominal Roll records a W.O.1/Lieutenant George Henry Ritson Bennett. I hope Lt. Bennett's wound was enough to keep him out of the front lines for the rest of the war, and that he went on to live a happy and prosperous life.

The Attack on Rifle Wood (Part 2)

A newspaper of the day boasted of mounted riders attacking with sabres, putting German batteries out of action. To see the quote, click here.

The reality was far different. There were certainly no "sabres flashing in the sunlight." Lieutenant Sam Williams was one of only four Strathcona officers available, and the only one not a casualty after the battle at Rifle Wood.

Sam Williams and fellow Strath officers

In his meticulous and detailed book, Stand to Your Horses, he recounts how the members of the Canadian Cavalry Brigade who had survived Moreuil Wood took Rifle Wood. They advanced not in the saddle but on foot, under heavy machine gun fire, against a determined enemy supported by artillery. Williams took the precaution of borrowing a bandolier so he would not be so easily spotted as an officer and sniped. During the advance the man to his left went down, as did the man to his right.
The Fort Garry's were ahead of Williams and the Strathconas,and they paid a heavy price.
Even before reaching the wood the senior Strathcona officer in the party had been wounded, leaving Williams in command. Of the two remaining Strath officers, one was killed and the other wounded.
Of the 165 other ranks and four officers of the Strathconas that took part with the Garry's and the Dragoons at Rifle Wood, three officers and 79 men were killed or wounded.
Sam Williams was awarded the Military Cross for his efforts that day.

The Attack on Rifle Wood (Part 1)

Moreuil Wood from the Bois de Senecat

The Canadian Cavalry Brigade was not yet in for a rest. After the brutal battle at Moreuil Wood, the Brigade bivouaced at Bois de Senecat, on the hillside west of Moreuil across the Avre River. 
The next day, March 31st, 1918, they stood to, returning to their bivouac at 2100, with reveille at 0300 on April 1st. In the saddle at 0400, they once again crossed the Avre on the bridge at Castel. 

 Sam Williams, author of “Stand to Your Horses”, took part in the battle at Rifle Wood. He later read with some amusement a newspaper’s article about the battle, submitted by a war correspondent who gave an “eye-witness” report as follows:

“We swept up the slope with our sabres flashing in the sunlight, swept through the wood and on beyond to take a battery of guns.”

Williams later commented ruefully that he wished such had been the case, given the heavy casualties inflicted on the brigade by the enemy batteries, still very much in evidence.

Next entry: Sam Williams’ part in the attack on Rifle Wood.

(The preceding Battle of Moreuil Wood is dealt with in my historical novel, "Soldier of the Horse".)

Canadian Cavalry Brigade Regroups, April 1918

April, 1918. The Canadian Cavalry Brigade had been terribly battered and bloodied at the Bois du Moreuil and Rifle Wood. Now the survivors were licking their wounds, some formations barely recognizable. Corporals stood in for dead or wounded sergeants-major, sergeants for lieutenants as troop leaders. After the battles at Moreuil and Rifle Wood, the line stabilized about where the Canadian Cavalry Brigade had helped stop the German push close to the line of the Avre River.

The Canadian Cavalry Brigade would next see action in August, but in the meantime there were many gaps to fill in the ranks of men and horses. Also to come was a change in leadership, with Galloper Jack no longer in command.

Ghostly Images of Galloper Jack

It has been some time since I posted a blog that relates to the Canadian Cavalry Brigade, so I am indebted to a correspondent who lives on the Isle of Wight for this item.

Readers of "Galloper Jack" will know that Brigadier-General J. E. B. Seely commanded the CCB for most of the Great War, succeeded in April 1918 by Colonel R. W. Paterson of the Fort Garry Horse. In the photo at left, Seely is in the left foreground, a slim, upright man.

For a brief film clip of Galloper Jack recorded in 1933, click here. After the Canadian cavalry, Seely valued his neighbours and fellow lifeboatmen of the Isle of Wight. In the clip, Lord Mottistone, as he had become, is the tall figure in the white hat. At the centre of the action, as always.

Galloper Jack is a big part of my prizewinning novel, "Soldier of the Horse".  Check it out on Amazon here.

Another Soldier of the Horse

It has been fascinating to hear from people whose forefathers shared many of the experiences as did my father, as described in  "Soldier of the Horse".
Most recently, I have heard from Rick Wetmore, an American whose grandfather David Lee Wetmore served with "A" Squadron, Royal Canadian Dragoons, at the Battle of Moreuil Wood. Trooper Wetmore was one of the lucky surviviors of that hard-fought engagement, although he was wounded later on.
Rick thinks the accompanying photo was taken on Salisbury Plain during training.

A Korean Vet and Lord Strathcona's Horse

On Tuesday of this week, I spent a very enjoyable couple of hours with Harold Finnegan in the Lynn Valley Legion, North Vancouver, BC. Harold is a Korean War veteran. He was with Lord Strathcona’s Horse in the “Land of the Morning Calm” from August 1950 until May 1952. I am always interested in meeting veterans, whichever service they did their time in. But not only was Harold with the Straths, he was in C Squadron—the same squadron in which my father served in World War I.

It was with some trepidation that I presented Harold with a copy of Soldier of the Horse, my novel about the Canadian cavalry in the Great War and asked him to comment on it. I was very gratified when I received an email two days later:

“All I can say about your novel is "WOW"

I lived Tom's experience and couldn't put it down, finished it Thursday evening.”

Many thanks to Harold. More about him soon in "Forces With History". 

The Canadian Cavalry in the Last 100 Days (Part 3)

One of the Canadians caught up in the 2nd Battle of Le Cateau was S. H. Williams, author of “Stand to Your Horses”. He was temporarily attached to the 6^th Brigade, and watched while two British regiments went at full gallop across an open stretch of land some 2,000 yards long, where there was no cover for man or horse. They were being shelled by the Germans, and in the midst of it a flight of “aeroplanes, which I took to be ours until their actions proved them to be enemy,” attacked from the air. Williams’ assessment of the situation was that it made for an “exciting few moments”. In his view, though, in that particular incident the guns and aircraft didn’t do more damage than hitting a few men and horses, due to the speed of their gallop. Probably not enough to ruffle the feathers of Williams, a tough officer who had been through four years of war by this time.

The Canadian Cavalry in the Last 100 Days (Part 2)

The Second Battle of Le Cateau

In October 1918 Le Cateau was an important transportation hub some eight or ten miles behind the German front lines. Early in the Great War General Horace Smith-Dorrien fought a brutal delaying action against the onrushing Germans in the same location. But now, the Allies were driving the Germans back.The immediate aim of the Allies was to take the town and cut the enemy’s lines of communication. They attacked with artillery and infantry over a wide front. The infantry had pushed as hard as they could but were stopped due to the enemy’s resistance and the fatigue of their men. 
The cavalry was ordered to carry out an attack. Centred on a Roman road, with the (British) 6^th Cavalry Brigade to the right of it, and the Canadian Cavalry Brigade to the left, the mounted troops charged up through the stalled infantry.

The ferocity of the battle can be imagined from the comment by a British cavalry officer, Lieutenant Bickersteth: “the bursting H.E. (high explosive), the rattle of machine-gun fire, both from the ground and from the air, the explosion of the bombs dropped by the aeroplanes—all contributed to make the noise absolutely deafening.”

The Canadian Cavalry Brigade’s Last Mounted Battle

The Canadian Cavalry Brigade was in the thick of the Last Hundred Days, the final days of World War I. The Germans had expended their energies trying to strike a final victory, and had not managed it. 

Soldier, LSH, by Ron Volstad

On October 9^th, 1918, there was barely a month of war left, but at the 2^nd Battle of Le Cateau, there was fighting enough for both sides. The battle involved British, French, and to a lesser extent American forces on one side, the Germans on the other.

Le Cateau was to be the last time the Royal Canadian Dragoons, Lord Strathcona’s Horse (Royal Canadians), and Fort Garry Horse would take part in mounted attacks. As was the case for many cavalry actions, they were spectacularly successful—but incurred terrible losses.

Watch for more on the 2^nd Battle of Le Cateau.