The Washington herald. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1906-1939, 1915-07-25
Famous Canadian Organization, in Battle Of
May 8, Cut Down to $50 Men
And Four Officers

quick Rush over Parapet.
He planned an expedition with all the
| care of a battle-an expedition which
was to so about as far as from the
pitchers box to the home plate. Strange
| sort of work, that, for men used to the
distances of the plains! A quick rush
over the parapet through the mud and
under the cover of darkness-a rush
which required less than a minutes
| time, But in one minute a machine gun
and thirty or forty rifles from a German
trench can NOV down a considerable
body of units of human flesh in the open.
| Some men who leapt into the sap were
! set to work Immediately with picks and
| shovels to destroy it. bayoneting any
Germans in their way. Others, the snip
ers, were to cover them inside the sap
while a party of bomb-throwers drove
the Germans on up into their own
| trench. The job was performed as
/ planned. But the expedition had to re-
! turn across that narrow open space be-
! fore dawn. Then it was that they suf-
| fered most of their casualties. For the
! Germans knew that they had to go. and
kept sending up flares to outline their
! figures targets when they should go.
| But the Pats" had lost only FIVE killed,
nine wounded and two missing when they
returned, looking more like balls of mud
| than men.
Lieut. Crabbs had been in command of
the party; Lieut.. Talbot Papineau had
looked after the bombing. He ran along
the side of the sap exposed to the Ger
man fire, to make sure that he put the
bombs in where they had done the most
good. and this won him the Military
Cross.
A little exploit of that sort is not I'M
usual: but mind, it was done by the
, Princess Pats" There's some advan-
taee in the glory line in being
corps d'elite of Colonials which takes
that of a popular royal princess for its
! name.s Besides. what general in the
British army did not know Col. Fanny"
/ and had not heard about the SiS war
medals which his privates wore? Tele-
grams poured in-from Mr.. Asquith from
Sir John French. from Gen. Joffre, from
the princess. from all the world which
knew about the Princess Pats.
Received Many "Bouquets.'
They were sure tossing up the bou
,IIets." said Corp. Christy.
Yet that salient was TO he lost-while
the Princess Pats were out of the
trenches on relief. Not that they could
have kept it if they had been in the
trenches They don't say that Or hint
that: only it is certain that many less
would have been alive for the sth of
! May IL they had been in the trenches.
1t was not in the nature of the Ger
mans to sit quiet after the British took
| Neuve Chapelle. II they are hit a pun
ishing blow, they always try to come
hack with one. Following the usual
method, they made the British trenches
in front of St. Eloi untenab bic with artil-
lery fire, and their infantry swept for
ward under its cover and took that
precious hill No Sleep no drying their
cln has ;n hair rto Lot fDht far
the Princess Pats whose turn 1t was
10 rest and sleep. They were needed
every British soldier in that vicinity was
needed.
Over the muddy road and out into
muddier fields the Princess Pats"
marched in the night, first into the area
of shell fire and then into that of bullet
| fire. to help other British battalions re-
/ cover the mound of St Eloi. But that
was not to be. One company of the
, P. P.'s got forward into the thick of II
when the British staff decided that 1t
was little too thick to be worth while.
The Germans had dug themselves In and
were to keep that salient, which natur-
ally belonged in their lines, unless the
British line were to be advanced up even
with it.
Losses. dribbling, day by day losses,
the P. P.'s had suffered-the same
that British regiments suffered and
German regiments suffered when they
held difficult part of the line-losses
that added up into the hundreds. They
had been holding down the lid of hell,
as one of them said. On May they
were to hold on to the edge Of the
opening by the skin of their teeth. and
look down into the bowels of hell
after the Germans had blown the lid
off with high explosives.
Story of May 9.
1t was in a big chateau that / first
heard the story of May s-a story
characteristic of modern warfare at
its highest pitch-and felt the thrill
of it told by the tongues of it's par
Elephants. There were twenty bedrooms
in that chateau. If / wished to stay
all night i might occupy three or four
and as for that bathroom. paradise
to men who have been buried in filthy
mud by high explosives. the French
man who planned it had the most spa
cious ideas in dimensions. A tub or
shower, or a hose, as you pleased.
Some bathroom, that
For nothing in the British army was
too good for the Princess Pats be-
fore May s; and since May nothing
is quite good enough. Ask the gen.
erals in whose command they have
served IL you have any doubt on the
score. There is one way to win praise
at the front by fighting. The P. P.'s
knew the way. Five Of us sat down
to dinner in a banquet hall looking
out on private park. big enough to
hold fifty. These men had the nerv-
Gus alacrity. the quick lucidity of ex-
preston, the dry pungent philosophy
and the indomitable optimism which
the air of the plains and the st. Law
renee valley seems to develop. They
were not afraid to be little emo
for that sort of a thing between Van
couver and Halifax. They had been
in devil of a scrap" and they knew |
1t; and they saw il clear-eyed as they
would a boxing match or a spill from
a boat in a Canadian rapids.
TOO bad Gault is not here He's in
England recovering from his wound.
Gault is six feet tall and five feet Of
him legs. All day in that trench with
a shell wound in his thight and arm.
God, how he was suffering. But not
a moan-his face twitching and trying
TO make the twitch into a smile, and
telling US to stick"
Butler away too. He was the Sec |
ond in command. Gault succeeded him. |
Butler was hit on May sand missed
the big show-piece of shell in the
eye"
Ready for Adventure.
And Charlie Stewart who was shot
through the stomach. How we miss !
him. II ever there was a live wire |
it's Charlie. Up or down. he's smiling
and ready for the next adventure |