VCs of the First World War 1915 The Western Front

by Peter F Batchelor

  IN GRATEFUL MEMORY / CORPORAL EDWARD DWYER V.C. / A FULHAM LAD EAST SURREY REGIMENT / KILLED IN ACTION 3RD SEPT. 1916 AGED 20 / HE GAINED THE VICTORIA CROSS FOR / CONSPICOUS BRAVERY AND DEVOTION / TO DUTY AT HILL 60 FRANCE APRIL / 1915 IN DISPERSING GERMANS BY HAND- / GRENADES AND BANDAGING UNDER / SHELL-FIRE WOUNDED COMRADES.

  The memorial can still be seen in its original location. His other medals were retained by the War Office as his legatees could not be traced.

  In 1962, after the death of Canon Brown, Dwyer’s VC was discovered among the Canon’s effects by the Revd Edward J. Hinsley, who contacted the War Office. As a result the VC was presented to the Regimental Museum of the East Surrey Regt at Kingston in March 1962. The youngest VC of the war up to April 1915, Dwyer is buried in Flatiron Copse Military Cemetery, France, in Plot III, Row J, Grave 3.

  On 11 November 1996 the Public Record Office in Kew opened an exhibition which included copies of Pte Dwyer’s Army papers and his story appeared in several newspapers at about the same time.

  THE BATTLES OF YPRES, 1915

  In April 1915 the Ypres Salient was held by the British 27th and 28th Divs and 1st Canadian Div. north to the St Julien–Poelcappelle road where French troops of the 45th Algerian and 87th Territorial Divs continued the line east to the Ypres Canal.

  When the Germans released poison gas on the northern sector in the early evening of 22 April the men of the two French divisions retreated in the face of this unknown weapon, and enemy infantry, following the gas cloud, advanced 2 miles southward. The gap of more than 4 miles from the original Canadian left flank to the Canal was gradually filled during the night with British and Canadian battalions, although the defensive line remained far from continuous.

  Counter-attacks made against the new German line during the 23rd were unsuccessful and early on 24 April a further enemy gas attack was made, this time against the 1st Canadian Div. who, despite fighting gallantly, were forced to yield ground on Gravenstafel Ridge. A British counter-attack directed at St Julien failed in the face of enemy machine-gun fire, the troops sustaining heavy casualties.

  The Lahore Div. was moved into the salient and attacked German trenches on Mauser Ridge, north of Ypres, on 26 April, in concert with French troops on its left. Shelling, machine-gun fire and gas halted the attackers before the German positions were reached; a similar fate befell an attack the next day by other battalions of the Lahore Div. In both attacks very heavy losses were incurred.

  On 27 April Gen. Sir Horace Smith-Dorrien, the British Second Army Commander, advised Sir John French that a withdrawal of British and Canadian troops from the eastern part of the salient to a new line nearer Ypres was necessary so that a more defensible line could be held. French, who did not like Smith-Dorrien, took the opportunity to relieve him of command and replaced him with Gen. Sir Horace Plumer. Within days Plumer was instructed by French to carry out a withdrawal along the lines suggested by Smith-Dorrien, and by the night of 3 May the new line was established close to Ypres.

  There was a lull in the fighting until 8 May when strong German attacks on the new line at Frezenberg Ridge virtually annihilated the British 84th Bde. Fierce fighting continued until 13 May, with the enemy having gained more than half a mile of ground west of Frezenberg.

  British casualties for the Second Battle of Ypres approached 59,000, with the 1st Canadian Div. losing one-third of its fighting strength. German losses for the same period were fewer than 35,000.

  German gas attack, April 1915

  F. FISHER

  St Julien, Belgium, 23 April

  On 22 April 1915 the 13th and 15th Bns, 3rd Canadian Infantry Brigade (CIB), were holding the front line trenches north of the River Stroombeek; on 13th Bn’s left was the 45th Algerian Div. south of Poelcappelle on the Poelcappelle–St Julien Road. At 17.00 hours the Canadian sentries saw a yellow-green cloud, low to the ground, drifting towards their lines from the German trenches on a front from Steenstraat to Poelcappelle (see map on page 89). The cloud turned out to be chlorine gas, released from cylinders on the signal of three red flares dropped from a German aircraft. It took less than eight minutes for the cylinders to be emptied, by which time the gas had reached the French trenches.

  Shortly after releasing the gas the Germans launched a fierce artillery bombardment; this was followed at 17.20 hours by an assault by the 51st Reserve Div. who clambered over their parapets, many wearing gauze and cotton masks to protect them from the poisonous fumes. Some German soldiers were reluctant to keep close up to the gas cloud, and officers were seen by the French using the flats of their swords as ‘encouragement’.

  Resistance was very limited among the Algerians who were understandably terrified by this horrific new weapon which caused many of them to fall to the ground writhing in agony, unable to breathe. The Algerians’ retreat left the 13th Bn with its left flank on the St Julien–Poelcappelle road unsupported. There was a gap of over 2,000 yards to St Julien, where its reserve company, two platoons of No. 3 Coy and Bn HQ, were situated. In the middle of this gap, in an orchard some 500 yards north of St Julien, was a battery of 18-pounders, commanded by Maj. W.B.M. King, 10th (St Catherine’s) Battery CFA. King, on his own initiative (the shelling had cut telephone communication and no orders were getting through), opened fire on the German front line trenches at 17.45 hours. Although badly affected by the gas, the battery was able to keep firing while large numbers of Algerians streamed through the gun positions. At 19.00 hours a large force of Germans was spotted by a French NCO who had stopped at the battery, marching south 200 to 300 yards to the west of the road, their helmets visible over a hedge. Reversing one section of guns, Maj. King opened fire on this target, forcing the German troops to stop and dig in. Maj. King’s request to the infantry for help brought a party of sixty men, drawn from 14th and 15th Bns, under Lt G.W. Stairs, together with a Colt machine-gun from the 13th Bn HQ in St Julien. No 24066 Frederick Fisher, having just recovered from a wound received a few days earlier, was in charge of this machine-gun. He made his way to a position in front of the graveyard in St Julien and then worked forward to an isolated building which commanded the ground to the north and west where the Germans were entrenching. Once in the building, he brought his gun into action, thus effectively stopping the German advance and probably saving the guns of the 10th Bty. For this he was awarded the Victoria Cross, as reported in the Supplement to the London Gazette, No 29202, dated 22 June 1915. The date of the action is given in the citation as 23 April, but this seems to be incorrect, although Fisher was again in action on this date.

  The 10th Bty kept up an intermittent fire until nearly 22.00 hours when Maj. King was able to extricate it and by 23.00 hours all his guns had been withdrawn from their very exposed position. Meanwhile, Fisher, having lost four of his original gun-team as casualties, returned to St Julien and obtained volunteers from the 14th Bn with whom he again went forward in an attempt to reach his battalion. He reached the front line positions where the 13th Bn was holding on, with some Canadians now lining the Poelcappelle road at right angles to their original front. Fisher had become separated from his team while setting up his machine-gun when he was killed on 23 April. Fisher’s military record notes that the correct date of death is 24 April 1915 so it would seem likely that Fisher was killed after midnight.

  An account of Fisher’s heroism, contained in a letter written by Lt Edward W. Waud Jnr, was published in the Montreal Star on 24 June 1915:

  Fred Fisher and many other poor chaps of our battalion are lying dead near St Julien. ‘Bud’ made a famous name for himself. He was in charge of a gun team in reserve in the little village of St Julien. When word of the attack on our line came back he took his team and gun and started for the front trenches. No one knew the way, but came upon some artillery trying to get some big guns out under heavy fire. He set up his machine-gun and covered their retirement. Proceeding forward again he cleared a bit of a wood of Germans, becoming separated from most of his team. He then took charge of a F
rench machine-gun that had been abandoned, and got it working. He finally found our battalion, and reported to Lieut. J.G. Ross, the MG Officer. He was mounting the gun on the parapet when he was hit in the chest, dying instantly. Lieut. Ross and some of the other officers buried him in the trench.’

  L/Cpl Fisher’s body was not recovered and his name appears on the Menin Gate Memorial to the Missing at Ypres.

  Frederick Fisher was born at Church Street, St Catherines, Ontario, on 3 August 1894. He had two older brothers, Don and William, and an elder sister, Alice, and in 1900 the family moved to Niagara-on-the-Lake where his father was manager of the Sovereign Bank. Frederick commenced his schooling at the Niagara Public School until the Fisher family moved again, in 1904, to Dunnville, where they stayed until about 1907 before moving to Montreal. Here Fisher attended Westmount Academy where a life-sized coloured photograph of him hangs in the rebuilt Westmount High School. In the Westmount Academy Yearbook of 1909 ‘Bud’ Fisher was described as ‘hard as nails’ on the football field.

  In 1912 Fisher enrolled at McGill University to study Applied Science (Engineering) and he was still a student when war broke out. He was academically capable and a keen sportsman, being a member of the 1914 championship track team as well as the Montreal Amateur Athletics Association.

  On 6 August 1914 Fisher enlisted as a private in the 5th Regt (Royal Highlanders of Canada) and sailed from Valcartier, Quebec, on the Alaunia; she was one of the newest ships in the convoy, having been built for Cunard in 1913. Her cargo of 2,062 officers and men disembarked at Plymouth on 15 October 1914; they included the 13th Bn CEF (45 officers and 1,110 other ranks), to which unit Fisher now belonged.

  During the battalion’s training period on the muddy Salisbury Plain, Fisher was promoted to lance-corporal on 22 December 1914, and on 11 February 1915 he embarked with his battalion on the Novian at Avonmouth, arriving at St Nazaire on 16 February. After a long railway journey to Hazebrouck the battalion encamped at Flêtre on 19 February, beginning their first tour of duty in March 1915.

  Fisher’s VC was sent by the War Office on 5 August 1915 to his parents at 576 Lansdown Road, Westmount, Canada, and on 25 April 1916 a ceremony was held in the McGill Union when the picture of L/Cpl Frederick Fisher VC was unveiled. His parents and sister were present and his mother proudly wore her son’s VC. On the same day the McGill Annual was published, and was dedicated to Fisher, the first Canadian to win the Victoria Cross in the First World War and the first of three to be awarded to the 13th Bn CEF.

  A memorial tablet was unveiled at the Royal Highlanders of Canada Armouries, Bleury Street, Montreal, on 1 May 1917 and on 12 June in the same year a memorial service was held at the Church of St James the Apostle. In 1970 a plaque was unveiled at Memorial Park, St Paul Street West, St Catherines, by the Royal Canadian Legion, and a wreath was laid on behalf of the Fisher family by Kathleen E. Ball of Niagara-on-the-Lake. Fisher’s VC remained with the family until the death of his mother in 1946 when his sister, Alice, presented it to The Royal Highland Regiment of Canada.

  Fisher’s two brothers both served with the Canadian Forces, Don with the 5th Bn’s automobile section. William was awarded the Military Cross while serving with the Montreal Heavy Artillery. Both brothers died after the war from the effects of their war service. A painting of L/Cpl Fisher by George J. Coates is held by the Canadian War Museum.

  F.W. HALL

  Near Ypres, Belgium, 24 April

  The 8th Bn CEF had moved up to the front line during the evening of 15 April 1915 and took over positions from the French. The battalion found the front to be a series of unconnected lengths of shallow (2 foot deep) trenches with inadequate 4 foot breastworks, a few strands of wire and no traversing. The Canadians spent the next few days improving their trenches and making them more habitable.

  Over forty casualties were inflicted on the 8th Bn by German shelling on 22 April, the day of the first gas attack; however, no gas was released on their front and the German infantry did not attack.

  The line held by the 2nd Canadian Infantry Brigade (CIB) ran from Berlin Wood across the Gravenstafel–Passchendaele road, and north-west along the valley of the River Stroombeek; it was extended by the 3rd CIB to the newly created salient astride the Keerselaere–Poelcappelle road, some 800 yards from Poelcappelle. The right of the 2nd CIB front was held by the 5th Bn almost up to the Stroombeek, and continued by the 8th Bn which joined up with the 15th Bn of the 3rd CIB.

  On the night of 23 April, camp kettles full of water were set in the front line and the 8th Bn made sure that every man had a cotton bandolier to dip in the water to offer them some protection should gas be released on their sector. Three companies were in the front line, with half of C Coy in close support and the remaining two platoons, commanded by Capt. Bertram and Lt O’Grady, further back in dug-outs 200 yards south of Bn HQ at Boetleer Farm. No 1539 CSM Frederick Hall was in Lt O’Grady’s platoon (see map on page 89).

  At 03.30 hours the following morning a German heavy artillery barrage was launched all along the line and at 04.00 hours sentries saw several Germans, wearing what looked like mine-rescue helmets, climb over their parapets carrying hoses. The British troops watched as what they thought was smoke drifted across no-man’s-land, but it quickly changed to a green colour as it was carried towards the Canadian trenches by the light wind. The artillery bombardment continued for another ten minutes before lifting to shell the support areas, by which time the gas was rolling across the front line trenches. Lt-Col. Lipsett of the 8th Bn had telephoned an SOS to his supporting artillery as soon as the gas was reported and immediately a heavy shrapnel fire was opened on the German front where the composite brigade of the 53rd Reserve Division was now advancing behind the gas cloud, causing heavy losses.

  The improvised respirators, organized the previous evening, did provide some protection and the advancing German troops were met with a withering fire from those men remaining unaffected by gas. To add to the Canadians’ problems, their notoriously unreliable Ross rifles were jamming and men wept in frustration as they used their boots and entrenching tools in order to try and loosen the bolts. The gas cloud passed over the right of the 15th Bn and the left of the 8th Bn and it was here, at the junction between the two battalions, that the 4th Reserve Ersatz Infantry Regt broke through the stricken Canadians. Lt-Col. Lipsett ordered his reserve half company, C, to try to plug this gap of more than 100 yards. Very few of the men from C Coy reached the gap and those who did witnessed the appalling sight of the gassed survivors of A Coy, 15th Bn, vainly trying to escape the choking gas. Not a single officer survived from A Coy which was virtually wiped out; a similar fate befell C Coy on their left. Having been ordered by telephone to protect at all costs ‘Locality C’ (the oddly named crest of Gravenstafel Ridge, 800 yards east of Boetleer Farm), Lipsett called up his last remaining reserve, the two remaining platoons of C Coy at Boetleer Farm, to plug the gap on his left flank. The time was now about 09.00 hours.

  Under very heavy fire these platoons made their way forward, and when Lt O’Grady was killed in the advance, CSM Frederick Hall took charge of his platoon. He managed to get his men into position despite severe fire, crossing the 1,500 yards to the front line, then went back part of the way to bring in two wounded men, one after the other. Hearing the cries of a third man, Hall, together with Cpl Payne and Pte Rogerson, climbed out of their trench to attempt to rescue the wounded man, who was lying on an exposed raised bank some 15 yards behind the front line. Both Payne and Rogerson were wounded in the attempt and all three returned to their trench. After a few minutes, Hall again crawled out of the trench, this time alone, and managed to reach the injured man; still lying prone he hoisted the wounded man onto his back, and was about to return to the trench when he raised his head slightly to check his direction. A bullet hit him in the head, causing a fatal wound, and moments later the wounded man was also killed. For this act of courage Frederick Hall was awarded the Victoria Cross.

  The o
nly remaining reserve of the 2nd CIB, C Coy of 5th Bn, was rushed to the left to help, and despite considerable losses reached the front line trenches and the position was held.

  The London Gazette of 22 June 1915 published the citation and Frederick Hall’s VC was presented to Mrs M. Hall in Winnipeg, having been forwarded to Canada by the War Office on 5 August 1916. CSM Frederick Hall is commemorated on the Menin Gate Memorial to the Missing at Ypres as his body was never found.

  Hall, a native of Ireland, was born in Kilkenny on 21 February 1885, the son of Bombadier F. Hall, and emigrated to Canada in about 1910, after having served for several years with the Cameronians (Scottish Rifles).

  At the outbreak of war Hall was living in Winnipeg where he was employed as a clerk. He enlisted in the 106th Regt (Winnipeg Light Infantry), but later transferred to the 8th Bn (90th Winnipeg Rifles), known as the ‘Little Black Devils’. With the rest of the first Canadian contingent, the 8th Bn assembled at Valcartier Camp, Quebec, where it embarked on the Franconia. The convoy of thirty ships, together with escorts, sailed for England on 3 October 1914. The smooth crossing meant there was little demand for the 20,000 boxes of a secret mal-de-mer remedy in the medical stores, and the 2,310 officers and men on board (including 1,153 of the 8th Bn) disembarked at Plymouth on 15/16 October 1914. The next sixteen weeks were spent at Larkhill South Camp on Salisbury Plain, where above average rainfall and severe gales produced miserable conditions for the Canadians’ stay in England. During this period of training Frederick Hall was first appointed acting sergeant on 22 October, and was promoted to colour sergeant on 1 December.