Brave Battalion (44 page)

Peck's triumphal liberation ride continued for the duration of the day. Only once were any German forces seen—five Uhlan cavalry armed with lances outside Escaudain—“retiring over the ridge in front. As they reached the summit, they turned around and I could see their lances against the sky-line. I rode rapidly toward them for a space, a bouquet of flowers in one hand and holding the reins and my revolver in the other.”

Entering Hornaing, he was greeted by another large crowd. Seeing the uncertain looks on their faces, Peck shouted, “Vive la France!” Nearby a street sign nailed to a wall read: Kaiser Wilhelm Strasse. Peck “rode up to it, tore it off, spat on it and hurled it to the ground, exclaiming, in what I thought to be French, ‘To hell with the Germans!' This produced the desired result and the crowd went wild with enthusiasm.

“The Battalion arrived shortly afterwards and I took up my headquarters with the transport on the road north of Helesmes, near the railway. Thus passed my most enjoyable day in the War; bloodless withal, but most moving, witnessing the unbounding joy of a delivered people.”
²⁰

Fog and drizzling rain greeted the marching troops on October 20. At 0900 the 48
^th
Highlanders passed through the Canadian Scottish and the two battalions advanced in column toward the St. Amand-Raismes road. Whereas the day before the Germans had been on the run, now they began to offer ever-stiffening resistance that slowed the rate of advance. In the distance, explosions could be heard, indicating engineers were busy with their demolitions and that the German infantry was buying them time to complete their work. Despite the resistance, the Canadians still gained over a mile of ground and the Canadian Scottish suffered no casualties.

The following morning, the Royal Highlanders and 48
^th
Highlanders led the way onto the St. Amand-Raismes road where they met the Royal Montreal Regiment and Canadian Scottish and leapfrogged to the front. The new objective was the Valenciennes-St. Amand road, which cut through the Forêt de Vicoigne. Entering the woods on several narrow tracks at 1100 hours, the Canadian Scottish became entangled in a running fight with withdrawing Germans that dragged into the afternoon. About 1600 hours the leading troops reached a large clearing and saw behind it the village of Vicoigne, which consisted of two straggling rows of houses. The road that was their objective ran between the buildings. From the forest to the road, the ground was wide open for 500 yards. Nos. 3 and 4 Companies slipped out of the trees into the cover of a deep ditch. From inside the village, machine guns opened fire. Peck considered the rate of fire light and decided the Germans were not holding in strength. Night was falling. Peck saw no need to hurry men into an open field still washed by sun.

When it was almost dark, the German fire intensified—a sure sign of a feint intended to cover their retirement. Peck ordered two patrols forward to contact the enemy. After a long wait with no sign of activity in the village, Lt. William Stark returned at 2200 hours to report the Germans gone. Major Scroggie led the two companies out of the ditch into the village. As the company commanded by Captain Alec MacLennan started forward, Peck impulsively joined him. It was midnight, and the soldiers warily walked across the open ground, careful not to make much noise. Once they entered the village, Peck “knocked at the door of a small house standing a little bit away from the other houses and heard female voices pleading in great terror not to harm them. We finally persuaded them to open the door and found two old women so frightened out of their wits that they could give us no information on the enemy.

“We entered the village.… It was a bright, moonlight night, and the street was deserted; not even our patrols were to be seen. Knocking loudly at a street door, a woman came out—a middle-aged lady—cool and courageous. When we asked for the ‘Allemand,' she pointed to a house in a little square, or rather a triangle, with a light showing over the transom. Alec MacLennan and the others went over to this house and entered it, returning afterwards with the news that the enemy had evidently just left, for all the place was in a medley, things scattered about and a candle … still burning on the table. We went over to the billet and as we were crossing the street heard the steady march of Number 3 Company coming up towards us. We then felt secure so sent back for the two remaining companies, placed our outposts on the double-track railway which runs east of the village and such of us as could, were soon comfortably sleeping in billets.”
²¹

At his headquarters Currie noted that 1
^st
Division “had now been in the line for two weeks without having an opportunity to rest and refit since the hard-fought battle of the Canal du Nord” and ordered it relieved by 3
^rd
Division on October 22.
²²
The 43
^rd
Battalion (Cameron Highlanders of Canada) passed through the Canadian Scottish outposts ahead of Vicoigne at noon and shortly thereafter the battalion joined went into reserve positions at Somain. The troops settled into comfortable billets after a “rousing reception” by the civilians Peck had liberated four days earlier.
²³
Although they didn't know it, the Canadian Scottish had fired their last shots of the war.

Some fighting remained for Canadian Corps. October 23 brought it to the Canal de l'Escaut and the fortified city of Valenciennes. South of the city stood 150-foot-high Mont Houy. Five German divisions waited to defend the city and the low mountain to the south. First Army paused to prepare an attack and allow the 51
^st
British Division time to catch up with the Canadians on the left flank. So confident was this division's commander that he assaulted Mont Houy with just a single battalion on October 28. Although initially winning the hill, the battalion was soon driven off with heavy casualties.

Gen. Henry Horne ordered Canadian Corps to immediately launch another attack, but Currie refused unless allowed to conduct the kind of methodical operation he preferred. Throwing away Canadian lives because everyone was in a rush would not do, Currie warned. A heavy barrage on November 1 deluged the hill with steel and explosives. The hill soon fell and, after some heavy fighting for its outskirts, Valenciennes was taken the following day. Eighty Canadians died and three hundred were wounded.

Once again the pursuit was on, but slowed by terrain and weather. Heavy rain dogged the troops as they moved through a mélange of hills, fast-running brooks, fields bound by hedges, and dense woods. The transport trucks and wagons could not keep pace, so the men carried their daily needs in heavy packs. A stiff fight on November 5 won a crossing over the Aunelle River on the French-Belgian frontier. November 9 brought the Canadians to Jemappes, outside Mons. This was a country of coalfields, dominated by huge slag heaps that provided ideal positions for German machine gunners. Against stiffening resistance, the Canadians pressed on. On November 10, 3
^rd
Division gained Mons at a cost of 116 men killed or wounded. The following morning, at 10:58 a.m., Pte. George Price was shot dead by a sniper inside Mons. Two minutes later the war officially ended.

Earlier that morning a telegram had been received by 1
^st
Division headquarters and disseminated. “Hostilities will cease at 1100 hours on November 11
^th
,” it read. “Troops will stand fast on the line reached at that hour, which will be reported to Corps H.Q. Defensive precautions will be maintained. There will be no intercourse of any description with the enemy. Further instructions follow—From Canadian Corps 0645.”
²⁴

The Canadian Scottish war diarist recorded: “Arrangements were made for a celebration at 2000 hours in conjunction with 15
^th
Battalion. A great bonfire was made, all of the people of the village attending. During the night there were scenes of great enthusiasm.”
²⁵

The November 11 armistice ended the war, but there was still soldiering to be done. On November 13, 1
^st
Division learned it would participate in an Allied occupation of the west bank of the Rhine and a series of bridge-heads east of it. Canadian Corps and II British Corps would lead a British Second Army march to one of these sectors.
²⁶
In preparation, 1
^st
Division was to concentrate near Mons and begin the march four days later. The troops were still savouring the taste of victory. Neither they nor their officers were inclined to make haste to the concentration area. Instead the pace of march was leisurely, the Canadian Scottish repeatedly stepping to the side of the road to let hordes of returning refugees—who had fled their homes in 1914—pass. “The scenes en route are indescribable,” noted the Canadian Scottish war diarist. “Every description of means of conveyance was met with, the road being packed with civilians returning to their homes.”
²⁷
It was two days before the battalion reached Wasmuel, the town southwest of Mons where it was to concentrate.

That Sunday, November 17, the pipe—responding to a request by Wasmuel's mayor—attended a celebration in the parish church where the
Te Deum
and Belgian National Anthem were both sung. In the afternoon word spread that Lt.-Col. Peck had been officially awarded the Victoria Cross for heroism during the Amiens battle for the D-Q Line. Peck was away from headquarters and preparations were quickly made in his absence for a full-scale battalion surprise celebration. When Peck returned that evening the band with the entire battalion in its finest Highland finery formed outside the headquarters and let out a loud cheer. The men shouted for Peck to come out and make a speech, which he did. “Afterwards they took him and carried him round the town with the band playing.”
²⁸
When the men finally released Peck and returned to their billets, he wryly noted in his diary: “[Battalion] celebrated elaborately in evening. A great day for the Irish.”
²⁹

The next morning the march to the Rhine began with 1
^st
Division's three brigades setting off from Wasmuel, past Mons, and toward Soignies. This village lay on the German side of the Armistice Line. Also on the move was 2
^nd
Division, but each division followed a different route to reduce road congestion. The weather was good, the division covering the assigned 19 miles quickly and everyone was in billets by 1530 hours.
³⁰

Despite the armistice, the Canadians were wary of attacks by German army diehards. Each division was preceded by a cavalry screen travelling a day's march ahead. The infantry also provided its own flank protection with patrols scouting on either side of the secondary roads they used to free the main road for use by divisional transport and heavy guns. Defensive outposts were established on overlooking heights and other tactically threatening terrain. Also working the flanks were sections of cavalry and cyclists drawn from the Corps Troops.

1
^st
Division's final destination was Cologne with 2
^nd
Division moving toward Bonn—both about 250 miles from Mons. The Rhineland area of occupation had been divided into zones wherein the Germans were instructed to leave all their war materiel before withdrawing precisely the day before the Allied forces arrived.

Originally, 3
^rd
and 4
^th
Divisions were to have followed the leading two divisions to the Cologne occupation zone, but the German destruction of railways and road damage created a logistical nightmare that made it impossible to supply such large numbers of troops. The decision was soon made that only the two divisions already on the march, along with Corps Headquarters and some inherent troops, would participate in the occupation. All the rest of Canadian Corps—the 3
^rd
and 4
^th
Divisions, 8
^th
Army Brigade Canadian Field Artillery, 1
^st
and 3
^rd
Brigade's Canadian Garrison Artillery—transferred to IV Corps of the British Fourth Army and billeted initially in Belgium until the end of the year before moving to England to begin demobilization.
³¹