The Last Lady from Hell (7 page)

With Canada behind the convoy and a vast and dangerous expanse of open water ahead, the safety of the men and ships was in the hands of the escorts. But, not to diminish the escorts contribution, the true reasons that the crossing went without incident were poor communications between British and Canadian Admiralties, poor information forwarded by the German spies, miscalculations by the German military, and just plain luck.

Rear-admiral Wemyss was in charge of the 12th cruiser squadron, of which
HMS Charybdis
(flag),
Talbot, Eclipse
, and
Diana
were a part. But when the Canadian Minister saw only four cruisers to protect 32 ships he made the statement that the convoy was inadequately protected and that the departure would be put on hold. Instead, the news went out that the crossing was cancelled.

When the rear-admiral later explained that the escort was, in fact, made up of seven warships, the others waiting offshore, the Minister gave permission for the departure and the convoy left port on October 3.

This information, however, never reached the British authorities. On October 6, the British Admiralty sent word to Canada asking about the disposition of the fleet and the decision of the Minister. One can only imagine the surprise at Whitehall on learning that the fleet had been underway for three days. If Whitehall knew nothing of the fleet movement, then the German spies definitely knew nothing, a great advantage to the convoys safety.

On October 8, the German Admiralty was informed by agents working in New York that a massive troop transport of twenty-three ships had left Canada on October 2 escorted by eight warships, a remarkably accurate account. The German military made an inaccurate assumption that the troops were battle ready and that the destination would be Boulogne, France and the Western Front. They rapidly dispatched their submarines to go to Boulogne and lay in wait to ambush the troop carriers that never came. On October 12, as the fleet neared British waters, all 30,000 men were called topside.
The Princess Royal
, a lion class battle cruiser, had dropped back to the aft of the convoy and then was called to action. Her bow rose up as her massive engines gave her full power, water was thrashed wildly to each side as she jumped to her battle speed of 25 knots. She flew up the center of the convoy with her band on deck playing “Oh Canada” and “The Maple Leaf Forever” Thirty-thousand men exploded into cheers as the British showed their appreciation for the sacrifices these men were about to make.

The original destination of disembarkation for the convoy was Devonport but because German U-boats had been spotted in the channel, the fleet went to Portsmouth in the southwest of Great
Britain. The troops were dispersed to four main training camps: Tid-worth, Kitchener’s, Woodwich Common, and 1st East Surrey. The men would spend several months preparing for the difficult task of trench warfare. Then in early April, the First Canadian Division of the Canadian Expeditionary forces was sent to Belgium.

The German Army had pounded through Belgium en route to France, leaving in its path unimaginable death and destruction. When the German war machine collided with the French Army, it was stopped by France’s unexpected intense resistance. The French still retained some of the Napoleonic fighting ability that had made that country a formidable military power many years earlier.

And along with their alley, Great Britain, the French had not only stopped Germany, but had, in fact, pushed the Germans back into Belgium.

This created what is called a salient or bulge in the western front which was referred to as The Ypres Salient.

This area had special significance to both sides, it represented a success for the allies and a failure for the Germans and because of this there was almost continuous fighting through the war.

There were three major battles at Ypres, however, between these major events constant skirmishing was common. On 17 April this was the area to which the British Expeditionary Forces, or B.E.F., sent the Canadian troops. The Ypres Salient had been experiencing a lull in the fighting and it seemed a good spot for the untested newcomers. There were no major movements of troops by either side, so no large scale battle was expected. And, since the 1st Battle of Ypres had exhausted both sides in a costly and bloody stalemate, this period of relative calm was very much welcome.

For these new men the trenches were a brief novelty, but very soon they learned that if the basic rules aren’t followed it could result in deadly consequences. Every day the Germans would lob sev
eral obligatory shells into the trenches or spray the trench tops with machine gun fire. This action would immediately be answered with British shells and gunfire. The April rains turned the Ypres Salient front into a mud-filled hellhole. Life in the trenches, horrific as it was, now became even worse with a constant routine of emptying and repairing the water-filled ditches.

The trench systems were an early answer to the high volume of artillery delivered by both sides in the first six months of the war. To march an army across open fields toward a barrage of artillery and machine gun fire, the other main weapon of the Great War, would be complete suicide. Trenches were the only reasonable solution. Most trench systems included supply trenches, advanced trenches, and entanglement trenches. The entanglement trench was heavily fortified with barbed wire, meant to slow the advances of an opposing army. It was very effective and was widely used by both German and Allied forces.

The Canadians were being provided with hands-on training in trench life with a minimum of risk. They worked in the mud and water repairing the dugouts, bunkers, trench walls and even repairing the barb wire entanglements. Only occasionally would they form into small raiding parties and attack the Germans under cover of night. They would have to pass through the advanced trenches and through gaps in the barb wire so as to cross “No Man’s Land,” the area of shell-hole pocked land that separated the Allied and German advanced lines. It was a muddy, lifeless patch of dirt strewn with the dead and parts of the dead from a year’s worth of slaughter.

The stink of death was overwhelming and unforgettable. Unfortunately, smell is a sense that can trigger memories, good and bad. The simple stench of a rotting animal on the side of the road years later could be enough to awaken horrific memories in anyone who might have been there. The smell was inescapable and left a prominent impression on these young men.

THE SECOND BATTLE OF YPRES, 24 APRIL, 1915

Little stacks of sandbags,
Little lumps of clay,
Make our bloody trenches,
In which we work and play
.

A
lan Macdonald kept his head down. The entrenchments were not always that deep nor were the parapets that high. If one stood up to straight, the chances of having your head blown off were better than good.

Being in the communications corps of Princess Patricia’s Light Infantry provided him with more than his share of danger. The outcome of a battle and in fact the lives of thousands of men could hinge on good communications. Alan had been well trained in the use of Lucas signal lamps and the handling of carrier pigeons as well as field phones and the new Fullerphone, but the bulk of communications relied upon the runner and Alan was a good runner.

As one passed through the maze of trenches, one could easily get lost, so, there was a system of numbered signs posted to help point soldiers in the correct direction. That is if the signs had survived the continuous shelling from enemy and allied artillery. Compared to
the main trenches, the communication trenches were smaller and not as well constructed or maintained.

There were some twenty miles of trenches for every mile of Western Front, so a map of the trench system was a necessity. Unfortunately, if such a document fell into enemy hands it would be disastrous, so Alan was provided with nothing more than coded directions.

He glanced at the directions briefly. “Runner? That’s a laugh,” he said to himself.

The spring rains had turned the trenches into mud. Trenches were really just ditches that would collect the water that could no longer be absorbed by a barren landscape that had long since been bombed beyond recognition. The main trench floors were covered with duck boards, a series of batten-like boards laid out to keep the soldiers’ feet above the water and alleviate the mud problem, unfortunately most communication trenches were dirt, now mud with no duck boards.

The mud was sticking to Alan’s standard issue hob-nailed boots making the already heavy boots feel like lead weights. Running was out of the question, just walking was a struggle.

Alan headed for Bunker 153, an outpost in the forward trenches. He sniffed the rancid, rotten-smelling air like a hound dog looking to catch scent of its prey. Alan wasn’t looking for prey, it was looking for him. He was sniffing for signs of the new killer: chlorine gas.

Chlorine gas in itself was not what killed you, but when mixed with water it formed hydrochloric acid. When the moisture of your eyes, mouth and lungs came into contact with the gas it created acid that burned your tissue in turn causing a long and painful death.

Two days earlier, on 22 April, the allied troops defending the Ypres Salient had tasted the first German gas attack of the war. The salient was defended by the French to the north, the Algerians (French Colonials) in the center, and Canadians to the south.

The Algerian forward spotters noticed a massive green cloud rolling along the ground coming from the German lines and as
sumed it was a smoke screen, so they readied for an attack. Instead, the lethal gas was upon them before they recognized the peril they were in. Many died an agonizing death where they had stood. Others ran, but that only kept them in the cloud longer and they also died. The result was a large gap in the allied line of which the Germans, not willing to rush into the dissipating gas, did not take advantage.

The Canadians, however, closed the hole from the south, braving the dissipating gas and preventing a German breakthrough.

Alan had seen the poor wretches that had encountered the attack. Many were blind. All were coughing foamy blood or had horrible labored breathing. This was a new, diabolical weapon that struck fear into the troops, yet the psychological impact it had was much greater than the actual loss of life it caused.