100 Years Ago

AUGUST 16, 1918 

Cavalry against pill-boxes

One of the finest fights the Canadian cavalry have been in was on Sunday morning on the Amiens-Roye road, between Goyencourt and Andechy. Two giant pill-boxes of heavy steel and cement stand sentinel over the main road and two cross-roads. They held up our infantry during the first Somme advance, and although the concussion from our heavy shells killed most of the garrisons, the forts were not destroyed. After the advance they were strengthened, and used for defence in the March Allied retirement. A hasty attempt to blow them up was unsuccessful.

Now, they once more frowned on the attacking troops. A force of Canadian cavalry divided into small parties and spread over tracks which led towards the redoubts. The German outposts were surprised and killed, and there seemed a chance of gaining the position by surprise. The garrison’s attention was taken up by minor fights on either side, when suddenly a party of the Canadian cavalry charged down the main road to within 50 yards of the little forts, when they encountered barbed wire and were held up. They had considerable losses in men and horses from machine-gun fire. The mounted men galloped to shelter, but the troopers who had been dismounted, sheltered by their dead horses and what cover they could get, went on cutting wire. With a semblance of a path cut through, the cavalry commander, in conjunction with some whippet Tanks, launched another party. Guided by their unmounted comrades, the troops got through the first wire and were right on top of the positions. They fired point-blank into the little forts, and then swerved to the right into the shelter of a small wood. There were a considerable number of casualties, but the German garrisons, panic-stricken at the closeness of the horsemen and afraid of being cut off, fled out through the rear trenches. The gaining of the position meant everything to the British and French infantry. It was one of the hardest fights Canadian cavalry have been in during this tremendous battle.

The motor machine-gunners have a new mascot in a fine Dachshund bitch they took from a dugout where she refused to leave the body of her master, an officer. She is suffering from shell shock and whines at every explosion, but the unit means to bring her back to Canada.

This week in history - Little Big Horn (25th June 1876)

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Little Big Horn (25th June)

The battle of Little Big Horn, known to many as ‘Custer’s Last Stand’, was in the words of General Terry ‘a sad and terrible blunder.’ The operation’s aim was to force the Indians back on to the reservations and back under Federal control. The Americans planned to do this by encircling the Indians with three columns of troops, led by Generals Crook and Terry, and Colonel Gibbon. The campaign of Little Big Horn, however, went wrong from the beginning. The column led by General Crook was stopped almost immediately, and after a severe mauling fell back to its supply base. Custer, commanding the 7th US Cavalry Regiment under the leadership of Terry, disobeyed his orders and followed a trail left by a large number of ponies towards the Little Big Horn. On the morning of 25 June he encountered a large camp of Indians. Splitting split his command into three groups and failing to asses the strength of the Indian force Custer attacked; with disastrous consequences. By 6pm 210 troopers of the US 7th Cavalry regiments and Custer were dead. On 26 June the Sioux and their allies followed up their success by travelling upstream and attacking Reno, Custer’s second-in-command. Reno’s command, the remainder of the regiment, suffered a further 47 casualties. General Terry and Colonel Gibbon reached the remains of the camp the following day.

100 Years Ago - German Offensive

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/register/general-foch-and-thebattle-p5d9zbw8r


APRIL 16, 1918

General Foch and the Battle

The British and French governments have now agreed to confer upon General Foch the title and powers of Commander-in-Chief of the Allied Armies in France. The decision was clearly not premeditated, but has been rendered imperative by the military position in France and Flanders. Until recently the French and British Armies fought, for all practical purposes, in watertight compartments. The point of contact between the two Allied Armies remained clearly marked until the Germans began their great offensive between Arras and La Fère on March 21. In consequence of the retirement of our Fifth Army, and the hasty concentration of French reinforcements, units of both forces found themselves temporarily intermingled. The French were gradually taking over part of our battle line, and very soon were holding about half the battle front. The battle, in short, was at first exclusively British, but it became half French. In these circumstances the compromise adopted by the Supreme War Council at Versailles last winter was rapidly extended, and General Foch, at the joint desire of the British, French and United States Governments, undertook the task of co-ordinating the action of the Allied Armies with the supreme direction of strategy. This arrangement was hardly in working order when fresh complications arose as a consequence of the new offensive initiated by the enemy north and south of Armentières last week. Pressed by superior forces, the British line astride the Lys was slowly withdrawn for a considerable distance, and our Army again became in need of French help. The advent of French units in the northern battle signifies that, for a period the end of which cannot be foreseen, the old conditions under which the French and British Armies fought on separate fronts are over. There has been a fusion of resources, further emphasized by the decision of the United States government to merge many of their available battalions in French and British brigades to complete their training.

The step does not deprive the British Commander-in-Chief of any of his direct authority over the British Army, and we believe that the British peoples will fully share the entire confidence reposed in General Foch by his own countrymen.