The Great War As I Saw It

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Great War As I Saw It, by Frederick George Scott

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Title: The Great War As I Saw It
Author: Frederick George Scott
Release Date: November 18, 2006 [EBook #19857]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
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[Transcriber's note: -Obvious printer's errors have been corrected. -Variable spelling of hyphenated words has been made consistent. -Missing page numbers correspond to blank pages. -Punctuation conventions of the original have been retained. -Inconsistent spelling of place names has been retained.]

[Illustration: Frontispiece]

The Great War as I Saw It

[Illustration: Frederick George Scott.]

The Great War as I Saw It
by
Canon Frederick George Scott, C.M.G., D.S.O. Late Senior Chaplain First Canadian Division, C.E.F.
Author of "Later Canadian Poems," and "Hymn of the Empire."

F. D. GOODCHILD COMPANY Publishers Toronto

Copyright, Canada, 1922 by Frederick George Scott

CONTENTS (p. 005)
PAGE
CHAPTER I.
How I got into the War--July to September, 1914 15
CHAPTER II.
The Voyage to England--September 29th to October 18th, 1914 25
CHAPTER III.
On Salisbury Plain--October 18th, 1914 to January 1st, 1915 30
CHAPTER IV.
Off to France--January to March, 1915 34
CHAPTER V.
Before the Storm--March and April, 1915 48
CHAPTER VI.
The Second Battle of Ypres--April 22nd, 1915 55
CHAPTER VII.
Festubert and Givenchy--May and June, 1915 74
CHAPTER VIII.
A Lull in Operations--Ploegsteert, July to December, 1915 93
CHAPTER IX.
Our First Christmas in France 118
CHAPTER X.
Spring, 1916 122
CHAPTER XI.
The Attack on Mount Sorrel--Summer, 1916 128
CHAPTER XII.
The Battle of the Somme--Autumn, 1916 134
CHAPTER XIII.
Our Home at Camblain l'Abbé--November, 1916 149
CHAPTER XIV.
My Search is Rewarded 154
CHAPTER XV.
A Time of Preparation--Christmas, 1916 to April, 1917 159
CHAPTER XVI.
The Capture of Vimy Ridge--April 9th, 1917 167
CHAPTER XVII.
A Month on the Ridge--April and May, 1917 173
CHAPTER XVIII.
(p. 006) A Well-earned Rest--May and June, 1917 179
CHAPTER XIX.
Paris Leave--June, 1917 186
CHAPTER XX.
We take Hill 70--July and August, 1917 192
CHAPTER XXI.
Every day Life--August and September, 1917 203
CHAPTER XXII.
A Tragedy of War 210
CHAPTER XXIII.
Visits to Rome and Paschendaele--Oct. and Nov., 1917 216
CHAPTER XXIV.
Our Last War Christmas 230
CHAPTER XXV.
Victory Year Opens--January and February, 1918 234
CHAPTER XXVI.
The German Offensive--March, 1918 240
CHAPTER XXVII.
In Front of Arras--April, 1918 248
CHAPTER XXVIII.
Sports and Pastimes--May and June, 1918 254
CHAPTER XXIX.
The Beginning of the End 267
CHAPTER XXX.
The Battle of Amiens--August 8th to August 16th, 1918 274
CHAPTER XXXI.
We Return to Arras--August, 1918 288
CHAPTER XXXII.
The Smashing of the Drocourt-Quéant Line--Sept. 2nd, 1918 292
CHAPTER XXXIII.
Preparing for the Final Blow--September, 1918 298
CHAPTER XXXIV.
The Crossing of the Canal du Nord--September 27th, 1918 307
CHAPTER XXXV.
VICTORY--November 11th, 1918 318
INDEX 321

TO (p. 007) THE OFFICERS AND MEN OF THE FIRST CANADIAN DIVISION, C.E.F.

"THE UNBROKEN LINE."
We who have trod the borderlands of death, Where courage high walks hand in hand with fear, Shall we not hearken what the Spirit saith, "All ye were brothers there, be brothers here?"
We who have struggled through the baffling night, Where men were men and every man divine, While round us brave hearts perished for the right By chaliced shell-holes stained with life's rich wine.
Let us not lose the exalted love which came From comradeship with danger and the joy Of strong souls kindled into living flame By one supreme desire, one high employ.
Let us draw closer in these narrower years, Before us still the eternal visions spread; We who outmastered death and all its fears Are one great army still, living and dead. F. G. S.

FOREWORD (p. 009)
It is with great pleasure I accede to the request of Canon Scott to write a foreword to his book.
I first heard of my friend and comrade after the second battle of Ypres when he accompanied his beloved Canadians to Bethune after their glorious stand in that poisonous gap--which in my own mind he immortalised in verse:--
O England of our fathers, and England of our sons, Above the roar of battling hosts, the thunder of the guns, A mother's voice was calling us, we heard it oversea, The blood which thou didst give us, is the blood we spill for thee.
Little did I think when I first saw him that he could possibly, at his time of life, bear the rough and tumble of the heaviest fighting in history, and come through with buoyancy of spirit younger men envied and older men recognized as the sign and fruit of self-forgetfulness and the inspiration and cheering of others.
Always in the thick of the fighting, bearing almost a charmed life, ignoring any suggestion that he should be posted to a softer job "further back," he held on to the very