The Great War in Verse and Prose

23 August 1914

Battle of Mons

Our own glorious British Empire, with its traditions of justice,
honour, and liberty, soon became the soul and centre of the Allied
resistance. By her Fleet, by her Armies, by her aircraft, by her
financing, by her supplies, by her indomitable spirit--she endured
and smote the foe. We pay grateful tribute to the achievements of all
our Allies in the common cause; but we do not forget Britain's mighty
burden.

Among the British Armies, no troops have won higher distinction than
the Canadian Corps, under their great leader, Sir Arthur Currie. They
were ranked among the most formidable fighting units on the Western
Front, and as an offensive spear-head of shock troops they were
unsurpassed. They fought in almost every critical engagement of the
War. They "saved the day" at the second Battle of Ypres, in face of the
hideous emission of poison gas; they fought in the long-drawn agony of
the Somme; they won Vimy Ridge, Hill 70, and Passchendaele in 1917;
they were in the thickest of the battle in the last "hundred days", as
they fought triumphantly at Amiens, Arras, Cambrai, Valenciennes, and
Mons. The last blow struck before the Armistice was signed, was struck
by the Canadians, who entered Mons early on the morning of the eleventh
of November. The course of the war for the British Armies on the
Western Front was _from Mons_, where the "Old Contemptibles" were flung
into the furnace of the fight in August, 1914, _to Mons_, won by our
men from overseas in November, 1918. It was "a long, long way", a way
stained by blood and sweat, but at last the grim journey ended. Canada
has made a worthy contribution to world-freedom and world-brotherhood.

Canada is dearer to us than ever, because it has been purchased anew
at a great cost of precious blood. Those who have fallen are worthy of
everlasting remembrance. They will be commemorated by public monuments,
by tablets of bronze, or brass or marble in public buildings, by
"storied windows richly dight". They deserve this. But, before God,
they deserve at our hands a better monument--even the monument of
a purer, nobler Canada, more intelligent, more united, more sober,
more kindly, more God-fearing. Dying for Canada, they have recreated
Canada. Let us be worthy of those whose deaths have kept us free.

The very serious conflict in which we are now engaged on the Continent
has been none of our seeking. It will undoubtedly strain the resources
of our Empire and entail considerable sacrifices on our people. These
will be willingly borne for our honour and for the preservation of
our position in the world; and they will be shared by our Dominions
beyond the seas, now sending contingents and assistance of every kind
to help the Mother Country in this struggle. If I am unable, owing to
military considerations for the best interests of the Allied Armies in
the field, to speak with much detail on the present situation of our
Army on the Continent, I am sure your Lordships will pardon me for the
necessary restraint which is imposed upon me.

The Expeditionary Force has taken the field on the French North-West
frontier, and advanced to the neighbourhood of Mons in Belgium.
Our troops have already been for thirty-six hours in contact with
a superior force of German invaders. During that time they have
maintained the traditions of British soldiers, and have behaved with
the utmost gallantry.

It is not necessary to say that the population and private property
will be respected. You will always remember that you fought for
justice, right, and decency, and that you cannot afford to fall short
of these essentials, even in the country against which you have every
right to feel bitter.

Rest assured that the crimes of Germany will receive adequate
punishment. Attempts will be made, by insidious propaganda, to
undermine the source of your strength; but you, the soldier citizens of
the finest and most advanced democracy in the world, will treat such
attempts with the contempt they deserve. You know that self-imposed,
stern discipline has made you the hardest, most successful, and
cleanest fighters of this war. Beginning by the immortal stand at the
second battle of Ypres, you befittingly closed by the capture of Mons
your fighting record, in which every battle you fought is a resplendent
page of glory. I trust you, and the people at home trust you, while the
memory of your dead comrades demands of you to bring back that glorious
record, pure and unsullied, to Canada.

ARTHUR W. CURRIE,
Lieut.-Gen. Commanding Canadian Corps

5–12 September 1914

First Battle of the Marne

The gray battalions were driving down
Like snow from the North on Paris Town.
Dread and panic were in the air,
The fate of Empires hung by a hair.
With the world in the balance, what shall decide?
How stem the sweep of the conquering tide?
God of Justice, be not far
In this our hour of holy war!
In one man's valour, where all were men,
The strength of a people was gathered then.
"My right is weakened, my left is thin,
My centre is almost driven in,"--
The soul of a patriot spoke through the hush,--
"I shall advance!" said General Foch.

Forth from Paris to meet the storm
They rushed like bees in an angry swarm.
By motor and lorry and truck they came
Swift as the wind and fierce as flame.
Papa Joffre knew the trick
Of stinging hot and hard and quick.
Not for ambition and not for pride,
For France they fought, for France they died,
Striking the blow of the Marne that hurled
The barbarians back and saved the world.
The German against that hope forlorn
Broke his drive like a crumpled horn.
Their right was weakened, their left was thin,
Their centre was almost driven in,
When the tide of battle turned with a rush;
For France was there--and Ferdinand Foch.

Not since Garibaldi's stroke
Freed his land from the Austrian yoke,
And Italy after a thousand years
Walked in beauty among her peers;
Not since Nelson followed the star
Of Freedom to triumph at Trafalgar
On the tossing floor of the Western seas;
No, not since Miltiades
Fronted the Persian hosts and won
Against the tyrant at Marathon,
Has a greater defender of liberty
Stood and struck for the cause, than he
Whose right was weakened, whose left was thin,
Whose centre was almost driven in,
But whose iron courage no fate could crush,
Nor hinder. "I shall advance!" said Foch.

His Majesty the King, London

I desire to congratulate you most heartily on the splendid action of
the British troops in the Battle of the Marne. In the name of the whole
Belgian nation I express to you our deepest admiration for the stubborn
courage of the officers and soldiers of your Army.

God will surely help our Armies to avenge the atrocities committed on
peaceful citizens and against a country whose only crime has been that
she refused to be false to her engagements.

. . . . . . . . . .

Aye, not since France herself first stood at bay,
To conquer or to die on Marne's green banks,
Driving at last across its crimsoned flood
The flower of Germany in shattered ranks,
Has there been crowded in a single day
More breathless glory for heroic lay.
England, our mother, once our boasting hear!
And in thy streets let flags and banners fly!
To drums and bugles let the people march
While Vimy Ridge is shouted to the sky!

. . . . . . . . . .

22 April – 25 May 1915

Second Battle of Ypres

Our own glorious British Empire, with its traditions of justice,
honour, and liberty, soon became the soul and centre of the Allied
resistance. By her Fleet, by her Armies, by her aircraft, by her
financing, by her supplies, by her indomitable spirit--she endured
and smote the foe. We pay grateful tribute to the achievements of all
our Allies in the common cause; but we do not forget Britain's mighty
burden.

Among the British Armies, no troops have won higher distinction than
the Canadian Corps, under their great leader, Sir Arthur Currie. They
were ranked among the most formidable fighting units on the Western
Front, and as an offensive spear-head of shock troops they were
unsurpassed. They fought in almost every critical engagement of the
War. They "saved the day" at the second Battle of Ypres, in face of the
hideous emission of poison gas; they fought in the long-drawn agony of
the Somme; they won Vimy Ridge, Hill 70, and Passchendaele in 1917;
they were in the thickest of the battle in the last "hundred days", as
they fought triumphantly at Amiens, Arras, Cambrai, Valenciennes, and
Mons. The last blow struck before the Armistice was signed, was struck
by the Canadians, who entered Mons early on the morning of the eleventh
of November. The course of the war for the British Armies on the
Western Front was _from Mons_, where the "Old Contemptibles" were flung
into the furnace of the fight in August, 1914, _to Mons_, won by our
men from overseas in November, 1918. It was "a long, long way", a way
stained by blood and sweat, but at last the grim journey ended. Canada
has made a worthy contribution to world-freedom and world-brotherhood.

Canada is dearer to us than ever, because it has been purchased anew
at a great cost of precious blood. Those who have fallen are worthy of
everlasting remembrance. They will be commemorated by public monuments,
by tablets of bronze, or brass or marble in public buildings, by
"storied windows richly dight". They deserve this. But, before God,
they deserve at our hands a better monument--even the monument of
a purer, nobler Canada, more intelligent, more united, more sober,
more kindly, more God-fearing. Dying for Canada, they have recreated
Canada. Let us be worthy of those whose deaths have kept us free.

FOOTNOTE:

[B] Captain the Hon. Julian H. F. Grenfell, D.S.O., was wounded in the
trenches in front of Ypres on May 13 and died in hospital on May 26,
1915.

(_May 12, 1917_)

It must not be forgotten that in the month of February, 1915, at
Ypres, in the north of France, near the Belgian frontier, in a country
devastated by floods, after the terrific assault of the German soldiers
by means of asphyxiating gases--Germany, the country that has caused
science to swerve from its true ends, and, instead of pouring its
benefits upon mankind, has visited humanity with manifold evils and
crimes--that same Germany had to meet your Canadian soldiers. On that
terrific day, your sons, rising in their might, saved the situation.

And throughout many battles, throughout numerous and recent victories,
the soldiers of Canada stood up heroically against the foe. Even at
this moment, we have before our eyes your boys, so alert, so athletic,
so brave, the first to storm, victoriously carrying their flag to those
heights of Vimy which were reputed to be impregnable.

It is not necessary to say that the population and private property
will be respected. You will always remember that you fought for
justice, right, and decency, and that you cannot afford to fall short
of these essentials, even in the country against which you have every
right to feel bitter.

Rest assured that the crimes of Germany will receive adequate
punishment. Attempts will be made, by insidious propaganda, to
undermine the source of your strength; but you, the soldier citizens of
the finest and most advanced democracy in the world, will treat such
attempts with the contempt they deserve. You know that self-imposed,
stern discipline has made you the hardest, most successful, and
cleanest fighters of this war. Beginning by the immortal stand at the
second battle of Ypres, you befittingly closed by the capture of Mons
your fighting record, in which every battle you fought is a resplendent
page of glory. I trust you, and the people at home trust you, while the
memory of your dead comrades demands of you to bring back that glorious
record, pure and unsullied, to Canada.

ARTHUR W. CURRIE,
Lieut.-Gen. Commanding Canadian Corps

31 July – 10 November 1917

Battle of Passchendaele

Our own glorious British Empire, with its traditions of justice,
honour, and liberty, soon became the soul and centre of the Allied
resistance. By her Fleet, by her Armies, by her aircraft, by her
financing, by her supplies, by her indomitable spirit--she endured
and smote the foe. We pay grateful tribute to the achievements of all
our Allies in the common cause; but we do not forget Britain's mighty
burden.

Among the British Armies, no troops have won higher distinction than
the Canadian Corps, under their great leader, Sir Arthur Currie. They
were ranked among the most formidable fighting units on the Western
Front, and as an offensive spear-head of shock troops they were
unsurpassed. They fought in almost every critical engagement of the
War. They "saved the day" at the second Battle of Ypres, in face of the
hideous emission of poison gas; they fought in the long-drawn agony of
the Somme; they won Vimy Ridge, Hill 70, and Passchendaele in 1917;
they were in the thickest of the battle in the last "hundred days", as
they fought triumphantly at Amiens, Arras, Cambrai, Valenciennes, and
Mons. The last blow struck before the Armistice was signed, was struck
by the Canadians, who entered Mons early on the morning of the eleventh
of November. The course of the war for the British Armies on the
Western Front was _from Mons_, where the "Old Contemptibles" were flung
into the furnace of the fight in August, 1914, _to Mons_, won by our
men from overseas in November, 1918. It was "a long, long way", a way
stained by blood and sweat, but at last the grim journey ended. Canada
has made a worthy contribution to world-freedom and world-brotherhood.

Canada is dearer to us than ever, because it has been purchased anew
at a great cost of precious blood. Those who have fallen are worthy of
everlasting remembrance. They will be commemorated by public monuments,
by tablets of bronze, or brass or marble in public buildings, by
"storied windows richly dight". They deserve this. But, before God,
they deserve at our hands a better monument--even the monument of
a purer, nobler Canada, more intelligent, more united, more sober,
more kindly, more God-fearing. Dying for Canada, they have recreated
Canada. Let us be worthy of those whose deaths have kept us free.

FOOTNOTE:

[B] Captain the Hon. Julian H. F. Grenfell, D.S.O., was wounded in the
trenches in front of Ypres on May 13 and died in hospital on May 26,
1915.

(_May 12, 1917_)

It must not be forgotten that in the month of February, 1915, at
Ypres, in the north of France, near the Belgian frontier, in a country
devastated by floods, after the terrific assault of the German soldiers
by means of asphyxiating gases--Germany, the country that has caused
science to swerve from its true ends, and, instead of pouring its
benefits upon mankind, has visited humanity with manifold evils and
crimes--that same Germany had to meet your Canadian soldiers. On that
terrific day, your sons, rising in their might, saved the situation.

And throughout many battles, throughout numerous and recent victories,
the soldiers of Canada stood up heroically against the foe. Even at
this moment, we have before our eyes your boys, so alert, so athletic,
so brave, the first to storm, victoriously carrying their flag to those
heights of Vimy which were reputed to be impregnable.

It is not necessary to say that the population and private property
will be respected. You will always remember that you fought for
justice, right, and decency, and that you cannot afford to fall short
of these essentials, even in the country against which you have every
right to feel bitter.

Rest assured that the crimes of Germany will receive adequate
punishment. Attempts will be made, by insidious propaganda, to
undermine the source of your strength; but you, the soldier citizens of
the finest and most advanced democracy in the world, will treat such
attempts with the contempt they deserve. You know that self-imposed,
stern discipline has made you the hardest, most successful, and
cleanest fighters of this war. Beginning by the immortal stand at the
second battle of Ypres, you befittingly closed by the capture of Mons
your fighting record, in which every battle you fought is a resplendent
page of glory. I trust you, and the people at home trust you, while the
memory of your dead comrades demands of you to bring back that glorious
record, pure and unsullied, to Canada.

ARTHUR W. CURRIE,
Lieut.-Gen. Commanding Canadian Corps