The RCR Association Documents
PURSUIT TO MONS
MONS DAY: 10 NOVEMBER 1918
Capt RA Appleton
On 28 June 1914, the heir to the throne of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the Archduke Franz Ferdinand, was assassinated at Sarajevo, capital of the imperial province of Bosnia-Herzegovina. The assassin was a young Bosnian Serb nationalist, Gavrilo Princip. He was a member of a Serbian terrorist organization, the Black Hand, whose avowed purpose was the violent unification of Bosnia with Serbia. As a result of power politics, intense national rivalries, and the interlocking web of military alliances, this single act of political terrorism perpetrated in a Balkans backwater, led inexorably to global conflict. Very quickly, all the Great Powers of Europe were drawn into the war that is now referred to as the First World War.
This war was waged with an unprecedented totality and ferocity between 04 August 1914 and 11 November 1918. The combatant nations mobilized over 65 million men, of whom a staggering 10 million would perish. It is estimated that at least 13 million civilians also died. The First World War was fought in Europe, Africa, the Middle East, the Far East, in the air and both upon and beneath the oceans. It was dominated by the sheer killing power of both modern artillery and the machine gun. This great conflict was marked by the advent of aircraft, submarines, tanks, and poison gas as weapons of war.
As a self-governing colony of the British Empire, Canada was automatically at war the moment, on 04 August 1914, that Britain declared war on Germany. Though it is difficult to comprehend the relevancy of Balkan politics or Belgian neutrality to the Canada of that era, Canadian support for the war effort was wholehearted and unstinting. With a population of only eight million, Canada incredibly dispatched 620,000 troops to Europe during the course of the war. Canada's war sacrifice was correspondingly huge, with 66,000 dead and 173,000 wounded. The First World War was a decisive watershed in Canadian history. Canada would emerge from the conflict as a politically independent nation with a powerful industrial base.
A new and potent Canadian nationalism emerged as a result of the exploits and electrifying victories of Canadian Corps on the Western Front. Canadian soldiers had first gained renown at the Second Battle of Ypres in April 1915. Here, for the first time in the history of warfare, the Germans had unleashed poison gas on their foes. French troops had fled in the face of this new horror. However, the Canadians had valiantly stood their ground and had repulsed the German attacks. On 09 April 1917, the Canadians had won their most famous victory, capturing Vimy Ridge, a defensive bastion previously thought to have been impregnable. After Vimy, the Canadians would almost invariably spearhead any major British assault. In October 1917, at the Third Battle of Ypres, better known in history as Passchendaele, Canadian Corps would solidify its reputation as an elite body of shock troops that could achieve the near impossible when all others failed. Between 08 August 1918 and the end of the war, the period known as "The Hundred Days," Canadian Corps was in action almost continuously. It suffered 42,000 casualties in the final four months of the war. As the conflict became a war of movement at last, the Canadians liberated 228 cities, towns, and villages, while defeating elements of 47 different German divisions, about one-quarter of the enemy's strength on the Western Front. Canadian Corps took 32,000 Germans prisoner and captured more than 600 guns. It led five major offensives from Amiens to the Pursuit to Mons, advancing some 80 miles.
If the First World War had been ignited in the Bosnian town of Sarajevo, it would end at Mons. In the final days of the First World War, the German Army, battered but not yet ready to surrender, retreated headlong across the landscape of Belgium. In hot pursuit was the British Expeditionary Force led by the Canadian Corps. Well earned was the title these Canadians bore, "Shock Troops of the British Empire." For Canadian Corps had emerged as the finest combat formation on either side of the Western Front. In the words of wartime British prime minister, David Lloyd George, "The Canadians played a part of such distinction that henceforward they were marked out as storm troops; for the remainder of the war they were brought along to head the assault in one great battle after another. Whenever the Germans found the Canadian Corps coming into the line they prepared for the worst." On 09 November 1918, The Royal Canadian Regiment, as part of the 7th Infantry Brigade of the 3rd Canadian Division, was at the very point of the Allied advance, in the vicinity of the ancient Belgian city of Mons.
Mons was a name that resonated throughout the entire English- speaking world. For it was here in the early days of the war that British troops, outnumbered seven to one, had inflicted the first serious check on the previously unstoppable German armies. Mons represented a glittering prize of immense psychological and symbolic value that every British and Canadian unit was desperate to capture. The Commanding Officer of The Royal Canadian Regiment, Lieutenant-Colonel G.W. MacLeod, DSO, was now ordered by 7th Brigade to advance on and capture the city of Mons.
Early on the morning of 10 November, having previously crossed the Canal De Condé by means of an improvised bridge, B, C and D Companies of The RCR carried out an encircling movement in order to approach the city from the north. Their advance was made under cover of a heavy mist and progress was good. But the sun eventually burned the fog away and B Company was confronted by a powerful German defensive position atop a group of slag heaps, directly in its path. The three rifle companies were brought under heavy and accurate enemy machine-gun and artillery fire from the outskirts of Mons. Loathe accepting heavy casualties with the end of the war seemingly in sight, the troops were extremely cautious in attempting any additional forward movement. Taking advantage of any cover offered by the ground, the Canadians slowly winkled their way towards the enemy, eventually dislodging the Germans from their dominating position.
B Company now sent out a patrol under Lieutenant D.D. Shields to discover if there was an unguarded entrance into Mons further to the north. They found a partly demolished bridge over the canal leading into the city. There being no sign of the enemy, Lieutenant Shields led his party out onto the bridge. A well concealed German machine-gun crew on the far side allowed the Canadian patrol to come halfway across then opened fire, killing Shields and four of his men instantly. These four soldiers were Privates M. Cady, F.W. MacLean, T.E. Stevens and C.J. Ward. They were the last members of the Regiment to be killed in action during the Great War. On this same day, three officers and 18 other soldiers of The RCR were wounded in the vicinity of Mons.
Simultaneous to this operation, A Company, advancing to the south of the Canal De Condé, had attacked Mons from a southerly direction. They too had penetrated to within a few hundred yards of the city and then been pinned down by concentrated and accurate German machine-gun fire. As determined German resistance continued throughout the day and night, there were no further developments on 10 November. By 0200 hours on 11 November, enemy fire had all but ceased and it soon became apparent to A Company that most of the Germans had evacuated Mons. At 0500 hours, A Company marched into the city unopposed.
In the meantime, on the previous evening, B Company, under Lieutenant J.W. Miller, had persisted in its efforts to break into Mons over the canal bridge to the north. The Germans continued to resist furiously throughout the day and night, but at around midnight their fire slackened. No. 5 Platoon, led by Lieutenant W.M. King and followed by B Company Headquarters, scrambled across the bridge, entered the city and confirmed that the Germans had fled.
No. 5 Platoon moved cautiously through the dark streets towards the centre of the city. Lieutenant King and his men arrived at the Grande Place outside the Hotel de Ville where they were met by the Mayor and other civic dignitaries. The Golden Book of Mons was brought forward and Lieutenant King signed his name on this document on behalf of his Regiment. Thus on the final day of the First World War fell to The Royal Canadian Regiment the honour of having fought the last engagement and fired the last shots of that conflict, while liberating the town of Mons.
Notification soon reached The Regiment that all hostilities would cease that day, 11 November 1918 at 1100 Hours. Germany had at last surrendered. During the course of this great and terrible war, The Royal Canadian Regiment had suffered total casualties of 3,113. Of these, 710 all ranks had been killed in action or had died of wounds. A further 64 died from disease or injury. Remember these men.
Pro Patria!