From the News

Dated:

In the Anglican cathedral of Halifax, N.S., the people have a Book of Remembrance. It is the book of Nova Scotia's dead in the Great War.

On Armistice Day of this year the book was well thumbed. Many names of men well known to westerners who played a great part in the campaigns of the 44th battalion, appear in this book, and in the evening of the memorable anniversary, in the quiet of the home, diaries were reproduced and some of the sacred incidents of the campaign recalled.

In a recent issue of the Chronicle, of Halifax, a writer recounts one or two incidents of the campaign in which two members of the 44th, Charlie Belcher and Moses Oliver, had a heroic part. The 44th was organized in Winnipeg, and when it got overseas received from time to time recruits from Nova Scotia, and that is why the people of Nova Scotia reverence the memory of the men of the 44th.

The Halifax writer records what befell the battalion on one memorable week. General Byng's latest message had said: "It gives me the opportunity of expressing to all ranks the pride I feel in commanding the Canadian corps." That was after the Canadian troops had captured Vimy Ridge. The consolidation which followed was the most critical period. Tremendous efforts were made by the Germans the recapture the lost positions. For several days after May 7 during the German counter-assaults, streams of men came back to the Canadian casualty stations.

May 13 tells the story of a fearful night. In six days the 44th had lost half their men and officers.

May 10, General Byng had sent this message to the Canadians: "Yours is the finest work that has been done by any brigade in the British army. You have made three attacks and repelled seven counter-attacks."

The battalion had gone in up to strength and had come out with only a handful of officers and with every company shattered. The Halifax writer goes on:

"Let us recall two deathless incidents of our comrades. May 11 takes us back to the time the enemy had been driven from Vimy Ridge. The Canadian lines ran far out in the plains below. Reinforcements had been sent up for the enemy was stiffening. The Canadians were in their own hastily-made trenches and in those deserted by the Germans, only protected by sandbags. In front there was no defence. There had been no time to put up any.

"But what was coming was something nobody in this battalion had ever seen.The flammen-werfer - the dreaded "liquid fire." The guards broke and fell back. Moses Oliver, a young lieutenant, saw the danger. He drew back the stragglers. Encouraged by his example, they turned and faced the enemy. The safety of the line was at stake. He did not know how the meet the fire, but snatching up some bombs he flew along the trench to meet it. The liquid fire struck him. The fire came on. It drove everything before it. Soon a stretch of trench was in their hands. A sort of salient. When later the ground was taken back, where Moses met the flame was just a blackened shadow stretching up the trench's side, like lamp-black. His life was burned to nothing in a moment.

"Another lad, Charles Belcher, lad or man of twenty-six, second in command, the idol of the battalion, saw the danger. With marvelous skill he withdrew his men, took up position in the trenches farther back, blocked the passage-ways, and stayed the advance. That was all in the early grey of dawn. There had been rain that night. Through the long day the sun was beating down above. But from among the debris of the blackened shell holes here and there burst up a little fern, coaxed by the rain, the first sign of coming spring. We had almost forgotten that green things ever grew.

"At four o'clock that afternoon, a wonderful thing happened. Charlie Belcher was an athlete. He had captained the footballers. He had made his name in hockey. He had the confidence and devotion of every last man he had. And at four o'clock in the broad daylight, without a barrage, without warning of any kind, at his bidding the men leapt the trenches, spurted across the sixty or seventy yards between, and were upon the enemy before he knew. It was a complete surprise. The enemy ran back through the trenches, over the parapets, anywhere, everywhere, in any direction they could get away. And we were back exactly where we were before.

Commander's "O.K."

"A few hours rest and then a terrible ordeal. The German artillery opened fire. The enemy counter-attacked but was beaten desperately back. The wounded came walking in. Stretcher cases came. Then the guns got range of the c.t. Stretchers could not come down the trench. At last came silence. The colonel was just sixty or seventy yards behind. Charlie Belcher talked to him on the telephone. He told him all was well. He had the O.C.'s implicit confidence. He went on to tell minutely how his men were placed. Impatiently the colonel said, "Yes, yes. It's all right. That's alright." But he insisted on telling exactly how things stood. This was strange. He said he was slightly wounded.

"When at last the fire died in silence the stretcher brought him down. With a smile the doctor ran his fingers through his hair as he lay upon the stretcher, with a caress gentler than a woman's, saying, "Well, Charles," the next minute he staggered back - "My God, he's dead." Shot through the stomach, telling nobody he was mortally hurt. Dying as he lived, but dead - and for almost the first time the whole battalion felt that nothing mattered now. What mattered whether school kept or not - Charlie Belcher was dead.

"We buried him next day, with what was left of the battalion gathered round. They didn't weep in France, but there were no dry eyes round his grave. They wept brokenly and openly, for he was one of the whitest souls that ever breathed.

"Why tell the story here? Because his name is not known in Nova Scotia. The name of Moses Oliver is unknown here. But there men belonged to you and me. There was no east or west - no battalion, brigade, division or army then - just men, men welded into one, with one soul, one spirit, one ambition, one objective. And in his grave lay one who enshrined the tenderest and best of all."

Prominent Athlete

"Charlie" Belcher was one of the best known of the younger generation in Winnipeg. He was with Black and Armstrong when he enlisted. He was with the Victoria hockey team in the years when they won and retained the Allen cup, 1910, 1911 and 1912. He was prominent in Winnipeg Rowing club circles, and won four international events one season. His mother, one brother and one sister live in Vancouver; one brother, Fred, is in the Bank of Montreal, Regina; and one sister, Mrs. W.E. Hargreaves, lives in Winnipeg. Moses Oliver was a student at Wesley college when he enlisted and decided to study for the ministry when duty called him overseas.