From the News

2nd Battalion C.E.F. - Second Battle of Ypres

Toronto Evening Telegram

The following newspaper article does not reveal the first names of the soldiers interviewed from the 2nd Battalion, Eastern Ontario Regiment. This report was filed back to Canada for publication in newspapers, and appears to have been compiled by reporters. It has been censored, and a number of the points made such as the Germans not using bayonets, and the Canadians being anxious to return to the fight, were the type of assertions that would fit well with an agenda to show that the Allies were winning the war. Publishing the comments regarding Germans deliberately bombing aid stations, would have inflamed home front anger against the enemy, and fit into wartime propaganda. Objectively, this shelling could have been accidental -- Germans may have not known the location of the aid stations, and aid stations moved frequently during this engagement. Shelling was not always accurate.

A look through the attestations gives two possibilities for the identities of the men quoted in this article, but this cannot yet be confirmed. Sergt. Larkin may be James Larkin, 8396; and Pte. Wickham may be Sgt. George Henry Wickham, 8160. Both men enlisted at Valcartier in September 1914, putting them with the First Canadian Contingent, and in place within a time frame corresponding with this report. Further confirmation is required.

Capt. Hooper, described in the report as wounded and missing, may have survived. There are no 2nd Battalion officers with this surname listed as killed on the Canadian Virtual Memorial. Further research is required to identify him.

Dated: May 6, 1915

GOT BEHIND GERMAN DEAD

FILED IN PARAPETS.

Canadians Forced to Use Corpses in Front of Trenches - Germans Do Not Use the Bayonet.

Canadian Associated Press Cable.

London, May 6.--Sergt. Larkin, of the Second Battalion, First Brigade, lying wounded at Cardiff, confirms the assertion made by many Canadian that the German dead were so numerous after they had been repulsed in the charges leading up to their great attack that the Canadians piled their bodies as parapets. "The German artillery fire was so heavy that it was more like machine gun fire," he says.

"It is a curious fact that in preliminary German attacks not one of our men was brought in suffering from a bayonet wound. The Germans damaged us by shell or rifle fire, but would not risk coming to us at close quarters. They either ran away or stood still and screamed for mercy."

SECOND BATTALION LOSSES.

"The second battalion at the end of Friday had six officers killed, six wounded and missing, and four wounded. The Germans had absolutely no feeling for the wounded. They shelled the dressing station, and blew fellows lying there wounded into smithereens. Some of our motor ambulances were also blown up. The German prisoners seemed utterly fed up. Several Saxons told us they would sooner be back at work."

"One of the pluckiest things was done by a machine gun team of the second battalion. They occupied a cottage in broad daylight within the German lines and planted a machine gun under Capt. Hooper. Eventually they were driven out. Capt. Hooper is wounded and missing."

WANTS BACK AGAIN.

Pte. Wickham, fort signaller, writing home, says: "I don't know what they are going to do with what are left of the Canadians. We lost everything but our rifles and ammunition. I got through without a scratch, although I had to go half a mile in full view of the Germans over open fields. They put two machine guns on me and just plastered that half mile with shrapnel. I guess, though, what remains of the Canadians are anxious to get busy again. I have lost a pal or two, and am anxious to get even."

Transcribed by: M. I. Pirie