Lindsay, Arthur Lodge

[Source: Strathroy – Caradoc Museum] “An engineer and surveyor educated at the Royal Military College Kingston, red haired Arthur went to Vancouver to work as a surveyor and was a member of the 2nd Seaforth Highlanders. When war was declared he left Alaska and journeyed to Vancouver to join his regiment. His brother was General William Bethune Lindsay, Currie’s field engineer. He served with the 16th Btn in France. On the 22 April 1915 he was killed in action at [Ed. Kitcheners’ Wood, near] St Julien, Belgium when Canadians saved the British line. His memory is honoured on the Menin Gate Ypres Belgium.”

[Source: S-C Lions Website link] “It was on April 22, 1915, at the Second Battle of Ypres, that Lieutenant Arthur Lodge Lindsay was killed in action at Kitcheners’ Wood during the Battle of Gravenstafel Ridge. Lieutenant Lindsay was a member of the 16th Infantry Battalion, within the 3rd Canadian Brigade, within the 1st Canadian Division, as part of the Canadian Expeditionary Force. The Commander of the 3rd Canadian Infantry brigade was Brigadier-General George Stuart Tuxford. The Canadian Scottish company commander was Captain William Rae.

The first world war saw combatant troops arranged in lines facing each other.  The goal was to push your line forward and overtake a planned distance of land.  opposing troops tended to be “dug in” into trenches facing each other – sometimes only dozens of yards apart.  As each side pushed forward the advancing lines were not always straight.  If a particular attack faced less resistance at one point troops could push forward faster and farther than those to their sides and the result was a bulge or “salient” into enemy lines.Such a bulge into the German line had been created in late 1914 at Ypres, France. By the spring of 1915, this became known as the Ypres Salient.  The British Expeditionary Force wanted to hold this salient, even though it meant that they were enclosed on 3 sides by German forces,  as it forced the Germans to put a lot of infantry soldiers along a very long line in a relatively small area of land.  The Germans wanted to eliminate this salient because it did use up a lot of infantry that they wanted to send east to reinforce their lines in the area of Russia.

Such a bulge into the German line had been created in late 1914 at Ypres, France. By the spring of 1915, this became known as the Ypres Salient and pressed four miles into the German line.  The British Expeditionary Force wanted to hold this salient, even though it meant that they were enclosed on 3 sides by German forces,  as it forced the Germans to put a lot of infantry soldiers along a very long line in a relatively small area of land.  The Germans wanted to eliminate this salient because it did use up a lot of infantry that they wanted to send east to reinforce their lines in the area of Russia.

In the days after April 15th, the Germans implemented a new strategy of attack. Even though Germany had signed, in 1899 and 1906, Hague Conventions banning the use of chemical weapons, it had been bringing in a large stockpile of gas cylinders containing chlorine. Chlorine was commonly used in the dye industry and so was easy and cheap to produce and then compress into existing cylinders. Germany was producing 37 tons of chlorine gas a day, and 5 days production was put into 6,000 cylinders, transported toward Ypres, ready for release when conditions were favourable. Chlorine gas is much heavier than air, slow to dissipate and holds close to the ground like a heavy fog.  It required the force of winds to move it away from where it was released, from the German trenches, toward the B.E.F. trenches.  The wind conditions were finally favourable to the Germans on April 22nd. By then they had 5,730 gas cylinders in place.

The Germans were going to release this gas across a front of 1,200 yards running from west of Poelcappelle to a little east of Streenstraat.  The Canadian Scottish company commander, Captain William Rae, among others, had noticed that the Germans had been making unusual openings in the trench lines. Deserters from the German line had reported that a gas attack was coming soon, but the British high command and the French Army general headquarters had dismissed the reports. As a result, the allied troops were totally unprepared for a gas attack.

The maps show the placement of the opposing armies. The Canadian Division was placed on a 4,500-yard front across a valley formed by Strombeek which flowed into the Steenbeek River. The Gravenstafel Ridge ran about 2,000 yards behind the 1st division. The 28th British Division was to the Canadians’ right.To their left was the 45th Algerian Division, with the dividing line between the Canadians and the French being a road running from Poelcappelle to Ypres.

To their left was the 45th Algerian Division, with the dividing line between the Canadians and the French being a road running from Poelcappelle to Ypres.On April 22nd, the 3rd Canadian Infantry Brigade was next to the French Algerians, with the 2nd CIB to its right. The 1st CIB was the divisional reserve. Each of the 3rd and 2nd Brigades had two battalions forward, a third battalion was placed a short distance back for support, and a fourth battalion was stationed to the rear, near Ypres, for divisional support.

Thus Brigadier Richard Turner’s 3rd Brigade had the 13th Royal highlanders and the 15th (48th Highlanders) as forward battalions, with the 14th Royal Montreal Regiment as close support, and the Canadian Scottish (Linsday) to the rear in divisional support. Brig. Turner had his brigade headquarters in St. Julien.

At 4:00 pm (1600 hours) the Germans started a heavy artillery bombardment of the area north and west of St. Julien and onto Ypres. By 5:30, (1730 hours) there was a bombardment of the Algerian-French to the 3rd’s left with a heavy green cloud of gas with a sharp odour spreading across the front. At exactly 1700 hours the Germans had released 160 tons of chlorine gas for a period of about 6 to 8 minutes.  It was being carried over the allied forces by a gentle wind from the northeast.

“One gas cloud first seemed to be closing on the Canadian lines but it then shifted to drift across the Algerian front and joined with the other green-yellow concentrations that created a towering, impenetrable, greenish-yellow fog. Drifting steadily along at five to six miles an hour, the giant cloud was about a half-mile deep by the time it entered the Algerian lines and those of the 87th Territorial Division at its side. There was instant pandemonium, the gas burning men’s throats and eyes, causing intense chest pains, and making it virtually impossible to draw breath. Soldiers began spitting blood and many collapsed dizzily and then suffocated. Thos who survived fled the trenches.”

Mark Zuehlke, “Brave Battalion”, page  50.

At 1715 the German infantry followed the cloud and marched over the allied forces’ bodies with little resistance.

The Canadian Scottish were at the rear and the first signs they had of events were men and horses fleeing from the gas toward the rear.

“The French troops were breathless, bareheaded, without rifles or equipment. Mixed in among the fleeing infantry were French and Belgian artillery limbers, without guns, the drivers holding each other up as if they were wounded. The horses were being galloped amongst the refugees regardless of consequences.”  …  “The infantry showed signs of acute distress and fear. They came back at a trot, coughing and sputtering, and although shouted at, would not stop running. At any attempt to halt their retreat they threw up their hands, and between coughs, as they passed, gasped out, ‘Asphyxié, Asphixié'”.

Mark Zuehlke, “Brave Battalion”, page  51.

According to documents describing the events on April 22nd, it is highly likely that Lt. Lindsay was killed at or about 11:46 p.m. during the Battle of Gravenstafel  Ridge.  That is the time when he and 800 other members of the combined forces of the 10th Battalion of the 2nd Canadian Brigade, and the 16th Battalion (Canadian Scottish) of the 3rd brigade were formed up and sent forward in support of the counterattack to close the gap in the line created when the German released chlorine gas had broken the line.

At 1740 hours the Canadian Scottish (Lindsay), under the command of Lt.- Col. Leckie, received orders to move to brigade headquarters in St. Julien. They did not take the direct route through St. Jean, but rather bypassed the artillery fire by going around through laBrique and Wieltje. There was still heavy shelling and shrapnel but suffered no casualties. After passing through Wieltje, 3-4 hours after the original gas attack and about 1 1/4 miles behind the original front French lines, the battalion rested at the side of the Ypres road. By 1100 hours they had reached brigade headquarters. The orders from 3rd Brigade’s Brigadier Turner were to closely support the 10th Battalion of the 2nd CIB in an attack to drive the Germans out of a trench immediately south of the Bois des Cuisiniers (Kitchener’s Woods), due west of St. Julien. After clearing the trench, the two battalions were to recapture the entire woods.

“The 16th Battalion lined up 30 yards behind the 10th with its No. 2 Company, under Captain William Rae, forward on the left and No. 4 Company, under Captain john Geddes, the right. Precisely 30 yards behind, Captain George Ross’s No. 1 Company was on the left and Captain Cecil Merritt’s No. 3 Company to the right. Together the two battalions numbered about 1,500 men, divided neatly into eight measured lines each of which would go forward with its men so closely aligned that their shoulders brushed. Just thirteen guns from four Canadian and British artillery batteries were available to support the hasty attack.

Assembled in their rigid lines, the two battalions stood in the darkness adjacent to a small farm called Mouse Trap Farm a short distance from the brigade headquarters.”

For the rest of the story read, Mark Zuehlke, “Brave Battalion”, pages  55 – 64, available at the Strathroy library.

A 4-mile (6.4 km) gap was left in the front line. The German High Command had not foreseen the effectiveness of the new weapon and all available troops had been transferred to Russia, leaving few reserves in the west. General von Falkenhayn, Chief of the German General Staff, had ordered the attack as a limited effort by the German 4th Army.[13] German troops advanced at 5:00 p.m., but dusk, apprehension about the effect of the gas and the lack of reserves prevented the Germans from exploiting the gap. Canadian troops defended the flank of the break-in by urinating into cloths and holding them to their faces to counter the effects of the gas. Casualties were especially heavy for the 13th Battalion of the Canadian Expeditionary Force (CEF), which was enveloped on three sides and over-extended in securing its left flank when the Algerian Division broke.

At Kitcheners’ Wood, the 10th Battalion of the 2nd Canadian Brigade was ordered to counter-attack in the gap created by the gas attack. They formed up after 11:00 p.m. on 22 April, with the 16th Battalion (Canadian Scottish) of the 3rd Brigade arriving to support the advance. Both battalions attacked with over 800 men, in waves of two companies each, at 11:46 p.m. Without reconnaissance, the battalions ran into obstacles halfway to their objective; engaged in small-arms fire from the wood, they began an impromptu bayonet charge. The attack cleared the former oak plantation of Germans at a 75-percent casualty rate.”

Wait a minute and a photo cube will appear.  Thank you to Joe Vanden Elzen for sharing some photos he took on a recent trip to France.

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