Nova Scotia/Nunavut Command of The Royal Canadian Legion www.ns.legion.ca 103 Barss was born on Feb. 10, 1888 in Canso, Nova Scotia. On Jan. 11, 1916, at Wainwright, Alberta, he enlisted in the Canadian Expeditionary Forces (Infantry) and served with 151st (Central Alberta) Battalion and 16th Battalion (Canadian Scottish) in England and France. Private Harrington was assigned to the 16th Battalion and crossed the English Channel to the Canadian Corps Reinforcement Camp in France on Nov. 13, 1916. The 16th Battalion (Canadian Scottish) was among the first units organized for overseas service, created at Valcartier, QC, on Sept. 2, 1914. Drawing its initial recruits from four Canadian Highland regiments, the 16th was part of the 3rd Brigade, 1st Canadian Division, and had crossed the Atlantic to England with the First Canadian Contingent in October 1914, arriving at the front early the following year. The 16th’s first tour at the front since Barss’s arrival began on Dec. 13, when the unit entered the line at Berthonval Wood in brigade support. Conditions at that time of year were far from comfortable, as the battalion’s war diary recorded: “Weather wet and ground very muddy. … Front line in bad condition.” As a new arrival, Barss did not immediately see duty in the front trenches. He described his situation in a Dec. 14 letter to Irene, a friend from Alberta whose surname is unknown: “The weather is fine here now but very changeable. You can hear the guns plainly. … Things seem quiet, most too quiet to last long to my way of thinking. Some day there will be an awful bust up, and then either the finish or some of the worst since the war started. But we hope it will be finished ere long. I can stand anything that the average man can. Therefore, why should I worry. You bet your life we will see it through come what may and here’s hoping we come back safely.” The battalion served in rotation until Dec. 23, when the 16th retired to Maisnil-lès-Ruitz for another period of rest and training. This pattern was typical of winter front line service, with little combat due to the weather. Barss described his accommodations at the front in a letter to Layton and Mary on Dec. 24, 1916: “I will give you a description of our dugout. As the name implies, it is in the ground and resembles one of our potato pits. The one we had held three men. When we went in, there was just a chimney in it so we made a fire, but it smoked us out the first night. Then next day, I got some tin and clay and built a fireplace. After that every night we had a grand old fire to dry our clothes by. Then we shifted to another place and we had a dugout which held 10 men. It was like a hotel in that it had spring bunks to sleep on. The only drawback was that you had to keep candles burning all the time.” The battalion moved to Estrée-Cauchie on April 3 in preparation for the Canadian Corps attack on Vimy Ridge. Two days later, three of its four companies moved to the forward area, while the fourth remained nearby in reserve. On April 6, officers received news of a 24-hour postponement due to poor weather. Meanwhile, raiding parties reconnoitered the enemy’s wire, conducting daylight excursions into no Man’s land. The battalion’s remaining company moved forward on April 8. At 3:58 a.m. on the morning of April 9, 1917, the entire 16th Battalion gathered at its assigned assembly position; the operation started with a massive artillery barrage at 5:30 a.m. With the 14th Battalion (Royal Montreal Regiment) to its right and the 18th Battalion (a Western Ontario unit) to its left, Barss and the men of the 16th Canadian Scottish went over the top at 5:32 a.m. The war diary noted that “one piper went with each company” as the men advanced across no man’s land. All objectives were reached within hours as the battalion captured 100 German prisoners. Barss provided a detailed description of his Vimy experience in an April 23, 1917, letter to Irene: “On the 7th we moved from the billets to the front line with orders to go over in the morning. It poured rain all the way A Featured Veteran Story JOHN BARSS “HAL” HARRINGTON Continued . . .
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