Nova Scotia/Nunavut Command of The Royal Canadian Legion www.ns.legion.ca 105 into the front line. We went overland to the front line as the trenches were waist deep in mud and water. We were in battle order which means haversack on back and hand bags and a shovel to each man besides bombs and aeroplane signals, artillery flags, etc. When we reached our dugouts in the line we were placed on sentry. Had to stand all night. We did not get much sleep in the daytime as the dugout was wet and we dare not light a fire. “About six o’clock order came that we would be relieved at ten o’clock that night. We were kind of glad in a way but yet we would have liked to have got over and had done with it. However, we were relieved and had two days of rest behind the line. Well, on Sunday night we got orders to move into the line again. So we knew what was coming. We pulled out overland from our position on which we were to go over the top. There was no trench proper as it was an old dis-used French trench in which we were to form up. … We arrived in position without any casualties but shelled all the time. “In the early hours of the morning we got our orders to be ready. In the twinkling of an eye every gun on the twelve mile front turned loose. It was a sight never to be forgotten — at least it will never be forgotten by me. In a very short space of time we were in the (German) front line, or at least what was left of it. It was levelled. The only way you could tell it was by an occasional iron stake with some barbed wire hanging to it. “We kept on right behind our barrage to the next (German) line or his supposed line; the same thing was apparent here — everything turned upside down from shell fire. We went for about a half a mile or more without making a stop. We halted for a short time then away we went again. Had not gone far when we struck a road. There seems to have been heavy German casualties here as they were lying everywhere on the road or what was left of it. “Huge trees had been cut right down by a shell hitting them. We advanced a short way across the road to a trench where we got in. … It did not take long to finish them off. … We took four machine guns at one place. It was a huge success. I suppose you will have read about it now in the daily papers. I would like to take you over the ground we went over just two weeks ago. If you had gone over before and after the advance you would hardly believe your own eyes.” By midsummer, Barss and his comrades were accommodated in billets. He provided Irene with an update in a letter dated July 30, 1917, but the letter also carries an ominous note: “We have a job in front of us; by all accounts it is to be no snap. But I suppose that is what we are here for. I am leaving all my personal effects with one of the boys who is not going in — in case anything happens. For in a case of this kind one never knows what may happen. We have been through before but I guess we can do the same again.” The unit remained at Mazingarbe until Aug. 13, when personnel relocated to trenches near Loos in preparation for the assault on a position known as Hill 70. The war diary reported trench strength as 656, “all ranks,” prior to the attack. It also noted the challenges posed by the battalion’s location as the time for battle neared: “It meant assembling a great number of men in the front line and, had the enemy opened a heavy barrage before zero hour, our attack might have been paralyzed before it was launched.” But no such barrage occurred, allowing Barss and his comrades to move into attack positions at 2:30 a.m. Aug. 15. At zero hour, 4:25 a.m., the entire battalion “leaped out of the trenches led by its Pipers” and followed the supporting barrage. The 16th met with “little or no resistance” in the German front and support lines, and the men quickly reached their objective and set about consolidating the new line. The next day, Aug. 16, 1917, Barss and the men in the front trenches were not so fortunate. Enemy artillery found the range of their new front line and close support trenches. The position was “shelled heavily all that day and evening and we had considerable casualties.” The successful capture of Hill 70 came at considerable cost. While a few men were lost in the initial day’s action, the heavy shelling the next day took a much greater toll. Two officers and 35 members of other ranks (OR) were killed, with nine OR missing, and five officers and 201 OR wounded. Among the missing in the aftermath of the Aug. 16 artillery barrage was Pte. John Barss Harrington of Canso, N.S. His remains were never located; his name is inscribed on the massive memorial erected at Vimy Ridge after the war, one of over 11,000 Canadian soldiers recorded as “missing, presumed dead” in France. JOHN BARSS “HAL” HARRINGTON . . . continued
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