John Reginald Mitchinson Ellis The Big Fight June 3, 1915 (From The Cowichan Leader, Duncan, BC, Canada) Hit by stray bullet after many escapes A vivid description of the part played by the 16th Battalion C.E.F. (Canadian Scottish) in the fighting near Ypres and of their famous charge is contained in the following letter from Private J.R.M. Ellis (Seaforth Highlanders, Vancouver), a brother of Mrs. Baiss, Duncan. He joined the B.C. Horse in Vernon and later exchanged to the Highlanders. Under date of April 28th, writing from hospital in Rouen, he says: “I had best begin at the beginning. You will remember that we had just moved to a different part of the trenches when I last wrote. We relieved some French regiment. We had done our first four days in the trenches and had had one night’s rest in Ypres, or rather in a village in the outskirts. Then in the afternoon of the second day the enemy began to drop large shells, even 15-in. shells, into the town. We afterwards were ordered to prepare to move at a moment’s notice and in half and hour’s time we had lined up on the canal bank. Towards evening we marched out towards the firing line. On the way we learned that the enemy had taken some French trenches and had probably occupied and were holding a wood. Our orders were “If the wood contains Germans today there will be none by tomorrow morning,” so we had an idea what to expect. The air was full of gas which had made the Algerians run, but there was not enough to do us any harm by this only, only it made one’s eyes smart and dried up one’s throat. We came eventually to a big open space in front of this wood and prepared to advance in open order in three lines. In the meantime our guns were dropping shrapnel over the wood. As far as I could tell we only had one battery in action that night. Slowly we advanced when suddenly the enemy opened a tremendous rifle and machine gun fire. The bullets rained over like hail and I cannot imagine yet why we were not all wiped out. Then our first line charged and hardly a man of them reached the trench. They were mowed down like grass under a scythe; but the second line drove them right through the wood at the point of the bayonet. I think we only took one prisoner. We tried to form up and make another charge beyond, but there were not enough of us left. My platoon commander was shot through the foot and the captain was killed. There were three French guns in the wood which we re-captured, also some of the enemy’s trench mortars, which the engineers blew up the next day. Well, finding that we were unable to muster up another charge, we fell back to the trench which the gunners had dug on our side of the wood and stood to await events. Things quietened down a little for the rest of the night. About 3 a.m. at daylight the enemy began to shell us with shrapnel and high explosives right along on the trench on the right. It was horrible to see the dead and wounded lying around when daylight came. We could not get stretcher bearers or first-aid men. Those wounded who could crawl, crawled to the dressing station under a hellish fire of shrapnel. Several times they managed to drop high explosive shells right into the trench; when one saw rifles, legs, arms, equipment, sandbags, etc., go up in a heap and fall buried under a pile of earth. They slackened the shell fire in the afternoon, and we managed to attend to the wounded. During the afternoon one of our bomb-throwers blew himself up with one of his bombs, badly wounding the man next to him, and sending me flying, who was next to him. However, I got up after feeling myself all over, just as sound as I was before. The wounded man we bandaged up and sent him off on a crawl to the dressing station. The dead man we did not know what to do with, for he had on his person several percussion bombs which had not exploded. Finally we managed to get another bomb-thrower to come and collect them. Then we dropped the poor fellow over the trench parapet. I wonder how long it will be before all these poor fellows get buried. The next morning we were relieved and filed out one by one under machine gun and rifle fire and shrapnel, crawling along a ditch full of water to the brigade headquarters. Many were left in the ditch on the way. Having got to head-quarters we were given a shovel apiece and sandbags and proceeded to dig ourselves in afresh. In the meantime he enemy were shelling the village in the rear, and Ypres had four fires going. Each time a big shell dropped in the town a large cloud of brickdust went up like a red fog. … We managed to get a little sleep that night and some rations of rum which were very welcome to us as we were all very tired. The next morning at dawn we were ordered to join up as we were going to take up a trench which the engineers had dug during the night. I hadn’t gone fifty yards when I got my souvenir. It was a stray bullet. It went in my left cheek and behind my nose and out by the right cheek, hitting another fellow afterwards on the corner of the eye and on the bridge of the nose. It is strange that coming through all that heavy shell-fire one is finally to be hit by a wee bullet…. I don’t have to wear any bandages and things now, as the wound is perfectly clean. My face is a little swollen. That is all I feel. There is absolutely no pain. I was inoculated with antitetanus yesterday. I suppose I shall be going to the base directly, and return to the remains of the regiment…. August 1916, Cowichan Leader: Roll of Honour Lieut. J.R.M. Ellis, brother of Mrs. G. G. Baiss, late of Duncan, was killed on Sunday, August 6th last in France. As a private he was all through the second battle of Ypres and was wounded there. He was promoted on the field in June last for leading a counter attack after his officers were killed.

Karen Inkster Vance