General Alderson speech to the boys after the Ypres battle. -Written by a soldier that was there
Can anything be more inspiring then the speech which was made shortly after that terrible battle, which nearly wiped out the first Canadian Contingent. Picture the circumstances, the sadly deleted ranks of our boys after twelve strenuous days & nights of fierce fighting. The depression caused by the thoughts of the friends who were dead & a number of cruelly wounded companions. The knowledge that more severe fighting & losses would still further reduce their ranks. I can just picture the scene. The boys of what was left of my Batt. were all drawn up around the general and then he spoke.
All units & all ranks of the 1st Canadian Contingent, I tell you truly that my heart is so full I hardly know how to speak to you. It is so full of two feelings, the first been sorrow for the loss of those comrades of ours who have gone & second, pride in what the 1st Canadian Contingent has done.
As regards our comrades who have lost their lives, & we will speak of them with our hats off. (Here he took off his cap and all did likewise). My faith in the almighty is such that I am perfectly sure that when men died; as they have died, doing their duty & fighting for their country, for the empire, & to save the situation for others, in fact to die for their friends.
No matter what their past lives have been, no matter what they have done, what they ought not have done (as all of us do).
I repeat, I am perfectly sure that the almighty takes them & looks after them at once. Lads we can not leave them better than like that (Here he put on his cap & all did the same).
Now I feel that we may, without any false pride, think a little of what the division has done has done during the last four days.
I would first off tell you that I have never been so proud of anything in my life. As 1 of this armlet with “1 Canada” (pointing to it) that I wear on my right arm. I thank you and congratulate you from the bottom of my heart for the part each of you have taken in giving me the feeling of pride.
I think it is possible that you do not all of you, quite realize that if we had retired on the evening on April 22nd when our Allies fell back before the gas and left our left flank quite open. The whole of the 27th & 28th division would probably have been cut off. Certainly they would not have got away a gun or a vehicle of waysort & probably not more than half the infantry. This is what our Commander in Chief meant when he telegraphed, as he did that, “the Canadians saved the situation.” My lads if ever men had a right to be proud in the world you have. I know my military history pretty well & I can not think of an instance, especially when the cleverness & determination of the enemy is taken into account.
I have three pages of congratulatory telegrams from his majesty the King, downwards which I will read to you. Also a very nice letter from your Army Commander, Sir Horace Smith Horren Dorrien. Now I doubt if any divisional commander or any division ever had so many congratulatory telegrams & messages as these & remember they are not merely polite & sentimental ones. They express just what the senders really feel.
There is one word I would say to you before I stop. You have made a reputation second to none gained in this war but remember no man can live on his reputation. He must keep adding to it that you all do so I feel just as sure as I did two months ago when I told you that I know you would make a reputation when the opportunity came.
Which troops were placed in such a different position, nor can I think of an instance in which so much depended on the standing fast of one division. You will remember the last time I spoke to you, just before you went into the trenches at Yepres (Sally). Now over two months ago I told you about my old regiment— Having a reputation for not leaving their trenches no matter how they were attacked. I said then, that I was quite sure that in a short time, the army out here would be saying the same if you. I little thought, as none of its thought how soon those words would come true but now today not only the army out here. Put all Canada, all England & all the empire are saying it of you.
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Additional Info:
The first Canadian Contingent formed during the First World War in August 1914, the 1st Canadian Division was a formation of the Canadian Expeditionary Force. The division contained a cavalry squadron and a cyclist company, three infantry brigades (the 1st, 2nd and 3rd Canadian Infantry Brigades, each of four battalions), representing all parts of Canada, three field artillery brigades (roughly equivalent to modern regiments) armed with 18-pounders and engineers, together with elements of the Army Service Corps and the Army Medical Corps. The total war establishment of the Division was 17,873 all ranks, with 4,943 horses.[1] During its service in the First World War, the Division fought at Ypres, Festubert, the Somme, Vimy Ridge, Passchendaele and Amiens among other notable battles on the Western Front.
The division moved to the Ypres Salient in April, and faced its first real test during the defence of St. Julien beginning on 22 April. The Canadians withstood German attack—aided, for the first time on the Western Front, by the use of poison gas—and finally retired to secondary positions on 26 April, where they held on until 4 May. The Second Battle of Ypres, as the overall action came to be known, cost the infantry brigades some 5,506 men.
Lieutenant General Sir Edwin Alfred Hervey Alderson: KCB (8 April 1859 – 14 December 1927) was a senior British Army officer who served in several campaigns of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. From 1915 to 1916 during the First World War he commanded the Canadian Expeditionary Force on the Western Front, during which time it saw heavy fighting. This is a written transcript of the speech he gave after the Second Battle of Ypres written by a soldier that was present for that battle.
Can anything be more inspiring then the speech which was made shortly after that terrible battle, which nearly wiped out the first Canadian Contingent. Picture the circumstances, the sadly deleted ranks of our boys after twelve strenuous days & nights of fierce fighting. The depression caused by the thoughts of the friends who were dead & a number of cruelly wounded companions. The knowledge that more severe fighting & losses would still further reduce their ranks. I can just picture the scene. The boys of what was left of my Batt. were all drawn up around the general and then he spoke.
All units & all ranks of the 1st Canadian Contingent, I tell you truly that my heart is so full I hardly know how to speak to you. It is so full of two feelings, the first been sorrow for the loss of those comrades of ours who have gone & second, pride in what the 1st Canadian Contingent has done.
As regards our comrades who have lost their lives, & we will speak of them with our hats off. (Here he took off his cap and all did likewise). My faith in the almighty is such that I am perfectly sure that when men died; as they have died, doing their duty & fighting for their country, for the empire, & to save the situation for others, in fact to die for their friends.
No matter what their past lives have been, no matter what they have done, what they ought not have done (as all of us do).
I repeat, I am perfectly sure that the almighty takes them & looks after them at once. Lads we can not leave them better than like that (Here he put on his cap & all did the same).
Now I feel that we may, without any false pride, think a little of what the division has done has done during the last four days.
I would first off tell you that I have never been so proud of anything in my life. As 1 of this armlet with “1 Canada” (pointing to it) that I wear on my right arm. I thank you and congratulate you from the bottom of my heart for the part each of you have taken in giving me the feeling of pride.
I think it is possible that you do not all of you, quite realize that if we had retired on the evening on April 22nd when our Allies fell back before the gas and left our left flank quite open. The whole of the 27th & 28th division would probably have been cut off. Certainly they would not have got away a gun or a vehicle of waysort & probably not more than half the infantry. This is what our Commander in Chief meant when he telegraphed, as he did that, “the Canadians saved the situation.” My lads if ever men had a right to be proud in the world you have. I know my military history pretty well & I can not think of an instance, especially when the cleverness & determination of the enemy is taken into account.
I have three pages of congratulatory telegrams from his majesty the King, downwards which I will read to you. Also a very nice letter from your Army Commander, Sir Horace Smith Horren Dorrien. Now I doubt if any divisional commander or any division ever had so many congratulatory telegrams & messages as these & remember they are not merely polite & sentimental ones. They express just what the senders really feel.
There is one word I would say to you before I stop. You have made a reputation second to none gained in this war but remember no man can live on his reputation. He must keep adding to it that you all do so I feel just as sure as I did two months ago when I told you that I know you would make a reputation when the opportunity came.
Which troops were placed in such a different position, nor can I think of an instance in which so much depended on the standing fast of one division. You will remember the last time I spoke to you, just before you went into the trenches at Yepres (Sally). Now over two months ago I told you about my old regiment— Having a reputation for not leaving their trenches no matter how they were attacked. I said then, that I was quite sure that in a short time, the army out here would be saying the same if you. I little thought, as none of its thought how soon those words would come true but now today not only the army out here. Put all Canada, all England & all the empire are saying it of you.
_________________________________________
Additional Info:
The first Canadian Contingent formed during the First World War in August 1914, the 1st Canadian Division was a formation of the Canadian Expeditionary Force. The division contained a cavalry squadron and a cyclist company, three infantry brigades (the 1st, 2nd and 3rd Canadian Infantry Brigades, each of four battalions), representing all parts of Canada, three field artillery brigades (roughly equivalent to modern regiments) armed with 18-pounders and engineers, together with elements of the Army Service Corps and the Army Medical Corps. The total war establishment of the Division was 17,873 all ranks, with 4,943 horses.[1] During its service in the First World War, the Division fought at Ypres, Festubert, the Somme, Vimy Ridge, Passchendaele and Amiens among other notable battles on the Western Front.
The division moved to the Ypres Salient in April, and faced its first real test during the defence of St. Julien beginning on 22 April. The Canadians withstood German attack—aided, for the first time on the Western Front, by the use of poison gas—and finally retired to secondary positions on 26 April, where they held on until 4 May. The Second Battle of Ypres, as the overall action came to be known, cost the infantry brigades some 5,506 men.
Lieutenant General Sir Edwin Alfred Hervey Alderson: KCB (8 April 1859 – 14 December 1927) was a senior British Army officer who served in several campaigns of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. From 1915 to 1916 during the First World War he commanded the Canadian Expeditionary Force on the Western Front, during which time it saw heavy fighting. This is a written transcript of the speech he gave after the Second Battle of Ypres written by a soldier that was present for that battle.