Military History

Charles is listed as being killed in action on 15 Sep 1916. The 1st Battalion war diary for that day is transcribed below.

15 Sep 1916 – In the Field - AM: In accordance with 8^th C.I.B [Canadian Infantry Brigade] the Battn carried out two successful raids this am. First:- The Point R.27.d.7.3 where deep dugouts are suspected. Second:- To raid Mouquet Farm and dugouts in vicinity. The raids consisted of two parties.

The first party consisting of 1 Officer, 50 OR’s and two flanking parties of 1 Officer and 25 OR’s. This party was commanded by Capt W.B. Caswell of C Coy and their objective was the trenches at Point R.27.d.7.3 which they were to bomb and clean out, doing as much damage, and to cause as great loss to the enemy as possible. On reaching their objective they were to remain in the trench for a period of 10 mins, after stated time to return to their own trenches.

At zero time 6.20am No 1 party were in shell holes out in front of trenches and in rear of where our barrage should have been. However at 6.25am it was found that our Artillery instead of playing on the Enemy’s line, many of the shells fell amongst our own party inflicting many casualties including the officers leading the parties. When the barrage lifted it was found that the enemy’s line was intact and very strongly manned, and when our men advanced they were met with a shower of cylindrical sticks as well as heavy rifle and machine gun fire. In reply our men answered with Mills bombs and rifle fire. This party occupied a line of shell holes in front of the enemy position from which a heavy fire was kept up by the enemy until our Front Line Coy had suffered so many casualties that it was considered advisable to reinforce it by the remainder of the Raiding Party and this line was held until relieved by the 2 C.M.R Bttn in the night of Sept 15/16.

The 2^nd Party which was commanded by Lieut J.P. French consisted of 50 OR’s which was divided into two parties of 1 officer and 25 OR’s, carried out the raid on Mouquet Farm and suspected dugouts in that vicinity. The object being to surround the ruins and bomb out supposed entrances and if enemy were ejected to occupy and hold this as a strong point. Two parties were told off from A & B Coy to act as Consolidating Parties in event of this happening. The work staked out for B Coy was to extend the Sap from Point 59 and connect up with the ruins from Mouquet Farm. The party from A Coy to occupy shell holes from a point at 7.7 to the nearest point at Mouquet Farm and to consolidate this by connecting shell holes as soon as possible.

At zero time this 2^nd party left their trenches, attained this objective, Bombing out the only entrance that could be found. The party in question remained in this new position for about 15 minutes, returning then to their own trenches. During this stay in the new trench they accounted for at least 40 Germans and captured one prisoner. During the Operations of the 2^nd party A Coy had established themselves in the line above mentioned, connected up the shell holes and held the line until relieved by the 2^nd CMR Battn.

6.40am: The enemy began shelling our front line vigorously. The hits were infrequent until about 10.30am when the range was perfect with the result that many casualties were inflicted. This shelling was kept up without intermission until about 1.30pm when it slackened for about an hour and was kept up intermittently until about 7pm. After this it was shifted back and barrage established between Front Line and Supports which was kept up until about midnight. The machine gun and rifle fire, especially sniping, was incessant throughout the day.

As a result of the bombardment, rifle and machine gun fire the two front line Companies suffered heavily, especially the Right Coy in which out of 5 officers three were killed and two wounded, one seriously and a large amount of OR’s. The total casualties during the tour were as follows: 6 officers killed, 6 officers wounded and 2 officers missing. 64 OR’s killed, 172 OR’s wounded and 9 OR’s missing.

PM: Battn relieved by 2 CMR Bn night of 15/16 Sep and proceeded by march route to La Boiselle.