72nd Seaforth Highlanders of Canada - Electric Scotland

SEAFORTH HIGHLANDERS OF CANADA
ferried themselves across by means of collapsible boats.
Once across they flung themselves against the German
posts in the railway yards to the north of the town.
In the centre, No. 13 Platoon of "D"
Company was
having a harder time of it. Their first boat, containing
five men, reached the opposite bank in a sinking condi
tion. The second boat was launched immediately, but a
savage burst of machine gun fire caught the flimsy craft
in mid-stream, wounding the occupants and sinking the
boat. The remainder of the platoon raced north along the
canal and crossed by means of "A"
Company s now-com
plete cork-float bridge.
On the south, where -two platoons of "D" Company
were to cross in conjunction with the flanking Battalion,
an impossible situation had arisen.
Opposite their point of
crossing there was the huge abutment of a bridge, and
from this mass of masonry, in carefully prepared positions
a nest of German machine guns swept the bank of the
canal, and the whole exposed slope in front of it, with con
centrated fire. Fighting their way gamely in the face
of this fire, the platoons drove doggedly towards the canal.
But it was a forlorn hope from the start, and after two
heroic attempts, in which they suffered heavily, they were
ordered to withdraw. This, after much difficulty, was ac
complished, and they then crossed by the before-mentioned
bridge to the north.
With the great obstacle of the canal overcome, the
kilties flung themselves with ardour against the German
posts in the railway yards, and in the big station building
illustrated on an adjacent page. The platform in the left hand
corner of the picture was the scene of brisk fighting be
tween a platoon of the 72nd and a strong German post,
a fight which resulted in our platoon being in complete
possession of the station. A dozen of such brilliant fights
blazed all through the afternoon, as the Hun was routed
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