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The Great War (1914-1918) Forum

Remembered Today:

T B McCallum


Guest davidmac

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Guest davidmac

SN thanks.Found those on Canadian War Archives .

Im trying to find where he served and with what unit etc..

My Dad said something about Russia,dont know

if it was before 11/18 or after.When he came back he became

a dentist and had a family.

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  • 2 years later...

Found out a little more.....

My Dad says....he went to Russia after wars with a English/Cnd artelery unit..fought Bulsuvics..near Arc Angel? in North Russia

My Dad says... his name was really Thurlow Blackburn MacCallum

there is also a story alot of soldiers lost toes and fingers in Russia but Uncle Thurlow didnt because he knew from hunting

in Northern Quebec to take your boots off at night.

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I would recommend purchasing his full service papers from the Canadian Archives.

Found this online...the Canadians sent a Field Artillery Brigade consisting of two batteries which was drawn from volunteers. There also appears to be a history of the Brigade/Batteries held at the Canadian War Museum.

From the chapter titled "The Pill Rollers" in the book "Quartered in Hell" :

If little love was lost between the U.S. troops and the British officer staff in North Russia, the opposite was true of the relationship between the ANREF and the officers and men of the 16th Canadian Field Artillery Brigade..... A special rapport and a mutual respect arose between the Yanks and their Northern neighbors - the Canadians, for the Yanks' tenacity and ability to fight - the Americans, for the skill and accuracy by which the Canadian gunners handled their cannon......

...... in August 1918, the Supreme Allied Command requested a Field Artillery Brigade be sent to North Russia as part of the Allied contingent. Five hundred volunteers were chosen from a pool of 8500 officers and men of the Reserve Artillery, all hardened veterans of France........

The Brigade left Dundee, Scotland on Sept. 21, 1918 and arrived in Archangel ten days later, where it immediately boarded barges for a..... voyage down the Dvina River..... with only twelve 18-pound field pieces.

As the two batteries [of the 16th CFA] progressed down [the Dvina] river, portions of the 68th Battery were dispatched to sectors. At General Ironside's request...... three officers and 26 men were attached to the railroad front to man an armored train.......... Major Hyde and a number of his men were chosen for this task. Lt. McRae and 21 of his gunners were stationed on the Emtsa River, near Kodish.......

The rest of the Brigade, the 67th Battery and the remaining elements of the 68th Battery, continued down river to the junction of the Vaga and Dvina rivers. Here, the 68th disembarked down the Vaga to Shenkursk while the remaining units of the 67th continued down the Dvina toward Toulgas and Kurgomen, 250 miles southwest of Archangel.......

At Shenkursk, the 68th Battery relieved the White Russian Battery stationed there while it was sent to Ust Vaga for training at the artillery school established by the CFA......

The small Canadian 18-pounders were constantly outranged when challenged by the larger Bolo artillery pieces. A demonstration of their resilience and ability to overcome this adversity surfaced at Kurgomen when the snowbound 67th Battery was shelled at a range of 8000 yards by the Bolos at Topsa. The Canadians' only choices, since they were outranged, were to sit and take a pounding - an impossible option which might last all winter - or to find some means with which to answer the enemy cannon. As was the gunners' inclination, they met the problem head on.

At dawn on Dec. 5th, F Sub Gun was drawn by ponies onto the open plain separating Kurgomen from Topsa, a good 1500 yards in front of the Allied outposts. From there, it was fired over open sights into the enemy position with excellent effect. When a hundred rounds had been unleashed, the gunners hooked their ponies to the cannon and rushed it back to safety. This procedure was repeated until the snow got too deep to move the gun onto the plain. From then on, it was fired from the edge of the woods which bordered the plain. The procedure kept the enemy artillery at bay.........

From the "Quartered in Hell" Chapter titled "Retreat", in the words of Lt. Hugh McPhail, Company A, 339th Infantry Regiment, U.S. Army.

Rgds

Tim

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