Heroes of the Victoria Cross: MILTON FOWLER GREGG

On 28 September, 1918, this Royal Canadian Regiment officer led his men through uncut barbed wire into enemy trenches

- WORDS LOUIS HARDIMAN

Lieutenant Milton Fowler Gregg of the Royal Canadian Regiment (RCR) squinted up at the heavy rain. He wiped the water and condensation from his gas mask goggles and stared out into the pre-dawn darkness. Some of his shivering comrades had endured a crowded bus ride and a three-hour march through the night to reach his staging post 2.5 miles (4km) east of the Canal du Nord. They had achieved great success during the previous day's fighting: in a surprise attack on Bourlon Wood, the RCR had taken the high ground, which the Germans had been using for their artillery. Still, artillery shells fell all around, many containing gas, shaking the nerves of the sodden and shivering Canadians as they waited for sunrise.

Zero hour finally came at 6am. Piercing whistles cut through the grey dawn and the men leapt out of their defensive positions. Yet the charge stopped well short of its objective. British aerial reconnaissance had failed to spot the concealed tangle of wire running along the Cambrai-Douai road. Shocking casualties soon mounted as the Germans concentrated their heavy machine gun fire on the exposed attackers. Someone needed to find a way through the wire and silence the machine guns before the assault crumbled. Gregg looked into the terrified eyes of the man next to him and began to crawl forwards.

His military career had started at 18, joining Canada's most storied regiment in 1910. The 8th Canadian Hussars are the longest-serving mounted/armoured regiment in the Canadian Army, with its origins in 1775. Four years after Gregg joined the ranks, the First World War broke out and he stepped up from the militia into The Black Watch (Royal Highland Regiment) of Canada. He was of average appearance, described on entry into the Black Watch as 5ft 8in (172cm) tall and reasonably well-built at 156lb (70kg).