The five-foot-seven McLean joined the fight in Europe as a middle-aged man in his 40s, enlisting in the 172nd Battalion CEF (Canadian Expeditionary Force) in October of 1916.
Pvt. McLean sailed for England almost instantly, and was transferred that December to the 54th Battalion in France.
In April of 1917, the Canadian Corps was ordered to take Vimy Ridge — a heavily fortified, seven-kilometre chain of hills in northern France situated above allied lines.
This task was sure to be difficult for the Canadians as attempts to take it by their French and English allies had failed, with casualties numbering in the hundreds of thousands. The German fortifications consisted of three layers of trenches, deep tunnels and barbed wire, with the natural slope of the hill providing little cover for advancing Allied troops.
Canadian infantry attacked at 5:30 in the morning on April 9, 1917, overrunning the Germans, charging their rifle nests and forcing the surrender of soldiers huddled in protective dugouts.
Hill 145 was the highest and most important feature of the ridge, and it was assigned the soldiers of the 54th.
During the battle, McLean attacked a group of enemy soldiers single-handily, armed with about a dozen small grenades nicknamed “Pineapples.”
In his attack, he captured 19 Germans on his own, and later killed five more who attempted to reach a machine gun, saving a large number of casualties.
“There were two machine guns playing on us and one of our officers got hit,” McLean recounted later to a group of people gathered at a train station back in Canada, and recorded in a Kamloops newspaper. “I pulled him out of the mess, and at that time I was close to the Germans’ dugouts. I knew there were sixty of the enemy there and I got hold of my bombs and just as I was in the act of pulling the pin my partner, who was close to me, got it in the head. Then I bombed them. And I bombed them again and again. I used nine bombs altogether and they ran like rabbits into their dugouts. After they ran into the dugout, I kept bombing them until their sergeant-major threw up his hands shouting, ‘Don’t throw the bomb,’ and I didn’t. He came out of the hole and handed me his automatic pistol and asked how many there were of us and I said there were 150.”
An article in the Merritt Herald from 1918 read:
“It was a great day for Pte. McLean when he arrived at the Canadian lines with his long string of prisoners and he was accorded a magnificent reception by his officers and comrades, who were not slow to recognize the splendid work he had done.”
McLean returned to the battle where he was shot twice in the left arm, but managed to capture the five other prisoners. When they ran from him for a machine gun nest, he killed them all.
His exploits earned him the nickname “The German Killer.”
Victory at Vimy Ridge was assured by the brave Canadian soldiers after about four grueling days of warfare in No Man’s Land and terrible conditions in the trenches.
For his heroic actions, McLean was awarded the Distinguished Conduct Medal, the second highest award for gallantry available for non-commissioned officers in the First World War.
The battle was a defining moment in the creation of Canada, proving the young country’s courage and ingenuity on the international stage. It was a defining moment for McLean as well, as his heroics became the stuff of legend.
“George’s story was the vindication of the family name,” Rothenburger said.
McLean was returned to Canada for medical treatment, and made his way back home to British Columbia where he worked as a rancher.
(joking).
