Private Karlampy Budzan

Private, 85th Battalion, Infantry (Army).

This soldier appears on a Ukrainian Canadian World War One Roll of Honour entitled "List of Ukrainian Canadian Fatal Casualties 1915-1921". Source: Ukrainian Canadians in Canada's Wars by Prof. V. J. Kaye, C.M., Ph.D., Toronto, Ukrainian Canadian Research Foundation, 1983. Ed. by John B. Gregorovich. The ROH is on pages 116-125.

There were a number of nationalities living in the region of Bessarabia, and it is difficult to tell when looking only at Pte. Budzan's attestation whether his ethnic origin was Ukrainian, Roumanian, Moldavian, etc.

Pte. Budzan's military attestation included his signature, and he signed his own surname as "Buzan". This attestation was approved by a Lt. Col. of the 185th Cape Breton Highlanders.

The following six pages of the 85th Battalion War Diaries describe their engagement through October 28 to 30th, 1917. This would explain some of the circumstances of Pte. Budzan's death in action:

War Diary part A
War Diary part B
War Diary part C This part included the following observations: "...anyone who attempted to walk upright instantly became a casualty. There were several instances of this, one, in particular being Sergt. Rushton1, of "A" Company, who sprang to his feet, waved his arms over his head, shouted: 'Come on, "A" Company', made direct for the next of machine-guns in front - and fell dead."
War Diary part D
War Diary part E (casualty numbers on this page)
War Diary part F

Parts E and F (see links above) included the following statements:

"I regret to report that it is the opinion of all ranks that the barrage on the German front line was not at all satisfactory and they agree that if they had to attack such a position again with the same artillery support, they would prefer to attempt it by surprise without any barrage. The German trench was not battered about in any way...The only effect of the barrage appeared to be to give the enemy warning that an attack was pending...The barrage itself was thin and light and evidently overshot the mark."

1 Corp. Oscar Eugene Rushton , 902156, 85th Battalion, killed at Passchendaele on October 30, 1917. A native of Oxford, Nova Scotia. He was reported killed on the same day as Pte. Budzan.