BATTLE OF NEUVE CHAPELLE BEGINS
Three hundred and fifty guns at short range began a most terrific
bombardment March 10, 1915, at 7.30 a. m. It is said that the discharges
of the artillery was so frequent that it seemed as if some gigantic
machine gun was in action. Shortly after this bombardment started,
the German trenches were covered by a great cloud of smoke and
dust and a pall of green lyddite fumes. The first line of German
trenches, against which the fire was directed, became great shapeless
furrows and craters filled with the dead and dying.
This was the condition all along the line except on the extreme
northern end where the artillery fire was less effective, owing,
it was said, to a lack of proper preparation by the British staff.
This terrific artillery fire was continued for thirty-five minutes;
and then the range was changed from the first line of German trenches
to the village of Neuve Chapelle itself. Thereupon the British
infantry advanced and made prisoners of the few Germans left alive
in the first line. The men found unwounded were so dazed by the
onslaught which the guns had made upon their position that they
offered no resistance. The bombardment had swept away the wire
entanglements; and the British had only the greasy mud with which
to contend, when they made their dash forward.
Where the wire entanglements had been swept away, the Second
Lincolnshire and the Berkshire regiments were the first to reach
the German trenches. These regiments then turned to the right and
left, and thus permitted the Royal Irish Rifles and the Rifle Brigade
to go on toward the village.
In order to understand the infantry attack in detail it is necessary
to know the manner in which the British troops were distributed
before they made their dash at the ruined trenches of the Germans.
Two brigades of the Eighth Division, the Twenty-fifth to the right
and the Twenty-third to the left, were due west of Neuve Chapelle.
On a front a mile and a half long to the south of them was the
Meerut Division, supported by the Lahore Division. The Garhwal
Brigade was on the left and the Dehra Dun Brigade was on its right.
In the first attack the Twenty-third dashed to the northeast corner
of the village, the Twenty-fifth against the village itself; and
the Garhwal Brigade charged on the southwest corner.
The trenches opposite the Twenty-fifth were taken with practically
no fighting. The Germans who had manned them were either killed
or too dazed to offer resistance. As has already been told, the
Second Royal Berkshires and the Second Lincolns took the first line
of trenches in front of them, and opened the middle of their line
to permit the Second Rifle Brigade and the First Irish Rifles to
dash on to the village. The British artillery range was lengthened,
thereby preventing the German supports from interference with the
well-defined plan of the British. Into the wrecked streets of Neuve
Chapelle swung two battalions of the Twenty-fifth Brigade. The few
of their enemy who offered resistance were soon overpowered--being
captured or slain.
These men of the Twenty-fifth Brigade found terrible scenes of
destruction. The village had been knocked literally into a rubbish
heap. Even the dead in the village churchyard had been plowed from
their graves by the terrific bombardment.
The Garhwal Brigade captured the first line of trenches on the
right, and the Third Gurkhas, on the southern outskirts of the
village, met the Rifle Brigade. Then it dashed on to the Bois du
Biez, passing another rubbish heap which once had been the hamlet
known as Port Arthur.
The attack on the left, however, resulted less successfully for
the British forces. As indicated above, the preparation for the
bombardment at this part of the line had been inadequate for the
purpose which the general in command had sought to achieve. Thus
on the northeast corner of Neuve Chapelle the German trenches and
the wire entanglements in front of them had been damaged but little.
The British forces on this part of the line included the Second
Devons, the Second West Yorks, the Second Scottish Rifles, and the
Second Middlesex, known as the Twenty-third Brigade. The Scottish
Rifles charged against intact wire entanglements which halted them
in the range of a murderous rifle and machine-gun fire. With daring
bravery the Scots sought to tear down the wire with their hands;
but were forced to fall back and lie in the fire-swept zone until
one company forced its way through an opening and destroyed the
barrier. The regiment, as a result of this mishap to the plans
of the commanding general, lost its commander, Colonel Bliss, and
fourteen other officers.
The Middlesex, on the right, met with the same obstruction and lost
many of its men and officers while waiting for the British artillery
to smash a way through for them. This the artillery did when word
had been carried back telling of the plight of the infantry.
The Twenty-fifth Brigade, to the south, had the good fortune to turn
the flank of the Germans north of Neuve Chapelle. Then the entire
Twenty-third Brigade forced its way to the orchard northeast of the
village, where it met the Twenty-fourth Brigade, which included the
First Worcesters, Second East Lancashires, First Sherwood Foresters,
and the Second Northamptons. The Twenty-fourth Brigade had fought its
way through from the Neuve Chapelle-Armentières road. As soon as
this had been accomplished by the British, their artillery proceeded
to send such a rain of shrapnel fire between the village and the
Germans that a counterattack was quite impossible. This gave the
victors an opportunity to intrench themselves practically at their
leisure. The plans of the British commander had embraced a forward
movement when the troops had reached this point, but they had not
included a means of keeping communication with the various units
intact. The telegraph and telephone wires had been cut by the shot
and shell of both sides; and there was no opportunity to repair
them until it was too late to take advantage of the demoralization
of the Germans. Moreover, the delay of the Twenty-third Brigade had
so disarranged the plans of the British that it is doubtful if they
would not have failed in part even if the means of communication had
not been destroyed. Nevertheless, Sir John French wrote: "I am
of the opinion that this delay would not have occurred had the
clearly expressed orders of the general officer commanding the
First Army been more carefully observed."
There was also an additional delay in bringing up the reserves
of the Fourth Corps. Thus it was not until 3.30 p. m. that three
brigades of the Seventh Division, the Twentieth, Twenty-first,
and Twenty-second Brigades were in their places on the left of
the Twenty-fourth Brigade. Then the left moved southward toward
Aubers. At the same time the Indian Corps, composed of the Garhwal
Brigade and the Dehra Dun Brigade, forced its way through the Bois
du Biez toward the ridge. Strong opposition was met with to such
an extent, however, that the Thirty-ninth Garhwals and the Second
Leicesters suffered severe losses on reaching a German position
which had practically escaped the heavy artillery fire. A German
outpost at the bridge held the Dehra Dun Brigade, which was supported
by the Jullundur Brigade of the Lahore Division, in its attack
farther to the south on the line of the River Des Layes. The First
Brigade of the First Corps was rushed forward by Sir Douglas Haig;
but it was dark before these troops arrived. Another fortified
bridge, farther to the left, checked the Twenty-fifth Brigade;
and machine-gun fire stopped the Twenty-fourth Brigade, this fire
being from the German troops at the crossroads northwest of Pietre
village. The Seventh Division was held by the line of the Des Layes,
and the defense of the Pietre mill.
By evening the British had gone forward as far as their artillery
fire had been effective; and it was found necessary for them to
stop to strengthen the new line which they had established. They had
won Neuve Chapelle. They had advanced a mile. They had straightened
their line, but they could go no farther.
On the following day, March 11, 1915, the British artillery was
directed against the Bois de Biez and the trenches in the neighborhood
of Pietre. The Germans, however, had recovered from the surprise
of the great bombardment, and they made several counterattacks.
Little progress was made on that day by either side. On that night,
March 11, the Bavarian and Saxon reserves arrived from Tourcoing,
and on the morning of March 12 the counterattack extended along the
British front. Because of the heavy mist, and the lack of proper
communications, it was impossible for the British artillery to
do much damage. The defense of the bridges across the Des Layes
kept the British forces from the ridges and the capture of Aubers.
The best that the British seemed to be able to do was to prevent
the German counterattack from being successful.
An attempt to use the British cavalry was unsuccessful on March 12.
The Second Cavalry Division, in command of General Hubert Gough,
with a brigade of the North Midland Division, was ordered to support
the infantry offensive, it being believed that the cavalry might
penetrate the German lines. When the Fifth Cavalry Brigade, under
command of Sir Philip Chetwode, arrived in the Rue Bacquerot at 4
p. m., Sir Henry Rawlinson reported the German positions intact,
and the cavalry retired to Estaires.
[Illustration: THE BATTLE AT NEUVE CHAPELLE]
The attack of the Seventh Division against the Pietre Fort continued
all the day of March 12, as did the attempt to take the Des Layes
bridges from the Germans, who were valiantly defending their second
line of trenches in the Bois du Biez. Probably the fiercest fighting
of that day fell to the lot of the Twentieth Brigade, composed of
the First Grenadiers, the Second Scots Guards, the Second Border
Regiment, and the Second Gordons, with the Sixth Gordons, a Territorial
battalion. This brigade fought valiantly around Pietre Mill. Position
after position was taken by them, but their efforts could not remain
effective without the aid of artillery, which was lacking. The Second
Rifle Brigade carried a section of the German trenches farther south
that afternoon, but an enfilading fire drove the British back to
their former position.
It was evident by the night of March 12 that the British could not
gain command of the ridge and that the Germans could not retake
Neuve Chapelle. Hence Sir John French ordered Sir Douglas Haig
to hold and consolidate the ground which had been taken by the
Fourth and Indian Corps, and suspend further offensive operations
for the present. In his report General French set forth that the
three days' fighting had cost the British 190 officers and 2,337
other ranks killed; 359 officers and 8,174 other ranks wounded,
and 23 officers and 1,728 other ranks missing. He claimed German
losses of over 12,000.
The British soldiers who had been engaged in the fighting about
Neuve Chapelle spent all of March 13, 1915, in digging trenches
in the wet meadows that border the Des Layes. On the following
day the two corps that had fought so valiantly were sent back to
the reserve.
The German commanders, in the meantime, had been preparing for a
vigorous counterattack. They planned to make their greatest effort
fifteen miles north of Neuve Chapelle, at the village of St. Eloi,
and trained a large section of their artillery against a part of
the British front, which was held by the Twenty-seventh Division.
The preparation of the Germans was well concealed on March 14 by
the heavy mist that covered the low country. The bombardment started
at 5 p. m., the beginning of which was immediately followed by the
explosion of two mines which were under a hillock that was a part
of the British front at the southeast of St. Eloi. The artillery
attack was followed by such an avalanche of German infantry that
the British were driven from their trenches. This German success
was followed up by the enfilading of the British lines to the right
and left, with the result that that entire section of the British
front was forced back.
That night a counterattack was prepared. It was made at 2 a. m.,
on March 15, by the Eighty-second Brigade, which had the Eightieth
Brigade as its support. The Eighty-second Brigade drove the Germans
from the village and the trenches on the east. The Eightieth Brigade
finished the task of regaining all of the ground that had been
lost except the crater caused by the explosion of the mines. Among
the regiments that made a most enviable record for themselves in
this action were Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry, the
Fourth Rifle Brigade, the First Leinsters, the Second Cornwalls,
and the Second Royal Irish Fusiliers. The "Princess Pat's," as
the Canadian troops were known in the home land, were the first
colonial soldiers to take part in a battle of such magnitude in
this war. Their valor and their ability as fighting men were causes
of great pride to the British.
Before leaving the Neuve Chapelle engagement and what immediately
followed it, it is well to give a brief survey of the actions along
the line that supported it. To prevent the Germans from taking
troops from various points and massing them against the main British
attack, the British soldiers all along that part of the front found
plenty of work to do in their immediate vicinity. Thus, on March
10, 1915, the First Corps attacked the Germans from Givenchy, but
there had been but little artillery fire on the part of the British
there, and the wire entanglements stopped them from more than keeping
the German troops in the position which they had held. The Second
Corps, on March 12, was to have advanced at 10 a. m. southwest of
Wytschaete. The fog that prevailed on that day, however, prevented
a movement until 4 p. m. Then the First Wiltshires and the Third
Worcesters of the Seventh Brigade began a movement which had to
be abandoned when the weather thickened and night fell.
The attack on L'Epinette, a hamlet southeast of Armentières, was
much more successful on the same day. The Seventeenth Brigade of
the Fourth Division of the Third Corps advanced at noon, with the
Eighteenth Brigade as its support. It advanced 300 yards on a front
a half mile in length, carrying the village, which it retained in
spite of all the counterattacks.
The work of the artillery was not confined to the main attack,
for it was very effective in shelling the Quesnoy railway station
east of Armentières, where German reenforcements were boarding
a train for the front. The British artillery fire was effective
as far as Aubers, where it demolished a tall church spire.
The work of the aviators, from March 10 to 12 inclusive, deserves
special mention. Owing to the adverse weather conditions, it was
necessary for them to fly as low as from 100 to 150 feet above
the object of their attack in order to be sure of their aim.
Nevertheless they destroyed one of the piers of the bridge over
the Lys at Menin. This bridge carried the railroad over the river.
They also wrecked the railway stations at Douai, Don, and Courtrai.
The daring of the British aviators even took them over Lille, where
they dropped bombs on one of the German headquarters.
To summarize the fighting about Neuve Chapelle, it may be said that
the British had advanced something more than a mile on a three-mile
front, replacing the sag which had existed in their line by a sag
in that of the Germans. The British had not won the ridges which
were the key to Lille, but they had advanced their trenches close
to those ridges. The entire moral effect was a gain for the British;
but even that and the gain in advancing the front had been obtained
at a too great sacrifice of the life of their men. The words of
the Germans in characterizing the tremendous bombardment of the
British were: "That is not war; it is murder."
The belief in the supposed superiority of the German artillery
was so shaken in the minds of the General Staff as a result of
the fighting on the Neuve Chapelle front that they shortly after
issued an order to try a series of experiments on animals with
asphyxiating gases.
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