OPERATIONS FOLLOWING NEUVE CHAPELLE
There was very little activity on the western front after the fighting
at Neuve Chapelle and St. Eloi until the beginning of a renewal
of the campaign between La Bassée and the sea. The importance of
success in this region was appreciated by both sides. The Germans
north of the Lys planned to cross the Comines-Ypres, Yperlee, and Yser
Canals, capture Ypres, take all of the ridge of the Mont-des-Cats,
and then continue west and take Dunkirk, Calais, and Boulogne. The
Allies in their plan included an advance south of the Lys on two
sides of Lille, the taking of the Aubers Ridge, and the turning from
the north the German salient at La Bassée. This much of the Allies'
plan was to be executed by the British. The work of the French was
to drive the Germans from the vicinity of Lens and threaten La
Bassée from the south and west. The reasons for making these plans
are obvious. The German salient was a source of much danger to the
joining of the British and French armies, and the possibility of the
Germans forcing their way through to Boulogne meant a possibility
of a cutting off of the entire British army and the French and
Belgian forces between Ypres and the sea near Nieuport. However, if
La Bassée was isolated and the Aubers Ridge taken by the British,
the chances that the Germans could retain Lille were materially
lessened; and if the British got Lille they might start to drive
their enemy from Belgium.
During the lull in the fighting on land, to which reference has
been made, there was much activity in the air. Reconnaissances and
raids were of almost daily occurrence. A Zeppelin dropped twenty
bombs on Calais, slaying seven workmen at the railroad station on
March 18, 1915. Three days later another, or possibly the same
Zeppelin, flew over the town, but this time it was driven away
before it could do any harm. "Taubes" bombarded the railroad junction
of St. Omer and made a similar attack on Estaires on March 23.
Four days after another attack was made on Estaires, and on the
same day, March 27, the German airmen did some damage to Sailly,
Calais, and Dunkirk. The next day a "Taube" made an attack on Calais,
Estaires, and Hazebrouck. A Zeppelin closed the month's warfare
in the air for the Germans by making a dash over Bailleul.
Aviators of the Allies, too, were busy. One of their aerial squadrons
proceeded along the coast on March 16 and attacked the military
posts at Ostend and Knocke. These aviators had as one of their
main objective points the German coast batteries at the latter
place. But the squadron was seen from a German observation balloon
at Zeebrugge, and a flock of "Taubes" made a dash for their enemy's
craft. The Germans were not as skillful airmen, however, and they
found it necessary to retire. Five British aviators made an attack
on the German submarine base at Hoboken, southwest of Antwerp,
and destroyed a submarine and wrecked two others. This raid was
made without injury to the aviators, the only accident being the
necessity of one of the aircraft to descend, which it did, only
to find it had landed on Dutch territory and must be interned. The
excellence of the Allies' flying was not confined to the English.
Belgian and French airmen, as well as British, flew almost constantly
over Ostend, Zeebrugge, Roulers, Aubers, and such other places as
German soldiers and their supplies were in evidence. The Belgian
airmen dropped bombs on the aviation field at Ghistelles on March
27, and on the following day a Zeppelin hangar was destroyed at
Berchem-Sainte-Agathe, near Brussels. On March 30, 1915, ten British
and some French aviators flew along the coast from Nieuport to
Zeebrugge and dropped bombs on magazines and submarine bases. The
last day of the month saw the destruction of the German captive
balloon at Zeebrugge and the death of its two observers. The Belgian
aviators on the same day threw bombs on the aviation field at Handzaeme
and the railroad junction at Cortemarck, and, south of Dixmude,
the famous birdman, Garros, fought a successful duel in the air
with a German aviator.
An aviator of the Allies flew over the aerodrome at Lille on April
1, 1915, and dropped a football. The Germans hastened to cover.
When the ball bounced prodigiously as a result of being dropped
from such a height, the Teutons thought it was some new kind of
death dealer, and remained in their places of safety. In fact,
they remained there quite a few minutes after the football had
ceased to bounce. When they finally emerged most cautiously and
approached the object of their terror, they read this inscription
on it: "April Fool--Gott strafe England."
Though the antiaircraft guns, or "Archibalds," as the soldiers
called them, were not especially effective except in keeping the
flyers at such a height that it was not easy for them to make effective
observations, a "Taube" was brought down at Pervyse, and near Ypres
another was damaged on April 8. But on April 12 a German flyer
inflicted some loss on the Allies' lines and escaped without being
even hit. On the following day, presumably emboldened by that success,
German aeroplanes threw flares and smoke balls over the British
trenches east of Ypres, with the result that the soldiers of King
George were subjected to a severe bombardment. All things considered,
however, the Allies had ground for their belief that they more
than held their own in the air.
Afloat the Allies continued to maintain the supremacy which had
been theirs. The French and British battleships held the left of
the Allies' line. Their great guns proved their effectiveness on the
Germans who were advancing from Ostend on Nieuport. They repeatedly
bombarded the position of the kaiser's men at Westende, east of
Nieuport. The Germans had trained one of their mammoth pieces of
artillery against that town presumably because it held the sluices
and locks which regulated the overflowing of the Yser territory.
If the means of flooding the land could not be seized, the next
best thing to do was to wreck them.
The Belgians, in the meantime, assumed the offensive, their left
being protected by the Allied fleet and the French forces in the
neighborhood of Nieuport. These troops captured one of the smaller
forts east of Lombartzyde on March 11, 1915. There was also fighting
at Schoorbakke, north of the Yser loop, where the German trenches
were shelled by French artillery. This was on the eastern border
of the inundated section. After destroying the German front in the
graveyard at Dixmude, the French artillerists battered a German
convoy on its way between Dixmude and Essen on March 17, 1915. By
March 23 the east bank of the Yser held a Belgian division. In
fact, from Dixmude to the sea the Allied troops were advancing.
The Germans, however, advanced south of Dixmude. On April 1, 1915,
they shelled the farms and villages west of the Yser and the Yperlee
Canals, and took the Driegrachten farm. Thereupon the Germans crossed
the canal with three machine guns. Their plan was to proceed along
the border of the inundated district to Furnes. But the French
balked the plan by shelling the farm, and the Belgians finished
the work by driving the Germans back to Mercken on April 6, 1915.
In the meantime, from March 15 to April 17, 1915, the bombardment
of Ypres was continued, destroying most of the remaining buildings
there. Engagements of importance had not as yet started on the
British front. The British had a supply of shrapnel, and the British
and French cannon, as well as the rifle- and machine-gun fire,
held the Germans in check until they had time to perfect their
plans for a vigorous offensive. Nevertheless the British needed
a much larger supply of ammunition before they could start on a
determined campaign, which was so much desired by the troops. One
of the German headquarters, however, was shelled effectively by
the British on April 1, 1915, and on the following day mortars in
the trenches did considerable damage in the Wood of Ploegsteert.
A mine blew up a hundred yards of the trenches that were opposite
Quinchy, a village to the south of Givenchy, on April 3, 1915. To
offset this the Germans bombarded the British line at that point.
They also shelled Fleurbaix, which is three miles southwest of
Armentières, on April 5, 1915. The British on the same day wrecked
a new trench mortar south of there. On April 6, 1915, the German
artillery began to be more active both north and south of the Lys,
and the British retaliated by shelling the railway triangle that
was near Quinchy. German soldiers were slain and others wounded
when a mine was exploded at Le Touquet, on the north bank of the
Lys. One of the kaiser's ammunition depots was blown up near Quinchy
on April 9, 1915, and his men were driven from their trenches in
front of Givenchy by mortar fire.
The comparative quiet along the front was broken by the fight for
the possession of Hill 60, which became famous because of the rival
claims as to victory. The mound, for it was little more, getting
its name on account of its height--sixty meters--was of importance
only because it screened the German artillery which was shelling
Ypres from the bridge to the west of Zandvoord. British trenches
had been driven close to this hill by the Bedfords, whose sappers
tunneled under the mound and there prepared three mines. At the same
time the Germans were tunneling to plant mines under the Bedfords'
trench. In this underground race the Bedfords won on the night
of April 17, 1915, when they blew three big craters in the hill,
killing almost to a man all of the 150 Germans who were on the
little rise of ground. The Bedfords then dashed forward to the
three craters they had opened up and took a quarter of a mile of
the German trenches.
The Germans were apparently unprepared for the attack which followed
the explosion of the British mines, with the result that the British
had to overcome little resistance, and had ample opportunity to
prepare a defense from the bombardment that followed. The next
morning, April 18, 1915, the German infantry in close formation
advanced on the hill. This infantry was composed of Saxons, who
continued on for a bayonet charge in spite of the downpour of lead
that the British rained upon them. But the Bedfords had been reenforced
by the West Kents and about thirty motor machine guns. The machine
guns raked the charging Saxons in front, and shrapnel tore their
flank. Only their dead and dying remained on the hill; but the
German commanders continued to send their men against the British
there, who were subjected to a murderous cross-fire, the hill forming
a salient. As a result of their persistence the German troops managed
to get a foothold on the southern part of the hill by 6 p. m. In the
meantime a battalion of Highlanders and the Duke of Wellington's
regiment had been sent to reenforce the Bedfords and the West Kents.
The Highlanders made a desperate charge, using bayonets and hand
grenades on the Germans who had gained the southern edge of the
hill. The Germans were driven back.
The Duke of Württemberg, the German commander, presumably believing
his troops had not only held what they had taken, but had advanced,
announced that another German victory had been gained in the capture
of Hill 60. Sir John French also sent out a message, but in his report
he set forth that Hill 60 was held by the British. Because there
had been similar conflict in official reports all too frequently,
it seemed as if a tacit agreement was made among the neutrals to
determine who was telling the truth. This resulted in making what
was a comparatively unimportant engagement one of the most celebrated
battles of the war. As soon as Duke Albrecht of Württemberg discovered
his mistake he did what he could to make good his statement by
attempting to take Hill 60 without regard to sacrificing his men.
Sir John French was just as determined to hold the hill. So he moved
large numbers of troops toward the shattered mound, the British
artillery was reenforced, and the hastily constructed sandbag
breastworks were improved with all possible speed.
The Germans then attacked with gas bombs. Projectiles filled with
gas were hurled upon the British from three sides. The East Surrey
Regiment, which defended the hill in the latter part of the battle
for it, suffered severely. Faces and arms became shiny and gray-black.
Membranes in the throats thickened, and lungs seemed to be eaten
by the chlorine poison. Yet the men fought on until exhausted,
and then fell to suffer through a death struggle which continued
from twenty-four hours to three days of suffocating agony.
The German artillery kept up its almost incessant pounding of the
British. In short lulls of the big gun's work the German infantry
hurled itself against the trenches on the hill, using hand grenades
and bombs. The fight continued until the morning of May 5, 1915,
when the wind blew at about four miles an hour from the German
trenches. Then a greenish-yellow fog of poisonous gas was released,
and soon encompassed the hill. The East Surreys, who were holding
the hill, were driven back by the gas, but as soon as the gas passed
they charged the Germans who had followed the gas and had taken
possession of the hill. Notwithstanding the machine-gun fire which
the Germans poured upon them, many of the trenches were retaken by
the Surrey soldiers in their first frenzied rush to regain what
they had lost because of the gas. The battle ended when there was
no hill left. The bombardment and the mines had leveled the mound
by distributing it over the surrounding territory. The British,
however, were accorded the victory, as they had trenches near where
the hill was and made them a part of the base of the salient about
Ypres.
That town has been likened to the hub of a wheel whose spokes are
the roads which lead eastward. It is true that one important road
went over the canal, at Steenstraate, but practically all of the
highways of consequence went through Ypres. Thus the spokes of the
wheel, whose rim was the outline of the salient, were the roads to
Menin, Gheluvelt, Zonnebeke, Poelcapelle, Langemarck, and Pilkem.
And the railroad to Roulers was also a spoke. Hence all of the
supplies for the troops on the salient must pass through Ypres,
which made it most desirable for the Germans to take the town. It
will be remembered that they had won a place for their artillery
early in November, 1914, which gave them an opportunity to bombard
Ypres through the winter. On February 1, 1915, a portion of the
French troops which had held the salient were withdrawn and their
places taken by General Bulfin's Twenty-eighth Division. Thus, by
April 20, 1915, that part of the Allies' front was held as follows:
From the canal to east of Langemarck was the Forty-fifth Division
of the French army, consisting of colonial infantry. On the French
right, to the northeast of Zonnebeke, was the Canadian division,
under the command of General Alderson, consisting of the Third
Brigade, under General Turner, on the left, and the Second Brigade,
under General Currie, on the right. The Twenty-eighth Division
extended from the Canadian right to the southeast corner of the
Polygon Wood. This division comprised the Eighty-third, Eighty-fourth,
and Eighty-fifth Brigades in order from right to left. The next
section of the salient was held by Princess Patricia's Regiment
of the Twenty-seventh Division, which division, under the command
of General Snow, guarded the front to the east of Veldhoek along
the ridge to within a short distance of Hill 60, where the Fifth
Division, under the command of General Morland, held the line.
The greater part of the German troops opposite the salient were
from Württemberg and Saxony.
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