BEGINNING OF SECOND BATTLE OF YPRES
What is called the second battle of Ypres began with a bombardment
of the little city on April 20, 1915. The rain of shells continued
on through April 22, 1915, on the evening of which the British
artillery observers reported a strange green vapor moving over the
French trenches. The wind was blowing steadily from the northeast.
Soon the French troops were staggering back from the front, blinded
and choking from the deadly German gas. Many of their comrades had
been unable to leave the spot where they were overtaken by the
fumes. Those who fled in terror rushed madly across the canal,
choking the road to Vlamertinghe. A part of the Zouaves and Turcos
ran south toward the Langemarck road, finally reaching the reserve
battalions of the Canadians. Ere long the Canadians caught the
deadly odor also.
But the work of the gas did a much more valuable thing for the
German troops than causing the agonizing death of many hundreds
and sending thousands in headlong flight. It made a four-mile-wide
opening in the front of the Allies. And the Germans were quick to
take advantage of that opening. They followed the gas, and were
aided in their advance by artillery fire. The French were forced
back on the canal from Steenstraate to Boesinghe. The Canadians
had not suffered so much from the gas as the French soldiers, but
their flank was too exposed for them to do much effective work
against the onrushing Teutons. The attempt to rally the Turcos
failed. The Third Brigade could not withstand the attack of four
divisions, and was forced inward from a point south of Poelcappelle
until its left rested on the wood east of St. Julien. There was
a gap beyond it, and the Germans were forcing their way around
its flank. Because the entire First Brigade of Canadians had been
held in reserve it could not be brought up in time to save the
situation. Two of the battalions, the Sixteenth and Tenth, were
in the gap by midnight. They charged and recovered the northern
edge, and the guns of the Second London Division, which had been
supporting the French in the wood east of St. Julien. But the British
could not hold all they retook, and were forced to abandon the guns
because the artillery horses were miles away. So parts of the guns
were made useless before the Germans had them again.
Then another counterattack was made by the First and Fourth Ontarios
of General Mercer's First Brigade. The Fourth Ontario captured the
German shelter trenches and held them for two days, when they were
relieved. The Third Canadian Brigade held its position in spite
of being opposed by many times their numbers and almost overcome
by the gas fumes. The Forty-eighth Highlanders, who had had to
withstand the gas, rallied after their retreat and regained their
former place in the front. The Royal Highlanders kept their original
position. Yet there was every indication of a rout. The roads were
clogged by the night supply trains going forward and the rush of men
trying to escape from the deadly gas. The staff officers found it
impossible to straighten out the tangle, and the various regiments
had to act almost as independent bodies, It was not until early the
following morning, April 23, 1915, that the first reenforcements
of British soldiers appeared to fill the breach. These men, for
the most part, were from the Twenty-eighth Division, and had been
east of Zonnebeke to the southeast corner of Polygon Wood. So great
was the pressure at the section where the break had been made in
the line that troops were taken from wherever available, so that
the units in the gap varied from day to day. For the men had to be
returned to their original positions, such as remained available,
as soon as possible. This composite body of troops has been called
Geddes's Detachment.
The Germans had captured Lizerne and Het Sas, and Steenstraate was
threatened by them. They bombarded with heavy artillery, located
on the Passchendaele ridge, the front held by the Canadians, the
Twenty-eighth Division, and Geddes's Detachment, on April 23, 1915.
The severest fighting was on that part of the front held by the
Third Brigade of Canadians. Many men had been killed or wounded in
this brigade, and those who survived were ill from the effects of
the gas. Furthermore, no food could be taken to them for twenty-four
hours. Moreover, they were subjected to a fire from three sides,
with the result that they were forced to a new position on a line
running through St. Julien. Finally the Germans forced their way
around to the left of the Third Brigade, establishing their machine
guns behind it.
A terrific artillery attack was started by the Germans on the morning
of April 24, 1915, and this was followed by a second rush of gas
from their trenches. It rose in a cloud seven feet high and was
making its attack on the British in two minutes after it started.
It was thickest near the ground, being pumped from cylinders. And
it worked with the same deadly effect. The Third Brigade, receiving
its second attack of this sort before it had recovered from the
first, retreated to the southwest of St. Julien, but soon after
regained most of their lost position. The Second Brigade had to
bend its left south. Colonel Lipsett's Eighth Battalion, however,
held fast on the Grafenstafel ridge, remaining in their position
two days in spite of the gas of which they got a plentiful supply.
By noon of April 24, 1915, the Germans made an attack on the village
of St. Julien and that part of the allied front to the east of the
village. Thereupon the Third Brigade retreated about 700 yards to
a new front south of the village and north of the hamlet of Fortuin.
But what remained of the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Battalions was
forced by circumstances to remain in the St. Julien line until
late that night. Colonel Lipsett's Eighth Battalion at Grafenstafel,
in spite of its left being unsupported, held its position which
was of great importance to the British front. For, had that part
of the front been lost, the Germans in an hour could have worked
their way back of the Twenty-eighth Division and the entire eastern
sector.
In the meantime the French on the western section of the front
made a counterattack from the canal with partial success; but were
unable to drive the German troops from the sector entirely. The
Teutons took Steenstraate; but their victory there was marred by
the fact that the Belgian artillery smashed the bridge behind them.
By this time the British reenforcements began to arrive in fairly
large numbers. The Thirteenth Brigade of the Fifth Division was
placed to the west of Geddes's Detachment, between the Pilkem road
and the canal. Territorials who had arrived from England only three
days before, the Durham and York Brigades of the Northumbrian Division,
supported the Thirteenth Brigade. The Tenth Brigade of the Fourth
Division were rushed to support the Third Brigade of Canadians
who were south of St. Julien. Other British troops were sent to
relieve the tense situation at Grafenstafel.
An attempt to retake St. Julien was made early on Sunday morning,
April 25, 1915, by General Hull's Tenth Brigade and two battalions
of the Durham and York Brigade. The British worked their way to
the few Canadians who had continued on the former front when the
main British force had been driven back. There they were checked
by the German machine gun fire. The British lost many men here and
the efforts to save the day resulted in such a mixture of fighting
units that there were fifteen battalions under General Hull, as
well as the Canadian artillery.
At Grafenstafel the Eighth Battalion of the Durham Brigade were
bombarded with asphyxiating shells before the German infantry attack.
The fighting on this section of the front was fierce throughout
the afternoon, but finally the British were forced to retire. At
Broodseinde, the extreme eastern point of the allied front, the Germans
made a desperate attempt to take the salient, using asphyxiating
and other bombs again and again on the men of the Twenty-eighth
Division of the British. King George's men, however, repelled the
attacks with severe loss to the Teutons, taking many prisoners.
The French on the left, beyond the Yperlee Canal, prevented the
advance of the German troops; and, farther to the left, the Belgians
checked three attacks in which asphyxiating gas was used, south
of Dixmude. Thus it may be seen that the Germans had met with no
success worth while, when Sunday, April 25, 1915, closed, so far
as the ends of the salient were concerned; but in the center the
British situation was so critical that the Second Canadian Brigade,
reduced to less than 1,000 men, was once more called into action
on the following day. On the same day, April 26, 1915, the Lahore
Division of the Indian army was marched north of Ypres. The point of
the salient was pushed in on that day at Broodseinde, but the German
success there was short-lived. The brigade holding Grafenstafel was
attacked fiercely by the Germans. The Durham Light Infantry was
forced from Fortuin behind the Haanabeek River. The Teutons made
several attacks from the St. Julien district against the section
between the Yperlee Canal and the southern part of the village. By
this time Geddes's Detachment was almost exhausted, they, with the
Canadians, having withstood the heaviest fighting at the beginning
of the battle; and most likely saved the Allies a most disastrous
defeat. The detachment could stand no more, and the various units
of which it was composed were returned to their respective commands.
But the salient was growing smaller as a result of the repeated
hammering of the Germans; and that exposed the allied troops to a
more deadly fire from three sides. It was evident that the Allies
must make a counterattack. General Riddell's Brigade was sent to
Fortuin and with the Lahore Division on its left was told to retake
St. Julien and the woods to the west of the village. Beyond the
Yperlee Canal, on the left, the French made an assault on Lizerne,
supported by the Belgian artillery; while the French colonial soldiers
poured on Pilkem from the sector about Boesinghe. On the right the
allied troops were lined up as follows: the Connaught Rangers,
Fifty-seventh Wilde's Rifles, the Ferozepore Brigade, the 129th
Baluchis, the Jullundur Brigade, and General Riddell's battalions.
The Sirhind Brigade was held in reserve.
The German artillerymen apparently knew the distances and topography
of the entire region and poured a leaden hail upon the allied troops.
The Indians and the British in their immediate neighborhood charged
in short rushes, losing many men in the attempt to reach the German
trenches. Before the Germans were in any danger of a hand-to-hand
struggle, they sent one of their gas clouds from their trenches
and the attack was abandoned, the British and Indians getting back
to their trenches as best they could. In this action the British
gave great praise to their comrades from India. Riddell's Brigade
was stopped in its attack on St. Julien by wire entanglements;
and, though the outlaying sections of St. Julien were captured,
the brigade was unable to hold them; and the Germans continued to
hold the woods west of the village. Nevertheless the British front
had been pushed forward from 600 to 700 yards in some places.
By that night, the night of April 26, 1915, the allied front extended
from the north of Zonnebeke to the eastern boundary of the Grafenstafel
ridge; thence southwest along the southern side of the Haanabeek
to a point a half mile east of St. Julien; thence, bending around
that village, it ran to Vamhuele--called the "shell trap"--farm
on the Ypres-Poelcappelle road. Next it proceeded to Boesinghe
and crossed the Yperlee Canal, passing northward of Lizerne after
which were the French and the Belgians.
The work of the allied aviators on April 26, 1915, deserves more
than passing consideration in the record of that day's fighting.
They dropped bombs on the stations of Courtrai, Roubaix, Thielt,
and Staden. They discovered near Langemarck an armored train with
the result that it was shelled and thus forced to return. And they
forced a German aviator to the ground at Roulers.
The Lahore Division with the French on their left attacked the
Germans on April 27, 1915, but they met with little success because
of the gas which the Teutons sent into the ranks of the attacking
party. But the German troops had lost so heavily that they did
not seem to be inclined to follow up their apparent advantage.
Incidentally the Allies needed a rest as well. Hence there was
little fighting the next two days. On April 30, 1915, however,
General Putz attacked the Germans with so much force that they
were hurled back an appreciable distance near Pilkem. Seven machine
guns and 200 prisoners were taken, and the 214th, 215th, and 216th
German regiments lost more than 1,000 men. On the same day the
London Rifle Brigade, further east, drove back a German forward
movement from St. Julien.
West of the Yperlee Canal, however, it soon became known to the
commanders of the allied forces that the Germans were in such a
strong position that it would be impossible to dislodge their enemy
until much greater preparations had been made. In the meantime
the communications of the Allies were in danger. Hence Sir John
French on May 1, 1915, ordered Sir Herbert Plumer to retreat. The
wisdom of this order, the execution of which contracted the southern
portion of the salient, was seen when the Germans again attempted
to force their way through the allied front by the use of gas. The
attempt this time was made between Zonnebeke, on the Ypres-Roulers
railroad, and Boesinghe on the Yperlee Canal on Sunday, May 2,
1915. Though the British had been supplied with respirators of a
sort, these means of defense were not as effective as they should
have been nor as adequate as what was provided later. The Germans,
however, suffered large losses in this attack because, as soon
as the wall of gas began to approach the British trenches, the
men there fired into it, well knowing from past experience that
the Germans were following the gas. In this manner many of the
Teutons were slain. The Allies adopted other tactics which were
quite as effective. On seeing the gas approaching, the soldiers
in some parts of the line proceeded to execute a flank movement,
thereby getting away from the gas and subjecting the Germans to
a deadly fire from a direction least expected.
Between Fortuin and Zonnebeke and south of St. Julien the allied
line broke, but the supports with two cavalry regiments were rushed
from Potijze, a mile and a half from Ypres on the Zonnebeke Road,
and regained the lost ground. By night the Germans decided to
discontinue their attempt to advance and left their dead and wounded
on the field.
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