OPERATIONS AROUND HOOGE
The next action of importance on the British front occurred at
the Château of Hooge on the Menin road about three miles east of
Ypres. Here had been the headquarters of Sir John French and Sir
Douglas Haig at the first battle of Ypres. From the Château Sir
John French had seen the British line break at Gheluvelt, thereby
opening the road for the Germans to Calais. That opening, however,
had been closed by the Worchsters. After the Germans began to use
their deadly gas in the spring of 1915 they again took possession
of Hooge, and used the Menin road for a forward movement which
threatened what was left of Ypres.
The Duke of Württemberg was in command of that part of the line
opposed to the British, and his forces extended from near Pilkem in
the north to near Hill 60 in the south, in the form of a crescent.
He made use of the asphyxiating gas cloud and gas bombs so frequently
on this part of the front that the British soldiers became expert in
donning their hood like masks and in using respirators. Moreover,
the British were constantly on the alert for the appearance of the
poison gas. So that this method of attack was much less effective.
Before the Germans discovered how well the British had prepared
themselves against the gas, they met with disaster twice when using
it. On both occasions they had followed their gas cloud expecting
to find their foes writhing on the ground in choking agony--an
easy prey for an attack.
But the British had put on their curious-appearing headgear, and
were waiting for the men whom they knew would be following the
cloud at a safe distance. As soon as the Germans were near enough
the British turned loose everything that would hurl a projectile
large or small. By the time the gas cloud had cleared, or, to be
more accurate, passed on to the rear of the British line and spent
itself, the only Germans to be seen were in the piles of dead and
wounded in front of the British most advanced trenches. The first
time this occurred did not teach the Germans its lesson sufficiently
well. A second time the Germans did not follow their gas cloud so
closely. The gas-filled shells, however, the British found more
difficult. They did not give warning of their coming as did the
appearance of the comparatively slow-moving gas cloud. Thus in
the first week of May, 1915, Hill 60 was taken by the Germans in
a bombardment of asphyxiating shells. The bombardment had been
immediately followed by a charge of bomb throwers who made an assault
on the hill from three sides at once. That forced the British to
retreat to a trench line at the foot of the hill, and gave the
top of the hill to the Germans who immediately set up a lookout
post for their artillery back of the Zandvoord ridge.
This part of the British line was under the command of Sir Herbert
Plumer. His troops occupied themselves from the first week in May
to the middle of August, 1915, in fighting in the Hooge district.
Most of this fighting was important only because it kept the Germans
busy on that section of the line, and prevented them from being
able to reenforce the Crown Prince of Bavaria or adding men to
the force that was driving the Russians eastward.
The men, fresh from the training camps, fought alongside of hardened
veterans and learned much from them. From being what amounted to
auxiliaries in these actions the new troops became hardened to
actual fighting conditions. For this reason the personnel of the
British troops on this part of the line was changed frequently.
This was especially true at Hooge. Princess Patricia's Canadian
Regiment occupied the Château and village of Hooge on May 8, 1915.
The "Princess Pats," as they were known at home, turned over their
quarters to the Ninth Lancers who were followed by the Fifteenth
Hussars and the Second Camerons.
On May 24, 1915, the Germans made a great gas attack. They had
placed along the line from St. Julien to Hooge a great number of
gas tanks. They then started a bombardment with asphyxiating shells.
When the bombardment was well under way the tanks were opened.
The ensuing cloud was five miles long and forty feet high; and
it floated over the British trenches from 3 a. m. to 7 a. m. The
cloud was followed by three columns of infantry, who dashed forward
under the protection of the shells of their artillery. But the
Germans made gains in only two places--at Hooge and to the north of
Wieltje. For the most part the British regained by counterattacks
what they lost; but they were unable to retake the Château of Hooge,
though the Ninth Lancers and the Fifteenth Hussars made a heroic
attempt to regain it. Thereupon the Third Dragoons received orders
to attempt to retake the Château of Hooge. They went into the second
line of the British trenches to the south of the Menin road on May
29, 1915. The Germans bombarded the trenches with high-explosive
shells while from the German trenches a torrent of small arms fire
poured. In spite of the continued hail of lead, the Dragoons held
to their position though their trenches were wrecked.
Early in the morning of May 31, the British charged and drove their
enemy from the ruins of the Château and its stables. The Germans
turned all of their artillery on that part of the line against
Hooge, and when the bombardment was finished there was only a heap
of ruins left. The British withdrew from the Château, but only
for a short distance.
The bombardment was renewed on June 1; on that day the German infantry
tried to dislodge the Dragoons, but the attempt was unsuccessful.
Again, on June 2, the artillery was used, the German shells being
hurled a part of the time at the rate of twenty a minute. Under the
cover of this terrific bombardment a part of the German infantry
charged from the Bellewaarde Lake region. They got to the Château
before a British battery opened fire on them. Again they entered
the ruins and made a dash out on the opposite side, where they were
met by more machine-gun fire. Three times they tried to escape,
but practically all of them were slain. Other attempts were made
by the Germans that afternoon, but none of them was successful.
The Dragoons were relieved on June 3, 1915, and their places were
taken by a much larger force. It included the Third Worcesters,
the First Wiltshires, the First Northumberland Fusiliers, the First
Lincolnshires, the Royal Fusiliers, the Royal Scots Fusiliers,
and the Liverpool Scottish, a territorial organization.
The British artillery was concentrated in the neighborhood of Hooge
and started a bombardment on June 16. After a fairly adequate
preparation by cannonade, the infantry charged the German line for
a thousand yards near the Château, and took a part of the second
line of trenches. Again the British bayonet and bomb had won, though
in this attack the greater credit must be given to the bomb. The
Germans made an attempt to retrieve the day by battering the British
out of the trenches they had won. To do this the German artillery
used a plentiful supply of high-explosive shells. They continued
the attempt for twenty-four hours; but all they succeeded in doing
was driving the British back to the first line of German trenches
where they waited for the inevitable attack of the infantry which
was repulsed. Finally the Germans seemed inclined to give up trying
to accomplish much on this part of their front.
In the first week of July, 1915, the British took two hundred yards
of German trenches, eighty prisoners and three trench mortars.
The German commander now turned once more to Hooge. An additional
reason for his renewed interest in that place was the fact that the
British engineers, on July 20, blew up a mine west of the Château,
thereby making a great crater in which the British infantry made
themselves comparatively secure. The crater was one hundred and
fifty feet wide and fifty feet deep.
The Germans made an unsuccessful attempt to take the crater on
July 21, 1915; and tried again on July 24. The Duke of Württemberg
found his men making comparatively little progress. It is true that
the British had not made much more. The gas attacks had gained ground
before the British had learned how to avoid the more severe effects
of the poison. The result of experience brought into existence
a new device. It has been called a flame projector, and has been
described as a portable tank which is filled with a highly inflammable
coal-tar product. The contents of the tank were pumped through a
nozzle at the end of which was a lighting arrangement. The flame
could be thrown approximately forty yards.
A large supply of these flame projectors arrived in the German
trenches on July 30, 1915. The action began with the usual bombardment
of high-explosive shells. Other shells filled with the burning
liquid were also used. At the height of the bombardment, the British
lines were flame swept. No preparation had been made for such an
attack; and the only thing that the British could do was to get
out of the way of the flame. Thus they lost their trenches in the
crater and at the Château and village of Hooge. The method of attack
so infuriated the British that they made a desperate counterattack
with the result that they regained most of what they lost with
the exception of about five hundred yards of trenches.
* * * * *