THE SECOND BATTLE OF YPRES
Stage II.--The Bellewaarde Lines
The second phase--Attack on the Fourth Division--Great stand of the
Princess Pats--Breaking of the line--Desperate attacks--The cavalry
save the situation--The ordeal of the 11th Brigade--The German
failure--Terrible strain on the British--The last effort of May
24--Result of the battle--Sequence of events.
It was upon the evening of May 4 that the difficult operations were
finished by which the lines of the British Army on the north-east of
Ypres were brought closer to the city. The trenches which faced
north, including those which looked towards Pilken and St. Julien,
were hardly affected at all by this rearrangement. The section which
was chiefly modified was the long curved line which was held from
Zonnebeke southwards by the Twenty-seventh and Twenty-eighth
Divisions. Instead of averaging five miles from Ypres, these troops
were now not more than three from that centre, and the curve of their
line was from Wieltje and Frezenberg to past the Bellewaarde wood and
lake, and so through Hooge and on to Hill 60.
[Sidenote: The second phase.]
The second phase of this great battle, which began with the poisoning
of Langemarck, is dated from the time that the British line was
readjusted. {83} The Germans were naturally much encouraged by so
general a withdrawal, and it seemed to them that, with a further
effort, they would be able to burst their way through and take
possession at last of this town which faced them, still inviolate,
after nearly eight months of incessant attack. Their guns, aided by
their aeroplanes, after wasting a day in bombarding the empty
trenches, hastened to register upon the new line of defences.
During the 5th, 6th, and 7th the enemy were perfecting their new
arrangements, but no peace or rest was given to that northern portion
of the line which was still in its old trenches. The bombardment was
turned on to this or that battalion in turn. On the evening of the
5th it was the 5th South Lancashires, on the right of the 12th
Brigade, who were torn to pieces by jets of steel from the terrible
hose. The battalion was relieved by the 2nd Monmouths, who beat off
an attack next morning. All day upon the 7th the Germans were
massing for an attack, but were held back by the steady fire of the
French and British batteries. On the 8th, however, the new
preparations were complete, and a terrible storm, destined to last
for six unbroken days--days never to be forgotten by those who
endured them--broke along the whole east, north-east, and north of
the British line.
It has been shown in the last chapter that during the long and bitter
fight which had raged from the 22nd to the 28th of April the two
British divisions which together formed the Fifth Army Corps had not
only been closely engaged in their own trenches, but had lent
battalions freely to the Canadians, so that they had at one time only
a single battalion in their own {84} reserve. During the period of
the readjustment of the line nearly all these troops returned, but
they came back grievously weakened and wearied by the desperate
struggle in which they had been involved. None the less, they got to
work at once in forming and strengthening the new dyke which was to
keep the German flood out of Ypres. Day and night they toiled at
their lines, helped by working parties from the Fifth Division, the
50th Northumbrian Division, and two field companies of sappers from
the Fourth Division. All was ready when the German attack broke upon
the line. The left of this attack was borne by the Fourth Division,
the centre, in the Frezenberg sector, was held by the Twenty-eighth
Division, and the right by the Twenty-seventh Division, who joined up
with the Fifth Division in the south. This was at first almost
entirely an artillery attack, and was of a most destructive
character. Such an attack probably represents the fixed type of the
future, where the guns will make an area of country impossible for
human life, and the function of the infantry will simply be to move
forward afterwards and to occupy. Along the whole line of the three
divisions for hour after hour an inexhaustible rain of huge
projectiles fell with relentless precision into the trenches,
smashing them to pieces and burying the occupants in the graves which
they had prepared for themselves. It was with joy that the wearied
troops saw the occasional head of an infantry assault and blew it to
pieces with their rifles. For the greater part it was not a contest
between men and men, but rather one between men and metal, in which
our battalions were faced by a deserted and motionless landscape,
from which came the ceaseless {85} downpour of shells and occasional
drifting clouds of chlorine. At one point, near Frezenberg, the
trenches had been sited some 70 yards down the forward slope of a
hill, with disastrous results, as the 3rd Monmouths and part of the
2nd Royal Lancasters who held this section were almost destroyed.
When the 3rd Monmouths were eventually recalled the Battalion H.Q.
and some orderlies and signallers were all who appeared in answer to
the summons.
[Sidenote: Attack on the Fourth Division. May 8.]
About seven o'clock the German infantry attack developed against that
part of the line--the northern or left wing--which was held by the
Fourth Division. The advance was pushed with great resolution and
driven back with heavy losses, after getting within a hundred yards
of the trenches. "Company after company came swinging forward
steadily in one long, never-ending line," says an observer of the
11th Brigade, describing the attack as it appeared from the front of
the 1st East Lancashires and of the 5th London Rifle Brigade. "Here
and there their attack slackened, but the check was only temporary.
On they came again, and the sight was one that almost mesmerised us.
They were near enough for us to hear the short, sharp cries of the
officers, and the rain of bullets became more deadly than ever. It
was simple murder." The barbed wire in front of the defences was
choked and heaped with dead and wounded men. This desperate German
attack had more success farther to the south.
At this part of the line the Germans had pushed through a gap and had
seized the village of Wieltje, thus getting behind the right rear of
the 12th Brigade. It was essential to regain the village, for it was
a vital point in the line. The 1st Royal Irish, which {86} had been
attached to this brigade, together with two companies of the 5th
South Lancashire, were ordered to advance, while two reserve
battalions of the 1st Irish Fusiliers and the 7th Argyll and
Sutherlands, all under General Anley, supported the attack. It is no
light matter with an inferior artillery to attack a village held by
German troops, but the assault was brilliantly successful and the
village was regained, while the dangerous gap was closed in the
British line. That night there was some desperate fighting round
Wieltje, which occasionally got down to bayonet work. The 1st Hants
and 1st East Lancashire from the 11th Brigade had come up and helped
in the fierce defence, which ended where it began, with the British
line still intact.
So much for the fighting on May 8 in front of the Fourth Division.
Farther down the line to the south the situation was more serious. A
terrific bombardment had demolished the trenches of the Fifth Corps,
and a very heavy infantry advance had followed, which broke the line
in several places.
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{87}
[Illustration: SECOND BATTLE OF YPRES ORDER OF BATTLE FROM MAY 7th.]
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The weight of this attack fell upon the Twenty-eighth Division in
front of Frezenberg, and very particularly upon the 83rd Brigade,
which formed the unit on the right flank. The German rush was
stemmed for a time by the staunch North of England battalions which
made up this brigade--the 1st Yorkshire Light Infantry on the extreme
right, and their neighbours of the 5th Royal Lancasters, the 2nd
Royal Lancasters, and the 2nd East Yorkshires. Great drifts of gas
came over, and the gasping soldiers, with their hands to their
throats and the tears running down their cheeks, were at the same
time cut to pieces by every kind of shell beating upon them in an
{89} endless stream. Yet they made head against this accumulation of
horrors. The East Yorkshires were particularly badly cut up, and the
Monmouths, who were in support, endured a terrible and glorious
baptism of fire while advancing in splendid fashion to their support.
But the losses from the shell-fire had been very heavy, and the line
was too weak to hold. Of 2500 men in the Frezenberg trenches only
600 men were left standing. The brigade had to fall back. The left
flank of the 80th Brigade of the Twenty-seventh Division upon the
right was consequently exposed and in the air. A glance at the
accompanying diagram will show the situation created by the
retirement of any unit.
[Sidenote: Great stand of the Princess Pats. May 8.]
The flank trench was held by the Princess Patricia Canadians, and
their grand defence of it showed once more the splendid stuff which
the Dominion had sent us. Major Gault and all the other senior
officers were killed or wounded, and the command devolved upon
Lieutenant Niven, who rose greatly to the occasion. Besides the
heavy shelling and the gas, the trenches were raked by machine-guns
in neighbouring buildings. So accurate was the German artillery that
the machine-guns of the Canadians were buried again and again, but
were dug up and spat out their defiance once more. Corporal Dover
worked one of these guns till both his leg and his arm had been shot
away. When the trenches were absolutely obliterated the Canadians
manned the communication trench and continued the desperate
resistance. The 4th Rifle Brigade sent up a reinforcement and the
fight went on. Later a party of the 2nd Shropshires pushed their way
also into the fire-swept trenches, bringing with them a welcome
supply of {90} cartridges. It was at this hour that the 83rd Brigade
upon the right of the Twenty-eighth Division had to fall back,
increasing the difficulty of holding the position. The enemy charged
once more and got possession of the trench at a point where all the
defenders had been killed. There was a rush, however, by the
survivors in the other sections, and the Germans were driven out
again. From then until late at night the shell-fire continued, but
there was no further infantry advance. Late that night, when
relieved by the Rifles, the Canadian regiment, which had numbered
nearly 700 in the morning, could only muster 150 men. Having read
the service over their comrades, many of whom had already been buried
by the German shells, they were led back by Lieutenants Niven, Clark,
Vandenburg, and Papineau after a day of great stress and loss, but of
permanent glory. "No regiment could have fought with greater
determination or endurance," said an experienced British general.
"Many would have failed where they succeeded."
[Sidenote: Breaking of the line. May 8.]
It has already been described how the 83rd Brigade had been driven
back by the extreme weight of the German advance. Their fellow
brigade upon the left, the 84th (Bowes), had a similar experience.
They also held their line under heavy losses, and were finally,
shortly after mid-day, compelled to retire. The flank regiment on
the right, the 1st Suffolk, were cut off and destroyed even as their
second battalion had been at Le Cateau.
At this time the 1st Suffolk was so reduced by the losses sustained
when it had formed part of Wallace's detachment, as described in the
last chapter, that there were fewer than 300 men with the Colours.
{91} When the Germans broke through the left flank of the 83rd
Brigade they got partly to the rear of the Suffolk trenches. The
survivors of the Suffolks were crowded down the trench and mixed up
with the 2nd Cheshires, who were their immediate neighbours. The
parapets were wrecked, the trenches full of debris, the air polluted
with gas, and the Germans pushing forward on the flank, holding
before them the prisoners that they had just taken from the 83rd
Brigade. It is little wonder that in these circumstances this most
gallant battalion was overwhelmed. Colonel Wallace and 130 men were
taken. The 2nd Northumberland Fusiliers and the 1st Monmouths
sustained also very heavy losses, as did the 12th London Rangers.
The shattered remains of the brigade were compelled to fall back in
conformity with the 83rd upon the right, sustaining fresh losses as
they were swept with artillery fire on emerging from the trenches.
This was about 11.30 in the morning. The 1st Monmouths upon the left
of the line seem, however, to have kept up their resistance till a
considerably later hour, and to have behaved with extraordinary
gallantry. Outflanked and attacked in the rear after the Germans had
taken the trenches on the right, they still, under their gallant
Colonel Robinson, persevered in what was really a hopeless
resistance. The Germans trained a machine-gun upon them from a house
which overlooked their trench, but nothing could shift the gallant
miners who formed the greater part of the regiment. Colonel Robinson
was shot dead while passing his men down the trench one by one in the
hope of forming a new front. Half the officers and men were already
on the ground. The German stormers were {92} on the top of them with
cries of "Surrender! Surrender!" "Surrender be damned!" shouted
Captain Edwards, and died still firing his revolver into the grey of
them. It was a fine feat of arms, but only 120 men out of 750
reassembled that night.
After this severe blow battalions held back in reserve were formed up
for a counter-attack, which was launched about half-past three. The
attack advanced from the point where the Fourth and Twenty-eighth
Divisions adjoined, and two battalions of the Fourth Division--the
1st Warwicks and the 2nd Dublin Fusiliers--together with the 2nd East
Surreys, 1st York and Lancasters, and 3rd Middlesex, of the 85th
Brigade, took part in it, pushing forwards towards the hamlet of
Frezenberg, which they succeeded in occupying. On their left the
12th London Regiment (the Rangers) won their way back to the line
which their brigade, the 84th, had held in the morning, but they lost
very heavily in their gallant attack. Two other reserve battalions,
the 1st East Lancashires, of the 11th Brigade, and the 7th Argyll and
Sutherland Highlanders, of the 10th, fought their way up as already
mentioned on the extreme left in the neighbourhood of Wieltje, and
spliced the line at the weak point of the junction of divisions. All
these attacks were made against incessant drifts of poison-gas, as
well as heavy rifle and shell fire. It was a day of desperate and
incessant fighting, where all General Plumer's skill and resolution
were needed to restore and to hold his line. The Germans claimed to
have taken 500 prisoners, mostly of the 84th Brigade.
[Sidenote: Desperate attacks. May 9.]
The net result of the fighting upon May 8 was {93} that the area held
in the north-east of Ypres was further diminished. Early upon the
9th the Germans, encouraged by their partial success, continued their
attack, still relying upon their massive artillery, which far
exceeded anything which the British could put against it. The attack
on this morning came down the Menin road, and the trenches on either
side of it were heavily bombarded. At ten o'clock there was an
infantry advance upon the line of the 81st Brigade (Croker), which
was driven back by the 2nd Cameron Highlanders and the 2nd
Gloucesters. The shell-fire was continued upon the same line until 4
P.M., when the trench was obliterated, and a second advance of the
German infantry got possession of it. A counter-attack of the
Gloucesters was held up with considerable loss, the advance of the
regiment through the wood being greatly impeded by the number of
trees cut down by shells and forming abattis in every direction, like
the windfalls of a Canadian forest. This trench was the only capture
made by the Germans during the day, and it did not materially weaken
the position. The Gloucesters lost Colonel Tulloh, five other
officers, and 150 men.
These attacks along the line of the Menin road and to the north of
Lake Bellewaarde were all directed upon the Twenty-seventh Division,
but the Twenty-eighth Division immediately to the north, which had
been defending the sector which runs through Frezenberg and Wieltje,
had also been most violently shelled, but had held its line, as had
the Fourth Division to the north. All these divisions had
considerable losses. The general result was a further slight
contraction of the British line. It could not be broken, and it
could {94} not be driven in upon Ypres, but the desperate and (apart
from the gas outrages) valorous onslaughts of the Germans, aided by
their overpowering artillery, gained continually an angle here and a
corner there, with the result that the British position was being
gradually whittled away.
[Sidenote: May 10.]
On the 10th the Germans again attacked upon the line of the Menin
road, blasting a passage with their artillery, but meeting with a
most determined resistance. The weight of their advance fell chiefly
upon the 80th Brigade to the north of the road, the 4th Rifle Brigade
and the 4th Rifles bearing the brunt of it and suffering very
severely, though the 2nd Camerons and 9th Royal Scots, of the 81st
Brigade, were also hard hit. So savage had been the bombardment, and
so thick the gas, that the German infantry thought that they could
safely advance, but the battalions named, together with the 3rd
Battalion of Rifles, drove them back with heavy loss. It was always
a moment of joy for the British infantry when for a brief space they
were faced by men rather than machines. The pitiless bombardment
continued; the garrison of the trenches was mostly killed or buried,
and the survivors fell back on to the support trenches west of the
wood. This defence of the Riflemen was as desperate a business as
that of the Canadians upon the 8th. Several of the platoons remained
in the shattered trenches until the Germans had almost surrounded
them, and finally shot and stabbed a path for themselves till they
could rejoin their comrades. It was on this day that the 9th Argyll
and Sutherland Highlanders suffered heavy losses, including their
splendid Colonel, James Clark.
{95}
[Sidenote: May 11.]
On May 11 the attack was still very vigorous. The Twenty-seventh
Division was strongly pressed in the morning. The 80th Brigade was
to the north and somewhat to the west of the 81st, which caused the
latter to form a salient. With their usual quickness in taking
advantage of such things, the Germans instantly directed their fire
upon this point. After several hours of heavy shelling, an infantry
attack about 11 A.M. got into the trenches, but was driven out again
by the rush of the 9th Royal Scots. The bombardment was then
renewed, and the attack was more successful at 4 P.M.--an almost
exact repetition of the events upon the day before, save that the
stress fell upon the 81st instead of the 80th Brigade. During the
night the Leinsters of the 82nd Brigade drove the Germans out again,
but found that the trench was untenable on account of the shell-fire.
It was abandoned, therefore, and the line was drawn back into the
better cover afforded by a wood. Afterwards the trench was partly
reoccupied by a company of the 2nd Gloucestershires under Captain
Fane.
[Sidenote: The cavalry save the situation.]
By this date many of the defending troops had been fighting with
hardly a break from April 22. It was an ordeal which had lasted by
day and by night, and had only been interrupted by the labour of
completing the new lines. The losses had been very heavy, and
reinforcements were most urgently needed. Some idea of the stress
may be gathered from the fact that at the time the six battalions of
the 83rd Brigade had been formed into one composite battalion under
Colonel Worsley Gough. At the same time it was impossible to take
any troops from the northern sector, which was already hardly {96}
strong enough to hold a violent German attack. In the south the Army
had, as will be shown, become involved in the very serious and
expensive operations which began at Richebourg on May 9. In these
difficult circumstances it was to the never-failing cavalry that
General Plumer had to turn. It is sinful extravagance to expend
these highly trained horsemen, who cannot be afterwards improvised,
on work that is not their own, but there have been many times in this
war when it was absolutely necessary that the last man, be he who he
might, should be put forward. So it was now, and the First and Third
Cavalry Divisions, under General de Lisle, were put into the firing
line to the north of Lake Bellewaarde, taking the place of the
Twenty-eighth Division, which at that time had hardly a senior
regimental officer left standing. The First Cavalry Division took
the line from Wieltje to Verlorenhoek, while the Third carried it on
to Hooge, where it touched the Twenty-seventh Division. Their
presence in the front firing line was a sign of British weakness,
but, on the other hand, it was certain that the Germans had lost
enormously, that they were becoming exhausted, and that they were
likely to wear out the rifling of their cannon before they broke the
line of the defence. A few more days would save the situation, and
it was hoped that the inclusion of the cavalry would win them.
[Sidenote: May 12.]
They took over the lines just in time to meet the brunt of what may
have been the most severe attack of all. The shelling upon May 12
can only be described as terrific. The Germans appeared to have an
inexhaustible supply of munitions, and from morning to night they
blew to pieces the trenches in front {97} and the shelters behind
which might screen the supports.
It was a day of tempestuous weather, and the howling wind, the
driving rain, and the pitiless fire made a Dantesque nightmare of the
combat. The attack on the right fell upon the Third Cavalry
Division. This force had been reorganised since the days in October
when it had done so splendidly with the Seventh Infantry Division in
the fighting before Ypres. It consisted now of the 6th Brigade (1st
Royals, 3rd Dragoon Guards, North Somerset Yeomanry), the 7th Brigade
(1st and 2nd Life Guards and Leicestershire Yeomanry), and the 8th
Brigade (Blues, 10th Hussars, and Essex Yeomanry). This Division was
exposed all morning to a perfectly hellish fire, which was especially
murderous to the north of the Ypres-Roulers road. At this point the
1st Royals, 3rd Dragoon Guards, and Somerset Yeomanry were stationed,
and were blown, with their trenches, into the air by a bombardment
which continued for fourteen hours. A single sentence may be
extracted from the report of the Commander-in-Chief, which the
Somersets should have printed in gold round the walls of their
headquarters. "The North Somerset Yeomanry on the right of the
brigade," says the General, "although also suffering severely, hung
on to their trenches throughout the day and actually advanced and
attacked the enemy with the bayonet." The Royals came up in support,
and the brigade held its own. On one occasion the enemy actually got
round the left of the 3rd Dragoon Guards, who were the flank
regiment, upon which Captain Neville, who was killed later upon the
same day, gave the order, "Even numbers deal with the enemy in the
rear, odd {98} numbers carry on!" which was calmly obeyed with
complete success. On the right the flank of the Twenty-seventh
Division had been exposed, but the 2nd Irish Fusiliers were echeloned
back so as to cover it. So with desperate devices a sagging line was
still drawn between Ypres and the ever-pressing invaders. The strain
was heavy, not only upon the cavalry, but upon the Twenty-seventh
Division to the south of them. There was a time when the pressure
upon the 4th Rifle Brigade, a battalion which had endured enormous
losses, was so great that help was urgently needed. The Princess
Patricia's had been taken out of the line, as only 100 men remained
effective, and the 4th Rifles were in hardly a better position, but
the two maimed battalions were formed into one composite body, which
pushed up with a good heart into the fighting line and took the place
of the 3rd Rifles, who in turn relieved the exhausted Rifle Brigade.
On the left of the cavalry line, where the First Cavalry Division
joined on to the Fourth Infantry Division, near Wieltje, the
artillery storm had burst also with appalling violence. The 18th
Hussars lost 150 men out of their already scanty ranks. The Essex
Regiment on their left helped them to fill the gap until the 4th
Dragoon Guards came up in support. This fine regiment and their
comrades of the 9th Lancers were heavily punished, but bore it with
grim stoicism. To their right Briggs' 1st Brigade held splendidly,
though all of them, and especially the Bays, were terribly knocked
about. In the afternoon the 5th Dragoon Guards were momentarily
driven in by the blasts of shell, but the 11th Hussars held the line
firm.
{99}
[Sidenote: The ordeal of the 11th Brigade.]
The situation as the day wore on became somewhat more reassuring.
The British line had been badly dented in the middle, where the
cavalry had been driven back or annihilated, but it held firm at each
end. South of the Menin road the Twenty-seventh Division, much
exhausted, were still holding on, officers and men praying in their
weary souls that the enemy might be more weary still. These
buttressed the right of the line, while three miles to the north the
Fourth Division, equally worn and ragged, was holding the left. The
10th Brigade had sustained such losses in the gas battle that it was
held, as far as possible, in reserve, but the 11th and 12th were hard
pressed during the long, bitter day, in which they were choked by
gas, lashed with artillery fire, and attacked time after time by
columns of infantry. The 11th Brigade in that dark hour showed to a
supreme degree the historic qualities of British infantry, their
courage hardening as the times grew worse. The 1st East Lancashires
had their trenches destroyed, lost Major Rutter and many of their
officers, but still, under their gallant Colonel Lawrence, held on to
their shattered lines. Every point gained by the stubborn Germans
was wrenched from them again by men more stubborn still. They
carried a farmhouse near Wieltje, but were turned out again by the
indomitable East Lancashires after desperate fighting at close
quarters. It is said to have been the fourth time that this
battalion mended a broken line. Severe attacks were made upon the
trenches of the 1st Hampshires and the 5th London Rifle Brigade, but
in each case the defenders held their line, the latter Territorial
battalion being left with fewer than 200 men. It was in this action
that Sergeant Belcher, of {100} the London Rifle Brigade, with eight
of his Territorials and two Hussars, held a vital position against
the full force of a German infantry attack, losing half their little
band, but saving the whole line from being enfiladed.
The 12th Brigade had been drawn back into reserve, but it was not a
day for rest, and the 2nd Essex was hurried forward to the relief of
the extreme left of the cavalry, where their line abutted upon the
Fourth Division. The battalion made a very fine counter-attack under
a hail of shells, recovering some trenches and clearing the Germans
out of a farmhouse, which they subsequently held against all
assailants. This attack was ordered on the instant by Colonel Jones,
of the Essex, and was carried out so swiftly that the enemy had no
time to consolidate his new position.
Whilst each buttress held firm, a gallant attempt was made in the
afternoon to straighten out the line in the centre where the Third
Cavalry Division had been pushed back. The 8th Brigade of Cavalry,
under Bulkeley-Johnson, pushed forward on foot and won their way to
the original line of trenches, chasing the Germans out of them and
making many prisoners, but they found it impossible to hold them
without supports under the heavy shell-fire. They fell back,
therefore, and formed an irregular line behind the trenches, partly
in broken ground and partly in the craters of explosions. This they
held for the rest of the day.
[Sidenote: The German failure.]
Thus ended a truly desperate conflict. The Germans had failed in
this, which proved to be their final and supreme effort to break the
line. On the other hand, the advance to the north of the Bellewaarde
{101} Lake necessitated a further spreading and weakening of the
other forces, so that it may truly be said that the prospects never
looked worse than at the very moment when the Germans had spent their
strength and could do no more. From May 13 the righting died down,
and for some time the harassed and exhausted defenders were allowed
to re-form and to recuperate. The 80th Brigade, which had suffered
very heavily, was drawn out upon the 17th, the Second Cavalry
Division, under Kavanagh, taking its place. Next day the 81st
Brigade, and on May 22 the 82nd, were also drawn back to the west of
Ypres, their place being taken by fresh troops. The various units of
the Twenty-eighth Division were also rested for a time. For the
gunners and sappers there was no rest, however, but incessant labour
against overmastering force.
The second phase of this new Battle of Ypres may be said to have
lasted from May 4 to May 13. It consisted of a violent German
attack, pushed chiefly by poison and by artillery, against the
Twenty-seventh and Twenty-eighth Divisions of the Fifth British Corps
and the Fourth Division to the north of them. Its aim was, as ever,
the capture of Ypres. In this aim it failed, nor did it from first
to last occupy any village or post which gave it any return for its
exertions. It inflicted upon the British a loss of from 12,000 to
15,000 men, but endured itself at the very least an equal slaughter
without any compensating advantage. The whole operation can only be
described, therefore, as being a costly failure. Throughout these
operations the British infantry were provided with respirators soaked
in alkalis, while many wore specially-constructed helmets to save
them from being poisoned. {102} To such grotesque expedients had
Germany brought the warfare of the twentieth century.
[Sidenote: Terrible strain on the British.]
There is no doubt that the three British regular divisions and the
cavalry were worn to a shadow at the end of these operations. Since
the enemy ceased to attack, it is to be presumed that they were in no
better case. The British infantry had been fighting almost day and
night for three weeks, under the most desperate conditions. Their
superiority to the infantry of the Germans was incontestable, but
there was no comparison at all between the number of heavy guns
available, which were at least six to one in favour of the enemy.
Shells were poured down with a profusion, and also with an accuracy,
never before seen in warfare, and though the British infantry
continually regained trenches which had been occupied by the German
infantry, it was only to be shelled out of them again by a fire
against which they could make no adequate answer. An aerial observer
has described that plain simply flaming and smoking from end to end
with the incessant heat of the shells, and has expressed his wonder
that human life should have been possible under such a fire. And yet
the road to Ypres was ever barred.
All the infantry losses, heavy as they were, are eclipsed by those of
the Third Cavalry Division, which bore the full blast of the final
whirlwind, and was practically destroyed in holding it back from
Ypres. This splendid division, to whom, from first to last, the
country owes as much as to any body of troops in the field, was only
engaged in the fighting for one clear day, and yet lost nearly as
heavily in proportion as either of the infantry divisions which had
been in the firing line for a week. Their casualties were 91
officers {103} and 1050 men. This will give some idea of the
concentrated force of the storm which broke upon them on May 12. It
was a most murderous affair, and they were only driven from their
trenches when the trenches themselves had been blasted to pieces. It
is doubtful whether any regiments have endured more in so short a
time. These three brigades were formed of _corps d'élites_, and they
showed that day that the blue blood of the land was not yet losing
its iron. The casualty lists in this and the succeeding action of
the 24th read like a society function. Colonel Ferguson, of the
Blues, Colonel the Hon. Evans-Freke, Lord Chesham, Captain the Hon.
J. Grenfell, Lord Leveson-Gower, Sir Robert Button, Lord Compton,
Major the Hon. C. B. Mitford, the Hon. C. E. A. Phillips, Viscount
Wendover--so runs the sombre and yet glorious list. The sternest of
Radicals may well admit that the aristocrats of Britain have counted
their lives cheap when the enemy was at the gate. Colonel
Smith-Bingham, of the 3rd Dragoon Guards, Colonel Steele, of the 1st
Royals, Colonel Freke, of the Leicestershire Yeomanry, and many other
senior officers were among the dead or wounded. The Leicester
Yeomanry suffered very severely, but their comrades of Essex and of
Somerset, the Blues and the 1st Royals, were also hard hit. The
losses of the First Cavalry Division were not so desperately heavy as
those of the Third, but were none the less very serious, amounting to
54 officers and 650 men.
It is possible that the German attack desisted because the infantry
were exhausted, but more probable that the great head of shells
accumulated had been brought down to a minimum level, and that the
gas cylinders were empty. For ten days, while the {104} British
strengthened their battered line, there was a lull in the fighting.
[Sidenote: The last effort of May 24.]
There was no change, however, in the German plan of campaign, and the
fight which broke out again upon May 24 may be taken as the
continuation of the battle which had died down upon the 13th. Fresh
reservoirs of poison had been accumulated, and early in the morning
in the first light of dawn the infernal stuff was drifting down wind
in a solid bank some three miles in length and forty feet in depth,
bleaching the grass, blighting the trees, and leaving a broad scar of
destruction behind it. A roaring torrent of shells came pouring into
the trenches at the instant that the men, hastily aroused from sleep,
were desperately fumbling in the darkness to find their respirators
and shield their lungs from the strangling poison. The front of this
attack was from a farm called "Shell-trap," between the Poelcapelle
and Langemarck roads on the north, to Bellewaarde Lake on the south.
The surprise of the poison in that weird hour was very effective, and
it was immediately followed by a terrific and accurate bombardment,
which brought showers of asphyxiating shells into the trenches. The
main force of the chlorine seems to have struck the extreme right of
the Fourth Division and the whole front of the Twenty-eighth
Division. but the Twenty-seventh and the cavalry were also involved
in a lesser degree.
Anley's 12th Brigade was on the left of the British line, with Hull's
10th Brigade upon its right, the 11th being in reserve. On the 12th
and 10th fell the full impact of the attack. The 12th, though badly
mauled, stood like a rock and blew back the Germans as they tried to
follow up the gas. "They doubled {105} out of their trenches to
follow it up half an hour after the emission," wrote an officer of
the Essex. "They were simply shot back into them by a blaze of fire.
They bolted back like rabbits." All day the left and centre of the
12th Brigade held firm. The Royal Irish upon the right were less
fortunate. The pressure both of the gas and the shells fell very
severely upon them, and the few survivors were at last driven from
their trenches, some hundreds of yards being lost, including the
Shell-trap Farm. The Dublin Fusiliers, in the exposed flank of the
10th Brigade, were also very hard hit. Of these two gallant Irish
regiments only a handful remained, and the Colonels of each, Moriarty
and Loveband, fell with their men. Several of the regiments of the
10th Brigade suffered severely, and the 7th Argyll and Sutherland
Highlanders were left with only 2 officers and 76 men standing.
These two officers, by some freak of fate, were brothers named Scott,
the sole hale survivors of thirty-six who had been attached to the
battalion.
This misfortune upon the right left the rest of the 12th Brigade in a
most perilous position, attacked on the front, the flank, and the
right rear. No soldiers could be subjected to a more desperate test.
The flank battalion was the 1st Royal Lancasters (Colonel Jackson),
who lived up to the very highest traditions of the British Army.
Sick and giddy with the gas, and fired into from three sides, they
still stuck doggedly to their trenches. The Essex battalion stood
manfully beside them, and these two fine battalions, together with
the East Lancashires and Rifle Brigade, held their places all day and
even made occasional aggressive efforts to counter-attack. At {106}
eight in the evening they were ordered to form a new line with the
10th Brigade, five hundred yards in the rear. They came back in
perfect order, carrying their wounded with them. Up to this moment
the Fourth Division had held exactly the same line which they had
occupied from May 1.
To return to the events of the morning. The next unit from the north
was the 85th Brigade (Chapman), which formed the left flank of the
Twenty-eighth Division. Upon it also the gas descended with
devastating effect. There was just enough breeze to drift it along
and not enough to disperse it. The 2nd East Surrey, the flank
battalion, held on heroically, poison-proof and heedless of the
shells. Next to them, just south of the railway, the 3rd Royal
Fusiliers were so heavily gassed that the great majority of the men
were absolutely incapacitated. The few who could use a rifle
resisted with desperate valour while two companies of the Buffs were
sent up to help them, and another company of the same regiment was
despatched to Hooge village, where the 9th Lancers and 18th Hussars
of the 2nd Cavalry Brigade were very hard pressed. On the left of
the cavalry, between Hooge and Bellewaarde, was the Durham
Territorial Brigade, which was pushed forward and had its share of
the gas and of the attack generally, though less hard pressed than
the divisions of regular troops upon their left. In a war of large
numbers and of many brave deeds it is difficult and perhaps invidious
to particularise, but a few sentences may be devoted to one isolated
combat which showed the qualities of the disciplined British soldier.
Two platoons of the 7th Durhams, under two 19-year-old lieutenants,
Arthur Rhodes and {107} Pickersgill, were by chance overlooked when
the front line was withdrawn 200 yards. They were well aware that a
mistake had been made, but with a heroic if perhaps Quixotic regard
for duty they remained waist-deep in water in their lonely trench
waiting for their certain fate, without periscopes or machine guns,
and under fire from their own guns as well as those of the enemy.
Both wings were of course in the air. In the early morning they beat
back three German attacks but were eventually nearly all killed or
taken. Rhodes was shot again and again but his ultimate fate is
unknown. Pickersgill was wounded, and the survivors of his platoon
got him to the rear. The loss of such men is to be deplored, but the
tradition of two platoons in cold blood facing an army is worth many
such losses.
The Durham Territorial Artillery did excellent work in supporting the
cavalry, though they were handicapped by their weapons, which were
the ancient fifteen-pounders of the South African type. These
various movements were all in the early morning under the stress of
the first attack. The pressure continued to be very severe on the
line of the Royal Fusiliers and Buffs, who were covering the ground
between the railway line on the north and Bellewaarde Lake on the
south, so the remaining company of the Buffs was thrown into the
fight. At the same time, the 3rd Middlesex, with part of the 6th and
8th Durham Light Infantry, advanced to the north of the railway line.
The German pressure still increased, however, and at mid-day the
Buffs and Fusiliers, having lost nearly all their officers and a
large proportion of their ranks, fell back into the wood to the south
of the railway.
{108}
A determined attempt was at once made to recapture the line of
trenches from which they had been forced. The 84th Brigade (Bowes),
hitherto in reserve, was ordered to move along the south of the line,
while the whole artillery of the Fifth Corps supported the advance.
Meanwhile, the 80th Brigade (Fortescue) was pushed forward on the
right of the 84th, with orders to advance upon Hooge and restore the
situation there. It was evening before all arrangements were
completed. About seven o'clock the 84th advanced with the 2nd
Cheshires upon the left and the 2nd Northumberland Fusiliers upon the
right, supported by the 1st Welsh, the Monmouths, and the feeble
remains of the 1st Suffolks. Darkness had fallen before the lines
came into contact, and a long and obstinate fight followed, which
swayed back and forwards under the light of flares and the sudden red
glare of bursting shells. So murderous was the engagement that the
84th Brigade came out of it without a senior officer left standing
out of six battalions, and with a loss of 75 per cent of the numbers
with which it began. The machine-gun fire of the Germans was
extremely intense, and was responsible for most of the heavy losses.
At one time men of the Welsh, the Suffolks, and the Northumberland
Fusiliers were actually in the German trenches, but at dawn they were
compelled to retire. Late in the evening the 3rd and 4th Brigades of
Cavalry were pushed into the trenches on the extreme right of the
British position, near Hooge, to relieve the 1st and 2nd Brigades,
who had sustained heavy losses for the second time within ten days.
The general result of the attack of May 24 was that this, the most
profuse emission of poison, had {109} no more solid effect than the
other recent ones, since the troops had learned how to meet it. The
result seems to have convinced the Germans that this filthy ally
which they had called in was not destined to serve them as well as
they had hoped, for from this day onwards there was no further
attempt to use it upon a large scale in this quarter. In this
action, which may be known in history as the Battle of Bellewaarde,
since it centred round the lake of that name, the British endured a
loss of some thousands of men killed, wounded, or poisoned, but their
line, though forced back at several points, was as firm as ever.
In all the fighting which forms the second half of this great battle
one is so absorbed by the desperate efforts of regimental officers
and men to hold on to their trenches that one is inclined to do less
than justice to the leaders who bore the strain day after day of that
uphill fight. Plumer, of the Second Army; Ferguson, of the Fifth
Army Corps; Wilson, Snow, and Bulfin, of the Fourth, Twenty-seventh,
and Twenty-eighth Divisions, De Lisle of the Cavalry--these were the
men who held the line in those weeks of deadly danger.
On May 25 the line was consolidated and straightened out, joining the
French at the same point as before, passing through Wieltje, and so
past the west end of Lake Bellewaarde to Hooge. At this latter
village there broke out between May 31 and June 3 what may be
regarded as an aftermath of the battle which has just been described.
The château at this place, now a shattered ruin, was the same
building in which General Lomax was wounded and General Monro struck
senseless in that desperate fight on October 31. Such was the
equilibrium of {110} the two great forces that here in May the fight
was still raging. Château and village were attacked very strongly by
the German artillery, and later by the German infantry, between May
30 and June 3, but no impression was made. The post was held by the
survivors of the 3rd Dragoon Guards, and the action, though a local
one, was as fine an exhibition of tenacious courage as has been seen
in the war. The building was destroyed, so to a large extent was the
regiment, but the post remained with the British.
[Sidenote: Result of the battle.]
This narrative is a brief outline of the series of events which make
up the second phase of that battle which, beginning in the north of
the Allied lines upon April 22, was continued upon the north-eastern
salient, and ended, as shown, at Hooge at the end of May. In this
fighting at least 100,000 men of the three nations were killed or
wounded. The advantage with which the Germans began was to some
extent neutralised before the end, for our gallant Allies had never
rested during this time, and had been gradually re-establishing their
position, clearing the west of the canal, recapturing Steenstraate
and Het Sas, and only stopping short of Pilken. On the other hand,
the British had been compelled to draw in for two miles, and Ypres
had become more vulnerable to the guns of the enemy. If any
advantage could be claimed the balance lay certainly with the
Germans, but as part of a campaign of attrition nothing could be
devised which would be more helpful to the Allies. The whole of
these operations may be included under the general title of the
second Battle of Ypres, but they can be divided into two clearly
separated episodes, the first lasting from April 22 to the end of the
month, which may be called the Battle of Langemarck, {111} and the
second from May 4th to the 24th, with a long interval in the centre,
which may, as already stated, be known as the Battle of Bellewaarde.
In this hard-fought war it would be difficult to say that any action
was more hard-fought than this, and it will survive for centuries to
come if only in the glorious traditions of the Canadian Division, who
first showed that a brave heart may rise superior to bursting lungs.
These were the greatest of all, but they had worthy comrades in the
Indians, who at the end of an exhausting march hurled themselves into
so diabolical a battle; the Northern Territorial Division, so lately
civilians to a man, and now fighting like veterans; the 13th Brigade,
staggering from their exertions at Hill 60, and yet called on for
this new effort; the glorious cavalry, who saved the situation at the
last moment; and the much-enduring Fourth, Twenty-seventh, and
Twenty-eighth Divisions of the line, who bore the bufferings of the
ever-rising German tide. Their dead lie at peace on Ypres plain, but
shame on Britain if ever she forgets what she owes to those who
lived, for they and their comrades of 1914 have made that name a
symbol of glory for ever.
[Sidenote: Sequence of events.]
It may help the reader's comprehension of the sequence sequence of
events, and of the desperate nature of this second Battle of Ypres,
if a short _résumé_ be here given of the happenings upon the various
dates. A single day of this contest would have appeared to be a
considerable ordeal to any troops. It is difficult to realise the
cumulative effect when such blows fell day after day and week after
week upon the same body of men. The more one considers this action
the more remarkable do the facts appear.
_April_ 22.--Furious attack upon the French and {112} Canadians.
Germans gain several miles of ground, eight batteries of French guns,
and four heavy British guns by the use of poison-gas. The Canadians
stand firm.
_April_ 23.--Canadians hold the line. Furious fighting. French
begin to re-form. Reserves from the Twenty-seventh and Twenty-eighth
British Divisions, 13th Brigade, and cavalry buttress up the line.
_April_ 24.--Desperate fighting. Line pushed farther back, and
Germans took about a thousand prisoners. Line never broken.
_April_ 25.--Battle at its height. 50th Northern Territorial
Division come into the fight. 10th Regular Brigade come up.
Canadians drawn out. The French advancing.
_April_ 26.--11th Regular Brigade thrown into the fight. Also the
Lahore Division of Indians. Trenches of Twenty-eighth Division
attacked.
_April_ 27.--The French made some advance on the left. There was
equilibrium on the rest of the line. Hard fighting everywhere.
_April_ 28.--The enemy still held, and his attack exhausted for the
moment. French made some progress.
_May_ 1.--British 12th Brigade came into line.
_May_ 2.--Renewed German assault on French and British, chiefly by
gas. Advance held back with difficulty by the Fourth Division.
_May_ 3 and 4.--Contraction of the British position, effected without
fighting, but involving the abandonment of two miles of ground at the
north-eastern salient.
_May_ 5.--German attack upon Fourth Division.
_May_ 6.--Attack still continued.
{113}
_May_ 7.--Artillery preparation for general German attack.
_May_ 8.--Furious attack upon Fourth, Twenty-eighth, and
Twenty-seventh British Divisions. Desperate fighting and heavy
losses. The British repulsed the attack on their left wing (Fourth
Division), but sustained heavy loss on centre and right.
_May_ 9.--Very severe battle continued. British left held its
ground, but right and centre tended to contract.
_May_ 10.--Fighting of a desperate character, falling especially upon
the Twenty-seventh Division.
_May_ 11.--Again very severe fighting fell upon the Twenty-seventh
Division on the right of the British line. Losses were heavy, and
there was a slight contraction.
_May_ 12.--Readjustment of British line. Two divisions of cavalry
put in place of Twenty-eighth Division. Furious artillery attack,
followed by infantry advance. Cavalry and Twenty-seventh Division
terribly punished. Very heavy losses, but the line held. Fourth
Division fiercely engaged and held its line.
_May_ 13.--The Germans exhausted. The attack ceased. Ten days of
mutual recuperation.
_May_ 24.--Great gas attack. Fourth Division on left had full force
of it, lost heavily, but could not be shifted. In the evening had to
retire five hundred yards for the first time since the fighting
began. General result of a long day of furious fighting was some
contraction of the British line along its whole length, but no gap
for the passage of the enemy. This may be looked upon as a last
despairing effort {114} of the Germans, as no serious attempt was
afterwards made that year to force the road to Ypres.
Such, in a condensed form, was the record of the second Battle of
Ypres, which for obstinacy in attack and inflexibility in defence can
only be compared with the first battle in the same section six months
before. Taking these two great battles together, their result may be
summed up in the words that the Germans, with an enormous
preponderance of men in the first and of guns in the second, had
expended several hundred thousand of their men with absolutely no
military advantage whatever.
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