THE TRENCHES OF HOOGE
The British line in June 1915--Canadians at Givenchy--Attack of the
154th Brigade--8th Liverpool Irish--Third Division at Hooge--11th
Brigade near Ypres--Flame attack on the Fourteenth Light
Division--Victory of the Sixth Division at Hooge.
The spring campaign may be said to have ended at the beginning of
June. It had consisted, so far as the British were concerned, in
three great battles. The first was that of Neuve Chapelle. The
second, and incomparably the greatest, was the second Battle of
Ypres, extending from April 22 to the end of May, in which both sides
fought themselves to a standstill, but the Germans, while gaining
some ground, failed to reach their final objective. The third was
the Battle of Richebourg, from May 9 to May 18, which began with a
check and ended by a definite but limited advance for the British.
The net result of the whole operations of these three months was a
gain of ground to the Germans in the Ypres section and a gain of
ground to the Allies in the region of Festubert and Arras. Neither
gain can be said to have been of extreme strategic importance, and it
is doubtful if there was any great discrepancy between the losses of
the two sides. There now followed a prolonged lull, during which the
Germans were content to remain {141} upon the defensive upon the west
while they vigorously and successfully attacked the Russians in the
east, combining their forces with those of Austria, and driving their
half-armed enemy from the passes of the Carpathians right across
Poland until the line of the Vistula had been secured. The Allies
meanwhile pursued their ill-fated venture in the Dardanelles, while
they steadily increased their numbers and, above all, their munitions
of war in France and Flanders, having learned by experience that no
bravery or devotion can make one gun do the work of six, or enable
infantry who have no backing from artillery to gain ground from
infantry which are well supported. For a long period to come the
most important engagements were a series of fights upon June 16, July
30, and August 9, which may be looked upon as a single long-drawn-out
engagement, since they were all concerned with the successive taking
and retaking of the same set of trenches near Hooge, in the extreme
northern section of the line. Before giving some account of these
events it would be well to interrupt the narrative for a time in
order to describe that vast expansion of the British Army which was
the most unexpected, as it was the most decisive, factor in the war.
Without entering into the question of the huge muster of men within
the island, and leaving out of consideration the forces engaged in
the Near East, the Persian Gulf, and the various Colonial campaigns,
an attempt will be made to show the reader the actual battle-line in
France, with the order and composition of the troops, during the
summer of 1915.
The extreme left wing of the Allied Army consisted now, as before, of
the Belgians and of a French corps, the right Moroccan Division of
which was the {142} neighbour of the British Army. The British line
had been extended northwards as far as the village of Boesinghe. If
now the reader could for a moment imagine himself in an aeroplane,
flying from north to south down the Imperial battle-line, he would
see beneath him first Keir's Sixth Army Corps, which was composed of
the Fourth Division (Wilson) and of the Sixth Division (Congreve).
To the south of these lay the Forty-ninth West Riding Division of
Territorials (Baldock). These three divisions, the Fourth, the
Sixth, and the Forty-ninth, formed Keir's Sixth Army Corps, lying to
the north of Hooge. Upon their right, in the neighbourhood of Hooge,
holding the ground which had been the recent scene of such furious
fighting, and was destined to be the most active section of the line
in the immediate future, was Allenby's Fifth Corps. General Allenby
had been taken from the command of the cavalry, which had passed to
General Byng, and had filled Plumer's place when the latter took over
Smith-Dorrien's Army at the end of April. Allenby's Corps consisted
of the veteran Third Division (Haldane's) on the north. Then came,
defending the lines of Hooge, the new Fourteenth Light Division
(Couper). Upon its right was the Forty-sixth North Midland Division
(Stuart-Wortley). These three divisions, the Third Regular,
Fourteenth New, and Forty-sixth Territorial, made up the Fifth Corps.
The Second Army Corps (Ferguson) lay to the south of Hooge. Their
northern unit was the old Regular Fifth Division (Morland). To its
south was a second Regular division--Bulfin's Twenty-eighth, of Ypres
renown. On its right was the Fiftieth Northumbrian Division
(Lindsay), consisting of those {143} three gallant Territorial
brigades which had done so splendidly in the crisis of the gas battle.
The Third Army Corps (Pulteney's) came next in the line. This was
the strongest corps in the whole force, containing no fewer than four
divisions. These were, counting as ever from the north, the Canadian
Division (Alderson), the Twelfth New Division (Wing), the
Twenty-seventh Division of Regulars (Snow), and the Eighth Division
of Regulars (Davies). All these troops, the Sixth, Fifth, Second,
and Third Corps, made up Plumer's Second Army, which contained no
fewer than thirteen divisions, or, approximately, 260,000 men.
The First Army, under Haig, which occupied the southern section of
the British line, consisted of three Army Corps. To the north, in
the Festubert region, was the hard-worked and depleted Indian Corps,
which had fought under such extraordinary difficulties and shown such
fine military qualities. Attached to them was the Fifty-first
Highland Territorial Division (Bannatine-Allason). The first two
brigades of this were pure Scottish, but the third contained three
battalions from that nursery of British regiments, Lancashire. South
of the Indians came the glorious old First Corps, and south of it the
equally glorious Seventh Division (Capper), forming part of
Rawlinson's Fourth Corps. Next to the Seventh Division was the new
Ninth Division (Landon), composed of Scottish regiments--a very fine
unit. South of these, carrying the British line over the Bethune-La
Bassée Canal, and six miles towards Arras, were the Forty-seventh
London Division (Barter) and the Forty-eighth South Midland Division
(Fanshawe), drawn mostly from Warwick, Worcester, Gloucester, and
{144} Bucks. Altogether, Haig's First Army at the end of June
contained nine divisions, or, roughly, 180,000 men. The whole great
Army, then, which extended from north of Ypres to north of Arras, may
have mustered in the line about 440,000 men, backed by an efficient
field service, which may easily have numbered 120,000 more.
When one contemplates this magnificent force and remembers that ten
months earlier the whole British Army at Mons had been four
divisions, that at the Aisne there were six, that in the days of the
first Ypres battle there were eight, and that now there were
twenty-two, one marvels at the extraordinary powers of creation and
organisation which had created so efficient and powerful a machine.
It was rapidly made, and yet in no way was it crude or feeble.
Particularly pleasing was it to note the names of the divisional
commanders, and to see how many of the heroic leaders of brigades in
those early classical conflicts--Landon, Snow, Bulfin, Davies,
Morland, Wing, Haldane, Wilson, and Congreve--were now at the head of
small armies of their own. Of the quality of this great force it is
superfluous to speak. The whole of this chronicle is a record of it.
One observation, however, should in justice be made. With that
breadth and generosity of mind which make them the truly imperial
people of the world, the English and the English press have
continually extolled the valour of the Scots, Irish, Welsh, or men of
the Overseas Dominions. There has hardly ever been a mention of the
English as such, and the fact has given rise to some very false
impressions. It is for the reader to bear in mind, none the less,
that four-fifths of this great army was purely English, and {145}
that the English Divisions, be they North or South, have shown a
sobriety of discipline and an alacrity of valour which place them in
the very first place among fighting races. The New Army like the Old
Fleet was in the main a triumph of England. Of its first
thirty-three divisions all but five were predominantly English.
The men and the generals were there. The delay was still with the
guns and the munitions. A heavy gun is not the product of a week or
of a month, and before a great increase can be made in the output of
shells the machinery for producing them has itself to be produced.
But energetic minds and capable hands were busied with the problem
from one end of Britain to the other, and the results were rapidly
taking form. A considerable amount of the product was being
despatched to Archangel to help our hard-pressed Russian Allies, and
constant supplies were being despatched to the Dardanelles; but an
accumulation was also being stored behind the lines in Flanders. The
whole progress of the campaign depended upon this store being
sufficient to sustain a prolonged attack, and the time had not yet
come.
Before turning to the trenches of Hooge, where the greater part of
the fighting occurred during this period of the war, some description
must be given of a brisk action upon June 15, opposite Givenchy,
immediately to the north of the La Bassée Canal, where the Canadian
Division attacked with great gallantry and partly occupied a position
which it was not found possible to retain. In this attack the
Canadians displayed their usual energy and ingenuity by bringing up
two eighteen-pounder field-pieces into their front trench, and
suddenly opening fire point-blank at the {146} German defences only
seventy-five yards away. Captain Stockwell, with Lieutenants Craig
and Kelly and their men, obviously took their lives in their hands,
as their guns became the immediate mark of the German artillery, with
the result that one was destroyed by a direct hit, and the crew of
the other were put out of action by a shrapnel-burst. But before
they were silenced the two guns did great damage to the German
front-line defence, knocking out several machine-guns and cutting the
barbed wire to pieces. After a quarter of an hour of glorious
activity they were out of action; but they had smoothed the path for
the infantry, who at six in the evening were over the parapet and
into the trench opposite. The attack was made by the 1st Ontario
Battalion (Hill), supported by the rest of the 1st Canadian Brigade.
The storming-party was checked for a moment by the explosion of their
own mine, which threw back with disastrous results, killing
Lieutenant-Colonel Beecher and burying the bomb-store of the front
line. Having seized the German trench, some remained to reverse the
parapet, while others rushed on to the second trench, which they also
carried. The supply of bombs ran short, however, and could not be
replenished. Four messengers in succession rushing back for more
were shot dead by the enemy's fire. A fort upon the left had not
been taken, and the machine-guns from its loopholes swept down the
captured trench and made it untenable. Slowly the Canadians were
forced back, and before ten o'clock what was left of the Ontarios
were back in their own trench once more. When it is stated that of
23 officers who took part in the advance 20 were killed or wounded,
no further {147} proof is needed of the stern insistence of the
attack.
This gallant though fruitless attack of the Canadians at Grivenchy
was, as it appears, intended to coincide with an advance by the
Seventh Division on their left, and of the Fifty-first upon the right
of them. In the case of the Seventh Division there were two
advances, one by day and one by night, in which single battalions
were employed and no result achieved. In the second of these the 2nd
Gordons lost heavily, having occupied a deserted trench which proved
to be so commanded as to be untenable. Before regaining their own
lines D Company was cut off and destroyed. On the right the
Fifty-first Highland Territorial Division had an experience which was
equally unsatisfactory. Hibbert's 154th Brigade made an advance
which was bravely urged and bloodily repelled. The preparatory
bombardment was answered by a very intense German fire, which was so
heavy and accurate that it buried a number of men in the advance
trenches, destroyed the bomb-stores, and made all communication
nearly impossible. The secret of this extreme readiness of the
Germans was divulged by a deserter who came over into the British
trenches at the last moment, and said that they all knew that the
attack was for six o'clock that day. It was at that very hour that
the 6th Scottish Rifles and the 4th North Lancashires, of the
Brigade, rushed the German position. Each battalion lost its
commanding officer and its adjutant in the first few minutes, but the
line of trenches was carried at one tiger-spring. The enemy's
shell-fire was exceedingly heavy, and the losses were considerable.
Having cleared the trench, the {148} attacking line, especially the
Scottish Rifles upon the left, came on unbroken wire, so they dug
themselves in in the open and awaited supports. These for some
reason were slow in coming up, and as the Germans were in force on
either side, and the North Lancashires were also held up by wire,
there was a danger lest the forward line might be cut off. It fell
back, therefore, closely followed by the enemy, until an advance of
the 4th Royal Lancasters helped them to form a line. The whole night
was spent in a prolonged rifle duel, the two sides being at very
close quarters, and the action resolving itself into a series of
stubborn encounters by little groups of men holding shell-craters or
fragments of trenches, and offering a sullen resistance to the
considerable forces which were now pressing upon them. All order had
been lost, the three battalions were hopelessly mixed together, and
the command of each little group fell into the hands of any natural
leader who won the confidence of the comrades round him. Slowly the
ragged line retired, until they found themselves in the early morning
back in the position from which they had started, having suffered and
inflicted grievous losses, but with no gain of ground to justify them.
It might well have seemed that the attack had failed, or at least
that another brigade would be needed to put matters right; but a
reserve battalion had not yet gone into action, and to this unit was
given the hard task of putting the Germans out once more from the
trench which they had re-occupied. There have been days when the
Liverpool Irish have proved themselves to be pugnacious in riotous
times at home, but now they were to efface all such memories by their
splendid bearing at this {149} critical hour. It was 4 P.M. upon
June 16, when, with a true Celtic yell, the 8th King's Liverpool, led
by Major Johnson, dashed over the parapet and stormed through a
hellish sleet of shrapnel to the German trenches. "It was pattering
like hail upon a window-pane." Officers and men went down in heaps,
but nothing could stop the glorious impetuosity of the charge,
delivered in the full light of a summer afternoon. "It's sure death,
but remember we are Irish!" yelled a sergeant as he bounded on to the
sand-bags. Next instant he had been blown to pieces. Captain
Finegan, leading the rush, was shot down, as were the greater number
of the regimental officers. Finegan's body was found afterwards at
the extreme point of the advance, with twelve of his men lying round
him. The Germans were swept out of the front trenches once more, and
the Irishmen held desperately on to it for a long time against all
the shell-fire of the enemy. It was a great day for Liverpool, July
16, when two of their citizen regiments, the 8th in the south and the
10th in the north, helped to stem the tide of two separate battles.
The 8th King's lost nearly 500 men, and gained a reputation which
will not easily die. The survivors were too few, however, to
permanently hold the shell-raked trench which they had gained. The
153rd Brigade (Campbell), consisting of Gordons and Black Watch,
relieved them in the front line, and the exhausted and decimated
battalion was drawn off. In the meantime the 152nd Brigade, upon the
left, had been unable to make progress. Of the attackers of the
Fifty-first Division some 1500 men had fallen, and there was no
permanent gain of ground.
{150}
On Wednesday, June 16, there occurred a brisk action to the immediate
north of Hooge, at a point to the west and south-west of the Château,
where the German line formed somewhat of a salient. This it was
determined to straighten out in the familiar fashion, and a
considerable force of artillery was secretly concentrated. The
assault was assigned to the Third Division, and was carried out by
Bowes' 8th Brigade on the left, and on the right by the 9th Brigade,
which consisted of the three Fusilier battalions and the Lincolns,
together with the 10th Liverpool Scottish. The latter battalion had
been seven months at the Front, doing every sort of hard work, but
never getting an opportunity for distinction in action. The 9th
Brigade, now commanded by General Douglas Smith, was in reserve near
Poperinghe, but it was brought forward through Ypres for the assault.
They marched through the shattered town on the Tuesday evening. "The
sight of the ruined beauties of that once glorious old town did lots
to make us just long to get at the Vandals who had done this wanton
act of destruction." It was a longing which was soon to be appeased.
By midnight the troops were in position, and at three in the morning
of June 16 the bombardment began. It lasted with terrific intensity
for about an hour, and was helped by the guns of the French
Thirty-sixth Corps firing towards Pilken, whence the supports might
come. Black and yellow clouds covered the whole line of the front
German trench, which lay at the fringe of a wood, and out of this
mist of death trees, sand-bags, and shattered human bodies flew high
in the air. The barbed wire was shattered to pieces and the front
parapets knocked to atoms. {151} Then, in an instant, the guns
lifted on to the more distant support trenches, and the infantry,
swarming over the low barricades, dashed in perfect order over the
two hundred yards which separated them from the Germans.
It was an admirable advance, and could not have been better carried
out. The front of the assault was about a quarter of a mile. The
three Fusilier battalions in one long line, Northumberland Fusiliers
on the left, Royals in the centre, and Scots on the right, rushed
forward with terrific impetus, the rising sun glinting upon their
lines of bayonets. They were over the lip of the front trench
without a check, and rushed on for the second one. The supports, who
were the Lincolns on the right and the Liverpool Scots on the left,
followed closely after them, and seizing the German survivors, sent
them to the rear, while they did what they could to reverse the
parapet and prepare for a counter-attack. As they charged forward,
it had been observed that one German trench upon the left was at
right angles to the line of advance, and that it had been untouched
by the bombardment. It was only about forty yards in length, but the
fire from it was very murderous as it swept across the open ground.
With quick decision the rear company of the Liverpool Scottish turned
aside, and in spite of unbroken barbed wire carried the trench,
capturing all the occupants.
Meanwhile the German artillery had opened with an intensity which was
hardly inferior to that of the British, and they shelled with great
accuracy the captured trench. The Fusiliers had dashed onwards,
while the Liverpool Scots and Lincolns followed {152} swiftly behind
them, leaving the captured trench to the leading battalions of the
7th Brigade (Ballard), which was immediately in the rear of the
attackers, So eager was every one that the van of the supporting
brigade was mixed with the rear of the attacking one. Thus the
Honourable Artillery Company were exposed to a baptism of fire only
second in severity to that of their Territorial comrades from
Liverpool. They and the 3rd Worcesters, together with the 1st
Wiltshires upon the flank, endured a very violent shelling, but held
on for many hours to the captured positions. The Worcesters had over
300 casualties, including their colonel (Stuart), who had led them
ever since Mons. The Honourable Artillery Company and Wiltshires
suffered almost as heavily.
The advance still continued with great fury. It should have ended on
the taking of the second line of trenches, but it was impossible to
restrain the men, who yelled, "Remember the _Lusitania_!" to each
other as they surged over the parapets and dashed once more at the
enemy with bayonet and bomb. The third trench was carried, and even
the fourth. But the assault had gone too far. The farther spray of
stormers had got as far as the Bellewaarde Lake. It was impossible
to hold these advanced positions. The assailants dropped sullenly
back, and finally contented themselves by settling into the first
line and consolidating their position there on a front of a thousand
yards. The losses had been heavy, especially from the high-explosive
shells, which, as usual, blew both trenches and occupants to pieces.
Men died happy, however, with the knowledge that the days were past
when no artillery answer could be made, and that now at {153} least
they had given the enemy the same intolerable experience which they
had themselves so often endured. The Liverpool Scots suffered
especially heavily, losing about 400 men and 20 officers. All the
battalions of the 9th Brigade paid the price of victory, and the 8th
Brigade, upon the left, sustained considerable losses, but these were
certainly not larger than those of the Germans. Altogether, it was a
very brisk little fight, and a creditable victory--small, of course,
when measured by the scale of Neuve Chapelle or Richebourg, but none
the less heartening to the soldiers. Two hundred prisoners and a
quantity of material were taken. The trenches gained were destined
to be retaken with strange weapons by the enemy upon July 30, and
were again carried at the point of the bayonet by the British upon
August 9. These actions will be described later.
A pause of nearly three weeks followed, broken only by the usual
bickerings up and down the line, where opposite trenches ran mines up
to each other or exchanged fusillades of hand-bombs. There was no
serious movement upon either side, the Germans being concentrated
upon their great and successful Eastern advance; while the Allies in
the West were content to wait for the day when they should have
accumulated such a head of shell as would enable them to make a
prolonged effort which would promise some definite result. More and
more it had become clear, both from the German efforts and our own,
that any _coup de main_ was impossible, and that a battle which would
really achieve a permanent gain must be an affair which would last a
month or so, with steady, inexorable advance from day to day. This
could only be hoped for by the storage of a very {154} great quantity
of ammunition. Hence the pause in the operations.
The lull was broken, however, by a sharp fight upon July 6, in which
Prowse's 11th Brigade of the Fourth Division took, and permanently
held, a section of the German line. This considerable action was
fought at the extreme northern end of the British line, where it
joined on to the French Moroccan troops to the north of Ypres. The
sudden and swift advance of the 1st Rifle Brigade, the leading
British battalion, seems to have taken the Germans by surprise, and,
dashing forwards, they seized two lines of trenches and established
themselves firmly within them. The 1st Somerset Light Infantry
shared the credit and the losses of the charge. They were in
immediate support of the Rifle Brigade, their task being to dig a
communication trench. A hundred prisoners and a number of mortars
and machine-guns were the immediate trophies. Three times during the
day did the Germans counter-attack in force, and three times they
were driven back with heavy loss. Their total casualties certainly
ran into a thousand. On the other hand, both the Rifle Brigade and
the Somersets suffered severely, partly from flanking machine-gun
fire in the attack, but chiefly, as usual, from heavy shell-fire
afterwards. Indeed, it may be said that a victorious battalion was
too often an exhausted battalion, for since the German guns had the
precise length of the captured trench, the more heroically it was
held the heavier the losses. Until the artillery of the Allies
should be able to dominate that of the enemy, it was difficult to see
how ground could be gained without this grievous after-price to be
paid. On this occasion it was {155} paid to the full, but the ground
was permanently occupied, and a heavy blow was struck at the
Bavarians and Prussians who held that portion of the line.
Part of the 12th Brigade (Anley) took over some of the captured
trenches from the 11th, and came in for some of the German anger in
consequence. The 2nd Lancashire Fusiliers were very heavily shelled,
losing their commanding officer, Colonel Griffin, the machine-gun
officer, and the adjutant on the morning of July 7. A sap ran up to
the trench, and this was the scene of desperate bomb-fighting, the
Fusiliers expending eight thousand bombs in two days. So great was
the pressure that part of the 1st Warwicks came up in support. There
were several infantry advances of the enemy, which were all crushed
by the British fire. No dervishes could have shown more devoted
courage than some of the Germans. In one rush of sixty men all were
shot down, which did not prevent another forty from emerging later
from the same trench. Gradually they learned that their task was
impossible, and the position remained with the British. Altogether
the Lancashire Fusiliers lost 8 officers and 400 men in this action.
The succession of British successes which have been recorded in their
order was broken at this point by a temporary reverse, which involved
no permanent loss of ground, but cost many valuable lives. It is a
deplorable thing that, when fighting against men who are usually
brave and sometimes heroic, we are obliged continually to associate
any success which they may obtain with some foul breach of the
ancient customs of war. With the Germans no trick was {156} too
blackguardly or unsoldierly for them to attempt. At the end of
April, as already shown, they nearly snatched an important victory by
the wholesale use of poison. Now, at the end of July, they gained an
important local success by employing the cruel expedient of burning
petrol. These different foul devices were hailed by the German Press
at the time as various exhibitions of superior chemical methods;
whereas in fact they were exhibitions of utter want of military
chivalry and of that self-restraint which even in the fiercest
contest prevents a civilised nation from sinking to such expedients.
It is the most pressing objection to such methods that if they are
once adopted the other side has no choice but to adopt them also. In
the use of gas devices, both aggressive and offensive, the British
engineers soon acquired an ascendency, but even if the Germans
learned to rue the day that they had stooped to such methods the
responsibility for this unchivalrous warfare must still rest with
them.
The attack fell upon that section of trench which had been taken by
the British in the Hooge district on June 16. It was held now by a
brigade of the Fourteenth Light Infantry Division (Couper), which had
the distinction of being the first unit of the New Army to be
seriously engaged. Nothing could have been more severe--indeed,
terrific--than the ordeal to which they were subjected, nor more
heroic than the way in which it was borne. Under very desperate
conditions, all the famous traditions of the British rifle regiments
were gloriously upheld. They were destined for defeat--but such a
defeat as shows the true fibre of a unit as clearly as any victory.
{157}
Nugent's 41st Brigade, which held this section of trench, consisted
of the 7th and 8th King's Royal Rifles, with the 7th and 8th Rifle
Brigade. The position was a dangerous little salient, projecting
right up to the German line.
It is clear that the Germans mustered great forces, both human and
mechanical, before letting go their attack. For ten days before the
onset they kept up a continuous fire, which blew down the parapets
and caused great losses to the defenders. On July 29 the 7th King's
Royal Rifles and the 8th Rifle Brigade manned the front and
supporting trenches, taking the place of their exhausted comrades.
They were just in time for the fatal assault. At 3.20 in the morning
of July 30 a mine exploded under the British parapet, and a moment
afterwards huge jets of flame, sprayed from their diabolical
machines, rose suddenly from the line of German trenches and fell in
a sheet of fire into the front British position. The distance was
only twenty yards, and the effect was complete and appalling. Only
one man is known to have escaped from this section of trench. The
fire was accompanied by a shower of aerial torpedoes from the
_minenwerfer_, which were in themselves sufficient to destroy the
garrison. The Germans instantly assaulted and occupied the
defenceless trench, but were held up for a time by the reserve
companies in the supporting trenches. Finally these were driven out
by the weight of the German attack, and fell back about two hundred
yards, throwing themselves down along the edges of Zouave and
Sanctuary Woods, in the immediate rear of the old position. What
with the destruction of the men in the front trench and the heavy
losses of the supports, {158} the two battalions engaged had been
very highly tried, but they still kept their faces to the foe, in
spite of a terrific fall of shells. The British artillery was also
in full blast. For many hours, from dawn onwards, its shells just
skimmed over the heads of the front British line, and pinned the
Germans down at a time when their advance might have been a serious
thing, in the face of the shaken troops in front of them. It is said
that during fourteen hours only five of their shells are known to
have fallen short, though they fired from a distance of about three
miles, and only a couple of hundred yards separated the lines--a
testimony to the accuracy of the munition-workers as well as of the
gunners.
The position gained by the Germans put them behind the line of
trenches held upon the British right by two companies of the 8th
Rifle Brigade. These brave men, shot at from all sides and unable to
say which was their parapet and which their parados, held on during
the whole interminable July day, until after dusk the remains of them
drew off into the shelter of the prophetically-named Sanctuary Wood.
Another aggressive movement was made by the German stormers down the
communication trenches, which enabled them to advance while avoiding
direct fire; but this, after hard fighting, was stopped by the
bombers of the Riflemen.
The two battalions of the 41st Brigade, which had just been relieved
and were already on their way to a place of rest, were halted and
brought back. They were the 8th King's Royal Rifles and the 7th
Rifle Brigade. These two battalions had been eight days under
incessant fire in the trenches, with {159} insufficient food, water,
and sleep. They were now hurried back into a hellish fire, jaded and
weary, but full of zeal at the thought that they were taking some of
the pressure off their comrades. An order for an instant
counter-attack had been given, but it was recognised that two
brigades at least were necessary for such a task, and that even then,
without a very thorough artillery preparation, the affair was
desperate, since the Germans had already consolidated the position,
and their artillery, large and small, was very masterful. For some
reason, however, instead of a brigade, only two fresh battalions
could be spared. These were the 9th King's Royal Rifles, of the 42nd
Brigade, and the 6th Cornwalls, of the 43rd. Of these the 9th King's
Royal Rifles attacked, not from the wood, but from the Menin road
upon the left.
There had been three-quarters of an hour of intense bombardment
before the attack, but it was not successful in breaking down the
German resistance. At 2.45 P.M. the infantry advance began from the
wood, all four units of the 41st Brigade taking part in it. It is
difficult to imagine any greater trial for troops, since half of them
had already been grievously reduced and the other half were greatly
exhausted, while they were now asked to advance several hundred yards
without a shadow of cover, in the face of a fire which was shaving
the very grass from the ground. "The men behaved very well," says an
observer, "and the officers with a gallantry no words can adequately
describe. As they came out of the woods the German machine-gun fire
met them and literally swept them away, line after line. The men
struggled forward, only to fall in heaps along the edge of the {160}
woods." The Riflemen did all that men could do, but there comes a
time when perseverance means annihilation. The remains of the four
battalions were compelled to take shelter once more at the edge of
the wood. Fifty officers out of 90 had fallen. By 4 P.M. the
counter-attack had definitely failed.
The attack of the 9th King's Royal Rifles, along the Menin road, led
by Colonel Chaplin, had rather better success, and was pushed home
with great valour and corresponding loss. At one time the stormers
reached the original line of trenches and took possession of one
section of it. Colonel Chaplin was killed, with many of his officers
and men, by a deadly machine-gun fire from the village of Hooge. A
gallant lad, Lieutenant Geen, with a handful of men, charged into
this village, but never emerged. The attack was not altogether
unproductive, for, though the advanced position was not held, the 9th
retained trenches which linked up the Menin road with the left of the
Zouave Wood. With the darkness, the wearied and thinned ranks of the
41st Brigade were withdrawn into reserve.
It was not destined, however, that Nugent's hard-worked brigade
should enjoy the rest that they needed so badly. They had left the
10th Durham Light Infantry and the 6th Cornwall Light Infantry to
defend the wood, but at 2.20 in the morning the Germans renewed their
diabolical tactics with liquid fire, which blazed over the trenches
and scorched the branches overhead. This time the range was farther
and the effect less deadly. An attack was evidently impending, and
the Riflemen were hurried back to reinforce the two battalions left
in possession. There {161} was a night of alarms, of shell-fire, and
of losses, but the German infantry advance was not serious, and those
who reached the woods were driven out again. For some days
afterwards there was no change in the general situation. Sixty
officers and 2000 men were the terrible losses of the 41st Brigade
during this action. The 9th battalion, in its flank attack, lost 17
officers and 333 of the ranks. The 43rd Brigade (Cockburn) endured
considerable losses whilst in support of the 41st, especially the 6th
Cornwalls, who bore the brunt of the fighting. This battalion had
only seven officers left when it returned to Ypres, and by the
unfortunate mischance of the fall of a ruined house, they lost
immediately afterwards four more, including Major Barnett, the
temporary chief, and the adjutant Blagrove. These officers perished
whilst endeavouring to save their men who were buried among the ruins.
This difficult and trying action was fought under the immediate
supervision of General Nugent, of the 41st Brigade, who was with the
firing-line in the woods during the greater part of it. When the
brigade, or the shattered remains of it, were withdrawn upon August
1, General Nugent remained behind, and consulted with General
Cockburn, of the 43rd Brigade, as to the feasibility of a near
attack. The consultation took the form of a reconnaissance conducted
on hands and knees up to a point close to the enemy line. After this
inspection it was determined that the position was far too formidable
for any merely local attempt. It was determined that General
Congreve, of the Sixth Division, should take the matter over, that
several days should be devoted to preparatory {162} bombardment, and
that the whole division should be used for the assault.
All foul advantages, whether they be gas, vitriol, or liquid fire,
bring with them their own disadvantages. In this case the fall of
their comrades filled the soldiers with a righteous anger, which gave
them a fury in the assault which nothing could withstand. The
preparations were completed in a week, and the signal was given in
the early morning of August 9. Artillery had been concentrated
during the interval, and the bombardment was extraordinarily intense
and accurate. So perfect was the co-ordination between the infantry
and the guns, that the storming battalions dashed out of the trenches
whilst the German lines were still an inferno of exploding shells,
with the certain conviction that the shell-fire would have ceased
before they had actually got across the open. The cease-fire and the
arrival of the panting, furious soldiers were practically
simultaneous. On the left, some of our men ran into our own
shrapnel, but otherwise all went to perfection.
The infantry assault had been assigned to the Sixth Division, who
advanced at 3.15, with two brigades in front and one in support. The
18th Brigade (Ainslie) was upon the right. Colonel Towsey was in
immediate command. The 2nd Durham Light Infantry were in the lead,
and got across two companies in front with little loss; while the 2nd
Sherwood Foresters, who followed, were caught in shell-fire and had
very many casualties. The attack on this flank was supported by the
1st East Yorks and the Westminsters, who lay in the woods to the
rear, the East Yorks being speedily engaged. The wave of infantry
were over the German parapet {163} in an instant. All resistance was
vain, and those who stood were bayoneted, while the fugitives were
pelted with bombs from traverse to traverse wherever they attempted
to make head against their pursuers. So sudden had been the British
rush that many of the Germans were found in the dug-outs and in the
old mine-crater, from which they had not time to emerge and to meet
the assault for which they were waiting. Over a hundred of these
were taken prisoners. The whole place was a perfect charnel-house,
for there were 200 German dead in the crater, 300 in front of the
line, and a great number also of the Riflemen who had been killed
nine days before.
On the left of the line a no less dashing attack had been made by the
16th Brigade (Nicholson), and the trenches were carried in line with
those now held by the 18th. This successful advance was carried out
by the 1st Shropshires, the 1st Buffs, and the 2nd York and
Lancasters, with the 1st Leicesters in support. The distance between
the lines at this point was very much less than on the right, which
partly accounts for the smaller casualties.
When the trenches had been taken, the sappers, with their usual cool
disregard of danger, sprang forward into the open and erected barbed
wire. The gains were rapidly consolidated, men were sent back to
avoid overcrowding, and protective cover raised against the heavy
shelling which always follows swiftly upon the flight of the German
infantry. It came in due course, and was succeeded by an attempt at
a counter-attack. "At about 10 o'clock the enemy was observed
creeping in four parties towards us. They were very near us, and
came forward on their hands and knees, laden with bombs and {164}
hand-grenades. We opened fire with rifles and machine-guns. Our
bomb-throwers worked like machines, and splendid work they did. The
Germans were all mowed down and blown to atoms, or else ran for their
lives." Many of our prisoners were killed by German shells before
they could be removed. In spite of the failure of the German
infantry, the artillery fire was very deadly, both the Durhams and
the Sherwood Foresters being hard put to it to hold on to their
trenches. At 4.30 in the afternoon the Sherwood Foresters fell back
to the edge of the wood, some of their trenches having entirely
ceased to exist.
There were several German infantry attempts during the day, but all
of them met the same fate as the first. The loss of the enemy, both
in the attack and in the subsequent attempts at recapture, was very
heavy, running certainly into some thousands of dead or wounded;
while the British losses in the actual attack, owing to the admirable
artillery arrangements, were very moderate. Some hundreds of
prisoners were taken, sixty of whom by a strange freak surrendered to
an unarmed observation officer named Booth. It was a fair revenge
for the set-back of July 30, and it was won in honest, virile fashion
by the use of the legitimate weapons of civilised warfare.
During the long day the Germans strove hard, by an infernal
shell-fire, raking all the trenches from the direction of Hill 60, to
drive the infantry from the captured position. They clung
desperately to what they had won, but they were cut off from all
supplies. Many of the Westminsters lost their lives in heroically
bringing up water and food to the advanced line. For fourteen hours
the men were {165} under a murderous fire, and for the same period
the British artillery worked hard in supporting them. Men can endure
punishment far more cheerfully when they hear the roar of their own
shells overhead and know that the others are catching it also. "The
guns put heart into us," said one of the survivors. Finally, night
put an end to the slaughter and the uproar. Under the shadow of
darkness relieving troops crept to the front, and the weary,
decimated, but triumphant brigades were drawn off to the rear.
Some of the more forward of the troops had got right across the Menin
road and established themselves in positions so far in advance that
for some time no orders could reach them; nor was their situation
known until desperate messengers came back from them clamouring for
cartridges and bombs. These men were only drawn in on the morning of
the 10th, after enduring nearly thirty hours of desperate fighting,
without food, water, or help of any kind.
The losses were, as usual, far heavier in holding the trenches than
in winning them. The 16th Brigade lost 400 and the 18th 1300 men.
The 2nd Durhams were the chief sufferers, with 12 officers and 500
men out of action; but the Shropshires lost no fewer than 19 officers
with 250 men. The 2nd Sherwoods, 1st East Yorkshires, 1st Buffs, and
2nd York and Lancasters were all hard hit.
A considerable change in the general arrangement of the Army was
carried out early in August. This consisted in the formation of a
third army under General Monro, an officer whose rapid rise was one
of the phenomena of the war. This army consisted of the Seventh
Corps (Snow) and the Tenth Corps (Morland). The rearrangement would
be of little {166} importance, since most of the units have already
been mentioned, but it was accompanied by a large extension of the
British line. Up to this date it had joined the French about six
miles south of the La Bassée Canal. Now the Tenth French Army (Foch)
was left in position before Lens, and the British took up the line
again upon the farther side of them, carrying it from the south of
Arras to the neighbourhood of Albert, thus adding a dozen miles or so
to the British region, and bringing the total to about fifty--a small
proportion, it is true, but a very vital sector, and the one most
free from any natural feature of protection. There was at this time
an ever-thickening flow of reinforcements, as well as of munitions,
from across the Channel, but the new movements of Germany in the Near
East made it very evident that their use would not be confined to the
lines of Flanders. It was towards the end of this summer that the
length of the war and the increasing pressure of the blockade began
to interfere with the food-supplies of the German people. It had
been pretended that this was so before, but this was an attempt by
the German Government to excite sympathy in neutrals. There is no
doubt, however, that it was now a fact, and that it continued to
slowly tighten from month to month, until it finally became extreme.
There are few Britons who feel satisfaction at such a method of
warfare, but so long as armies represent the whole manhood of a
nation, it is impossible to make any provision by which food shall
reach the civilian and not the soldier. It is always to be borne in
mind that the British, with an almost exaggerated chivalry,
considering the many provocations which they had received, did not
exert their full power of blockade {167} for many months. It was
only when Germany declared the British Islands to be blockaded as
from February 18, 1915, and that food-ships would be destroyed, that
the British in retaliation, by an Order of Council in March of the
same year, placed German food upon the index. Thus by one more
miscalculation the Germans called down trouble upon their own heads,
for whereas their decree proved to be worthless, that of Britain was
ever more effective. It is curious to remember that only forty-five
years before, the Germans, without one word of protest from any of
their people, had starved the two millions of Paris, while Bismarck,
in his luxurious rooms at Versailles, had uttered his brutal jest
about roast babies. They are not so very slow--those mills of God!
Before passing on to an account of the great Battle of Loos, which
terminated the operations upon the British front for this year, a few
words may be said of those happenings elsewhere which do not come
within the immediate scope of this narrative, but which cannot be
entirely omitted since every failure or success had an indirect
influence upon the position in France. This is particularly true of
the naval campaign, for the very existence of our Army depended upon
our success in holding the command of the sea. This was fully
attained during the year 1915 by the wise provisions of Admiral
Jellicoe, who held back his Grand Fleet in such a manner that, far
from the attrition upon which the German war-prophets had confidently
counted, it was far stronger at the end of the year than at the
beginning, while its influence had been such that the German High Sea
Fleet might as well have never existed for all the effect which it
had upon the campaign. In spite of the depredations {168} of German
submarines, which were restrained by no bonds of law or humanity,
British commerce flowed in its double tide, outwards and inwards,
with a volume which has seldom been surpassed, and the Channel
crossing was guarded with such truly miraculous skill that not a
transport was lost. It was a task which the Navy should never have
been called upon to do, since the need of a Channel tunnel had for
years been obvious; but granting that it had to be done, nothing
could exceed the efficiency with which it was carried out. The
success, however, cannot blind us to the waste of merchant tonnage or
of convoying cruisers absorbed in this vital task, nor to the
incessant delays and constant expense due to the want of foresight
upon the part of those who opposed this necessary extension of our
railway system.
There was little naval fighting during the year, for the simple
reason that our sailors had nothing to fight. Upon January 24 a
German squadron of battle-cruisers attempted a repetition of the
Scarborough Raid, but was nearly intercepted by a British squadron of
greater power under Admiral Beatty. In a running fight which only
came to an end when the Germans had gained the protection of their
mine-fields considerable punishment was inflicted upon them, which
included the loss of the 15,000-ton armoured cruiser _Blücher_.
There were 123 survivors out of a crew of 800. Some damage was
inflicted upon the _Lion_, but the British casualties were slight and
no vessel was lost, save in the Berlin papers.
Upon February 20 the adventure of the Dardanelles was begun by a
bombardment of the outer forts by the Allied Fleets. The British
ships engaged in these {169} operations were pre-Dreadnought
battleships, with the notable exception of the new cruiser Queen
_Elizabeth_. On March 18, in an attempt to force the Straits, the
_Ocean_ and the _Irresistible_ were lost by floating torpedoes. On
May 13 we lost in the same locality the _Goliath_, which was also
torpedoed in a very gallant surface attack delivered at night by a
Turkish or German boat. On the 26th the _Triumph_ fell a victim to a
submarine in the same waters. The other naval events of the year
include numerous actions of small craft with varying results, and the
final destruction of the _Dresden_, the _Königsberg_, and every other
German warship left upon the face of the waters. The British
anti-submarine devices in home waters reached a high point of
efficiency, and the temporary subsidence of submarine warfare is to
be attributed rather to the loss of these vessels than to any
remonstrances upon the part of neutrals.
Some allusion should be made to the Zeppelins which were malevolently
active during the year, but whose efficiency fortunately fell very
far short of either the activity or the malevolence. Instead of
proving a blessing to mankind, the results of the energy and
ingenuity of the aged German inventor were at once turned to the most
devilish use conceivable, for their raids effected no possible
military object, but caused the death or mutilation of numerous
civilians, including a large number of women and children. The huge
bombs were showered down from the airships with no regard at all as
to whether a legitimate mark lay beneath them, and the huge
defenceless city of London was twice attacked on the plea that the
possession of munition works made the whole of it a fortress. The
total result of all the {170} raids came to about 1500 killed and
wounded. It is probable that the destruction of the invading
airships in 1916 killed more German fighting adults than were killed
in England by all their raids combined. They effected nothing
decisive save the ignominy of the murderers who used them.
Of the Dardanelles Campaign nothing need be said, since it will be
fully treated in many separate accounts, save that our general
position was greatly weakened by the large number of vessels needed
for the conduct of these operations, nor did we profit much by their
abandonment since the call of Salonica soon became equally insistent.
We were able during the year to continue the absorption of the German
Colonial Empire, none of which, save East Africa, remained intact at
the end of it. Egypt was successfully defended against one or two
half-hearted advances upon the part of the Turks. The Mesopotamian
Campaign, however, had taken at the close of the year a sinister
turn, for General Townshend, having pushed forward almost to the
gates of Bagdad with a very inadequate force, was compelled to
retreat to Kut, where he was surrounded and besieged by a
considerable Turkish army. The defence was a heroic one, and only
ended in the spring of 1916, when the starving survivors were forced
to surrender.
As to the affairs of our Allies, some allusion will be made later to
the great French offensive in Champagne, which was simultaneous with
our own advance at Loos. For the rest there was constant fighting
along the line, with a general tendency for the French to gain ground
though usually at a heavy cost. The year, on the other hand, had
been a disastrous one for the Russians who, half-armed and suffering
terrible {171} losses, had been compelled to relinquish all their
gains and to retreat for some hundreds of miles. As is now clear,
the difficulties in the front were much increased by lamentable
political conditions, including treachery in high places in the rear.
For a time even Petrograd seemed in danger, but thanks to fresh
supplies of the munitions of war from Britain and from Japan they
were able at last to form a firm line from Riga in the north to the
eastern end of the Roumanian frontier in the south.
The welcome accession of Italy upon May 23 and the lamentable
defection of Bulgaria on October 11 complete the more salient
episodes of the year.
{172}