BATTLE OF NEUVE CHAPELLE BEGINS
Three hundred and fifty guns at short range began a most terrific
bombardment March 10, 1915, at 7.30 a. m. It is said that the
discharges of the artillery was so frequent that it seemed as if some
gigantic machine gun was in action. Shortly after this bombardment
started, the German trenches were covered by a great cloud of smoke
and dust and a pall of green lyddite fumes. The first line of German
trenches, against which the fire was directed, became great shapeless
furrows and craters filled with the dead and dying.
This was the condition all along the line except on the extreme
northern end where the artillery fire was less effective, owing, it
was said, to a lack of proper preparation by the British staff. This
terrific artillery fire was continued for thirty-five minutes; and
then the range was changed from the first line of German trenches to
the village of Neuve Chapelle itself. Thereupon the British infantry
advanced and made prisoners of the few Germans left alive in the first
line. The men found unwounded were so dazed by the onslaught which the
guns had made upon their position that they offered no resistance. The
bombardment had swept away the wire entanglements; and the British had
only the greasy mud with which to contend, when they made their dash
forward.
Where the wire entanglements had been swept away, the Second
Lincolnshire and the Berkshire regiments were the first to reach the
German trenches. These regiments then turned to the right and left,
and thus permitted the Royal Irish Rifles and the Rifle Brigade to go
on toward the village.
In order to understand the infantry attack in detail it is necessary
to know the manner in which the British troops were distributed before
they made their dash at the ruined trenches of the Germans. Two
brigades of the Eighth Division, the Twenty-fifth to the right and the
Twenty-third to the left, were due west of Neuve Chapelle. On a front
a mile and a half long to the south of them was the Meerut Division,
supported by the Lahore Division. The Garhwal Brigade was on the left
and the Dehra Dun Brigade was on its right. In the first attack the
Twenty-third dashed to the northeast corner of the village, the
Twenty-fifth against the village itself; and the Garhwal Brigade
charged on the southwest corner.
The trenches opposite the Twenty-fifth were taken with practically no
fighting. The Germans who had manned them were either killed or too
dazed to offer resistance. As has already been told, the Second Royal
Berkshires and the Second Lincolns took the first line of trenches in
front of them, and opened the middle of their line to permit the
Second Rifle Brigade and the First Irish Rifles to dash on to the
village. The British artillery range was lengthened, thereby
preventing the German supports from interference with the well-defined
plan of the British. Into the wrecked streets of Neuve Chapelle swung
two battalions of the Twenty-fifth Brigade. The few of their enemy who
offered resistance were soon overpowered--being captured or slain.
These men of the Twenty-fifth Brigade found terrible scenes of
destruction. The village had been knocked literally into a rubbish
heap. Even the dead in the village churchyard had been plowed from
their graves by the terrific bombardment.
The Garhwal Brigade captured the first line of trenches on the right,
and the Third Gurkhas, on the southern outskirts of the village, met
the Rifle Brigade. Then it dashed on to the Bois du Biez, passing
another rubbish heap which once had been the hamlet known as Port
Arthur.
The attack on the left, however, resulted less successfully for the
British forces. As indicated above, the preparation for the
bombardment at this part of the line had been inadequate for the
purpose which the general in command had sought to achieve. Thus on
the northeast corner of Neuve Chapelle the German trenches and the
wire entanglements in front of them had been damaged but little. The
British forces on this part of the line included the Second Devons,
the Second West Yorks, the Second Scottish Rifles, and the Second
Middlesex, known as the Twenty-third Brigade. The Scottish Rifles
charged against intact wire entanglements which halted them in the
range of a murderous rifle and machine-gun fire. With daring bravery
the Scots sought to tear down the wire with their hands; but were
forced to fall back and lie in the fire-swept zone until one company
forced its way through an opening and destroyed the barrier. The
regiment, as a result of this mishap to the plans of the commanding
general, lost its commander, Colonel Bliss, and fourteen other
officers.
The Middlesex, on the right, met with the same obstruction and lost
many of its men and officers while waiting for the British artillery
to smash a way through for them. This the artillery did when word had
been carried back telling of the plight of the infantry.
The Twenty-fifth Brigade, to the south, had the good fortune to turn
the flank of the Germans north of Neuve Chapelle. Then the entire
Twenty-third Brigade forced its way to the orchard northeast of the
village, where it met the Twenty-fourth Brigade, which included the
First Worcesters, Second East Lancashires, First Sherwood Foresters,
and the Second Northamptons. The Twenty-fourth Brigade had fought its
way through from the Neuve Chapelle-Armentieres road. As soon as this
had been accomplished by the British, their artillery proceeded to
send such a rain of shrapnel fire between the village and the Germans
that a counterattack was quite impossible. This gave the victors an
opportunity to intrench themselves practically at their leisure. The
plans of the British commander had embraced a forward movement when
the troops had reached this point, but they had not included a means
of keeping communication with the various units intact. The telegraph
and telephone wires had been cut by the shot and shell of both sides;
and there was no opportunity to repair them until it was too late to
take advantage of the demoralization of the Germans. Moreover, the
delay of the Twenty-third Brigade had so disarranged the plans of the
British that it is doubtful if they would not have failed in part even
if the means of communication had not been destroyed. Nevertheless,
Sir John French wrote: "I am of the opinion that this delay would not
have occurred had the clearly expressed orders of the general officer
commanding the First Army been more carefully observed."
There was also an additional delay in bringing up the reserves of the
Fourth Corps. Thus it was not until 3.30 p. m. that three brigades of
the Seventh Division, the Twentieth, Twenty-first, and Twenty-second
Brigades were in their places on the left of the Twenty-fourth
Brigade. Then the left moved southward toward Aubers. At the same time
the Indian Corps, composed of the Garhwal Brigade and the Dehra Dun
Brigade, forced its way through the Bois du Biez toward the ridge.
Strong opposition was met with to such an extent, however, that the
Thirty-ninth Garhwals and the Second Leicesters suffered severe losses
on reaching a German position which had practically escaped the heavy
artillery fire. A German outpost at the bridge held the Dehra Dun
Brigade, which was supported by the Jullundur Brigade of the Lahore
Division, in its attack farther to the south on the line of the River
Des Layes. The First Brigade of the First Corps was rushed forward by
Sir Douglas Haig; but it was dark before these troops arrived. Another
fortified bridge, farther to the left, checked the Twenty-fifth
Brigade; and machine-gun fire stopped the Twenty-fourth Brigade, this
fire being from the German troops at the crossroads northwest of
Pietre village. The Seventh Division was held by the line of the Des
Layes, and the defense of the Pietre mill.
By evening the British had gone forward as far as their artillery fire
had been effective; and it was found necessary for them to stop to
strengthen the new line which they had established. They had won Neuve
Chapelle. They had advanced a mile. They had straightened their line,
but they could go no farther.
On the following day, March 11, 1915, the British artillery was
directed against the Bois du Biez and the trenches in the neighborhood
of Pietre. The Germans, however, had recovered from the surprise of
the great bombardment, and they made several counterattacks. Little
progress was made on that day by either side. On that night, March 11,
the Bavarian and Saxon reserves arrived from Tourcoing, and on the
morning of March 12 the counterattack extended along the British
front. Because of the heavy mist, and the lack of proper
communications, it was impossible for the British artillery to do much
damage. The defense of the bridges across the Des Layes kept the
British forces from the ridges and the capture of Aubers. The best
that the British seemed to be able to do was to prevent the German
counterattack from being successful.
An attempt to use the British cavalry was unsuccessful on March 12.
The Second Cavalry Division, in command of General Hubert Gough, with
a brigade of the North Midland Division, was ordered to support the
infantry offensive, it being believed that the cavalry might penetrate
the German lines. When the Fifth Cavalry Brigade, under command of Sir
Philip Chetwode, arrived in the Rue Bacquerot at 4 p. m., Sir Henry
Rawlinson reported the German positions intact, and the cavalry
retired to Estaires.
[Illustration: The Battle at Neuve Chapelle.]
The attack of the Seventh Division against the Pietre Fort continued
all the day of March 12, as did the attempt to take the Des Layes
bridges from the Germans, who were valiantly defending their second
line of trenches in the Bois du Biez. Probably the fiercest fighting
of that day fell to the lot of the Twentieth Brigade, composed of the
First Grenadiers, the Second Scots Guards, the Second Border Regiment,
and the Second Gordons, with the Sixth Gordons, a Territorial
battalion. This brigade fought valiantly around Pietre Mill. Position
after position was taken by them, but their efforts could not remain
effective without the aid of artillery, which was lacking. The Second
Rifle Brigade carried a section of the German trenches farther south
that afternoon, but an enfilading fire drove the British back to their
former position.
It was evident by the night of March 12 that the British could not
gain command of the ridge and that the Germans could not retake Neuve
Chapelle. Hence Sir John French ordered Sir Douglas Haig to hold and
consolidate the ground which had been taken by the Fourth and Indian
Corps, and suspend further offensive operations for the present. In
his report General French set forth that the three days' fighting had
cost the British 190 officers and 2,337 other ranks killed; 359
officers and 8,174 other ranks wounded, and 23 officers and 1,728
other ranks missing. He claimed German losses of over 12,000.
The British soldiers who had been engaged in the fighting about Neuve
Chapelle spent all of March 13, 1915, in digging trenches in the wet
meadows that border the Des Layes. On the following day the two corps
that had fought so valiantly were sent back to the reserve.
The German commanders, in the meantime, had been preparing for a
vigorous counterattack. They planned to make their greatest effort
fifteen miles north of Neuve Chapelle, at the village of St. Eloi, and
trained a large section of their artillery against a part of the
British front, which was held by the Twenty-seventh Division. The
preparation of the Germans was well concealed on March 14 by the heavy
mist that covered the low country. The bombardment started at 5 p. m.,
the beginning of which was immediately followed by the explosion of
two mines which were under a hillock that was a part of the British
front at the southeast of St. Eloi. The artillery attack was followed
by such an avalanche of German infantry that the British were driven
from their trenches. This German success was followed up by the
enfilading of the British lines to the right and left, with the result
that that entire section of the British front was forced back.
That night a counterattack was prepared. It was made at 2 a. m., on
March 15, by the Eighty-second Brigade, which had the Eightieth
Brigade as its support. The Eighty-second Brigade drove the Germans
from the village and the trenches on the east. The Eightieth Brigade
finished the task of regaining all of the ground that had been lost
except the crater caused by the explosion of the mines. Among the
regiments that made a most enviable record for themselves in this
action were Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry, the Fourth
Rifle Brigade, the First Leinsters, the Second Cornwalls, and the
Second Royal Irish Fusiliers. The "Princess Pat's," as the Canadian
troops were known in the home land, were the first colonial soldiers
to take part in a battle of such magnitude in this war. Their valor
and their ability as fighting men were causes of great pride to the
British.
Before leaving the Neuve Chapelle engagement and what immediately
followed it, it is well to give a brief survey of the actions along
the line that supported it. To prevent the Germans from taking troops
from various points and massing them against the main British attack,
the British soldiers all along that part of the front found plenty of
work to do in their immediate vicinity. Thus, on March 10, 1915, the
First Corps attacked the Germans from Givenchy, but there had been but
little artillery fire on the part of the British there, and the wire
entanglements stopped them from more than keeping the German troops in
the position which they had held. The Second Corps, on March 12, was
to have advanced at 10 a. m. southwest of Wytschaete. The fog that
prevailed on that day, however, prevented a movement until 4 p. m.
Then the First Wiltshires and the Third Worcesters of the Seventh
Brigade began a movement which had to be abandoned when the weather
thickened and night fell.
The attack on L'Epinette, a hamlet southeast of Armentieres, was much
more successful on the same day. The Seventeenth Brigade of the Fourth
Division of the Third Corps advanced at noon, with the Eighteenth
Brigade as its support. It advanced 300 yards on a front a half mile
in length, carrying the village, which it retained in spite of all the
counterattacks.
The work of the artillery was not confined to the main attack, for it
was very effective in shelling the Quesnoy railway station east of
Armentieres, where German reenforcements were boarding a train for the
front. The British artillery fire was effective as far as Aubers,
where it demolished a tall church spire.
The work of the aviators, from March 10 to 12 inclusive, deserves
special mention. Owing to the adverse weather conditions, it was
necessary for them to fly as low as from 100 to 150 feet above the
object of their attack in order to be sure of their aim. Nevertheless
they destroyed one of the piers of the bridge over the Lys at Menin.
This bridge carried the railroad over the river. They also wrecked the
railway stations at Douai, Don, and Courtrai. The daring of the
British aviators even took them over Lille, where they dropped bombs
on one of the German headquarters.
To summarize the fighting about Neuve Chapelle, it may be said that
the British had advanced something more than a mile on a three-mile
front, replacing the sag which had existed in their line by a sag in
that of the Germans. The British had not won the ridges which were the
key to Lille, but they had advanced their trenches close to those
ridges. The entire moral effect was a gain for the British; but even
that and the gain in advancing the front had been obtained at a too
great sacrifice of the life of their men. The words of the Germans in
characterizing the tremendous bombardment of the British were: "That
is not war; it is murder."
The belief in the supposed superiority of the German artillery was so
shaken in the minds of the General Staff as a result of the fighting
on the Neuve Chapelle front that they shortly after issued an order to
try a series of experiments on animals with asphyxiating gases.