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