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