OPERATIONS AROUND LA BASSEE AND GIVENCHY
On the whole, the results obtained during the first days of 1915 on the
Belgian battle front favored the Germans. Of this front the Belgians
held but three miles more or less, and the British were defending a line
of about twenty miles, while the French covered the balance of about
twelve miles, all of which included about the entire front in Flanders
from the dunes at Nieuport on the Channel to Armentieres in the south, a
line--by no means straight--about thirty-five miles in length.
Activities along the extended front in the Champagne district having
proved successful for the German forces to a considerable extent, the
General Staff turned its attention now to the La Bassee region.
There was good tactical reason for this move, because the British were
seriously threatening the position, straddling La Bassee Canal where it
flows between Cuinchy and Givenchy, and there was danger that they might
capture La Bassee, where the Germans held a salient of considerable
strategical importance, as it covered their line of communication to the
south.
Previous successful operations by the British at Richebourg and
Festubert north of Givenchy, and at Vermelles, south of Cuinchy,
evidently prompted the Germans to attempt a counterattack. Besides it
was desirable for the Germans to test the strength of the Allies at this
point, and to do this with some measure of success the Germans massed a
considerable force for this purpose.
Beginning about January 14, 1915, the British met with varying and minor
successes and defeats in this region, but no noteworthy action had taken
place for upward of ten days, until January 25, under the eye of the
German Kaiser, the principal attack, which had been carefully planned,
took place.
On the morning of January 25, 1915, a demonstration along the front
from Festubert to Vermelles and as far north as Ypres and Pervyse was
inaugurated.
The Germans began to shell Bethune, which was within the allied lines
about eight or nine miles west of La Bassee. An hour later, in the
neighborhood of nine o'clock, following up heavy artillery fire, the
Fifty-sixth Prussian Infantry and the Seventh Pioneers advanced south of
the canal, which runs eastward from Bethune, where the British line
formed a salient from the canal forward to the railway near Cuinchy, and
thence back to the Bethune and La Bassee road where the British joined
the French forces.
This salient was occupied by the Scots and the Coldstream Guards. The
Germans were obliged to advance by the road, as the fields were too soft
for the passage of the troops; even the roads were in a terrible
condition, deep ruts and thick, sticky mud greatly retarding the onward
march of the German forces. But the Allies fared little better in this
respect. In fact the entire engagement was fought out in a veritable sea
of mud and slush.
Well-directed artillery fire by the Germans blew up the British trenches
in this salient, and the Germans at once penetrated the unsupported
British line. The Germans also had the advantage of an armored train,
which they ran along the tracks from La Bassee almost into Bethune,
sufficiently close to throw considerable shell fire into this town.
The Germans advanced in close formation, throwing hand grenades. They
came on so rapidly and with such momentum that the Guards, trying in
vain to stem the tide with the bayonet, were overwhelmed, and the
British, in spite of desperate resistance, were forced back step by
step.
At some points the distance between the trenches was so small that it
was utterly impossible to stop the onrush from one trench to the other.
The Germans swept and broke through the British lines, treading their
fallen opponents under foot as they advanced. At this point the British
turned and fled, as there was no hope of successful resistance.
As the great momentum forced the German advance through the allied
lines into the open field beyond and was joined by a heavy column, which
had debouched from the vicinity of Auchy, British guns opened a
murderous fire and inflicted terrible slaughter upon these ranks.
The Coldstream and the Scots Guards retreated to their second line of
defense, where they joined others of their command held in reserve
there. Once again they turned to meet the oncoming Germans, and again
were forced to give way, leaving the Germans in possession of all the
ground previously gained. The remnants of the Guards retreated until
they were met by the London-Scottish regiment sent to reenforce them.
Here they halted while a counterattack was being organized by the First
Royal Highlanders, part of the Camerons, and the Second King's Rifle
Corps which also came up.
At one o'clock on January 25, 1915, and with the cooperation of the
French on their right, this rapidly improvised force moved forward,
making unobstructed progress on their wings by the canal and the road.
For some reason their center was delayed and held back. When they did
finally arrive and pressed forward with a rush to meet the German
forces, who were ready to receive them, the impact was fearful, and the
casualties on both sides enormous; but no gains were made by the Allies,
and the Germans held the ground they had won. At the height of the
battle the Second Royal Sussex rushed into the fray in support of their
hard-pressed comrades, but all to no purpose, for these as the others
were forced back to the rear of their starting point with but a fraction
of their forces remaining to report the events of the day.
While this terrible slaughter was in progress, the French left on the
other side of La Bassee road, which separated the Allies at this point,
had been attacked by the right of the German line, and driven back to a
considerable distance, but not as far back as the British, so that the
French left was in advance of the British right and badly exposed to
flank attack from the northward.
This obliged the entire allied forces to retreat some distance farther
to the rear, and as night came on and the severity of the action had
ceased, the Allies had an opportunity to realign their positions and
somewhat strengthen the same by the First Guard Brigade which now came
up, showing the terrible suffering to which they had been subjected.
Finally, however, it was found advisable to withdraw the Guard
altogether and replace them by the First Infantry Brigade.
Now the German tactical idea became clear. It was to force the British
to concentrate on the exposed line between Festubert and Givenchy, north
of the canal, and then to turn the British right by the German forces in
their new position just south of the canal, thus calling for
simultaneous action on both sides of the canal.
The Germans delivered an equally severe attack upon the allied position
in the village of Givenchy, about a mile north of the canal, which
bounded the scene of the attack just described. As in the other attack,
the Germans opened action by severe artillery fire, using high-explosive
shells, and after due preparation, at about 8.15 in the morning, the
infantry advanced, as is customary with the Germans, in close formation.
The British met this advance by somewhat weak artillery fire, which, it
was afterward explained was due to continued interruption of the
telephonic communications between the observers and the batteries in the
fight. However, as it was, this fire, added to the machine gun and rifle
fire from the trenches, served to turn the German advance from their
original direction, with the result that they crowded together in the
northeast corner of Givenchy after passing over the first-line trenches
of the Allies' front. Their momentum carried the Germans far into the
center of the village, with remarkably few casualties considering the
murderous fire to which they had been subjected throughout their
impetuous advances.
In the village of Givenchy, however, the Second Welsh Regiment and the
First South Wales Borderers, which had been stationed there and held in
reserve, gave the Germans a warm reception, and when the First Royal
Highlanders came up they delivered a fierce counterattack. In this they
were supported by the fire of the French artillery, which assistance,
however, proved costly to the Allies, as the French fire and bursting
shells killed friend and foe alike. Street fighting became savage, amid
the explosions of shells sent to enliven the occasion by the French.
This concluded the action for the day and when the smoke cleared away
both sides found their position comparatively little changed and nothing
but the thinned ranks of the combatants reminded the observer that the
most severe kind of fighting had taken place for the best part of a day.
The following day, January 26, 1915, the action was resumed, and the
attack opened along the Bethune and La Bassee road. This soon died out,
as though by general consent, each side reoccupying their position of
the previous evening.
But on Friday, January 29, 1915, early in the morning, the Germans again
opened with severe artillery fire which directed its attention
particularly to the British line, where the First Army Corps lay between
La Bassee Canal and the Bethune road near Cutchy. After an hour's
shelling the Germans sent one battalion of the Fourteenth Corps toward
the redoubt, and two battalions of the same corps were sent to the north
and south of this redoubt. Now upon this point and to the north of it
stood the Sussex Regiment and to the south of it the Northamptonshire
Regiment. The attack was severe, but the defense was equal to it and the
net results were summed up in the casualty lists on both sides. An
attack upon the French, south of Bethune, on the same day met with like
results. The great German objective was to open another road to Dunkirk
and Calais, and had they been successful in the engagements of the past
few days it is probable that they would have succeeded.
To the north in the coast district the Belgians had succeeded in
flooding a vast area, which served for the time to separate the
combatants for a considerable distance, obliging the Germans to resort
to rafts, boats and other floating apparatus to carry on a somewhat
haphazard offensive and resulting in nothing more than a change from
gunfire slaughter to drowning. The immense inconvenience attendant to
this mode of warfare decided the Germans to drain this area and they
succeeded in doing this by the end of January, 1915.
On the other hand the Belgians captured two German trenches in the north
on January 17, 1915, and the British sent a force to attack Lille on
January 18. The Belgian trenches were reoccupied by the Germans and the
Lille attack was successfully repulsed.
Then, for a week, there was nothing of importance until January 23,
1915, when the Germans made a strong attack upon Ypres which was
repulsed. On January 24 the Germans recaptured St. Georges and bombarded
a few of the towns and villages harboring allied troops.
The Belgians continued in their endeavor to flood the German position
along the Yser, on January 25, 1915, and succeeded in obliging their
opponents to vacate for a time at least, and on the last day of January
allied forces consisting of Zouaves, Gurkhas and other Indian companies
made an attack upon the German trenches upon the dunes at Lombaertzyde,
gaining a temporary advantage at an expense of considerable loss in
casualties.
In reviewing the activities during the month of January, 1915, the
disagreeable state of the weather must be taken into consideration; this
resulted in terrible suffering, to which the battling forces were
subjected during the actual fighting and even more so while at rest,
either on the open field or in the questionable comfort of an
inhospitable and leaky trench.
While every effort was made by the respective General Staffs to supply
their fighting troops with such comforts as were absolutely necessary to
keep body and soul together and in trim for the next day's work, little
could be accomplished and it is a marvel how these poor soldiers did
withstand the rigorous weather which blighted the prospect of victory,
so dear to all who wear a uniform.