THE BATTLE OF YPRES--FIRST PHASE
The main body of the British forces arrived in French Flanders on
October 11. It will be recalled that in his dispatch Sir John French
states that the movement from the Aisne began on October 3. Why, it
may be asked, were eight days taken to complete this transfer if it
was so urgent?[3]
[3] In the French official review of the first six months of
the war it is stated that: "Field-Marshal Sir John French
had, as early as the end of September, expressed the wish to
see his Army resume its initial place on the left of the
Allied armies. He explained this wish on the ground of the
greater facility of which his communications would have the
advantage in this new position, and also of the impending
arrival of reinforcements from Great Britain and from India,
which would be able to deploy more easily on that terrain.
"In spite of the difficulties which such a removal involved
owing to the intensive use of the railways by our own units,
General Joffre decided, at the beginning of October, to meet
the Marshal's wishes, and to have the British Army removed
from the Aisne."
Well, in the first place the withdrawal of the British forces from the
Aisne had to be carried out in detail. To have effected the withdrawal
in mass would at once have aroused the observation and suspicion of
the enemy. Next the forces thus withdrawn in detail, and in detail
replaced by French troops, had to be massed at a convenient place
secure from hostile intelligence hunters. Finally this main body of
the British army had to be sent forward to the new line of front as a
whole. Thus it was that the 2nd Army Corps, under the command of
General Sir H. Smith-Dorrien, detrained at Bethune on the same day,
October 11, that the 3rd Army Corps under the command of General
Pulteney detrained at St. Omer. These towns are some twenty miles
apart. Coincidently with the detrainment of the infantry and the guns,
the 2nd and 3rd Divisions of the British cavalry advanced under the
command of General Allenby and occupied the little town of Aire, which
lies nearly half-way between them. By this move a front was formed
from near Lens, where the French line ended across the country
north-westward to the coast. The gap, so far as outflanking the Allied
forces was concerned, was closed.
In the latter part of September, as a prelude to their scheme, the
Germans had occupied Lille. An occupying force which they had left
there on their advance towards Paris had been driven out by the
British. They now detached for the seizure of the city the 19th Active
Corps and the 7th Reserve Corps. In the face of this overwhelming
strength the British troops in Lille, part only of a division from
Dunkirk, had no alternative but to retire. It was a bitter day for the
inhabitants of Lille which witnessed the departure of these defenders,
welcomed only a little while before with every demonstration of public
joy.
Besides these two German army corps who, based on Lille, began at once
to drive westward towards Boulogne, a powerful mobile column,
consisting of four divisions of cavalry, supported by horse artillery
and three brigades of Jaegers, crossed the Lys, and passing to the
south of Ypres, made a dash through Bailleul for Hazebrouck, covering
at once the flank of the main advance from a possible attack from
Dunkirk, and carrying out a turning movement against such French
forces as were then supposed to be holding Bethune. These German
troops, the two army corps and the flying column, though mustering in
all more than 150,000 men, were only the vanguard of the mass intended
to be thrown forward. It is clear that their expectation was that of
attack from Dunkirk on the one side and from Bethune on the other. The
flying column advanced to Hazebrouck, and the cavalry occupied the
Forest of Nieppe to the south of that town without opposition.
Meanwhile the Belgian army, which had evacuated Antwerp two days
before on October 9, was on its way westward along the coast covered
by the British troops under the command of General Sir Henry
Rawlinson. All the probabilities appeared to be that both the Belgian
army and these British troops would be cut off.
We may judge then of the surprise of these German forces when, along
the line of the Aa, they came suddenly up against this massive wall of
the British army supposed to be on the Aisne. Sir John French,
however, had not transferred his army to Northern France in order to
stand on the defensive. The wall of British troops was in rapid
movement. On this same day, October 11, the British cavalry dashed
across the Aa, swept the German horse through and out of the Forest of
Nieppe, and drove them as far as the Mont des Cats. There the Germans
attempted, at the end of a flight of some fourteen miles, to make a
stand. In the attack upon the Forest of Nieppe the British cavalry of
the 6th Division had carried out to the north a movement which
threatened the German force from the rear. When this was discovered
the German retreat became a flight. Reaching the Mont des Cats their
horses were blown, but they were compelled to defend that position if
possible because the Jaegers, evacuating Hazebrouck under cover of
their cavalry, had thrown themselves into Meteren and Bailleul. This
cavalry fight, in which on both sides more than 20,000 men took part,
though relatively, perhaps, but one of the minor episodes of the war,
was, in fact, of its kind colossal. It was a clash of sabre against
sabre, man to man. In numbers the Germans had an advantage of about
three to two, and that advantage ought to have been decisive, but
apart from the fact that their mounts hard ridden across country, were
winded, the superiority of the British was so marked that they had not
hesitated earlier in the campaign, and with success, to attack the
German horse when the enemy had a proportion of two to one. In cavalry
fighting skill, spirit and cohesion count for more than numbers.
The defeat of the German cavalry in this action was decisive. It was
not that they did not fight with bravery. They did. Broken in one
charge they were rallied by their officers for another. Some four
times in succession in the battle among the hills they attempted to
recover.
While the British cavalry were carrying out their brilliant drive, the
3rd Army Corps advanced east from St. Omer to Hazebrouck. In the
meantime also the 2nd Corps had taken up a line of positions along the
canal from Bethune to Aire. Next day (October 12) the 2nd Corps moved
forward to Merville, a little town south-east of the Forest of Nieppe.
The plan of the British operations may be briefly stated. Taking
Givenchy, a village two miles west of La Bassee, as the pivoting
point, it was intended to swing the line round until it reached the
Lys. In this movement the British front would swing through a quarter
circle, that is, from north-west to north-east. The British cavalry
would be on the outer, or left wing; the inner, or right wing, at
Givenchy would be hinged on to the French positions. In this way the
country between the Lys and the sea would be cleared of the enemy, and
the Allies envelopment carried from Givenchy past Lille, so that that
important place could no longer be used by the Germans as a base for
overrunning the country to the coast.
There was a further aim. This was to seize, if possible, the railway
junction at Menin, ten miles north of Lille. The move would both
embarrass the German occupation of Lille, and hamper the enemy in any
attempt to throw troops in force over the Lys.
On the other hand, the immediate purpose of the Germans is equally
clear. Not strong enough, as they judged, to risk a pitched battle;
their right wing exposed by the defeat of their cavalry; and the
probability owing to this unexpected appearance of the British army
now being that the Belgians from Antwerp and the British troops from
Ghent would get through, they determined to obstruct the British
movement by guerrilla tactics, and until their main forces came up to
defend in detachments the numerous and almost contiguous villages of
the country, taking advantage of its network of canals and railways,
and of its tangle of roads and cross roads. It is difficult to imagine
what is in military language called a "close" country more difficult
to operate in than this, one of the most densely populated areas of
the world. The German scheme was to treat the civilian inhabitants
with ruthlessness, wasting and plundering as they retired.
Manifestly, the success of the British movement would depend upon its
energy. The Germans were fighting to gain time. Not stopping,
therefore, at Merville, the 2nd Corps fought forward directly towards
Lille by way of Laventie, in the valley of the Lys. Laventie, about
ten miles west of Lille, is the centre of a dense semi-urban
industrial district. Concurrently the 3rd Corps advanced eastward from
Hazebrouck towards Bailleul. Seven miles to the south-west of Ypres,
that place lies on the southern slope of the crescent of hills already
referred to. Some scattered advance posts of the enemy were met with
in intermediate villages, and were driven in. The Germans had taken up
a position along the ridge from Berthen, between the Mont des Cats and
Mont Noir on the north through St. Jans Cappel and Bailleul, and on
the main road to Armentières. About two miles in advance of this line
they held in force the villages of Fletre and Meteren, which they had
fortified and barricaded.
The British attack began at daybreak on October 13. It was a day of
rain and fog, one of those fogs which, in autumn, cover these flats
with an almost impenetrable mist. Such conditions rendered movement
over the low-lying sodden country slow. On the other hand, as against
the British troops moving to the attack the conditions put the German
guns out of action, and, what was not less material, they concealed
the movements of the Allied cavalry. For by this time the French
horse, under the command of General Conneau had arrived, and the plan
of battle was that the French cavalry should assault and turn the left
of the German position at Nieppe, on the main road from Bailleul to
Armentières, thus cutting off the enemy from Lille, while the British
cavalry attacked Berthen. In the meantime, the main assault would be
delivered by the infantry against Bailleul, the centre of the hostile
position.
Throughout the 13th the fighting raged round Fletre and Meteren. Both
places were taken. Meteren was stormed in an onset which at nightfall
drove the Germans who were holding it in a ragged rout to Bailleul.
General Pulteney decided at once to follow up this advantage. An
advance on Bailleul was immediately begun. All this while the cavalry
on both wings had been active. At daybreak on October 14 the British
horse broke into Berthen, and despite a bitter resistance drove the
Germans out, and began to roll up their flank on that side. The French
cavalry had got astride of the Armentières road. Realising that their
whole force was in danger of being rounded up, the Germans took the
chance offered by darkness, intensified by heavy rain, to beat a
precipitate retreat. When the British infantry reached Bailleul, they
found the town evacuated.
These operations opened up the way to Lys, and the 3rd Corps advanced
on October 15 to the line of that river extending from Armentières to
near Laventie. They thus came into line with the 2nd Corps, which,
driving the Germans off the main road from La Bassee to Estaires, an
important road junction on the Lys two miles above Sailly, had pushed
on to Fournes. At that place, four miles east of Neuve Chapelle, and
not more than seven from the centre of Lille, they cut the German
communications between Lille and La Bassee.
Thus, at the end of four days, the British were both at Armentières
and at Fournes, within seven miles of Lille, and formed with Laventie
as the base of it, a front of almost a right angle, the apex pointing
westward. At the same time the cavalry had received orders to continue
their drive from Berthen across the country and down the valley of the
Lys towards Menin.[4] In those four days the Germans had been driven
back some twenty miles. Decidedly the surprise provided for them by
the British army had been anything but agreeable.
[4] On reaching Warneton, on the Lys, ten miles above Menin,
the cavalry found the place strongly held by the Germans,
who at the entrance to the town had constructed a high
barricade loopholed at the bottom so that men could fire
through it from a lying position. This formidable obstacle
was encountered by a squadron of our cavalry. Nothing
daunted, they obtained help from the artillery, who
man-handled a gun into position and blew the barricade to
pieces, scattering the defenders. They then advanced some
three-quarters of a mile into the centre of the town, where
they found themselves in a large "place." They had hardly
reached the farther end when one of the buildings suddenly
appeared to leap skywards in a sheet of flame, a shower of
star shells at the same time making the place as light as
day and enabling the enemy--who were ensconced in the
surrounding houses--to pour in a devastating fire from
rifles and machine guns.
Our cavalry managed to extricate themselves from this trap
with a loss of only one officer--the squadron
leader--wounded and nine men killed and wounded; but,
determining that none of their number should fall into the
enemy's hands, a party of volunteers went back and, taking
off their boots in order to make no noise on the pavement,
re-entered the inferno they had just left, and succeeded in
carrying off their wounded comrades.
In these four days the British line had been pivoted round from St.
Omer to Armentières. However looked at, the feat alike in its
swiftness and its energy is remarkable. The numbers engaged on each
side, roundly some 150,000 men, had been about equal. Reinforced on
the way from the Aisne by fresh drafts from England, the British army
had the support of that French cavalry which in combination with our
own had rendered such brilliant service at the Battle of the Marne.
The German troops were among the best of the enemy's forces, and the
operations had shown that, even with the defensive advantages offered
by this exceptionally "close" country, they were, on a footing of
equality in numbers, no match for the Allies.[5]
[5] "On the 15th the 3rd Division fought splendidly,
crossing the dykes with which this country is intersected
with planks, and driving the enemy from one entrenched
position to another in loopholed villages, till at night
they pushed the Germans off the Estaires-La Bassee road, and
establishing themselves on the line Pont de Ham-Croix
Barbée."--_Dispatch of Sir John French of November 20,
1914._
An episode of the fighting is thus described in an officer's
letter published in the _Daily Telegraph_: "The enemy are no
match for us in this kind of fighting, and we enjoyed
thoroughly the work of hunting up the Germans, whom we shot
down like rabbits. When we reached the outskirts of the wood
we came under a terrible artillery fire from the enemy's
guns, which were only 800 yards away. I withdrew my men
under the cover of a ditch.
"I took eight men and again moved to the outskirts of the
wood, where I found a perfectly flat turnip field stretching
away towards the enemy. About 300 yards out I saw a line of
our infantry lying flat on the ground, and made my way
towards them. No sooner did we leave the cover of the wood
when the enemy's guns opened up on us.
"It seemed impossible that my little party could escape.
Three were almost immediately hit, but we others kept on and
reached the line lying in the open. Half a platoon were
extended at five paces. To my horror I found all were dead
or wounded except about three, who were keeping perfectly
still. I found the Subaltern Lieutenant B---- on one knee,
with one hand resting on the ground just in the attitude of
a runner who is waiting the signal for the start of a race.
He was stone dead. A shrapnel bullet had pierced his head.
"The man next him, who was badly wounded in the thigh, told
me they were ordered to support the firing line, which was
200 yards ahead, and had only advanced 300 yards from the
wood when the entire line was struck down as if by
lightning."
As the Belgians had during the opening weeks of the campaign followed
out a system of tactics admirably and skilfully adapted to the
populous and settled character of the terrain over which the fighting
then took place, so the Germans now attempted to resort to similar
tactics. They tried to contest the ground foot by foot. They
endeavoured to turn every farmhouse into a stronghold; to barricade
with the debris of buildings every road; they threw garrisons into
every works; they loopholed the houses of and placed hidden machine
guns in every village; they gathered for a rally behind every canal.
The country was swept by fire and devastation.
None of these efforts availed. Nor are the reasons why they did not
avail far to seek. Such tactics were wholly at variance with modern
German military training. The training aimed at a crushing movement in
masses; the tactics to be successful, demanded alertness and
initiative. So sudden a change in method and so complete a break with
tradition meant, at any rate, that the mass of these German forces
were but indifferent practitioners; they might know much of the
abstract science but they knew little of the practical art of war. In
one thing only were they thorough. They made up for their defects in
practical military skill by their energy in plunder and
destruction.[6]
[6] Dr. Ludwig Tasker, of the R.A.M.C., from the rear of the
British line at this date wrote: "Some of the villages are
nothing but masses of ruins. We are covering ground passed
over by the Germans. They have not left a cupboard or a
drawer alone. We respect all property, and when we go where
the Germans have been we tidy the things up so that the
place looks very much better by the time the people return.
Day after day the same thing goes on here--fighting,
fighting, fighting, collecting the wounded, and burying the
dead."
They were opposed besides in the British army to troops with whom
alertness and initiative were valued as among the highest of military
qualities. Those troops also were expert riflemen. Though standing on
the defence under such conditions the Germans ought, like the Belgians
at the outset of the war, to have inflicted far heavier losses than
they themselves sustained, in fact, owing to the sweeping energy of
the attack, their losses were out of all proportion the heavier.
Through the defeat at Meteren and the drive of the Allied cavalry
towards the Lys, their right flank had been turned, and the result was
that they had been "bunched up" by the British in the tangled
industrial district to the west of Lille.
Bodies of them still held out at Aubers and at Herlies, two contiguous
villages to the south-east of Laventie, but both those places were on
October 16 attacked by the troops of the British 2nd Army Corps. This
fighting went on amid streets obstructed by barricades, followed by
hand to hand combats in the houses. The Germans had now brought up a
mass of fresh forces, including their 14th Army Corps, additional
battalions of jägers, and four divisions of cavalry. Notwithstanding
these reinforcements both Aubers and Herlies were on October 17
carried by storm. In the assault upon Herlies the Lincolns and the
Royal Fusiliers, under the command of Brigadier-General Shaw,
displayed an undaunted gallantry.
On October 16 the Belgian army from Antwerp reached the Yser, and the
British troops covering their retreat had arrived to the east of
Ypres. Next day four divisions of the French cavalry drove out of the
Forest of Hoethuist, north of Ypres, a German force which attempted to
cut in between the Belgians and the British. Concurrently, the British
line west of Lille was extended down the valley of the Lys as far as
Frelingheinthree miles of suburbs from Laventie to Bois Grenier and
Radinghem, the latter place not more than five miles from the centre
of the city.
Such broadly was the situation. The German attempt to overrun western
Flanders had not failed merely; it had collapsed.