THE BATTLE OF YPRES--THE CRISIS
The critical phase of the great battle began on October 29. Its
feature is that not only was the mass of the German force now at its
maximum, but that the weight of the attack shifted from the part of
the British front between La Bassee and Armentières to the centre of
the British line to the south and east of Ypres. It is this phase
which has been commonly called the Battle of Ypres. Except, however,
as a phase, it is in no sense distinguished from the earlier fighting.
On the third day (October 31) the struggle to the east and south of
Ypres reached its crisis. From that date, notwithstanding that efforts
and desperate efforts continued to be made by the enemy, his defeat
was in truth assured. He had shot his bolt, and shot it in vain.
To the strategical reasons which induced the Germans to throw the
chief force of their attack in the first place against the right of
the British line to the west of Lille, reference has already been
made, and those reasons are sufficiently clear. The reasons which
induced the Germans to shift it to the south and south-east of Ypres
are not so obvious. Indeed, the only acceptable explanation is that
their severe defeat on October 24 caused such discouragement that the
plan of forcing the right of the British position was given up as
impracticable.
In order to reach Ypres from the south it was necessary to win the
ridge, while to reach Ypres from the east it was necessary to
penetrate the almost continuous belt of woods. These woods presented
an obstacle which made the organisation of the huge mass attacks, in
favour with the reigning school of German tacticians, almost out of
the question. Sir John French as we have seen took advantage of these
features of the country skilfully to economise his force, and at the
same time to conceal that fact and mislead the enemy. The Germans it
is evident had by October 26 found out their mistake. They discovered
that west of Lille they had been running their heads against a stone
wall, and deceived by the aspects and features of the country, had
been neglecting what they now considered had been a comparatively easy
entrance.
When they changed their plans, however, they made yet another
mistake--that of thinking or rather of presuming that the British
dispositions would remain unaltered.
Through the woods to the east of Ypres there is one great main road.
Beginning at Menin--that town is just on the Belgian side of the
French frontier--this broad, well-paved highway runs nearly straight
as an avenue into Ypres.[9] The distance is ten miles. From Ypres the
great road is continued towards the coast until at Furnes it joins on
to the great road which runs along the coast from Ostend through
Nieuport, Dunkirk, and Gravelines to Calais.
[9] There is only one slight bend in this road, that at the
hamlet of Hooge, a mile and a half out of Ypres, but this
bend proved, as will be seen, of considerable tactical
importance.
The importance of Menin lay in the fact that not only do several lines
of railway branch out from that place southwards into France,
including the railways to Lille, which is not more than ten miles
away, but that it was the starting-point of this great road. Ypres
again is the starting-point of a converging great road to Dunkirk. It
may be remarked generally that the great main roads of Flanders run
across the country from inland to the sea, and not along the country
parallel with the sea. There are certain nodal points in this road
system. In West Flanders, Ypres is the chief of those points. If we
study the disposition of the Allied forces at this time with reference
to the lines of communication, it will be seen both that they barred
access to Ypres, and that west of Lille they were astride of, and
therefore rendered useless to the enemy, the main line of railway from
Lille to Calais. On that line Bailleul, Hazebrouck, and St. Omer are
alike situated. The German advance, checked and thrown back by the
unexpected appearance of the British from the Aisne, was an advance
intended both to master the main line of railway, and the road system.
For a distance of some three miles the avenue from Menin to Ypres runs
through the belt of woods. Six miles from Menin and four from Ypres it
passes through the village of Gheluvelt, cresting there the ridge of
hills. A mile to the east of Gheluvelt, and five miles from Menin, a
road branches off the main avenue to Werwick on the Lys, and, on the
opposite side of the avenue here there is a cross-road of no great
consequence, save that it serpentines northward through the belt of
woodland until it joins the main road from Ypres to Bruges. Trivial,
therefore, as a public way, this cross-road was of considerable
military value, since it gave access to some five miles or more of the
woods.
It may be added that just by these cross-roads, east of Gheluvelt,
there is a small outer ridge or rise called the hill of Kruyseik,
after the village of that name lying in the hollow, and that over the
main crest at Gheluvelt, and between that point and Ypres there is
another rise or ridge. Behind this, on the side towards Ypres, lies
the village of Zillebeke. Across the hills, again, to the south of
Ypres and between that city and the Lys, there are two somewhat zigzag
minor roads. The first of these passes through the village of
Zandvoorde, and the second through the village of Hollebeke. Then
further west we come to the main road running due south from Ypres to
Armentières. Along this road, some two and a half miles out of Ypres,
is St. Eloi, and two miles farther on Wytscheate.
These topographical details may appear minute, but they have to be
understood because they show that, to get into Ypres from the south
and south-east, the Germans had as lines of attack these four routes:
the main avenue from Menin; the road through Zandvoorde; the road
through Hollebeke; and the road through Wytscheate and St. Eloi; and
it will be found that in fact their attacks were made along those
lines.
Shrewdly foreseeing such a development of the battle, Sir John French,
on October 27, unified the immediate command of the troops on his
eastern front by adding them to the 1st Army Corps. They were
redistributed in order to meet the probable weight of the coming
assault which was almost certainly to be looked for along the main
avenue from Menin. The line, in fact, was tightened up.
The 7th Division was disposed along a line some two miles in length
from Zandvoorde to the Menin avenue, and held the Hill of Kruyseik.
The 1st Division continued the line from this point northwards and
along the outer or eastern fringe of the belt of woods to near the
village of Reytel.
The 2nd Division continued the line, also along the outer fringe of
the woods, to Zonnebeke.
Altogether these troops, some 50,000 strong, occupied a front of about
six miles. It was an exceptionally strong position, affording among
other things first-rate shelter for the guns. Bearing in mind,
however, that they were preparing to meet an assault from nearly ten
times their own number, supported by an enormously superior strength
in artillery, no precaution could be neglected.
The dispositions just outlined were made only just in time. At
daybreak, on October 29, the attack began. The three divisions, all of
them seasoned veterans, had hardly dug themselves in when a terrific
bombardment opened. Since their trenches were practically invisible,
this bombardment proved more noisy than harmful. It was the prelude to
the advance along the Menin road of an enormous German column. Flank
and supporting columns advanced at the same time along the road to
Zandvoorde, and the minor roads north of the main avenue to Reytel and
Zonnebeke. The attack was pressed along almost the whole front with
the greatest determination. Its principal object was to secure the
Kruyseik Hill, and with it the road junction east of Gheluvelt. By
weight of numbers, and despite heavy losses--the terms used with
regard to German losses in this battle may appear to be exaggeration,
but in fact they are not--the enemy succeeded in capturing the
Kruyseik Hill. That was about two in the afternoon, after a struggle
lasting nearly eight hours.
With the capture of the hill, they were able to assault the British
line north of the Menin road in flank, and at this point they broke
it. Elsewhere, however, along the front their onset had been
disastrous. When close to the British lines they wavered under the
almost unbroken fire from the trenches, General Sir Douglas Haig gave
the order for a general counter-attack. Looking only for a "passive
resistance," the Germans were taken wholly by surprise. They tried to
rally, but in vain. The shock threw their columns into confusion, and
their whole front gave way. In the impetus the British troops rushed
and retook the Kruyseik Hill by storm. In the captured trenches across
the main road to the north of it a body of the enemy, though raked by
fire in front and in flank, held out until nightfall, when nearly the
whole of them had been killed or wounded. The trenches were recovered,
and the survivors taken prisoners.
Beaten in the attempt to advance from Menin, the enemy the same night
renewed the battle in an endeavour to retake Le Gheir on the Lys and
to break the front at that point. The attack proved a total failure,
though the British position was here astride of the river, and
consequently from the tactical standpoint weak. At midnight a huge
column of 12,000 men was hurled against the trenches held at Croix
Marechal by the Middlesex Regiment. They came on with the greatest
determination. Part of the trenches fell into their hands. The
Middlesex, however, with the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders who had
been hurried forward to their support, began a counter-attack. This
fight, one of the bitterest episodes of the battle, went on through
the night. The scene lighted up luridly and fitfully by star shell and
flares, by the flashing volleys of the rifles, and by the explosions
from minute to minute of shrapnel, was at once weird and awful. The
Germans were raked by a destructive fire from both flanks. As fast,
however, as they fell others rushed into the trench line from their
rear. So for nearly four hours the slaughter and the combat went on.
At any price the enemy appeared resolved to hold this advantage. But
towards daybreak the British infantry, having steadily closed in,
rushed forward. The line of trenches, now choked with German dying and
dead, was recaptured at the point of the bayonet. Fighting to the last
gasp, not more than forty uninjured Germans were taken prisoners. The
rout of the great column was driven back upon the hostile lines beyond
the railway.
While this struggle to the death was taking place at Croix Marechal,
the enemy was gathering his forces for another onslaught of
unparalleled magnitude. It began at dawn on October 30, and was an
effort to fight across the hills by way of Zandvoorde and Hollebeke.
In this there were employed five German army corps, aggregating nearly
300,000 men. Opposed to them along this line were the British troops
of the 7th Division and the Cavalry Division, less than a tenth of
their number. The advance along the Menin road and through the woods
having turned out to be too difficult, the Germans were now at last
trying this way. Once more the onset was supported by a mighty
bombardment, and once more the bombardment did comparatively little
damage. What told was the weight of numbers. The attack came forward
in two enormous masses. That thrown against Zandvoorde comprised three
army corps, the 13th and 15th Prussians, and the 2nd Bavarians. That
thrown against Hollebeke comprised two corps. A special Army Order had
been issued telling the troops that the Kaiser considered the success
of this attack to be of vital importance to the issue of the war, and,
indeed, for the reasons already shown, it was. Of course and
conversely its failure affected the issue of the war not less vitally.
Forward and up the southern slopes of the ridge these masses,
fortified by the Imperial order, swarmed in numbers that appeared to
be countless, for to the eye even 100,000 men looks a multitude
innumerable. The British gunners, pushing their guns forward daringly
for greater effect, lashed them with a storm of shrapnel; the thin
line in the British trenches shot them until the rifles were red hot.
They went down not in hundreds, but in thousands. Still they came on,
crushing under their boots dead and dying indifferently. It was the
supreme manifestation of the Will to Power; the climax of the
War-lord's method of making war. Such numbers could not be finished in
the time. When those in front wavered under the swishing lash of
leaden death, those behind pushed them on. They surged onwards like
the waves of a rising tide. Doubtless this sounds mere imagination. It
is, however, but the feeblest reflection of the truth. There was
nothing for it except, while time yet allowed, for the 3rd Cavalry
Division, who were holding the trenches on the ridge east of
Zandvoorde, to decamp, and to decamp in a hurry. Likely enough, the
Germans were astonished to discover the comparatively contemptible
handful who had offered such a daring defence. The woods just to the
rear of the British trenches aided the escape of these heroes.
Relatively their casualties had been few. With the nimbleness of
Redskins they disappeared among the tree trunks as the grey-green
flood of the enemy, seeing their retreat, surged forward in a last
rush and with a roar of triumph, sending after them a hail of in the
main futile bullets. Through the woods of the mile of intervening
valley to the Kleine Zillebeke ridge, the British raced from one cover
to another, keeping up a lively fire from every point from which the
enemy on the main ridge were in view. This seems to have given the
impression that the little valley was crowded with skirmishers, a
gentry for whom the Germans had by now imbibed a wholesome respect.
They halted accordingly on the Zandvoorde ridge to reform.
This pause was fatal, and it is not too much to say that at that
moment the issue of the battle lay upon the knees of the gods. The
pause enabled Sir Douglas Haig to re-establish his line. The fateful
moment had passed, and the grey-faced Emperor waiting anxiously in
Courtrai for the news that was to make him master of Europe was little
conscious that the scale of fate had gone down against him.
Yet it had. The British line was re-formed from Gheluvelt along the
Kleine Zillebeke ridge to the Ypres and Lille canal at the point where
alongside the Ypres and Lille railway it enters the deep cutting in
which both canal and railway are carried across the main ridge of
hills. The strength of this position lay in the fact that behind it
was an area of woodland nearly two miles in depth. Along the bottom of
the valley or depression separating these woods from those on the
opposite slope lay a space of cleared land. This afforded a good field
of fire. On the other hand, the woods on the opposite slope made it
impossible to organise an attack in the immense mass in which the
Germans had swarmed over the cleared top of the ridge they now held.
The position now taken up by the British troops was, therefore,
strong, and had been chosen with a good judgment and a practical eye.
Besides that, the line was stiffened. It was intended to hold this
position "at all costs." In the front trenches were the troops of the
1st Division and the 4th Brigade. The 2nd Brigade formed an
immediately supporting line. A battalion was placed in the woods as a
reserve.
The Germans, however, did not forthwith press their advance, but
contented themselves, for the time being, with making good their
position on the main ridge. This, as already pointed out, was a fatal
mistake. To render the British line more secure, and to strengthen its
weak point--that nearest the canal--three infantry battalions and a
cavalry brigade were transferred from the 9th French Army Corps.
We now come to the concurrent German attack against Hollebeke. The
British trenches at Hollebeke were held by the 2nd Cavalry Division;
those on the right to the south-west and towards Messines by the 1st
Cavalry Division. This comparative handful of men had had to be spaced
out over four miles of country. They were but a single line, less than
a man, on the average, to every two yards, and yet they had to face
the onset of two army corps of the best troops of Germany!
Since the front towards Hollebeke was too narrow for the employment of
such a mass of the enemy with effect, and since, too, this attack was
in fact a turning movement destined to assist the chief thrust through
Zandvoorde, the onset here forked, one tremendous column pressing
north towards Hollebeke and the other west towards Wytscheate.
It might well be supposed that with their weight of numbers the
Germans would have walked, or rather have romped, over the barrier.
Instead of that the cavalry of the 2nd Division held on to their
trenches, defeating assault after assault from daybreak until
afternoon. They were at last, spent with the conflict, forced to give
way. Meanwhile Sir John French had reached the front. At a glance he
took in the crisis of the position. Two regiments of the 3rd Cavalry
Division were rushed along the line to the 2nd Division's support. Two
battalions of the 7th Indian Division were also held to meet the
emergency. At the same time the London Scottish Territorials and four
battalions of the 2nd British Army Corps were ordered forward to Neuve
Eglise for the like purpose. During the lull in the battle already
referred to, from October 27 to October 29, Sir John French had placed
the Indian Army Corps in the positions on the right of his line to the
west of Lille, then occupied by his 2nd Army Corps. The latter were
exhausted by fourteen days of continuous hard fighting. They were now
available as a general reserve. The value and the necessity of this
precaution is too manifest to need emphasis.
Re-formed as the line now was a little beyond Hollebeke, it continued
the front across the ridge from the Ypres and Lille canal to near
Messines. This section of the front was important for two reasons. In
the first place it barred the Germans off the main road from Lille to
Ypres. In the second place it prevented the enemy from turning the
position of the troops commanded by Sir Douglas Haig by cutting their
communications with Ypres. That, of course, formed one of the
objectives of this attack. Another was to obtain the command both of
the main road and of the Ypres and Lille railway. At Hollebeke and
even now just beyond it the British were astride the railway line.
With objects like these in view it is easy to infer that the onset was
pressed with all the vigour at the enemy's command. He had on this
section alone nearly 500 guns. These, both supporting and in the
intervals between his massed infantry attacks, poured upon the
trenches and behind them in order to keep reinforcements at bay,
constant squalls of shrapnel. Because less than 5,000 men were here
resisting more than 100,000, and continued to resist them all that day
and all through the succeeding night, and all through the next day and
all through the following night also, and because at the end of that,
in truth, indescribable time, though the storm of the hostile guns
never ceased, and infantry attack after infantry attack drove forward,
only to melt into bloody confusion and wreck before the terrible power
of the magazine rifle handled by resolute and veteran soldiers, it
must not be supposed that the energy and the ferocity of the enemy
were less than both had often before proved to be. The Germans had
never fought with greater determination. Their defeat arose from the
attempt to ride rough-shod over this apparently feeble line of defence
by sheer weight of numbers. The British fought not merely with skill,
but with the skill of masters. The Germans, confident in their
seemingly crushing strength, fought without patience, and with the
clumsiness of amateurs. They aimed at a speedy and a showy triumph. In
spite of all their military apparatus and machinery, and of their
precision in drill, they fought, in fact, like a mob, and like a mob
in such circumstances their losses were frightful. Not only the
defects of their military system--its exaltation of the machine, and
its depression of the man--were here exposed, but the still worse and
superimposed defects of their latest ideas of tactics. Ignoring the
realities as distinguished from the mere appearances of modern war,
these ideas were the ideas of fantasy. To train men as an army, to
employ them in battle as a mob, and, as a result, to look for victory,
is of all notions the nearest akin to dementia.
A conflict with these odds, and with this outcome has never before
occurred in modern war. Nothing like it, indeed, has occurred in war
since Leonidas and his Spartans defended the Pass of Thermopylæ. This
fight was the Thermopylæ of modern times. It is no fanciful
comparison. There was the same heroic devotion and military brilliance
on the one side; there was the same use of a vast army as a mob on the
other. In spirit and in method the military systems of ancient Persia
and of modern Prussia are by no means as far apart as the distance in
time might lead us to suppose. The story of these heroes of the
British cavalry ought to be remembered as long as in any part of the
world there is a man of British stock who cherishes a love for the
islands of his origin, and can thrill to the splendours of their
story.
Of the onset made by the Bavarian Army Corps against Wytscheate a
correspondent of the _Daily Telegraph_ contributed an admirable
record. This witness states:
The perilous stroke smote the British line just south of Ypres,
and, as luck would have it, was adequately lit up by a silver
moonlight. The dense masses of Bavarian infantry sprang up with
one accord. Their pale uniforms and bayonets were lit up by the
ghostly light, and formed a strange and terrifying picture, for
the attacking line stretched far, and was supported by numerous
small columns in reserve. The sight of this concerted advance in
the night was highly picturesque and impressive, but it failed to
shake the nerves of our stalwart cavalry.
Exposing their flank to sheets of fire from the neighbourhood of
Ypres, the Bavarians pressed bravely forward, but all the while
the steady rattle of the defenders' rifles from the trenches swept
one rank away after the other. As fast as the German soldiers fell
fresh groups pressed into the gap, and forced the line onward, but
the toll of death shattered the constancy and corporate existence
of an army corps.
At one point or more our line was pierced by the surging mass of
the assailants, and a partial retirement took place for a mile or
more in the dark. But the enemy's strength was sapped, and a
comparatively weak counter-attack made in the grey of the morning
by fragments of regiments and fragments of squadrons, collected
hastily by the firmness of surviving officers, and backed by some
infantry supports hastily thrust forward, was successful in
recovering the greater part of the lost ground. As reinforcements
arrived on the scene next day, and as our artillery concentrated
its bombardment on the spot, the whole position was restored, and
the attack of an army corps was definitely foiled by about
one-fifth of its numbers.
October 31 was the crisis of the battle. During the night of October
30 the German flood, lashing in vain against the trenches held by the
cavalry across the ridge, swirled in ponderous weight against those
held by the 11th Division Infantry at St. Yves, near the point where
the British front crossed the Lys. The front here broke under the
pressure. The breach, however, was only momentary. With a heroism
beyond praise, Major Prowse instantly led the Somersets in a
counter-attack. That intrepid corps, despite the enemy's ferociously
tenacious resistance, drove him out. It was a bayonet fight, and a
bayonet fight at its worst. The sturdy west countrymen, however,
proved more than a match for any Prussians. They swept into the combat
with the smash of a sledge-hammer added to the keenness of a
high-speed tool, and wrought havoc. Against such a spirit and prowess
numbers were unavailing.
All through that night, while the thunder of the conflict was heard
and its flare seen fifty miles away, the enemy smashed at this section
of the front. But it was a front of iron. Weighing his words, Sir John
French says in his dispatch:
I am anxious to bring to special notice the excellent work done
throughout this battle by the Third Corps under General Pulteney's
command. Their position in the right central part of my line was
of the utmost importance to the general success of the operations.
Besides the very undue length of front which the Corps was called
upon to cover (some twelve or thirteen miles), the position
presented many weak spots, and was also astride of the River Lys,
the right bank of which from Frelinghein downwards was strongly
held by the enemy.
It was impossible to provide adequate reserves, and the constant
work in the trenches tried the endurance of officers and men to
the utmost. That the Corps was invariably successful in repulsing
the constant attacks, sometimes in great strength, made against
them by day and by night is due entirely to the skilful manner in
which the Corps was disposed by its commander, who has told me of
the able assistance he has received throughout from his Staff, and
the ability and resource displayed by Divisional, Brigade, and
Regimental leaders in using the ground and the means of defence at
their disposal to the very best advantage.
The courage, tenacity, endurance, and cheerfulness of the men in
such unparalleled circumstances are beyond all praise.
So far, then, we have this result: that neither the attack through
Zandvoorde, the turning movement against Hollebeke and Wytscheate, nor
the supporting attack against St. Yves had achieved its object.
Stopped in their advance through Zandvoorde, alike by the strength of
the Allied position on the Kleine Zillebeke ridge, and by the
reinforcement of the line, which, after this experience made them
judge a frontal assault totally impracticable, the Germans determined
to turn this barrier by reverting, on October 31, to their first
scheme of an advance along the main avenue from Menin. This, indeed,
was in this direction the only practicable way through the woodland
belt.
When, at daybreak, their intention became evident, General Moussy, in
command of the reinforcement sent the previous day from the 9th French
Army Corps, tried to anticipate it by a counter-attack. He pushed
forward to the south-east of Gheluvelt. There, however, in face of the
great strength of the enemy he was brought to a standstill. Along the
great road from Menin the Germans advanced in a mass of enormous
depth, which was in truth a human battering ram. By this means they
meant to smash through into Ypres despite any resistance that could be
offered, and despite any losses. The battle developed at this point as
a struggle at very short range. It swayed now this way and now that,
as attack was followed by counter-attack. At length the pent-up mass
of the enemy broke through, and swept along the road. The line of the
1st Division of Infantry at Gheluvelt was broken. Gheluvelt was taken
by the Germans; the flank of the 7th Division along the Kleine
Zillebeke range was exposed; the Royal Scots Fusiliers, remaining in
their trenches, were surrounded. The way open through Gheluvelt and
the main road, the enemy rushed up a great force of guns and began
shelling the British positions in enfilade right and left.
Concurrently an attack was begun from Zandvoorde along the main road
leading across the intervening valley, and through the woods past
Kleine Zillebeke. The 7th Division were driven back through the woods
towards Ypres. It looked this time as though the German thrust had
gone home. The situation was assuredly critical. Sir John French
earlier in the day had come to Hooge, on the Menin road. There, when
the troops fell back, he found himself in the thick of the fighting.
But he had taken his measures. Advancing along the Menin road the
Germans exposed the flank of their huge column. This was their
vulnerable point. The British general at once threw upon it all the
force he had within striking distance to the north of the avenue. The
1st and part of the 2nd Division of the 1st Army Corps, some 27,000
men, were swung against the German flank in a mighty counter-attack.
The manoeuvre turned the tide of battle. It was one of those bold
flashes of resource which mark off great commanders from mediocre
commanders. The enemy's advance was immediately arrested. Thereupon
the retiring British troops rallied. Thus held in front and attacked
in flank, the German masses, crowded together in a space too small for
their numbers, were destroyed wholesale. Their resistance, though
fierce, was brief. The onset broke them. Into and through the woods
south of the Menin road they fell back, confused and routed, upon
Zandvoorde. Gheluvelt was retaken. Here, to cover the retreat, a large
body of the enemy attempted, behind hastily thrown up barricades, to
hold out. The gunners of the 42nd Brigade R.F.A. blew the barricades
to pieces. Then the Worcestershires rushed the village with the
bayonet.
The result of this signal success was that the front was restored
nearly to the line it had occupied at the beginning of the day. Many
of the enemy still remained in the woods. The 6th Cavalry Brigade was
given the work of hunting them out. "They advanced," says Sir John
French, "with much dash, partly mounted and partly dismounted; and
surprising the enemy, succeeded in killing large numbers and
materially helped to restore the line."
If the chance of victory passed from the German arms with their fatal
hesitancy on the preceding day, this crushing defeat of their main
attack made efforts to retrieve their fortunes hopeless. The attacks
against Hollebeke and round Messines continued all through this day,
and as already said, through the following night. They were wasted.
The hammering went on too against the front down to Givenchy. Though
by one of their battering-ram assaults the enemy had driven the Indian
troops out of and to the west of Neuve Chapelle, the hope of piercing
the front was not realised. The Indians, probably thought an easy
proposition by comparison, turned out also to be stuff too tough to be
broken. The Gurkhas and the famous Corps of Sappers and Miners were
brilliant, and justly won the honourable mention given them in the
Commander-in-Chief's dispatches.