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 Armentières 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 Bassée region.
There was good tactical reason for this move, because the British
were seriously threatening the position, straddling La Bassée Canal
where it flows between Cuinchy and Givenchy, and there was danger
that they might capture La Bassée, 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 Bassée. 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 Bassée 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 Bassée
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 Bassée 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 or 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 Bassée 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 Bassée 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.
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