The Childrens' Story of the War, Volume 3 (of 10) / From the First Battle of Ypres to the End of the Year 1914

by Edward Parrott

WINTER IN THE TRENCHES.

We must now return to the Western front and briefly follow the course of the fighting down to the end of the year. With the failure of the Kaiser's great and costly effort to break through the thin British lines before Ypres the critical moment had passed. Thenceforward through the rain and sleet and snow of winter the armies faced each other in trenches, and though the guns were rarely silent, and there were attacks and counter-attacks without number, nothing decisive took place. On both sides the combatants were more anxious to make their positions secure than to win new points of vantage.

During the closing days of November there were several gallant assaults on the German trenches by British troops, and in some of them Victoria Crosses were won. On the 23rd the Germans captured 800 yards of the trenches held by the 34th Sikh Pioneers, but a desperate counter-attack across the frosty snow in the darkness won them back again. It was in this fighting that Naik Darwan Sing Negi, as related on page [170], won the highest award of valour.

In December the trench fighting was keener and more frequent. In the first days of the month the French captured the ferryman's house on the east bank of the Ypres Canal, between Dixmude and Bixschoote. For weeks they had striven to secure this post, and it was only won by much bloodshed. Shortly afterwards information was received that the German lines had been weakened by the withdrawal of troops sent to help von Hindenburg in the East, and that a good opportunity afforded itself for an attempt to improve the Allied position, especially where it was weakest—that is, from Klein Zillebeke to Messines, where the Germans were posted on low ridges which gave them good gun positions. On 14th December at seven in the morning, our guns heavily bombarded two wooded spurs to the north of Messines, which were then in possession of the enemy. The Royal Scots advanced against one of these spurs, and the Gordon Highlanders against the other; but though they showed the greatest gallantry in the attack, only the western edge of one position was won. Neither we nor the Germans could make headway in this direction.

It was in the neighbourhood of La Bassée that the most extensive operations were undertaken. On the first two days of December Maud'huy's left wing carried the Château of Vermelles,[186] three miles south of the canal. Guns posted at the château forced the Germans to retire behind the railway and abandon a village. It was at once occupied, and a gain of a mile and a half was registered.

The Fighting near La Bassée, December 19, 1914.

Sir James Willcocks now decided that the time was ripe for an attack by the Indian Corps on the advanced trenches opposite to them. Two Indian divisions then held a position from Cuinchy[187] across the railway and canal through Givenchy, and east of Festubert to Neuve Chapelle. The brigade on the right attacked at 4.30 on the morning of 19th December, and carried two lines of trenches, but found at daybreak that it had no supports on either side. It held on until dark, when it had to retire. The same fate overtook the brigade on the left. At first successful, it was finally driven back to its own lines.

Next day, 20th December, the Germans attacked the whole Indian front. Big guns and trench mortars prepared the way; then the German infantry swarmed out of their trenches and attacked the brigade which lay north of Givenchy. The Indians were forced to fall back, and by ten o'clock the Germans had captured a large part of the village. Farther south our line stood firm; but the capture of Givenchy was a serious blow, for it formed the pivot of our front. Reinforcements were hurried up, and to the 1st Manchesters, the 4th Suffolks, and two battalions of French Territorials was assigned the task of recovering the lost position. At five in the evening the Manchesters and Suffolks dashed upon the village, retook it, and cleared the enemy out of two lines of trenches to the north-east, though they could not dislodge them to the north.

Meanwhile General Macbean with an Indian force delivered an attack on the German position; but it failed, and the whole of his troops were driven back. Farther north there was serious trouble too. The advance of the Germans north of Givenchy had exposed the right of an Indian brigade, which included the 1st Seaforth Highlanders. All the afternoon of the 20th the Germans shelled the Indian left fiercely, and the troops suffered severely. Sir John French tells us that they were "pinned to the ground by artillery fire." North of the Seaforths a battalion of the 2nd Gurkhas gave way, and though the 2nd Black Watch managed to close the gap, there was a dint in our line which became a serious danger.

That afternoon Sir Douglas Haig was ordered to bring up the whole of the 1st Division to the support of the battered line. His troops attacked with great vigour, and by nightfall on 21st December most of our original trenches from Givenchy to Festubert had been won back. Meanwhile the 2nd Brigade was fighting hard farther north, and by 10 p.m. had carried the support trenches of those from which the 2nd Gurkhas had been driven. The fire trenches which the Gurkhas had occupied had been utterly destroyed by the enemy's shells, and could no longer be used. By the evening of 23rd December the whole line had been restored, and there was no longer any immediate danger. The Indians who had given way had only done so when worn out with two months' struggle, and when they had lost some ten thousand men. Thanks to Sir Douglas Haig's prompt help, the situation had been saved.