FOOTNOTES:

[1] See [p. 115].

[2] Fourth Army Cavalry.

I. Cavalry CorpsGuard and 4th Cavalry Divisions, [p. 64].
II. "3rd and 7th Cavalry Divisions, [p. 90].
IV. "3 Cavalry Divisions, [p. 25].
2nd Cavalry Division, [p. 92].
Bavarian Cavalry Division, [p. 92].
Total, 9 Cavalry Divisions.

The Army Cavalry of the Sixth Army is stated on [p. 56] to have been eight divisions, among which, according to [p. 57], were the 3rd, 7th and Bavarian Cavalry Divisions, included above in the Army Cavalry of the Fourth Army.

It may be noted that in ‘Liège-Namur’ in the same series of General Staff Monographs the composition of the II Cavalry Corps is given as the 2nd, 4th and 9th Cavalry Divisions.

[3] There is a further mistake (see [footnote 110]): the King’s were not present at the place referred to, but in another part of the field. The honour of fighting the German Guards at one to eight, for the battalion was under four hundred strong, appears to belong to the 2nd Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry.

[4] The British advance was checked on the Aisne on 14th not 13th September.

[5] The Seventh Army was not put in on the extreme right wing but between the First and Third Armies after the heavy French attacks south of Laon in the middle of September.

[6] ‘2000 British’ belonged to the newly raised Royal Naval Division which had been thrown into Antwerp in the endeavour to prolong the resistance of that fortress.

[7] The XXIV Reserve Corps was sent to the neighbourhood of Metz.

[8] Only the British III Corps and Cavalry Corps of two Divisions were available to oppose them.

[9] These ‘considerable hostile forces’ consisted of the 7th Division and Byng’s Cavalry Division, which reached Ypres on 14th October, after having moved up to Ghent to help cover the retreat of the Belgian army from Antwerp.

[10] Needless to point out that General Joffre was never ‘Allied Commander.’

[11] At this date Calais had not yet become a base for the British army, and there were no British establishments of any kind there.

[12] The II Corps completed its detrainment at Abbeville on 8th October, and moved forward, covered by the cavalry, on the 11th; by the 18th it had reached the line Givenchy-Villaines-Lorgies-Herlies after considerable fighting.

[13] On 18th October the III Corps had its left Division, the 4th, astride the Lys from Ploegsteert Wood to Frelinghien, while the 6th Division on the right had reached the line Premesques-Ennettières-Radinghem (S.E. of Armentières). General Conneau’s French Cavalry Corps filled the gap between its right and the left of the II Corps.

[14] The British Cavalry Corps (there was only one, the number is superfluous and suggests there were more) did not extend as far as Gheluvelt: its left was on the Ypres-Comines canal near Houthem.

[15] The I Corps did not reach Bixschoote on 18th October: its leading Division, the 2nd, did not reach the area Poperinghe-Boeschepe till 19th October: the 1st Division was still detraining in the Hazebrouck area on 18th October.

[16] ‘Armée’ in the original, but this is no doubt a misprint.

[17] This statement as to Sir J. French’s intentions is inaccurate. The II and III Corps were ordered to stand on the defensive, but the orders issued to the I Corps on 20th October were for an attack.

[18] Between Armentières and the sea the British had only the I Corps, less than half the III Corps, the Cavalry Corps, the IV Corps (composed of one Division only), the French had a weak Cavalry Corps and two Territorial Divisions, the six Belgian Divisions were reduced to about one half of their establishment, so that the claim that the Allied forces outnumbered the Germans is hardly tenable. The value of the statement that ‘the relative strength of the opposing forces never appreciably altered in our favour’ will become apparent as the book is read, and as it is shown that the same British units, reinforced only by a weak composite Division drawn from the II Corps, were attacked by a succession of fresh German Corps, that the same units who repulsed the attacks at Langemarck on 23rd October, were in line at Gheluvelt on 31st October when the Prussian Guard attacked on 11th November. See also [Introduction].

[19] ‘The heights of St. Eloi’ is a phrase which suggests that the author cannot have visited the ground nor studied a contoured map of the area round Ypres.

[20] The British and French in Belgium were hardly in their own country.

[21] British torpedo boats do not carry ‘heavy artillery.’

[22] The vessels described as flat-bottomed boats were presumably the Monitors ‘Severn,’ ‘Humber,’ and ‘Mersey.’

[23] This narrative omits the advance of the 7th Division on Menin, 19th October, which was going well when it had to be suspended on account of the threatening advance of strong German columns from the eastward. The division was skilfully extricated and fell back to the line Kruseik-Noordwesthoek-Broodseinde-Zonnebeke, the Germans failing to press their pursuit.

[24] The constant exaggeration by this narrative of the strength of very hastily constructed British trenches is a noteworthy feature.

[25] There were no British heavy batteries in this quarter, unless it is to the guns of Rear-Admiral Hood’s squadron that reference is made.

[26] There was no British artillery present in this quarter.

[27] See pages [23]-24.

[28] See Les pages de gloire de l’Armée Belge: à Dixmuide.

[29] The narrative omits to state precisely the nature of the opposition which was encountered in the Houthulst area. Actually the Allied force in this quarter merely consisted of General de Mitry’s French Cavalry Corps and a few battalions of French Cyclists and Territorials. These were driven back without being able to offer much resistance, and in consequence uncovered the flank of the I British Corps just as it began its advance north-east of Ypres on Poelcapelle and Passchendaele (21st October). This forced Sir Douglas Haig to divert his reserves to protect his left flank, and therefore to suspend his attack which had been making good progress on a line south-east from Langemarck to Zonnebeke, where he linked up with the left of the 7th Division.

[30] By no means the whole of the 1st British Division was holding the line of the Kortebeck. From Steenstraate, which was held by the 1st Scots Guards, who were never seriously pressed on 22nd October, the 1st Cameron Highlanders were extended over a wide front nearly to Langemarck, where the 1st Coldstream Guards connected them up with the 3rd Infantry Brigade (1st Queen’s, 1st S.W.B., 1st Gloucesters, and 2nd Welsh) which was holding a position north and north-east of Langemarck. The rest of the infantry of the 1st Division was in reserve, and only one 18-pounder battery (46th Batty. R.F.A.) was available to support the Camerons. On the rigid of the 3rd Infantry Brigade the 2nd Division carried on the line south-east to Zonnebeke with the 5th Infantry Brigade on its left and the 4th (Guards) Brigade on its right. This division was about on the line of the Zonnebeke-Langemarck road: it repulsed several counter-attacks on the afternoon of 21st October and night 21st-22nd.

[31] The British troops had not detrained at Poperinghe, but in the Hazebrouck area.

[32] This account is altogether at variance with the facts. On the afternoon of 22nd October the Germans at length succeeded in breaking through the thin and widely extended line of the 1st Cameron Highlanders, and pushed them back south of the Langemarck-Bixschoote road, capturing the Kortekeer Cabaret. They failed to press forward; however reinforcements, the 1st Northamptonshires and 1st Black Watch, arrived, and counter-attacks were made which checked all further German advance. Next morning (23rd October) further reinforcements came up, the 1st Loyal North Lancashires and 2nd K.R.R.C. of the 2nd Infantry Brigade, part of the 2nd South Staffordshires from the 6th Infantry Brigade. Finally, on the arrival of 1st Queen’s of the 3rd Infantry Brigade, a most successful counter-attack was launched, the Queen’s retook the Kortekeer Cabaret, and the Germans were driven right back, nearly 500 being taken and very heavy losses inflicted on them. The old trenches 800 yards north of the road were actually recovered, but late in the evening a fresh German attack recovered the advanced position reached by our counter-attack, and a new line was taken up about the line of the Langemarck-Bixschoote road. Meanwhile during this action, in which less than two British infantry brigades had defeated the 46th Reserve Division, the rest of the 1st Division at Langemarck had been heavily attacked, apparently (cf. [p. 40]) by the 51st Reserve Division, which had been completely worsted. In this part of the action very notable service was done by two platoons of the Gloucesters just north of Langemarck, who expended an average of 400 rounds a man, and though attacked in front and flank by very superior numbers, maintained their position intact. The British accounts testify to the gallantry with which the German attacks were pressed, officers carrying regimental colours ran on ahead of the men and planted the colours in the ground to give their men a point to make for, a mounted officer rode forward, exposing himself recklessly, to encourage his soldiers, but the musketry of the British infantry was too much for the Germans, and the attack was completely repulsed.

[33] Throughout this narrative it is astonishing to read of the repeated reinforcements which Sir John French received. Actually, except for a few drafts, no reinforcements joined the British in the Ypres salient before the end of October: subsequently two Territorial battalions, the Hertfordshires and the London Scottish, two Yeomanry regiments, the North Somersets and the Leicestershires, and the 3rd Dragoon Guards, the belated last unit of the 3rd Cavalry Division, were added to the force, while the exhausted infantry of the 7th Division were replaced by three composite brigades from the II Corps, set free after three weeks of strenuous fighting near La Bassée by the arrival of the Meerut Division, and greatly below strength.

[34] The British counter-attack at the Kortekeer Cabaret did not aim at doing more than recover the ground lost on 22nd October: it was not an attempt at break-through, and was quite successful in its immediate object.

[35] On 20th October the 7th Division held the line from Zandvoorde to Kruiseik, thence to Broodseinde cross-roads east of Zonnebeke, the line being continued by the 3rd Cavalry Division to Passchendaele. The German 52nd Reserve Division and the XXVII Reserve Corps were thus faced by less than half their numbers. Nevertheless the only effect of their attack was that after the 51st Reserve Division had driven the French out of Westroosebeke, the British Cavalry found its flank exposed and had to retire on St. Julien, the 7th Division throwing back its left flank to conform. There was no fighting for Keiberg, and the expulsion of the 7th Division from Becelaere (mentioned nine lines below) after heavy street fighting, seems to be based on the slender foundation that a British reconnaissance was made in the direction of Gheluwe covered by two battalions nearer Terhand, which fell back without being seriously pressed. The Germans advancing in the evening from Becelaere were sharply repulsed by the centre infantry brigade of the 7th Division east of Polygon Wood. The events of 21st-22nd October on the front from Langemarck to Kruiseik are somewhat slurred over in this narrative. Briefly, on 21st October the Germans pressed all along the line of the 7th Division without success except on the left, where by enfilade fire from Passchendaele they forced the left of the 22nd Infantry Brigade to fall back to the south-west of Zonnebeke. Meanwhile the advance of the I Corps relieved the pressure, and though, as already explained (see [footnote 29]), the uncovering of the left of the I Corps prevented the advance being pressed beyond the line Zonnebeke-Langemarck, this line was made good and the German efforts to advance successfully repulsed. On 22nd October the Germans attacked the line of the 2nd Division north-west of Zonnebeke, but were easily repulsed, while further to their left they renewed their attacks on the 21st Infantry Brigade east of Polygon Wood with equal ill-success.

[36] The IX French Corps was not yet up at the front. It did not begin relieving the 2nd Division till the afternoon of 23rd October.

[37] The ‘well-planned maze of trenches behind broad wire entanglements’ would have been most welcome to the British. Unfortunately there had been no time or opportunity to do more than dig in hastily where the advance of the I Corps had been checked, while such trenches as the 7th Division had dug at Zonnebeke were hastily prepared in such loose and sandy soil that they collapsed when bombarded; wire was conspicuous by its absence.

[38] The only thing in the nature of a ‘fortress’ at Langemarck was a small redoubt, built by the 26th Field Company R.E. on the night of 22nd-23rd October, and held by two platoons of the Gloucesters.

[39] This is hardly a recognisable account of what took place. The relief of the 1st Division by a French Territorial division did not take place till the night 24th-25th, but the 2nd Division was relieved by a division of the French IX Corps, and by the morning of 24th October it was concentrated at St. Jean in reserve. In the course of the morning of 24th October the Reserve Division attacked the line of the 21st Infantry Brigade in overwhelming strength, and broke through north of Reutel, penetrating into Polygon Wood. It was cleared out by a counter-attack by the 5th Infantry Brigade, 2nd Division, and the 2nd R. Warwicks of the 7th Division, and in the afternoon an advance was made north of Polygon Wood by the 6th Infantry Brigade in co-operation with the French IX Corps on the left. Fair progress was made, the 6th Infantry Brigade crossing to the east of the Werwicq-Staden road. Further south the 7th Division held its own successfully and all attacks were repulsed.

[40] It has already been pointed out that the Belgian divisions were much below establishment.

[41] See Les pages de gloire de l’Armée Belge: à Dixmuide.

[42] This testimony to the effective character of the help given by Admiral Hood’s squadron is noteworthy, and contradicts what was said in the narrative on [page 22].

[43] The hamlet of Reutel had fallen into German hands on 24th October ([footnote 39]), but the counter-attacks of the 2nd Division had re-established the line on the eastern border of Polygon Wood, and between 24th October and the morning of 29th October what changes there were on the eastern face of the Ypres salient had been in favour of the British. The 6th Infantry Brigade made considerable progress east of the Werwicq-Staden road in co-operation with the French IX Corps which pushed east and north-east from Zonnebeke. By the showing of this narrative the German forces in this area were decidedly superior in numbers to those engaged in the attacks.

[44] The above account presumably refers to the attack of the 18th French Division and 2nd British Division on 25th October, when a German battery was captured by the 1st Royal Berkshires and the French unit with which they were co-operating. Further to the British right, however, less progress was made, but the implication that the British reached Becelaere and were then thrust back by the 54th Reserve Division at the point of the bayonet is unfounded; the force engaged on this quarter only consisted of two battalions and the artillery support available was insufficient to allow the advance to be pressed home; it was therefore abandoned after a small gain of ground had been made.

[45] The British who were streaming down from the high ground about Wytschaete and Messines consisted of five brigades of cavalry (perhaps 4000) and one brigade of the newly arrived Lahore Division.

[46] There was very severe fighting south of the Menin road during the period 25th-28th October, particularly at Kruiseik, which formed the south-eastern angle of the east face of the salient. This position was obstinately defended by the 20th Infantry Brigade, 7th Division, which held on under heavy bombardments and repulsed many attacks, notably on the night of the 27th-28th October when over 200 of the 242nd Reserve Infantry Regiment (XXVII Reserve Corps) who had penetrated into Kruiseik were captured by a counter-attack of one company 2nd Scots Guards. The Germans renewed their attack in great force next day, and succeeded in dislodging the 20th Infantry Brigade from Kruiseik, but a new line was formed in rear, blunting the salient, and with the aid of the 1st Division (in reserve since 24th October) the position was successfully maintained. Elsewhere the 7th Division, which was holding a line reaching back to Zandvoorde where the 3rd Cavalry Division connected it up with the left of General Allenby’s Cavalry Corps on the Ypres-Comines canal, held its ground.

[47] This account does not tell the story of 29th October very intelligibly. The British front had been readjusted, and was now held by the 2nd Division on the left, from the junction with the French to west of Reutel, thence to the 9th kilometre on the Ypres-Menin road by the 1st Division, thence to Zandvoorde by the 7th Division with the 3rd Cavalry Division on their right. Under cover of a mist the Germans (apparently the 6th Bavarian Reserve Division) attacked in force against the junction of the 1st and 7th Divisions, broke through at the 9th kilo cross-roads, and rolled up the battalions to right and left after very severe fighting, in which the 1st Grenadier Guards and 2nd Gordon Highlanders of the 7th Division distinguished themselves greatly by repeated counter-attacks. The resistance of the troops in the front line delayed the Germans long enough to allow the reserves of the 1st Division to be put in, and their counter-attacks recovered all but the most advanced trenches. The Germans did not ever penetrate as far as Gheluvelt, and their final gain of ground was inconsiderable.

[48] It is interesting to notice that this account treats the fighting on the La Bassée-Armentières front as quite distinct from the main battle for Ypres. During the period 20th-29th October the II and III Corps had a hard defensive battle to fight, the only assistance they received being on the arrival on 23rd October of the Jullundur Brigade and the divisional troops of the Lahore Division, which replaced General Conneau’s French Cavalry at the junction between the two Corps. As the net result of this fighting the II and III Corps were forced back to a line running north by east from Givenchy, west of Neuve Chapelle, past Bois Grenier, south-east of Armentières to the Lys at Houplines, part of the 4th Division continuing the line on the left bank of the Lys to the junction with the Cavalry Corps just south of Messines. The German attacks on this front were strongly pressed, and the strain on the II and III Corps was very severe.

[49] In view of the reiterated statements about the superior numbers of the Allies, it is worth pointing out that this new Army Group by itself amounted to about two-thirds of the original strength of the British forces engaged between La Bassée and Zonnebeke. For its [Order of Battle] see at end of book.

[50] If the flooding of the country by the Belgians had barred the further advance of the Germans along the coast, it had equally covered the German extreme right against any chance of a counter-attack, and enabled them to divert the III Reserve Corps to the south; the Belgians, however, were in no position to deflect any forces to the assistance of their Allies.

[51] No mass attacks were made by the British on 30th and 31st October. It will be noticed that the French IX Corps is spoken of here as though it had been an additional reinforcement; it had been in action on the Zonnebeke area since 24th October.

[52] The heavy artillery at the disposal of the British Commander-in-Chief amounted at this time to two batteries of 6-inch howitzers, six of 60-pounders, and three of 4·7-inch guns, a total of forty-four guns and howitzers in all (each battery having four guns).

[53] At this time the Allied line from the Menin road south was held by the 7th Division, supported by about two infantry brigades of the I Corps, the line being carried on thence to Messines by part of the XVI French Corps and British Cavalry Divisions, and two battalions of the Lahore Division. Nearly all these units had been heavily engaged for a week or more, and were much under strength, but even at full war establishment would have been outnumbered by nearly two to one.

[54] See [footnote 51]. The IX French Corps is mentioned for the third time as a new arrival.

[55] See [page 62].

[56] It is difficult to see how this assertion can be supported on the statements previously given, even apart from the fact that the German units were fresh and the British troops facing them reduced by previous heavy losses. The British claim to have held out against great odds is no more than the bare truth. The battalions of the 1st Division who had held up the attack of the 46th Reserve Division north-west of Langemarck on 23rd October were still in the line when the Prussian Guard attacked on 11th November—or rather a scanty remnant of them was: in the interval they had fought and held up a succession of attacks.

[57] The 7th Division had never left the line; a few battalions only had been given a day’s rest, but the division as a whole had not been relieved.

[58] These squadrons belonged to the 1st and 2nd Life Guards, each of which regiments had a squadron cut off when Zandvoorde was stormed. None of the III British Corps were in this area, the extreme left of the Corps being about the river Douve, south of Messines.

[59] There was no strong counter-attack in the Wambeke area: the very thin line of the 2nd Cavalry Division (perhaps 3000 rifles on a front of two miles) was forced back to a position much nearer Wytschaete and St. Eloi, where it received reinforcements amounting to about a brigade of French infantry.

[60] Messines ridge.

[61] The amount of work it had been possible to do there in preparing the position for defence had been very much restricted by lack of time and want of labour. ‘Deep trenches protected by broad wire entanglements’ is a much exaggerated statement.

[62] An attack was made by the Germans on Messines about this time, but was decisively repulsed.

[63] I and II Cavalry Corps. See [Order of Battle].

[64] The Germans at one time broke the line of the 19th Infantry Brigade on the right of the III Corps near Bois Grenier, but were dislodged by a counter-attack by the 2nd Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders and 1st Middlesex. In Ploegsteert Wood there was also heavy fighting, the 1st Hampshires distinguishing themselves in particular by a very stubborn resistance.

[65] Except at Zandvoorde the German attacks north of the Ypres-Comines canal were not successful, and their success at Zandvoorde was brought to a standstill by the arrival of two battalions of the 1st Division under Brigadier-General Bulfin, and three of the 2nd Division under Brigadier-General Lord Cavan, whose intervention enabled a new line to be formed north-west of Zandvoorde. To the east of Zandvoorde the 7th Division was forced to fall back nearer to Gheluvelt, but east of Gheluvelt itself the Germans made no progress.

[66] The arrival of the Meerut Division on 29th October allowed some of the most exhausted units of the II Corps to be relieved on the front east of Festubert, south-east of Richebourg St. Vaast, west of Neuve Chapelle, but these battalions were not destined to enjoy a very long spell of rest.

[67] The ‘reinforcements’ which the Allies had received on 29th-30th October were not even sufficient to redress the balance against them. (See [footnote 66].)

[68] The troops holding Gheluvelt consisted of two battalions of the 3rd Infantry Brigade, with portions of two of the 2nd Infantry Brigade, at most 2000 men. Against these the Germans by their own account put in about eight battalions.

[69] It would not be gathered from this account that the British artillery had, as was the case, already been severely restricted as to ammunition expenditure.

[70] The statement that ‘many attacks had to be delivered against fresh troops in good sheltered entrenchments’ is almost ludicrous in its travesty of the facts.

[71] It was not in ‘long colonial wars’ but in careful training on the ranges that the majority of the defenders of Ypres had learnt that mastery of the rifle which was the mainstay of the success of the defence. Between the close of the South African War (1902) and the outbreak of war in 1914, scarcely any British troops had been on active service.

[72] The position west of Reutel was maintained intact on 31st October, the right of the 2nd Division and left of the 1st Division holding on successfully even after the centre of the 1st Division had been pierced at Gheluvelt.

[73] The picture of the great profusion of machine-guns in the British possession is a little dimmed by the recollection that the war establishments allowed two machine-guns per infantry battalion, that by 31st October there had been no time to produce enough machine-guns to increase the establishment; indeed, most battalions had already one or both their guns put out of action. The Germans clearly took for machine-gun fire the rapid fire which the infantry of the original Expeditionary Force could maintain.

[74] The capture of Gheluvelt was earlier than 3 p.m. by at least an hour, 1 or 1.30 p.m. seems more like the correct time. The ‘château and park,’ north of Gheluvelt, were held by the 1st South Wales Borderers, who maintained their ground, although their right was left in the air by the loss of the village, until the 2nd Worcesters came up and delivered their celebrated counter-attack past the right of the S.W.B. This apparently occurred about 2 p.m. The German account is, however, accurate in saying that Gheluvelt was not retaken; what the Worcesters did was that they completely checked the German efforts to push forward; the position their counter-attack reached enabled them to flank any advance west of Gheluvelt.

[75] The German claim to have captured three guns does not seem founded on fact: one gun of the 117th Field Battery was lost, but was subsequently retaken.

[76] The left of the XV Corps, which was in action against the detachments under Brigadier-Generals Bulfin and Lord Cavan, and the right of the 7th Division, in the woods later known as Shrewsbury Forest, was successfully held in check: it gained but a little ground, and at one point a most successful counter-attack drove the Germans back a long way, many casualties being inflicted and prisoners taken.

[77] The Staffs of both 1st and 2nd Divisions were there. Major-General Lomax, commanding the 1st Division, and Major-General Munro, commanding the 2nd Division, were wounded. Neither was killed, but the former died many months after of his wounds.

[78] During the course of 31st October French reinforcements of the XVI Corps had arrived and were taking over the left of the line held by the Cavalry Corps, relieving the 3rd and 5th Cavalry Brigades north-west of Hollebeke and south-east of St. Eloi. The French were, however, unable to make much ground by their counter-attacks, and further to the British right the 4th Cavalry Brigade was heavily pressed. It was here that the London Scottish were put in to recover trenches which had been lost east of the Messines-Wytschaete road.

[79] Accurate details of the fighting which went on through the night of 31st October-1st November round Wytschaete are extremely difficult to disentangle. It seems that the 4th Cavalry Brigade was forced out of the village somewhere between 2 and 3 a.m., that the advance of the Germans was then held up west of the village, counter-attacks by two battalions of the 3rd Division, which had just arrived from La Bassée-Neuve Chapelle area, assisting to check them. Subsequently these battalions (1st Northumberland Fusiliers and 1st Lincolnshires) were also forced back, but by this time more French reinforcements were coming up with some of the 5th Cavalry Brigade, and their counter-attacks, though not wholly successful, prevented further German progress. But the admission of this account that two whole German regiments (six battalions) were engaged in the attack is a fine testimony to the resistance made by the 2nd Cavalry Division and attached infantry at Wytschaete with odds of more than two to one against them.

[80] The forces available for the defence of Messines were the 1st Cavalry Division, much reduced by the previous fighting, assisted by portions of the 57th Rifles (Lahore Division) and two battalions of the 5th Division (the 2nd King’s Own Scottish Borderers, 2nd King’s Own Yorkshire L.I., both recently relieved from the trenches near Neuve Chapelle and much below strength). The twelve battalions of the 26th (Würtemburg) Division were thus in overwhelming superiority. The only artillery available to assist the defence were the 13-pounders of the R.H.A. batteries attached to the Cavalry Corps.

[81] i.e. Würtemburg.

[82] This is not accurate. Poezelhoek Château had to be evacuated during the night of 31st October-1st November, owing to the withdrawal of the line made necessary by the loss of Gheluvelt; but the Germans did not molest the retirement to the new position, and such attempts as they made in the course of 1st November to press on westward beyond Gheluvelt were unsuccessful. The British accounts do not give the impression that the German attacks on this day were very heavily pressed in this quarter; at any rate they failed to make any ground.

[83] The hardest fighting of 1st November in the Ypres salient was in the area north-west of Zandvoorde where the detachments under Brigadier-Generals Bulfin and Lord Cavan were sharply engaged, as were also the remnants of the 7th Division, now holding a position south-east and south of the Herenthage Wood. A feature of this day’s fighting was a counter-attack by the 26th Field Company R.E., acting as infantry in default of any infantry reserves, which checked the efforts of the Germans to advance north of Groenenburg Farm (north-west of Zandvoorde).

[84] The Indian units hitherto employed under the Cavalry Corps (57th Rifles and 129th Baluchis) had already been withdrawn to Kemmel, and were not in action near Oosttaverne on 1st November. This account of the ‘treacherous methods of the Indians’ smacks of the conventional; it is what was attributed to the Ghurkhas in some sections of the German Press, and seems inserted rather to excite odium against the British for calling in Asiatics to oppose the disciples of ‘Kultur.’

[85] French Divisions. By the afternoon of 1st November the French had taken over the defence of Wytschaete. The 2nd Cavalry Division assembled on a line east of Kemmel and Wulverghem.

[86] These ‘reinforcements of newly arrived British troops’ are imaginary.

[87] The Germans, attacking along the Menin road, succeeded in breaking our line at this point and captured two guns which had been pushed up into the front trenches. However, the 1st Scots Guards, though taken in flank, held on north of the road till a counter-attack by the 1st Black Watch re-established the line, while south of the road a counter-attack by the remnants of the 2nd and 3rd Brigade cleared the Herenthage Wood completely, but did not regain the front trenches a little eastward. Further to the right Lord Cavern’s detachment (Brigadier-General Bulfin had been wounded on 1st November, and his battalions had come under Lord Cavan’s orders) and the remnants of the 1st Grenadiers and 2nd Border Regiment (7th Division) held their own successfully and inflicted very heavy losses on the Germans, i.e. Deimling’s left wing.

[88] The credit for the gallant defence of Wytschaete on this day belongs solely to the French; no British troops were in action there.

[89] After the capture of Messines and Wytschaete the severity of the fighting in this quarter died down rapidly. The French made some attempts to recover Wytschaete, while the Germans managed to capture Hill 75 (Spanbroekmolen), but could advance no further, and the British Cavalry Corps established itself firmly in trenches north-east of Wulverghem. Supported by the artillery of the 5th Division, it maintained itself on this line till relieved by the infantry of the 5th Division about the middle of November.

[90] The chaplain of the Guard Cavalry Division, ‘Hofprediger’ Dr. Vogel, in his book ‘3000 Kilometer mit der Garde-Kavallerie’ (p. 212), says the attack was made and failed, but ‘next day the English abandoned the farm: this may have been due either to the power of our 8-inch howitzers, or to the moral effect of the attack of the Guard Dragoons.’

[91] What other British troops were present in the Ypres salient except the I and IV Corps this narrative does not pause to state, for the simple reason that there were none. The I Corps was not relieved, though some French battalions were put into the line near Veldhoek; but in the course of 5th November the remnant of the infantry of the 7th Division was relieved by the two composite brigades from the II Corps composed of battalions which had had three weeks’ fighting near La Bassée and had then to be thrust in after only two or three days’ rest to hold some of the most difficult parts of the line south-east of Ypres. The 7th Infantry Division when relieved amounted to less than a third of their original strength, without taking into account the drafts that had joined since they landed, which amounted to 2000 or more. Most of the battalions of the 1st Division were in scarcely better case.

[92] These ‘successive lines of rearward positions’ did not exist except on paper during the period to be included in the ‘Battle of Ypres,’ i.e. to 17th November.

[93] During the period 2nd-11th November the most serious fighting on the British front was between 6th and 8th November. On the 6th the Germans attacked near Zwarteleen and gained ground, some of which was recovered by a fine counter-attack delivered by the 7th Cavalry Brigade (cf. [page 93], line 30), while further counter-attacks by the 22nd Infantry Brigade, brought back just as it had been drawn out for a rest, and by portions of the 1st Division further improved the line next day. On that day (7th November) a sharp attack on the 3rd Division, which had now taken over the line south of the Menin road, gained a little ground east of the Herenthage Wood. This part of the line was again attacked in force on 8th November, and the line was broken near Veldhoek, but was restored after some sharp fighting and several counter-attacks. Further north again, in Polygon Wood and to the east of it, the 2nd Division, though repeatedly attacked, more than held its own. In the fighting near Veldhoek a prominent part was taken by two battalions of Zouaves who had filled a gap in the line of the 1st Division.

[94] St. Eloi is hardly situated ‘on high ground,’ as it is on the down slope where the Warneton-Ypres road descends into the low ground after crossing the north-easterly continuation of the Messines-Wytschaete ridge.

[95] The allusion is not understood.

[96] The heavy artillery at Sir John French’s disposal at this period was still extremely limited, and its effectiveness was greatly hampered by the lack of ammunition, stringent restrictions having to be placed on the ammunition expenditure of guns of all calibres. Fortunately for the Allies a similar handicap was beginning to make itself felt among the Germans; even their preparations had been hardly equal to the vast ammunition expenditure which had been incurred.

[97] The portion of the Ypres salient attacked by the XXIII Corps was defended by French troops alone; there were no British north of the Broodseinde cross-roads.

[98] The enemy is giving the Allies credit for his own tricks.

[99] However, when British troops took over the coastal sector in 1917 Lombartzyde was in Allied possession.

[100] For Order of Battle, see [Appendix].

[101] A Machine-Gun Detachment (Abtheilung) is a mounted battery with six guns.

[102] Consisting of the 4th Ersatz Division and the 43rd Reserve Division.

[103] It is not clear why a British assertion about the defence of Dixmude should be quoted, nor indeed is it clear what shape this assertion can have taken, as no British troops were concerned in the Dixmude fighting, nor could there have been any occasion for any official British announcement about Dixmude.

In the diagram above, for 201st, 202nd, and 203rd Res. Jäger Regt. read Res. Infantry Regt.

[104] The frontage attacked by the twelve battalions of General von Winckler’s Guard Division, far from being held by two British Divisions was held from north to south by the 1st Infantry Brigade, now reduced to some 800 bayonets, a battalion of Zouaves and the left brigade of the 3rd Division, little over 1200 strong. Even if the whole of the 3rd Guard Regiment may have been absorbed in the task of covering the main attack from the British troops lining the southern edge of the Polygon Wood, the superiority of the attacking force was sufficiently pronounced.

[105] The Germans do not appear to have penetrated into the Polygon Wood at any point. The northern end of the breach in the British line was marked by a ‘strong point’ which had been erected near the south-west corner of the wood, known later as ‘Black Watch Corner’: this was successfully defended all day by a very weak company of the Black Watch. Attacks were made on the 1st King’s lining the southern edge of the wood, apparently by the 3rd Guard Regiment, and also further eastward and to the left of the King’s, on the 2nd Coldstream Guards. The Germans in this quarter would seem to have belonged to the 54th Reserve Division: at neither of these points did the attackers meet with any success.

[106] A thick mist which prevented the troops holding the front line trenches from seeing far to their front undoubtedly played an important part in concealing the advance of the German Guard, and contributed appreciably to its success.

[107] This is the eastern part of the wood known later as ‘Inverness Copse.’

[108] This counter-attack may be identified with one delivered by the 1st Scots Fusiliers and one company 2nd Duke of Wellington’s.

[109] The 4th (Queen Augusta’s) Guard Grenadiers seem to have attacked the right of the line held by the 9th Infantry Brigade and to have been repulsed by the 1st Lincolnshires and 1st Northumberland Fusiliers. Further to the British right the 15th and 7th Infantry Brigades were also attacked, but by the 4th Division, not by the Guards. Here the Germans made no progress.

[110] This part of the German account is not borne out by the British versions. The main body of the 1st Guard Regiment, which broke through the thinly held line of the 1st Infantry Brigade, pressed on north-west into the Nonne Bosch Wood, pushing right through it, and coming out into the open on the western edge. Here their progress was arrested mainly by the gunners of XLI Brigade, R.F.A., who held them up with rifle fire at short range. Various details of Royal Engineers, orderlies from Headquarters, transport men, rallied stragglers of the 1st Brigade, assisted to stop the Germans, but the situation was critical until about noon or a little later the 2nd Oxford and Bucks L.I. arrived on the scene. This battalion had been engaged for several days near Zwarteleen, and had just been brought up to Westhoek to act as Divisional Reserve. Though under 400 strong the battalion promptly counter-attacked the Nonne Bosch Wood and drove the Germans out headlong. Many of them were caught as they escaped on the eastern and southern sides by the fire of the 2nd Highland L.I., now on the western edge of Polygon Wood, and of the 1st Northamptonshires, who had come up to Glencorse Wood, south-west of the Nonne Bosch, and with other units of the 2nd and 3rd Infantry Brigades had filled the gap which extended thence to the Menin road. Thus those of the 1st Guard Regiment who had pushed straight on westward were prevented from penetrating any further. The King’s, to whom this account gives the credit for the Oxfordshire’s counter-attack, had been engaged with the 3rd Guard Regiment further to the north, completely defeating their attacks on the Polygon, but not making any counter-attack. It is worth recalling that at the critical moment of the battle of Waterloo it was the 2nd Oxford and Bucks L.I., then 52nd Light Infantry, who played the chief part in the defeat of Napoleon’s Guard.

The defeat of the 2nd Guard Grenadiers does not appear to have been the work of the 2nd Oxford and Bucks L.I., but of the other battalions, chiefly from the 2nd and 3rd Infantry Brigades, who were pushed forward rather earlier between Glencorse Wood and Inverness Copse.

[111] The author must be thankful for minor mercies if he can reckon 11th November as a day of great success. The gain of ground at Veldhoek was trifling in extent and value, and though ‘Hill 60’ and the wood north of Wytschaete were more important points, there is no doubt that the throwing of the German Guard into the struggle had been expected to produce a break-through. The ‘numerical superiority’ once again attributed to the Allies was about as unreal as the alleged strength of the positions, hastily dug, imperfectly wired and almost wholly lacking supporting points and communications, which had such a much more formidable character in the eyes of the Germans than they ever possessed in reality. The gallantry and vigour with which the German Guard pushed its attack will be readily admitted, but the honours of 11th November 1914 go to the weary men who after three weeks of incessant fighting met and drove back these fresh and famous troops.

[112] This statement is not true. After an attack on 13th November in which prisoners were taken from the 4th (German) Division, the 9th and 15th Infantry Brigades drew back from the eastern edge of the Herenthage Wood to a line about 200 yards in rear (night 13th-14th November). This line was strongly attacked next day, and the Herenthage Château fell for the time into German hands, only to be recovered by the 2nd King’s Own Yorkshire L.I., while a further counter-attack by a company of the Northumberland Fusiliers, assisted by a gun of the 54th Battery R.F.A., ousted the Germans also from the stables of the Château. Further to the British right the 7th and 15th Infantry Brigades successfully repulsed vigorous attacks.

[113] The surprise came in 1917 in spite of this.

[114] One reason why the G.O.C. Fourth Army came to this decision on 17th November is omitted. An attack in force had been attempted on this day by his 4th Division, but the 7th and 15th Infantry Brigades, holding the line attacked, had proved equal to the occasion, had driven the Germans back, recovering some advanced trenches carried by the first rush and inflicting heavy losses. This discouraging reception undoubtedly assisted Duke Albert in making his decision.

[115] It was the U-boats that came to a speedy end.

[116] See remarks in [Introduction].

[117] The first use of gas by the Germans on this occasion might have been mentioned.

[118] It is not to be read in this monograph. See [Introduction].

[119] 4th and Guard Cavalry Divisions (see [page 64]).

[120] 3rd and 7th Cavalry Divisions (see [page 90]).

[INDEX]

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