The First Seven Divisions / Being a Detailed Account of the Fighting from Mons to Ypres

by Lord Ernest Hamilton

FROM ATTACK TO DEFENCE

It was now generally recognized that the wheeling movement originally contemplated was an impossibility. Between Armentières and Givenchy the 3rd, 5th, and 6th Divisions, and Conneau's cavalry, which was acting with them, had opposed to them the II., IV., VII. and IX. German Cavalry Divisions, several battalions of Jägers, the XIII. Division of the VII. A.C., a brigade of the III. A.C., and the whole of the XIV. A.C., which had recently moved north from in front of the 21st French Army. They were therefore sufficiently outnumbered, even at this period, to put any idea of further advance quite out of the question. It now became merely a matter of holding on to that which they had got—if possible.

The 2nd A.C. front, owing to the irregularity of the advance, was of a zig-zag character, and on the night of the 19th Sir Horace ordered a slight retirement so as to straighten out the line. It was quickly evidenced that this step was not taken a moment too soon, for on the following day the Germans, confident in the sufficiency of their numbers, attacked all along the line, and succeeded in re-capturing Le Pilly, and with it the whole of the R. Irish Regiment. This was something of a disaster, but luckily the attack was not equally successful elsewhere. The 1st Cheshires, though attacked with great vigour, held their ground unshaken throughout this day and the next, and inflicted heavy loss on the enemy. Two platoons of the R. Fusiliers, who were sent up to establish communication between Herlies and the R. Irish Regiment at Le Pilly, were caught in flank, owing to the capture of the latter place, and suffered severely, Captain Carey, in command, being killed.

The 9th Brigade, which had throughout these operations been on the left of the 3rd Division, was now temporarily transferred to the 3rd A.C., whose line, reaching as it did from Radinghem to Le Gheir, was considered by the C. in C. to be too thin for safety. The removal of this brigade had the effect of widening the gap between the 2nd and 3rd A.C.'s by a further four or five miles, and the responsibilities of Conneau's cavalry were correspondingly increased, the left of the 2nd A.C. now stopping short at Riez, which was held by the 1st Gordons. The weakening of the 2nd A.C. by the borrowing of one of its brigades and the capture of one of its battalions was made up to it in some measure by the arrival of the Lahore Division of Indians, under General Watkis, which took up a position in rear of it at Neuve Chapelle.

With the additional assistance which had been lent him, Gen. Pulteney was everywhere successful in holding his ground. At one moment in the day the enemy succeeded in getting possession of Le Gheir, but as the loss of this place would have laid bare the flank of the cavalry at St. Yves, Gen. Hunter-Weston decided that it must be retaken at any cost, and the work was entrusted to the K.O. Regiment and the Lancs. Fusiliers. These two battalions, finely handled by Col. Butler, of the Lancs. Fusiliers, proved themselves quite equal to the call made upon them, and not only re-captured the lost trenches, but took 200 prisoners and released 40 of our own men who had been captured.

THE BIRTH OF THE YPRES SALIENT

It is necessary now to turn for the moment to the scene further north, where a mild interest was beginning to be displayed in England in the war-clouds which were gathering round the picturesque and historical Flemish town of Ypres. It will be remembered that, on the 14th, Sir Henry Rawlinson, with the 7th Division and the 3rd Cavalry Division, had reached Ypres from Dixmude. On their first arrival, the 3rd Cavalry Division had been sent south of Ypres, the 6th C.B. going to Wytschate and the 7th C.B. to Kemmel; but as the Cavalry Corps under General Allenby gradually drew up from the direction of Béthune, the 6th and 7th C.B. (3rd Cavalry Division) were withdrawn to the north side of Ypres, where they worked the ground between Zonnebeke and the Forêt d'Houlthust, filling, in fact—as well as might be—the gap between the French Cavalry to the north and the left of the 7th Division. This latter division, since its arrival, had pushed forward with little or no opposition to a convex position some six miles east of Ypres, which embraced the villages of Zonnebeke, Kruiseik and Zandvoorde. South of Zandvoorde there was a considerable hiatus, Allenby's Cavalry Corps, which had unexpectedly found itself opposed by the XIX. Saxon Corps and three divisions of German Cavalry, having not yet got into proper touch with the right of the 7th Division. This, however, in view of the fact that the 7th Division was on the outside of the wheeling movement, and had therefore the bigger sweep to make, was a matter of little moment, and one which would have speedily righted itself at a later stage, had the original plan been successfully carried through. A matter of more moment at the time was that the 22nd Brigade, on the left of the 7th Division at Zonnebeke, was considerably in arrear of the 20th Brigade at Kruiseik, whereas the converse should have been the case. Accordingly, in the early morning of the 19th, the 22nd Brigade was ordered to advance from Zonnebeke in the direction of the straight road connecting Roulers and Menin, so as to bring the left shoulder of the 7th Division well forward. When this had been done, the 20th and 21st Brigade were to join in the general advance.

Ypres and its surroundings.