During the night of the 27th-28th October the 26th Infantry Division was relieved in its battle-position west of Lille by the 48th Reserve Division, and by the evening of the 29th the assembly of the Army Group Fabeck was completed without disturbance.
The heavy artillery placed at the disposal of the Army Group consisted of 8 batteries of mortars, 20 battalions of heavy field-howitzers, each of 3 batteries, and a 30·5 cm. coast defence mortar.[52] In addition to the troops already mentioned, the 1st Cavalry Corps, the four Jäger battalions of the Army Cavalry and the 11th Landwehr Brigade were put under the command of General von Fabeck. On the night of the 30th October this new army of attack relieved the two northern Cavalry Corps, and took over their outpost lines. On the following morning the offensive began.[53] The XV Corps under General von Deimling attacked south of the Menin-Ypres road, with its left wing on Zandvoorde, the II Bavarian Corps was on its left, with its left wing on Wambeke; further south again was the 26th Infantry Division with its left wing on Messines. In co-operation with these the 1st Cavalry Corps with the 4th and Guard Cavalry Divisions, strengthened by two battalions of the XIX Saxon Corps, which was attacking to the left of it, was ordered to advance on St. Yves and Ploegsteert Wood. The 6th Bavarian Reserve Division moved to the line Menin-Werwicq. The Army Cavalry which had been relieved was withdrawn to act as reserve to the Sixth Army, one Cavalry Corps being placed behind the right wing of the Army to be at hand to fill up a slight gap which existed between the Fourth Army and the Army Group Fabeck should it be necessary.
The enemy had intercalated part of the XVI French Corps between the 7th Division of the IV British Corps and the British Cavalry Corps, before the advance of von Fabeck’s Army; the II and IX French Corps had also recently arrived[54] on the northern side of the Ypres salient.[55] Again, therefore, the enemy had a numerical superiority[56] in what was the second and severest part of the battle on the Yser. The British in their reports have added together all the German Corps which were brought up piecemeal for the fighting on the Yser and at Ypres, both at this period and later on; and they describe the situation so as to give the impression that they had held up with inferior numbers the simultaneous attacks of all these Corps from the outset. They go further and use the figures obtained in this way to turn their defeat into a victory. They boast of having held out against great odds, gladly forgetting that their original intention both before and during the battle had been to overrun our positions and drive us back to the Rhine.
The character of the fighting which began with the appearance of the new German Army Group on the scene had almost the savagery of the Middle Ages in it. The enemy turned every house, every wood and every wall into a strong point, and each of them had to be stormed by our men with heavy loss. Even when the first line of these fortifications had been taken they were confronted by a second one immediately behind it; for the enemy showed great skill in taking every advantage of the ground, unfavourable in any case to the attacker. To the east and south-east of Ypres, even more developed than in the north, there were thick hedges, wire fences and broad dykes. Numerous woods also of all sizes with dense undergrowth made the country almost impassable and most difficult for observation purposes. Our movements were constantly being limited to the roads which were swept by the enemy’s machine-guns. Owing to the preparatory artillery bombardments the villages were mostly in ruins by the time the infantry reached them, but the enemy fought desperately for every heap of stones and every pile of bricks before abandoning them. In the few village streets that remained worthy of the name the fighting generally developed into isolated individual combats, and no description can do adequate justice to the bravery of the German troops on such occasions. Our men advanced to the attack as if they were back on the barrack square, and an Englishman writes: ‘They advanced towards us singing patriotic songs and with their bands playing.’ There was such enthusiasm that even the weakest were carried along by it, and made regardless of losses. The battle of Ypres in the autumn of 1914 will be a memorial to German heroism and self-sacrifice for all time, and will long remain a source of inspiration for the historian and the poet.
By the 29th Field-Marshal French had realised the importance of the attacks developing from the south-east against Ypres. They threatened his position along the high ground on the line Gheluvelt-Passchendaele and aimed directly at, and by the shortest way to, the town, the pivot on which all the Franco-British offensive plans rested. On this day, therefore, the British commander sent up the 7th Division into the line again, although it had only just been relieved owing to its heavy losses.[57]
Daybreak on the 30th October was dull and misty. Our heavy guns began the bombardment of the enemy’s well-constructed lines at about 7.45 A.M., but observation was made very difficult by the weather conditions, and could only be carried out from the foremost infantry lines. The telephonic communication rendered necessary was frequently cut by the enemy’s shells; but, in spite of this, our heavy batteries were able to make such excellent practice that at the most vital points of the enemy’s position the spirit of the defenders appeared to be completely broken. The high ground about Zandvoorde offers a typical case. Although only 130 feet high, it was a corner-stone of the British defence and one of the main observation posts for the artillery. At 9 A.M. our troops charged the hostile position there, and by 11 A.M. Zandvoorde itself was in the possession of the 30th Infantry Division; the 4th, 10th and 1st Bavarian Jäger battalions of the Army Cavalry took a great share in the success. Soon afterwards the high ground north-east and immediately west of the village fell into German hands. Two whole British squadrons with their machine-guns lay, dead and wounded, completely annihilated in one meadow on the battlefield.[58] Further south the II Bavarian Corps had driven back British cavalry supported by part of the III British Corps. After a severe hand-to-hand encounter it took possession of the château, and finally also of the village of Hollebeke. The left wing of the Corps pushed forward as far as the Wambeke stream, north of the village of the same name, but had here to put in all its reserves to hold its ground against strong hostile counter-attacks.[59]
On the left of the Bavarians the 26th Infantry Division was engaged in heavy fighting, the position confronting it being a particularly strong one. It lay along a prominent ridge from 180 to 250 feet high,[60] running north and south, eastwards of Mount Kemmel, and gave the enemy an extensive view eastwards over our lines. The defence of this ridge was greatly facilitated by the villages of Wytschaete and Messines on it. These had been turned into fortresses, and were connected by deep trenches protected by broad wire entanglements.[61] Owing to observation difficulties, and to the misty weather preventing the airmen from giving assistance, our artillery was unable from its positions in the valley to bring a sufficiently heavy bombardment on the enemy’s lines; and, though the Würtemburg troops attacked with great gallantry, the enemy was too well prepared for the assault. On the right wing the 122nd Fusilier Regiment (Emperor Franz Joseph of Austria) took the fortified village of Wambeke, and on the left wing the 51st Infantry Brigade worked forward slowly towards Messines. The ridge north-east of the last-named village was stormed, but the assault on the locality itself, which was to have been delivered at 7.10 in the evening, could not get on owing to heavy enfilade fire from the south which held back the attackers some hundred yards away from its edge.[62] The Cavalry Corps[63] had gained ground at first, but, in consequence of their weakness in artillery, they had been unable to take St. Yves or to make progress against the strongly fortified wood south-west of it. The same story describes the day’s work of the XIX Corps[64] fighting to the south of the cavalry.