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