[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.