The Story of the Great War, Volume 3 / History of the European War from Official Sources

by Unknown

The Battle at Neuve Chapelle.

The attack of the Seventh Division against the Pietre Fort continued all the day of March 12, as did the attempt to take the Des Layes bridges from the Germans, who were valiantly defending their second line of trenches in the Bois du Biez. Probably the fiercest fighting of that day fell to the lot of the Twentieth Brigade, composed of the First Grenadiers, the Second Scots Guards, the Second Border Regiment, and the Second Gordons, with the Sixth Gordons, a Territorial battalion. This brigade fought valiantly around Pietre Mill. Position after position was taken by them, but their efforts could not remain effective without the aid of artillery, which was lacking. The Second Rifle Brigade carried a section of the German trenches farther south that afternoon, but an enfilading fire drove the British back to their former position.

It was evident by the night of March 12 that the British could not gain command of the ridge and that the Germans could not retake Neuve Chapelle. Hence Sir John French ordered Sir Douglas Haig to hold and consolidate the ground which had been taken by the Fourth and Indian Corps, and suspend further offensive operations for the present. In his report General French set forth that the three days' fighting had cost the British 190 officers and 2,337 other ranks killed; 359 officers and 8,174 other ranks wounded, and 23 officers and 1,728 other ranks missing. He claimed German losses of over 12,000.

The British soldiers who had been engaged in the fighting about Neuve Chapelle spent all of March 13, 1915, in digging trenches in the wet meadows that border the Des Layes. On the following day the two corps that had fought so valiantly were sent back to the reserve.

The German commanders, in the meantime, had been preparing for a vigorous counterattack. They planned to make their greatest effort fifteen miles north of Neuve Chapelle, at the village of St. Eloi, and trained a large section of their artillery against a part of the British front, which was held by the Twenty-seventh Division. The preparation of the Germans was well concealed on March 14 by the heavy mist that covered the low country. The bombardment started at 5 p. m., the beginning of which was immediately followed by the explosion of two mines which were under a hillock that was a part of the British front at the southeast of St. Eloi. The artillery attack was followed by such an avalanche of German infantry that the British were driven from their trenches. This German success was followed up by the enfilading of the British lines to the right and left, with the result that that entire section of the British front was forced back.

That night a counterattack was prepared. It was made at 2 a. m., on March 15, by the Eighty-second Brigade, which had the Eightieth Brigade as its support. The Eighty-second Brigade drove the Germans from the village and the trenches on the east. The Eightieth Brigade finished the task of regaining all of the ground that had been lost except the crater caused by the explosion of the mines. Among the regiments that made a most enviable record for themselves in this action were Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry, the Fourth Rifle Brigade, the First Leinsters, the Second Cornwalls, and the Second Royal Irish Fusiliers. The "Princess Pat's," as the Canadian troops were known in the home land, were the first colonial soldiers to take part in a battle of such magnitude in this war. Their valor and their ability as fighting men were causes of great pride to the British.

Before leaving the Neuve Chapelle engagement and what immediately followed it, it is well to give a brief survey of the actions along the line that supported it. To prevent the Germans from taking troops from various points and massing them against the main British attack, the British soldiers all along that part of the front found plenty of work to do in their immediate vicinity. Thus, on March 10, 1915, the First Corps attacked the Germans from Givenchy, but there had been but little artillery fire on the part of the British there, and the wire entanglements stopped them from more than keeping the German troops in the position which they had held. The Second Corps, on March 12, was to have advanced at 10 a. m. southwest of Wytschaete. The fog that prevailed on that day, however, prevented a movement until 4 p. m. Then the First Wiltshires and the Third Worcesters of the Seventh Brigade began a movement which had to be abandoned when the weather thickened and night fell.

The attack on L'Épinette, a hamlet southeast of Armentières, was much more successful on the same day. The Seventeenth Brigade of the Fourth Division of the Third Corps advanced at noon, with the Eighteenth Brigade as its support. It advanced 300 yards on a front a half mile in length, carrying the village, which it retained in spite of all the counterattacks.

The work of the artillery was not confined to the main attack, for it was very effective in shelling the Quesnoy railway station east of Armentières, where German reenforcements were boarding a train for the front. The British artillery fire was effective as far as Aubers, where it demolished a tall church spire.