After the victory of the Marne, which drove the Germans north of the Aisne, began the operations known as "the Race to the Sea." Each side endeavoured to outpace the other, with the object of surrounding the enemy's marching wing.
This remarkable "Race to the Sea"—a widely extended movement splendidly carried out by General Foch, and in which the Allied forces in their march towards the north constantly outstripped the enemy—might have been used as the starting-point for a grand Allied offensive against the German right, but the exhaustion of the Belgian army, after the terrible trials which it had just gone through in its retreat on the Yser—following on the fall of Antwerp—and the delays in the transport of the British troops from the Aisne front to the north, prevented the development of this offensive.
It was therefore only possible for the Allied armies to fix their front and make it impregnable.
The stages of this race to the sea and the fixation of the front took place between September 20 and October 23, 1914.
The Forces Engaged (Oct. 1914)
When the First Battle of Ypres opened, the front described a wide semi-circle passing through Zonnebeke, Gheluvelt and Zandvoorde, running thence south of Messines, and finally linking up with the line to the east of Armentières.
At the beginning of the battle all this part of the front was held by the British army, as follows: from Zonnebeke to Zandvoorde, the 1st Corps (Haig) and 4th Corps (Rawlinson); from Zandvoorde to Messines, the Calvary Corps (Allenby), two infantry divisions, and the Lahore Division, which had just landed at Marseilles; lastly, from Messines to Armentières, the 3rd Corps (Pulteney).
Facing these forces were the German IVth army, consisting of the XIIIth, XVth and XVIth active corps, and the IInd Bavarian Corps, reinforced during the battle by a Division of the Guards. The British Cavalry Corps had to face four German Cavalry Corps.