They did not, however, reach their objective. Enfiladed by machine-gun fire, they were partly driven back into their trenches, after a bloody hand-to-hand struggle amid great confusion. The losses on both sides were very heavy, without any decisive result being attained.
The weather, previously bad, now became a violent storm. During the night, under cover of the hurricane, the Prussian Guard broke through the Allies' front. Ypres—the prize on which the Kaiser had set his heart—seemed at last within the enemy's grasp.
But the British, momentarily demoralized, quickly rallied and drove back the Prussians in a heroic charge.
The struggle continued fiercely during the following days, the Germans launching numerous attacks with compact masses of troops. The deep lines of infantry, led by young officers, whose undeniable courage did not compensate for their lack of experience, were mown down.
Exasperated by this check, the enemy set about to destroy the town which they were unable to take. On November 10, German aeroplanes dropped incendiary bombs, and thenceforth the bombardment was conducted methodically both by aeroplanes and by guns firing from ten to twenty shells per minute.
Up to the 13th, the town had suffered comparatively little. The Cloth Hall had only been hit by two shells (on the 5th) and by a few bombs. But in the disastrous days of October 22, 23 and afterwards, the bombardment became more intense and better regulated. The Germans brought up an armoured train to Houthem, which, directed by observation balloons, rained incendiary and explosive shells on the town. On the evening of the 23rd, all that remained of the Place des Halles was a heap of ruins.
THE CLOTH HALL IN FLAMES (NOV. 22, 1914)
The Germans, unable to capture Ypres, destroyed it methodically by shell-fire
(photo, Antony, Ypres).
