THE WESTERN FRONT

“THE RACE TO THE SEA”

THE SIEGE OF ANTWERP AND THE BATTLE OF THE YSER:  SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 1914

THE FIRST BATTLE OF YPRES:  OCTOBER – NOVEMBER 1914  

THE BATTLES OF PICARDY, ALBERT and ARRAS

Acknowledgements

Map of North West France: aminoapps.com  Antwerp: by the German artist Willy Stoewer, en.wikipedia.org. Map of North Sea Coast: In Soul-blogger, image from Wiki  Battle Maps (2): greatwar.co.uk Battle of Gheluvelt: by the English artist J.P. Beadle. riflemantours.co.uk   Battle of Zandvoorde: wikiwand.com artist unknown  Hitler Youth: 1936 spartacuseducational.co.  Map (detail) Race to the Sea: Historica Wiki-Fandom/ Trench Warfare (detail):  youtube.com

    The First Battle of Ypres was fought from October 19th to November 22nd. Following the German retreat after the Battle of the Marne, and the attempt by both sides to turn the northern flank of their opponent (known generally as “the Race to the Sea”), it offered the Germans the last opportunity to break through the Allied line. In attempting to achieve that aim, the ancient city of Ypres was a pivotal strategic landmark. It not only blocked the German path to the coastal ports of Calais and Dunkirk – highly valuable targets in themselves – but, if captured, it reopened the possibility of an advance on Paris and – even, perchance – the victory that the Schlieffen Plan had failed to achieve. But it was not to be. Both sides had already dug trenches, very primitive though they might be at this early stage, and the machine gun, barbed wire, and artillery bombardment were still masters of the battlefield, that deadly strip of no-man’s land that divided the two opponents.

     Following the defeat of German forces at the Battles of the Marne and Aisne in the September, both sides moved swiftly northwards, anxious to set up a solid line of defence in Flanders (western Belgium) and Northern France, the low-lying area of the front where most of the action was to take place.The Allies were particularly anxious to hold on to Antwerp and the Channel ports. With this in mind, and to shorten their lines of communication to England, the British Expeditionary Force was assigned the task of defending Flanders and the North Sea coast. But meanwhile, events were overtaking such plans.

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     Atxthe end of September the Germans, consolidating their hold on Belgium, began The Siege of Antwerp, one of Belgium’s largest cities. Some attempts were made by the British to assist the city and its port, but it fell to the Germans on the 10th October following a massive bombardment (illustrated). However, some 80,000 men of the Belgian field army escaped and moved southward along the coast (illustrated on map). ThexGermans followed, capturing Zeebrugge and Ostend en route, but were suddenly brought to a halt at the Battle of the River Yser, which enters the North Sea at Nieuwpoort. Exhausted andxshort of ammunition, the Belgians used flooding as a last resort. The Yser valley was flooded via canals and waterways, and then, on the 29th October they opened the sluices at Nieuwpoort itself, just north of Ypres. The town was virtually destroyed, but three German divisions, aiming to turn the Allies’ north flank, were forced to make a hasty retreat. The Belgians suffered 18,000 casualties and the French more than 5,000, but the Allied flank had been secured.

     It was against this background that the First Battle of Ypres was fought, the first truly allied battle of the war. At this early stage there were still some in authority, on both sides, who harboured the hope of a sudden piercing of the enemy’s defences and a lightening advance into his very heartland. This battle was to dispel such hopes in a very short period of time. It was the watershed between the mobile open warfare which had characterised the tactics of August and September, and the static trench warfare that was to be imposed and suffered over the next four years.

     The German campaign, aimed at capturing Ypres and the North Sea coast beyond, was centred around four major battles, contained in a semi-circle to the east of the town (see map). From the start, the Allied forces, the British, French and Belgians (plus Indian and Algerian attachments) were outnumbered and outgunned, but they realised that Ypres had to be held at all cost. They paid a heavy price, but they achieved their aim.

     Thexfirst encounter was at Langemarck in the north-east, a bloody three-day battle with a deal of hand-to-hand fighting (21st to 24th October). Neither side had sufficient time to produce adequate ground cover, so the casualties were heavy, particularly for the Germans. Inxthis battle they employed what came to be known as the “kinderkorps”, a body of young volunteers, 17 to 19 years old. Briefly trained, and – according to some accounts – singing patriotic songs as they advanced shoulder to shoulder, they were mown down by machine guns and rapid rifle fire. It is estimated that over 70% of their number were killed or wounded. Over the three days, despite greater firepower and a larger force, the Germans proved unable to break through to Ypres and reach the North Sea coast beyond.

     Atxthe end of October, however, following bloody encounters at La Bassée and Armentières, the Germans launched a ferocious attack upon Gheluvelt, a village just four miles east of Ypres. After a ferocious bombardment lasting over two hours, a massed infantry advance overwhelmed the British defence and captured what was left of the village. However, while pausing to deal with a stubborn pocket of resistance, a small body of British infantry made a surprise counter-attack (illustrated) and the Germans, assuming it was an attack in force, abandoned the village and pulled back to the east.

     Atxthe same time, directly south of Ypres, the Germans launched an attack for the seizure of Messines. They broke into the town, but it took five hours of house-to-house fighting before the British were forced to retreat. By the morning of November 1st the Germans were in control of Messines and also the neighbouring town of Wytschaete. In the meantime, however, the French had seized the high ridge to the west and were fully in command of the road to Ypres. No further action was possible.

    Butxit was at the Battle for Zandvoorde (in the municipality of Zonnebeko), beginning on the 29th October, that the British, heavily outnumbered, virtually fought and died to the last man. Hastily entrenched on forward slopes at the southern end of the village, and with insufficient machine guns, a combined force of Life Guards and Horse Guards (dismounted) stood their ground against a bombardment from over 250 guns and a strong infantry assault. It proved their “last stand”. Most were killed, but a few were captured. The Germans then took the village, and eventually forced back Welsh and Scottish units employed to close the gap. It was a resounding German victory, but the strength of the opposition it had had to face had taken its toll. The Germans paused to regroup, and this gave time for the British to rush in a force of six battalions to hold the line. Ypres took further bombardment, but remained in Allied hands.

    The German attempt to break through the Allied line in western Flanders – the only corner of Belgium not in their hands – and seize control of the vital road and rail centre of Ypres, had failed. With the arrival of French reinforcements on the 17th November, the Germans abandoned their attempts, prepared their ground defences for the winter ahead, and sent troops to support their campaign on the Eastern Front.

     In general this first encounter at Ypres had been a bitter and somewhat confused campaign. Casualties had been heavy on both sides, mainly because trenches built at this stage were of poor quality and offered little protection against heavy artillery, the machine gun, and the infantry sharp shooters. Losses for the Germans, who did the bulk of the attacking, is put at around 130,000, and the Entente at about 100,000, that including nearly half of the British Regular Army. In Britain, the introduction of conscription was inevitable, but, as we shall see, it did not take place until the beginning of 1916.

     Thexred-dotted line on the map above is that held by the Allied forces at the end of the battle, but as we shall see, there were to be two more battles in what came to be known as “The Ypres Salient” (see map), that piece of land jutting into hostile territory (April 1915 and July 1917). They were to be just as bitter and costly, and, by then, include troops from Australia, New Zealand, Canada and South and West Africa. It is hardly surprising that Ypres became a major focus point in postwar remembrance. It is worthy of note that on arrival in Flanders, German forces spent the night of the 7th October in Ypres (called “Wipers” by the British) before moving further north. They were not to occupy the town again, but, as we shall see, a further attempt came with the Second Battle of Ypres in April 1915, just five months later.

    Incidentally, as was to be expected, the foolhardy but gallant performance of the “kinderkorps” at the Battle of Langemarck was bound to “go down in history”, embellished somewhat over the years and re-marketed as “The Massacre of the Innocent”. It is said that the German dictator Adolf Hitler, who served at Ypres and was later wounded at the Battle of the Somme, was very moved and impressed by the event. He put it to good use. The date of Langemarck was chosen as the day on which the Nazi party inducted students, and after 1938 every member of the Hitler Youth Movement had to pay a fee to the party, known as the Langemarck Pfenning. ……

     …… Ofxcourse, all the national armies had marching songs by this time. The French had one of the world’s best known battle cries, La Marsaillaise. The most popular of German marching songs was Westerwaldlied (Song of the Western Forest). The British took a more light-hearted approach with songs like Pack Up Your Troubles (composed by the Welsh brothers Felix and George Powell), and It’s a Long Way to Tipperrary, written by the English music hall entertainer Jack Judge, whose grandparents came from Tipperrary, a town in southern Ireland. And published at this time was the popular Keep the Home Fires Burning, with words by Lena Guilbert Ford and music by the Welsh composer Ivor Novello, later to become famous for his West End musicals. Roses of Picardy, music by Haydn Wood, lyrics by Frederick Weatherly, was published in 1916.

     …… The First Battle of Ypres witnessed the world’s first official victory in aerial combat. On the 5th October, the French pilot Joseph Frantz and his gunner Louis Quenault shot down a German biplane over Reims. That said, in 1808, two Frenchmen fought a duel aloft, firing at each other from hot air balloons, and one was shot down!

    Butximportant as Ypres was strategically – as further battles bear witness – it was but part of “The Race to the Sea” which was then taking place across a part of Belgium and all of Northern France. The desperate determining of battle lines in the wake of the German defeat at the Battles of the Marne and Aisne was well under way by late September. The Battle of Picardy, for example (22nd to 26th September), was fought along a line from Albert, just north of the Somme, down to Noyon on the Oise. AxFrench advance along the north bank of the Oise was halted, but a German attack on the north of the French line, the Battle of Albert (25th to 29th September) was likewise beaten off. The French had hoped to out-flank the Germans in this area, but their plans came to nothing. And it was the same story in the Battle of Arras which followed on (1st to 4th October). The Germans managed to push the French back towards Arras, but were forced to halt their attack due to heavy loses. However, huge areas of the town were left in ruins. In this brutal struggle to gain tactical supremacy in this part of the Western Front, the Germans – arriving first following their defeat and retreat from the Battle of the Aisne – had a decided advantage! It is not suprising that in this broad and gently sloping terrain, the Mont de Lorette, and the Vimy and Messines Ridges, for example, should be in German hands and remain so for much of the war!

    By the end of October, the so-called “Race to the Sea”, that period of positional warfare in which mobility still played a part, was finally at an end. By this stage, the method of fighting – as seen in some earlier engagements – was to reinforce in the clearest of terms the nature of static trench warfare and the enormous increase it brought in the number of casulalties, dead and wounded. As we shall see, a sombre example of this was to be provided in the First Battles of Artois and Champagne over the next three months.

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