Aristocrats Go to War: Uncovering the Zillebeke Cemetery

by Jerry Murland

  ‘There is a detachment of 200 men rejoining from hospital so we’ve heard a certain amount of horrid stories about what faces us. Apparently if one is captured without a sword he is treated by the Germans as a private soldier and protests are useless, so I’m keeping my sword but having a web equipment like the men so as not to be easily picked out.’

  The next day, on 30 October 1914, he and Lieutenant Hervy Tudway left St Nazaire with a draft of men for the front line.11 As they boarded the train before dawn that morning, the First Battle of Ypres was already reaching its most critical point and John Lee Steere had only eighteen days left to live.

  Chapter 5

  Ypres – The Clash of Arms

  The First Battle of Ypres in 1914 was the first of four battles that focused on the ancient walled city. The first battle was, in all probability, the most significant in that had the Allied forces not been successful in their defence of the Ypres Salient, the BEF would have had to retreat to the channel ports, as it did in 1940, and leave France to the invading German forces. If the unthinkable had happened in 1914, then modern European history would have taken a different course and the twentieth century possibly altered beyond recognition.

  It was not until 1920 that the War Office’s Battles Nomenclature Committee met to standardise the names of the Great War battles and campaigns for the purpose of awarding battle honours. The Great War posed a considerable challenge for the committee, as battles in the sense of previous wars, such as the South African War, were much harder to define. The committee eventually decided to divide the Great War into a series of campaigns and the campaigns into battles. In some cases battles were further subdivided into actions. In the case of the fighting that centred on Ypres they identified four separate engagements that took place during October and November 1914:

  The Battle of La Bassée from 10 October until 2 November

  The Battle of Armentières from 13 October until 2 November

  The Battle of Messines from 12 October until 2 November

  The Battle of Ypres from 19 October until 22 November

  The Battle of Ypres itself has been further separated into three major actions giving, perhaps, the impression that the periods between were somewhat free of fighting. This was far from the case; in reality there was almost continual fighting, punctuated by the three key actions of Langemarck from 21 to 24 October, Gheluvelt from 29 to 31 October and Nonne Bosschen on 11 November. In addition, German artillery poured a daily and generally very accurate bombardment on Allied positions. By comparison British artillery units in particular were handicapped by an acute shell shortage which inevitably significantly reduced the effectiveness of counter-battery engagements and the vital role of supporting the infantry.

  What is also perhaps not fully appreciated is that the battle was very much a coalition of French, Belgian and British Commonwealth forces and that the British contribution alone would not have won the battle. Although the city of Ypres was in many ways the centrepiece of the struggle, the battle was fought along a front that stretched from Nieuport in the north, down to La Bassée in the south. The importance of the II Corps front, which ran south of the river Lys to La Bassée, is often sidelined in accounts of the First Battle of Ypres; yet it was a vital piece of the jigsaw of defence. Had the II Corps front given way, Allied forces further north in the more immediate vicinity of Ypres would have been outflanked and caught in a pocket with their backs to the sea.

  The human cost of the battle was enormous. BEF casualties between 14 October and 30 November were estimated to be 58,155, of whom 7,960 were killed. However appalling these figures might be, they would be eclipsed by future battles. On 1 July 1916 alone the casualties after one day of fighting amounted to 57,470 of which 19,240 were killed. Nevertheless in 1914, before the great battles of the Somme, Arras and Third Ypres, the rate of attrition amongst the battalions of I Corps and the 7th Division in particular was extremely high and in many cases battalions were left with little more that one or two officers and a handful of men. Casualties on this scale could only mean one thing: the baseline of experienced officers and NCOs that had landed with the BEF in August 1914 had been practically wiped out. Indeed by 1 November, before the final German assaults of 11 and 17 November, the state of the BEF’s original eighty-four infantry battalions can only be described as pitiful:

  Number of battalions below 100 all ranks 18

  Number of battalions with 100–200 all ranks 31

  Number of battalions with 200–300 all ranks 26

  Number of battalions with 300–450 all ranks 9

  German losses are more difficult to estimate but numerous sources place these in excess of 130,000 of which at least 19,600 were killed. French casualty figures are again difficult to estimate as there is only a total figure of 104,000 for the whole of the Western Front for the period of October and November 1914. However, their casualties around Ypres are thought to have been somewhere between 50,000 and 85,000. For the Belgian forces, fighting in the north of Salient, casualty figures are estimated at around 20,000.

  In the series of battles that marked the first Ypres engagement the odds were very much in Germany’s favour. Overall her forces had at least a two to one advantage in men and at times this rose to at least six or seven to one. Moreover, the German field commanders had the advantage of continually replacing their front line units with fresh troops, a luxury that was not available to Allied commanders as their meagre and exhausted forces were continually being eroded. Those six weeks, during which twelve VC were won between 22 October and 20 November, witnessed some of the most desperate fighting of the war and on more than one occasion a successful outcome for the Allies hung very much in the balance. It is quite remarkable that the thin, ragged lines of Allied troops held on at all, let alone brought the might of the German Army to a halt.

  An overview of the Ypres fighting: 8 October to 20 November.

  8 Oct • Apart from the Cavalry, Sir Horace Smith-Dorrien’s II Corps are the first to leave the Aisne and move to Flanders and consequently are amongst the first to be deployed against the Germans. They begin to detrain at Abbeville and go into the line west of La Bassée and north of the La Bassée Canal on 10 October and begin advancing towards the Béthune-Lillers line.

  11 Oct • Major General Henry Rawlinson and IV Corps begin to assemble in the Ypres area. The 7th Division (GOC Major General Thompson Capper) deploy east of Ypres to a line taking in the villages of Zonnebeke-Kruiseke-Zandvoorde.1 The 3rd Cavalry Division (GOC Major General Julian Byng) is deployed to the north of Ypres between Zonnebeke and the Fôret d’Houthulst – filling in the gap between the French cavalry to the north and the 7th Division to the south.

  • Overnight on 11/12 October, German forces move into Lille.

  12 Oct • News reaches the British that the Germans have occupied Lille. This is a serious blow to the overall British strategy, which is to advance to the north east of Lille. Sir John French remains convinced that the Germans are only present in small numbers on his front, a conviction that he retains despite growing evidence to the contrary.

  • Further bad news is received when the French lose Vermelles, the results of which leave Smith-Dorrien and II Corps in a dilemma. His orders are to advance to the line of the Estaires-Lorgies Road but at the same time to maintain contact with General Maud’huy at all costs. He now has two choices, move his forces north of the canal to attempt a north easterly advance as ordered, or move south to close the gap left by the French withdrawal and attempt to advance eastwards. He chooses the latter. Givenchy is reached by nightfall.

  • Units of the 2nd Cavalry Division (GOC Major General Hubert Gough) reconnoitre Mont des Cats.2

  • The newly arrived III Corps, under Lieutenant General William Pulteney, are deployed to advance and secure the Ypres-Armentières road between Wytschaete and Le Bizet, the present day N365.

  13 Oct • III Corps advance along a five mile front but are held up by strongly fortified enemy positions a
t Meteren and Fontaine Houck which are not taken until that evening.

  • II Corps make little further progress in the face of a determined German counter-attack. British losses are heavy, particularly amongst the 1st Battalion Bedfordshire Regiment during a heavy German bombardment of Givenchy. Givenchy is lost when the Bedfords withdraw, which in turn isolates the 1st Battalion Dorsetshire Regiment at Pont Fixe, forcing the surrender of a large body of 1st Battalion Cheshire Regiment at Chapelle St Roche.

  • There is more success on the cavalry front: Mont Noir is secured by the 2nd Cavalry Division by dusk and patrols sent on to Mont Kemmel. The 1st Cavalry Division (GOC Major General Henry de Lisle) reconnoitre the Neuve Eglise Spur. These cavalry actions convince the German IV Cavalry Corps commander, General von Hollen, to withdraw from Bailleul as the main road back to Armentières is now in danger of being cut off by the British cavalry

  14 Oct • The British Cavalry Corps (GOC Major General Sir Edmund Allenby) reach Messines and the next day clear through Mont Kemmel to establish a link with the right flank of IV Corps at Wytschaete. The so called ‘race to the sea’ is now effectively ended with the link up of the British Cavalry Corps advancing from the west and the 3rd Cavalry Division moving south west around Ypres. There is now a continuous, albeit tenuous, Allied line from the North Sea coast to the Swiss border.

  • Major General Hubert Hamilton (GOC 3rd Division) is killed near Richebourg by shellfire. Command passes to Major General Colin MacKenzie.

  15 Oct • Seemingly completely unaware of the build up of German forces in front of him, Sir John French continues to issue ambitious orders for the advance east. It is now becoming quite obvious to the cavalry commanders on the ground that they are encountering German forces in locations that the British infantry were supposed to have reached. However, limited advances continue on all British fronts and some losses are inflicted on enemy formations.

  • Having reached Bailleul on 14 October, III Corps are ordered to capture Armentières, repair the bridges over the Lys and prepare for the advance towards Lille. Armentières is occupied on 17 October after the Germans retire east to the Perenchies Ridge.

  16 Oct • Givenchy is recaptured by II Corps and held after three days of continuous fighting on both sides of the La Bassée Canal. British losses are significant, although heavy losses are inflicted on the enemy, particularly near Cuinchy. By the end of this period, the British have only advanced the line some six miles in four days.

  • GHQ orders III Corps to move down the banks of the Lys and attack the enemy ‘on contact’.

  • IV Corps is ordered to ‘move on Menin’, but not to move ‘much in advance of the left of III Corps’. 9 Brigade (GOC Brigadier General Frederick Shaw) manages to gain a foothold on the Aubers Ridge.

  18 Oct • III Corps attack towards Lille but meet units of the German Sixth Army.

  • IV Corps advance some 4,000 yards to a line running through Kortewilde – Terhand – Waterdamhoek with the left flank covered by the 3rd Cavalry Division. At midday Captain Llewellyn Price-Davies, GSO2 with GHQ, arrives at 7th Division Headquarters to enquire why the division is not further along the road to Menin.3 The vagueness of GHQ’s orders and the inference that the division should attack Menin without support and in the knowledge that there are an unknown number of hostile forces ahead, gives Rawlinson food for thought while composing his reply to GHQ!

  • Major General Sir Charles Fergusson (GOC 5th Division) is replaced by Major General Thomas Moreland.4

  • With the suspected troop concentrations at Courtrai and Wevelgem dismissed by Sir John French as nothing more than ‘Landwehr’, he issues orders for an attack on Menin the following day.5

  • Von Beseler opens his offensive against the Belgians.

  • The German shelling of Ypres begins.6

  19 Oct • The First Battle of Ypres officially begins. At 6.30 am IV Corps advances east from Zonnebeke in the direction of the Menin–Roulers road to a point three miles north of Menin, the present day N32. However, it is the Germans who take the initiative on 19 October with a general offensive that begins on the Yser and spreads south along the line as far as Arras. Nevertheless, Sir John French holds firmly to his strategy, apparently failing to realise the whole Allied line is now coming under a sustained attack by both the Fourth and Sixth German Armies.7 Later that morning aerial reconnaissance gives Rawlinson advance warning of the coming attack on his front.

  • 7 Cavalry Brigade are heavily engaged on the Roulers-Menin Road at 9 am and are forced to retire in the face of increasingly strong resistance. At 11.45 am Rawlinson issues orders to IV Corps cancelling the attack on Menin. These orders reach the forward troops at 1.05 pm, just as they are coming under attack from the flanks. General Byng’s cavalry and the 7th Division are forced to pull back as far as Zonnebeke, effectively occupying the very positions they had advanced from twenty-four hours earlier.

  20 Oct • I Corps, under Sir Douglas Haig, having arrived from the Aisne the previous day, are ordered to advance northeast of Ypres towards Bruges.

  • The Indian Corps detrain at Hazebrouck under the command of Lieutenant General Sir James Willcocks and are deployed on the II Corps front.

  • III Corps suffer reverses at Ennetieres. Units of 18 Brigade (GOC Brigadier General Walter Congreve VC) are overwhelmed by the German 25th and 26th Reserve Divisions, the brigade suffering over 1,000 casualties. A little to the north, 17 Brigade (GOC Brigadier General Walter Doran) are also forced back from Premesques.

  • On the IV Corps front the German counter-offensive attacks begin early. The retirement of the French on the IV Corps right prompts Byng’s 3rd Cavalry Division to fall back, putting pressure on 22 Brigades, (GOC Brigadier General Sidney Lawford). They hold their positions losing five officers and some 130 other ranks. Captain Norman Neill, Brigade Major 7 Cavalry Brigade, is wounded and evacuated to the Casino Hospital, Boulogne.

  21 Oct • The 1st Division advances on Poelcapelle and the 2nd Division on Passchendaele. Some progress is made, before the advancing British begin to encounter an increasing number of German Fourth Army troops also advancing to the attack. On the left flank of the 1st Division the French cavalry corps under de Mitry give way and retire west of the Ypres-Comines Canal, having previously abandoned the Fôret d’Houthulst.

  • At 3 pm Haig cancels the advance and orders his units to hold their positions. The new front line is only 1,000 yards beyond Langemarck. The fighting leaves the 1st Division badly stretched west of Langemarck and the 2nd Division just beyond Zonnebeke.

  • Heavy and accurate German artillery attacks continue along the IV Corps front where the poor location of forward trenches contributes to the retirement of 22 Brigade during the afternoon. The resulting casualties are high, the 1st Battalion Welch Regiment losing seventy-five per cent of its strength.

  • III Corps units are becoming increasingly hard pressed by an estimated two German corps along its twelve mile frontage. 11 Brigade (GOC Brigadier General Aylmer Hunter-Weston) is dispersed and held in reserve. Late in the afternoon the 2nd Battalion Inniskilling Fusiliers are forced out of Le Gheer, their positions only regained by counter-attack some hours later.

  • The struggle for the Messines Ridge begins in earnest. The 1st Cavalry Division hold the eastern slopes and the 2nd Cavalry Division hold Kortewilde and Houthem. General Allenby is uncomfortably aware that his cavalry is holding one of the most strategically important pieces of ground on the British front.

  22 Oct • Lawford’s 22 Brigade are reinforced by units from the 1st Division. Infantry and artillery assaults continue through the night on the 7th Division positions.

  • Reinforcements arrive to strengthen Allenby’s Cavalry Corps in the form of the Indian Cavalry of the Ferozepore Brigade, 1st Battalion Connaught Rangers, 2nd Battalion Essex Regiment and 57th Wilde’s Rifles.

  • II Corps retire to a new position running from the La Bassée Canal to Fauquissart.

  • A German attac
k is launched along a large stretch of the British line against the 1st, 2nd and 7th Divisions. The Langemarck legend of the ‘Massacre of the Innocents’ is born. The attack is repulsed along most of the British line, apart from in the centre of the 1st Division. At the Kortekeer crossroads the 1st Battalion Queen’s Own Cameron Highlanders are holding a semi-circular position, late in the afternoon the Germans penetrate the northwest sector of the line. At 6.00 pm the Camerons retreat leaving a potential gap in the British line.

  23 Oct • Haig responds quickly to the Kortekeer situation by creating a reserve force and the position is recaptured by 2 Brigade with French assistance. At the same time a major German attack against Langemarck is defeated. North of Langemarck, men of the 1/Gloucesters, commanded by Captain Robert Rising, successfully defend the Koekuit road against heavy German attacks. Both battles are over by late afternoon. The same day also sees a French counter-attack, launched by the 17th Division of IX Corps with the intention of taking Passchendaele. The attack, launched from the front held by the 2nd Division, is unsuccessful.