First Battle of Ypres

Initial action

While Falkenhayn waited to spring his trap, the new Allied advance was developing piecemeal, as corps detrained from the south and swung eastward to form the hook of the attempted flanking maneuver. The BEF deployed in turn between La Bassée, France, and Ypres, where it effected a junction with Lieut. Gen. Sir Henry Rawlinson’s IV Corps. Beyond it, the embryo of a new French Eighth Army was taking shape, and the Belgians continued the line along the Yser (IJzer) River to the sea. Although the British right and centre already had been held up by strong German defenses, Field Marshal Sir John French, discounting even the underestimate of German strength furnished by his intelligence, on October 19 ordered his left to begin the offensive from Ypres toward Menin (Menen). The effort was stillborn, for it coincided with the opening of the German offensive on October 20. For at least 24 hours, French persisted in the belief that he was attacking while his troops were barely holding their ground.

With Foch the delusion persisted still longer, and the failure of Allied commanders to grasp the situation made the First Battle of Ypres essentially a “soldiers’ battle.” Like Inkerman during the Crimean War or Shiloh during the American Civil War, the absence of effective high-level command meant that success or failure hinged on personal valour rather than a grand strategic plan. It was not until October 21 that French began to grasp the situation on the ground; he ordered that positions be entrenched and held defensively. Thoughts of outflanking the Germans were abandoned as it became clear that there was a very real danger of losing the Channel ports to a German advance. When Joffre was informed of the situation, he dispatched the IX Corps to Ypres, a move that brought the opposing forces to near numerical parity. A German assault at Langemarck, north of Ypres, was checked, but a French counterattack on October 24 yielded little result. Thus, the first phase of the battle ended with the French holding the northern half of a semicircle east of Ypres and the British occupying the southern half.

The Battle of the Yser and the main German attack

Over the next few days there was a comparative lull in the fighting, and the commander of the British I Corps, Lieut. Gen. Sir Douglas Haig, used that opportunity to reorganize and strengthen his front. A breakthrough attempt by the German Fourth Army under Albrecht, duke of Württemberg, was foiled, but the Germans were not yet at the end of their resources. Falkenhayn had formed a new army group, and he attempted to drive in the British front north of the Lys River. This action was to be continued with a new attempt on the Belgians defending the Yser front to the north.

The situation was critical: if the Belgians broke at the Yser, the Allied left flank would be compromised, and the “Race to the Sea” would be won by the Germans. The Belgians were exhausted and critically short on ammunition, but Albert held a trump card that he was loath to use. Beginning on October 25, the Belgians began manipulating the floodgates on canals and watercourses in the Yser valley, opening them at high tide and closing them before the water could recede. When German guns renewed their bombardment of Belgian positions on October 29, Albert ordered the opening of the sluices at Nieuport (Nieuwpoort). That night, Belgian engineers unleashed the sea, destroying the town of Nieuport and inundating the battlefield. Three German divisions were forced into hasty retreat as the floodwaters rose around them. The Belgians suffered some 18,000 casualties at the Yser, and the French more than 5,000, but the Allied left flank had been secured.

In the meantime Gen. Max von Fabeck, at the head of an ad hoc force dubbed Army Group Fabeck, made his principal effort on the British front southeast of Ypres. On October 30 the German XV Corps fell upon the weary British 7th Division and drove it back from Zandvoorde, while the II Bavarian Corps pushed the British cavalry back through Hollebeke and Oosttaverne. There appeared to be real danger that the roads through Ypres behind the British and French troops east of the town would be cut. Foch at once promised reinforcements for the Hollebeke front. The French 32nd Division went to the help of the British cavalry at Oosttaverne, and five French battalions came up to support the right of the British 7th Division at Klein Zillebeke and St. Eloi.

One immediate crisis was staved off by these reinforcements, but another was developing on the Menin road, east of Ypres. On October 31 the German XV Corps and 54th Reserve Division, attacking on either side of the road, had captured Gheluvelt (Geluveld) and broken the line between the 1st and 7th Divisions. For a time it appeared that retreat was inevitable, but a brilliantly executed counterattack organized by Brig. Gen. Charles FitzClarence and delivered by the 2nd Battalion Worcestershire Regiment against Gheluvelt from the north drove the Germans out of the village. Later in the day this success was confirmed by another counterattack on a larger scale organized and directed by Maj. Gen. Edward Bulfin. Thus, stability on the northern edge of the British front was restored, but if von Fabeck’s right was checked, the same could not be said of his left and centre. On November 1 and 2 he renewed his efforts against the British cavalry and captured Messines (Mesen) and Wytschaete (Wijtschate), along with the whole of the Messines Ridge, but von Fabeck’s further progress was stopped by the timely arrival of French reinforcements. On this portion of the battle front, the Allied line was established east of the village of Kemmel and on the important high ground at Mount Kemmel (Kemmelberg).

The Prussian Guard attack

Another lull ensued, and it appeared that the First Battle of Ypres had come to an end. The Indian Corps had relieved the infantry of the British II Corps on the La Bassée-Neuve Chapelle front, and the greater part of the latter force had gone up to Ypres and taken over the trenches of the 7th Division. Of the approximately 12,000 British infantry who had landed at Zeebrugge a month before, only some 4,000 remained in fighting condition. These changes of disposition were made without further interference from the enemy other than constant shelling, but the Germans had yet another great effort in preparation. Six more divisions, including a division of the Prussian Guard, were collected for a final effort to break through into Ypres. In preparation for this attack, Duke Albrecht was directed to keep up the utmost pressure. This manifested in a series of local attacks chiefly against the French. One of these attacks, on November 10, drove the French defenders of Dixmude (Diksmuide) from the ruins of that town.

On the next day the German attack was made after an intense bombardment on the front from the Messines Ridge to the north of the Menin road. The Prussian Guard attacked astride the Menin road, gaining the only real success achieved by the Germans during the November 11 offensive. The Guard broke through the left of the British 1st Division and penetrated into the Nonne Bosschen, but again the situation was restored by a pair of counterattacks. The first was delivered by the Royal Scots Fusiliers near the Menin road. The second, by the 2nd Oxford and Bucks Light Infantry, drove the Germans out of the Nonne Bosschen. In preparing the latter attack, FitzClarence was killed in a burst of German rifle fire. Farther south the German XV Corps secured Hill 60 near Verbranden-Molen (Verbrandenmolen). This small rise remained a bone of contention until December 1914, but elsewhere the attack made no significant progress.