Generals of the British Army: Portraits in Colour with Introductory and Biographical Notes
History
Generals of the British Army: Portraits in Colour with Introductory and Biographical Notes
Generals -- Great Britain; World War, 1914-1918 -- Biography
In the First Battle of Ypres, when the small British Army bolted the
door of the North against the German sweep, his Division played a
foremost part. In General Smith-Dorrien's advance towards La Bassée it
moved on the left flank, clearing out the Germans from the forest of
Nieppe, the Hill of Cassel, and Hazebrouck. Along with the 1st Cavalry
Division it reconnoitred the line of the Lys, and later held the front
between Zandvoorde and Messines on the left of Allenby's Corps. In the
great struggle of October 30th and 31st it had desperate fighting to
hold the line, and, on November 1st, before the French XVI Corps arrived
in support, it was forced back from Hollebeke and Messines.
[Illustration: GENERAL SIR HUBERT GOUGH]
Sir Hubert Gough's 2nd Cavalry Division was at the Battle of Neuve
Chapelle, but failed to get the expected chance of going into action.
Shortly after this he took command of the 7th Infantry Division and was
engaged in the operations at Festubert. About the middle of July,
1915, he was appointed to command the I Corps in succession to Sir C.
Monro, who went to the Mediterranean.
At Loos Sir Hubert Gough commanded this Corps, which contained at the
time the 2nd, 7th and 9th Divisions. It was his men who stormed Fosse 8
and the Hohenzollern Redoubt.
During the spring of 1916 he was put in command of a Reserve Army, which
at the time consisted chiefly of Cavalry and a Staff. After the first
day of the Battle of the Somme, when it was apparent that Sir Henry
Rawlinson's Fourth Army was engaged on too long a line, the part of the
front from la Boiselle northwards was handed over to the Reserve Army,
which now became known as the Fifth. There, for five months, Sir Hubert
Gough was hotly engaged. It was under his command that Pozières and
Mouquet Farm were taken by the Australians and Courcelette by the
Canadians, and the Thiepval Ridge cleared at the end of October. His
greatest success came in the Battle of the Ancre on November 13th, when,
in two days, he took more than 5,000 German prisoners.
When the German retreat began in the spring of 1917, Sir Hubert Gough's
Army operated in the Bapaume area and towards the country between
Cambrai and St. Quentin. It was engaged on the right of the Third Army
during the Battle of Arras.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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