The First Seven Divisions: Being a Detailed Account of the Fighting from Mons to YpresHamilton, Ernest, Lord
History
The First Seven Divisions: Being a Detailed Account of the Fighting from Mons to Ypres
Hamilton, Ernest, Lord
World War, 1914-1918 -- Campaigns -- Western Front
The Germans did not carry their advance beyond Gheluvelt. The ground
they had gained had only been won by a prodigious expenditure of
ammunition, followed by a reckless sacrifice of men, and their losses
had been enormous. Their further progress, too, was barred by the
troops which had been shelled out of the village in the morning. These
were now formed up half facing the road between Gheluvelt and Veldhoek,
and offered a successful bar to any further advance on the part of the
enemy. The Germans, however, did not relinquish their attempts to push
on to Veldhoek without further serious fighting, in the course of which
the 2nd Queen's sustained still further losses, their three senior
officers, Col. Coles, Major Croft and Major Bottomley falling wounded,
as well as Captain Weeding and Lieut. Philpot. Night fell without any
further advance on the part of the enemy. Gheluvelt itself, however, in
spite of the gallant counter-attack north of the road, during the
afternoon, may be considered as having been lost from this day on.
MESSINES AND WYTSCHATE
In order to avoid the confusion inseparable from a constant change of
scene, it will be best to deal briefly now with the doings at Messines
and Wytschate, after which the Klein Zillebeke section can monopolize
our attention up to the close of this little chronicle. In order to
pick up the thread where it was dropped, it will be necessary to go
back to the 30th. On that day General Allenby wired to Head Quarters
that his numbers were too weak to hold his position from the canal at
Hollebeke to the La Doune stream, south of Messines, for long unaided,
and the C. in C. at once responded by sending up four battalions from
the 2nd A.C. under General Shaw to his assistance. These, as will
presently be seen, arrived in the very nick of time to save the
situation. Pending their arrival, the cavalry had a truly colossal task
before them. They were absurdly outnumbered; they had opposed to them,
in the XXIV. and II. Bavarian Corps, some of the finest fighters in the
German Army, stimulated by the presence of the Kaiser himself, and they
were engaged in a form of warfare to which they had never been trained.
French reinforcements were being hurried up, it is true, but it was
reckoned that, at the earliest, they could not arrive in less than
forty-eight hours. During these forty-eight hours, could the cavalry,
with the assistance which had been sent up from the 2nd A.C.,
successfully oppose the pressure of two army corps? This was the
problem of the moment. We know now that it did succeed in doing so, but
even with this fact behind us as a matter of history, we may still--in
view of the extraordinary disparity in numbers--wonder as to how it was
done.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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