Ypres 1914: An Official Account Published by Order of the German General StaffSchwink, Otto
History
Ypres 1914: An Official Account Published by Order of the German General Staff
Schwink, Otto
World War, 1914-1918 -- Belgium -- Ypres; Ypres, 1st Battle of, Ieper, Belgium, 1914
[109] _The 4th (Queen Augusta's) Guard Grenadiers seem to have attacked
the right of the line held by the 9th Infantry Brigade and to have been
repulsed by the 1st Lincolnshires and 1st Northumberland Fusiliers.
Further to the British right the 15th and 7th Infantry Brigades were
also attacked, but by the 4th Division, not by the Guards. Here the
Germans made no progress._
[110] _This part of the German account is not borne out by the British
versions. The main body of the 1st Guard Regiment, which broke
through the thinly held line of the 1st Infantry Brigade, pressed on
north-west into the Nonne Bosch Wood, pushing right through it, and
coming out into the open on the western edge. Here their progress was
arrested mainly by the gunners of XLI Brigade, R.F.A., who held them
up with rifle fire at short range. Various details of Royal Engineers,
orderlies from Headquarters, transport men, rallied stragglers of
the 1st Brigade, assisted to stop the Germans, but the situation was
critical until about noon or a little later the 2nd Oxford and Bucks
L.I. arrived on the scene. This battalion had been engaged for several
days near Zwarteleen, and had just been brought up to Westhoek to act
as Divisional Reserve. Though under 400 strong the battalion promptly
counter-attacked the Nonne Bosch Wood and drove the Germans out
headlong. Many of them were caught as they escaped on the eastern and
southern sides by the fire of the 2nd Highland L.I., now on the western
edge of Polygon Wood, and of the 1st Northamptonshires, who had come
up to Glencorse Wood, south-west of the Nonne Bosch, and with other
units of the 2nd and 3rd Infantry Brigades had filled the gap which
extended thence to the Menin road. Thus those of the 1st Guard Regiment
who had pushed straight on westward were prevented from penetrating
any further. The King's, to whom this account gives the credit for
the Oxfordshire's counter-attack, had been engaged with the 3rd Guard
Regiment further to the north, completely defeating their attacks on
the Polygon, but not making any counter-attack. It is worth recalling
that at the critical moment of the battle of Waterloo it was the 2nd
Oxford and Bucks L.I., then 52nd Light Infantry, who played the chief
part in the defeat of Napoleon's Guard._
_The defeat of the 2nd Guard Grenadiers does not appear to have been
the work of the 2nd Oxford and Bucks L.I., but of the other battalions,
chiefly from the 2nd and 3rd Infantry Brigades, who were pushed forward
rather earlier between Glencorse Wood and Inverness Copse._
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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