WWI The Second Battle of Ypres Belgium

7/22/2019 WWI The Second Battle of Ypres Belgium

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To lenew this book copy the call No. and giv tothe librarian. *^j8?:' i*'^^^' home use rules

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Cornell UniversityLibrary

The original of tliis book is intine Cornell University Library.

There are no known copyright restrictions inthe United States on the use of the text.

http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924027945207


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THE STORY OFYPRES


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The Story of Ypres


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THE STORY OFYPRESByHugh B. c. Pollard

(Captain the London l^egiment)

Illustrated byThomas derrickCover Design by

R. P. GOSSOPSOME of us laid down oui lives at Yptes; there, too,

many o( us said farewell for all lime to our care-less youth. No one of us will ever regret his sacrificeor forget the tereor and the splendour of those days.Of those who have fallen, write only upon their

monuments,THEY FELL JIT YPRESit is immortal honour.NEW YORKROBERT M. McBRIDE & COMPANY

1917


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PrefaceYPEES en FLANDRB

JADIS, en pays Flandre, il 6tait une ville,belle parmi toutes les antres villes

belles du pays Flandres; Cent clochers laveillaient et cent villages s'etaient group6sd son ombre; l'6t6 des moissons d'or k dixKeues k la ronde, houlaient vers elles leurvagues lumineuses, et il semblait que desvoix invisibles bruissaient dans I'air pourproclamer sa beauts.

H61as aujourd'hui elle est morte, herSi-que et martyre, et il n'y a plus en Flandre^ni clochers, ni moissons, ni villages.Le vent qui passait au large a entendu

sa clameur de souffrance, et le vent I'aemport6 k I'autre bout du monde, et ce futpar la terre entifire un sanglot violent.


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6 PEEFACELes 6toiles qui pavaient le ciel, ont tu de

leurs yeux d'or et d'6ffroi, la rage d6men-t6e du feu et du sang, se disputer les pauvresmembres tortures, et les 6toiles ont paUd'^pouvent, et elles ont ferm6 leurs pau-pi^res, pour ne plus voirMais quand Ypres exhala son ^me, que,dans un dernier brasier elle s'6fErondarouge, la terre Flamande en tr^ssaient sifort qu'au loin du plus lointaine cimiti^reson frisson 6treignit les os des morts quise dress^rent 6pouvant6s et blames,commesi se venait de sonner I'heure du GrandJugement.

Autrefois, il ^tait en Flandre . . .Vous m' avez fait I'honneur, Mon cMrCapitaine Pollard, de me demander pourvotre 6tude historique sur Ypres, quelquesnotes limitaires et vous me voyez fortembarrass6;Je viens d'achever la lecture de votre

travail si int^ressant et si documents k la


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PREFACE rfois, et je constate que vous avez dit tout qequ'il fallait dire, et aussi que vous I'avezdit mieux que je I'aurai pti.Pendant que nos Jasses k I'autre ei-

tr6mit6 de la ligne, luttaient et mouraientstoiquement k I'Yser, vous 6tiez \k, avec lesv6tres, les chevaleresque et nobles Tom-mies, qui mouraient et luitaient superbe-ment pour d6fendre ce qui nous restait en-core de notre pauvre petite Belgique.Vous avez personnellement v^cn cette

mort d'Ypres. Avec le vent vous avez en-tendu, avec les 6toiles vous avez vu, et unlarge frisson d'horreur poignante a secou6vos vertebres et est entr6 dans vos moelles.Vous ne connaissiez peut-6tre pas cette

Flandre dont vous 6tiez un des rampartsd'heroisme.

C'6tait un si lointainement lointain pays,mais d la voir souffrir vous I'avez aim6e ettoute son 4me est entree dans votre ^me.La r^volte a battue dans vos artSres, la


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8 PEEFACEhaine a mont6 dans vos tempes et, commeelle levait les moignons de ses bras en unappel suprfime,^vous avez eu la visionmerveilleuse d'iin passe plus merveilleuxencore, surgir entre les mines, et toutsI'Histoire de Flandres vous est apparuemagnifiquement perp6tue.Votre sang g6n6reux a coul6 sur la terre

flammande, et la terre a bu votre sang aveele sang de nos ultimes d^fenseurs.Aujourd'hui elle en est impregne et

quand plus tard les bl6s nouveaux se 16ve-ront sur nos champs, ces bl6s seront richesd'une s6ve commune, car vos morts et nosmorts dorment confondues en une frater-nelle et mfime 6treinte.

MARCEL WYSEUR.


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THE STORY OF YPRES


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[HERE is no name con-nected with the Euro-pean War that will livelonger in men's mindsthan that of Ypres. Itis a word that carriesits suggestion of death-

less heroism, its sad symbolism of sacrifice,and its glorious tradition of victory to all

11


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12 THE STORY OF YPREScorners of the earth where the Anglo-Saxontongue is heard.

Ypres, Ypres la morte a City of theDead^but deathless for all time.To hold the city the best blood of the

Allies has been shed. British and Belgian,French and Canadian, Turcos from Algeria,and Indians from the banks of the Gangesand Indus, all have given their lives, dyingto maintain the position upon which de-pended the whole fortunes of the Westernwar.

There were two separate battles of Ypresin the first year of the war, each critical,each costly, but both victorious. Out ofthe medley of contemporary accounts,sketches, and stories of the war in Flanders,tales of the salient of Ypres take premierplace, and no other battle name can assailthe majesty of the Dead City.

It is in this very breadth and spaciousnessof the images that the name evokes that


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THE STORY OF YPRES 13

THE PIHST BATTLE OF TPEESTHE LINE ONOCTOBER 21.


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14 THE STORY OF YPEESclear idea of the city itself is lost. Ypresmeans so much to us that it is hard to realizeit as a little Flemish town, the kernel ofthose lines of defence that twice withstoodthe stupendous onslaught of the Germanlegions. The city is ashes, but its namewill live for ever. The story of its deathis the story of the collapse of the Germanoffensive in Flanders.

It is difficult to convey an idea of the sizeor extent of a strange town to people whohave never seen it, but Ypres was a city ofsome seventeen thousand inhabitantslittle quiet country town about the size ofDurham, St. Albans, or Bridgewater.

Established in the fourteenth century, itwas for long the centre of the woollen trade,and had much traffic with our Englishtowns. The prosperous burghers took pridein their city, and its wonderful Cathedral ofSaint Martin and its celebrated Cloth Hallwere among the finest early Gothic build-


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THE STORY OF YPRES 15ings in Flanders. With the passing of timeand the decay of the wool trade, Ypresbecame a sleepy little backwater, whoseindolent calm was occasionally disturbed bythe various French wars ; but in those daysit was seldom that the fabric of a citysuffered hurt from siege or leaguer.In 1914 it stood but little touched by

time, as quiet and serene as, let us say, theCathedral Close of Wells. It was ratherout of the way for tourists' visits, and stillmaintained its character as a religious cen-tre, the population being for the most partdevoted Catholics and much of the life ofthe town centering around the religiouscommunities and the Cathedral. The peoplewere mainly industrious middle-class Bel-gians, and the leisurely manufacture ofhand-made Valenciennes lace was their chiefsource of income. Little did they dreamof the martyrdom that they would sufferbefore the close of the year.


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16 THE STORY OF YPRESEvents move swiftly, and the German

advance, driven back from the line of theMarne to the positions upon the Aisne,changed its nature and began to stretch outtoward the sea coast. The German HighCommand anticipated an attack in greatstrength along the line of the La Bass6eCanal, an assault that never came. Thisimaginary concentration they endeavouredto outflank. Had this plan been successful,the whole British and Belgian forces wouldhave been hemmed in against the coastlinebetween Antwerp and Calais, while the mainGerman attack would have swept through4rras to Boulogne.So soon as this design became manifest,

the Allies carried out the evacuation ofAntwerp, which was no longer tenable, andthe Belgian Army retreated through Ghent,covered by the British 7th Division and theNaval Division, and preceded by the 3rdCavalry Division. By October 15, 1914,


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THE STOEY OF YPRES 17the retreat had been safely accomplished,and much of the Belgian Army, ^ ery wearyand disorganized, lay in the Forest ofHoulthurst near Ypres. The remainderlay round Ostend. The city of Ypres itselfwas full of wounded, and four miles awaytowards Armenti^res the English cavalrypatrols were in touch with the enemy, andwith the remainder of the British forcesthat had been fighting round Armenti^res,checking the westward expansion of theGerman line while the retreat from Antwerpwas in progress.

This, then, was the position when theBritish first entered Ypres. The BelgianArmy, exhausted but safe, had gained theline of the Yser Canal. The British forcethat had been separatedpart at Antwerp,the other at Lillehad joined again, andboth French and British were strainingevery nerve to pour up more reserves oftroops to hold the line of the Yser from


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18 THE STORY OF YPRESNieuport to Ypres. It had been a raceagainst time, and the Allies had won.As yet Sir John French had no knowledge

of the vast forces the Germans were bring-ing against us, and on the 19th of OctoberSir Henry Eawlinson with the 7th Divisionwas ordered to seize Menin and, as soon asthe 1st Corps under Sir Douglas Haigcould reinforce him, pivot upon Menin andendeavour to outflank the Grerman right atCourtrai. It was impossiblethe Germanshad brought no fewer than four new reservecorps straight from Germany toward Cour-trai. On the evening of the 20th the Alliedforces were in the position that they haveheld ever since, and the stage was set forthe first battle of Ypres.

It is difficult to set a period to a modernbattle, but authorities agree that this battlelasted from the 20th of October to the 17thof November, a period of twenty-sevendays. Field-Marshal Viscount French him-


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THE STOEY OF YPRES 19self specifies Saturday the Slst as the mostcritical of all.The long drawn conflict had varying

periods of intensity. A close analysis of itfrom a purely military standpoint can sub-divide it into a series of successive actionsand plot it out into a rhythmic series ofthrust, parry and counter thrusts as thecontending armies were manoeuvred by theirmaster brains. Such an exposition is be-wildering to the lay mind, and cannot beachieved within the limits of space allowedme in this little book. I must thereforetreat of the battle on broader lines, view-ing it as a whole and only sub-dividing itinto its essential phases.The whole purpose of the Germans was

to break through at Ypres and so clear theway to Calais and the Channel ports. TheAllies used every man they could spare tostop the thrust of these vast masses thatenormously outnumbered . them, and the


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20 THE STORY OF YPRESfirst battle of Ypres splits into two phasesThe first of these was from the 20th to the31st of Octoberthe crisis and turningpoint of the battle, the second from the 31stof October to the 17th of November. Thethree days of paramount importance werethe 29th, 30th and 31st of October, duringwhich period the fate of the Allied causetrembled in the balance.The first battle of Ypres was a contest of

giants, for the pick of the German armieswas concentrated upon the adventure. Op-posed to them they had the trained Britishsoldiers of the Old Regular Army, unitsbrought up to strength after mobilisationby calling up their reservists, and in thelater stages of the battle they met crackBritish Territorial units.The strength of the British lay not only

in their indomitable spirit and magnificentdiscipline, but in their terrible musketryefficiency. The Germans had an over-


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THE STORY OF YPRES 21whelming preponderance both in men andin artillery, they attacked with magnificentcourage and methodical precision, but theywere not a match for either British orFrench troops. Man to man the Allies wereimmeasurably superior, and all through thisperiod of bitter sacrifice, despite terrificcasualties and weariness to the point ofexhaustion, their courage remained un-daunted, their morale superbly unshaken.The world has never seen better troops.By the 20th of October the 1st Corps had

arrived at Ypres, and relieved the pressureof the existing 7th Division and the Cavalrywho together with the French who wereholding the Yser Canal bank north ofYpres, formed the Allied force in the Ypressector.The first series of actions in the battle

took place in the northern sector of theSalient, then gradually extended round thecentre and culminated in the terrific attacks


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22 THE STOEY OF YPBESalong the Menin road and to the southwhich characterised the critical period.During all the period of fighting round

Ypres a fierce contest was taking place allalong the La Bass6e-Messines line furthersouth, and the British troops there were sofiercely engaged that no reinforcementscould be spared. Action was continuous,and practically speaking, fighting ragedwith more or less intensity from Dixmudeto La Bassee, in an unbroken line of fire.On the 21st of October Haig's First Corps

took up its position to the north of Ypresand attacked towards Poelcappelle. Theirleft flank was supported by the FrenchTerritorials of the 87th and 89th Division,their right by the British 7th Division.This movement was promptly attacked bythe whole of the German forces concentratedunder General von Fabeck, and the 21st and22nd of October were days of the fiercestfighting the hearts of soldiers could desire.


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THE STORY OF YPRES 23The Germans still held to their idea ofmassed formations, and endeavoured to

overwhelm the twin Allied line by sheerweight of men and a stupendous concentra-tion of artillery fire.The Allies spread out over a wide range

of country, they had nothing but extempor-ised cover, and mere ditches rather thantrenches, and they had no reserves. It wasa Homeric contest madly, resolutely foughtout, a soldiers' battle.The grey swathes of Germans lay dead

before the British positions. Our shallowfire trenches were choked with dead Ger-mans who had fallen upon our bayonets, andthe incessant German assaults were brokenby concentrated magazine fire and drivenback to cover by counter attacks with thebayonet.Men fought and had no time for thinking,

wounded men loaded for their comradesand the waving tide of battle fluctuated


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24 THE STORY OF YPEESbackward and forward over the narrowfiring zone until the ground was thick withdead and dying.

In the meantime the French on the lefthad suffered heavily and had been forcedback towards the canal. To reinforce themthe 1st Brigade; Scots Guards, CameronHighlanders and the Black Watch in re-serve, had been moved round to this flankand the junction of the defensive line be-tween the Scots Guards and the Oameronswas a horseshoe of trenches round thePilkan inn.

This point was attacked by the Germanvolunteer corps, the Einjahrige, a unit com-posed of young lads who were serving theiryear of probation in the ranks before receiv-ing commissions as officers. These cadetsadvanced in mass formation singing pa-triotic songs, and despite terrific lossessucceeded in carrying the position. It wasa brave fight and the spirit of the cadets


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THE STORY OF YPRES 25called forth unstinted admiration from ourown seasoned troops, but even this recklesssacrifice of their best young blood availedthem nothing. The position was retakennext day.

This fighting in the northern sector hadproved terribly costly for the Germans.Every foot of ground had been contested,no advantageous points had been wrestedfrom the Allies and the carnage had beenhideous. In the meantime the centre sectorheld by the 7th Division had not beenheavily attacked, for the Germans supposedthat it was very strongly held. On the23rd the French 9th Army Corps arriveda very welcome reinforcement, and duringthe 23rd and 24th they took over the north-ern sector of the Salient while the Britishwere withdrawn to reinforce the lightlyheld south and centre.The ring of fire was drawn tight round

the whole Salient. During the fierce battle


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26 THE STORY OF YPRESin the Northern sector minor attacks andconstant bombardment had been the lot ofthe centre and south. It was a difficultposition, for there were neither reserves norreliefs, and had either of the flanks givenway the tide of battle would have sweptthrough to the rear, leaving the other de-fenders isolated among the hordes.So thinly was the line held that, even as

it was, the enemy on occasions penetratedthe line. Such an event occurred on the24th when the line near Reutel was piercedand the enemy poured into Polygon wood.For a moment it was touch-and-go, but theDivisional Cyclists and the Northumber-land Hussars Yeomanry, though hugely out-numbered, succeeded in holding the enemy.It was brave work dependent absolutelyon musketry, and there the British mark-manship had a chance to assert itself, andthe Germans, unable to advance in solidmasses through the trees, suffered badly


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THE STOEY OF YPRES 27through their lack of training in individualskill at arms. The 2nd Warwicks werespeedily brought up and cleared the woodwith rifle and bayonet, killing an enormousnumber of Germans with a marvellouslylight toll of casualties among themselves.It was Indian fighting, quick snap shootingand rushes from cover to cover. The be-wildered Germans died in droves.The Germans now called more or less

of a halt in the battle and proceeded tochange their point of view of assault, theNorth having proved invulnerable. Thefighting in the future was to be directedalong the Menin road and against thesouthern sector towards Hollebeke.The natural position of Ypres made it noeasy position to attack, for it lies girdled

upon the East and South by a ridge of highground. These low hills were held by theAllies, and in addition to giving them asuperior position for artillery fire and


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28 THE STOEY OF YPRESdirect observation, the hills were thicklywooded and only pierced by the main roadsthat radiate starlike out of the city of Ypresto Menin, Lille and Eoulers.The German attack depended upon over-

whelming the AlKes under mass attacks.The odds in favour of the Germans wereabout ten to one, but such was the natureof the position that they could only attackin mass formation along the roads and openspaces. Among the woods their formationscould not keep touch, or move unbroken,yet nothing but masses of men and recklessdisregard of carnage could hope to subduethe terrible superiority of the British fire.The Kaiser came in person to Courtrai

and Thielt. Sir John French visited theBritish Headquarters at Hooge, and uponour side, too, advantage was taken of thepause to re-arrange and re-adjust. The linevas concentrated and stiffened. While SirJohn French worked the Kaiser inspected


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THE STORY OF YPRES 29and made speeches to the picked Germantroops, heartening them to die willingly forthe triumph of Kaiserdom and Germanarms. On the 29th of October the first ofthe three Great Days began.The 2nd Division held the line from

Zonnebeke in the north to Eeutel, the 1stDivision held from Beutel south to KruiseikHill, and the 7th Division held KruiseikHill itself and thence south to Zandvoorde.The cavalry held the trenches from Zand-voorde to the Lys Canal. Such was theBritish line of battle, a girdle of heroesround the city of Ypres.The action opened at dawn with a terrific

bombardment by the massed German artil-lery, and was succeeded by an attackstraight down the great Menin road by thevast mass of the German column. Simul-taneously the Germans advanced minorcolumns to the attack along the roads toReutel and Zandvoorde and such inter-


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30 THE STOEY OF YPRESmediate by-roads and spaces that convergedupon the British line.The main attack had as its objective the

seizing of Kruiseik Hill, and despite theghastly slaughter of Germans that tookplace along the fire-swept Menin road, the'surviving masses, pressing forward literallyover mounds of their dead and dying com-rades, succeeded in seizing the hill at abouttwo o'clock in the afternoon, having enduredthat merciless blizzard of death for someeight hours.Everywhere else along the front they had

been repulsed and had not succeeded inreaching our trenches. Braving the mostappalling losses they attacked again andagain, but each time the merciless Britishfire consumed them.Then came Sir Douglas Haig's order for

a general British counter attack. Our menswept forward, cheering as they fiashed theirgleaming bayonets, and the German attack


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THE STORY OF YPRES 31was everywhere hurled back broken uponits lines. Kruiseik Hill was stormed andregained with a vast slaughter of the re-sisting Germans and the fortunes of the daywere again favourable to the Allies.

'^ In the night the Germans received avery strong reinforcement of no less thanthree corps, the Fifteenth and ThirteenthGerman, and the second Bavarian Corps.The attack next morning came not along theMenin road, but south at Zandvoorde andHollebeke. No less than five Army Corps,some 300,000 men attacked the low hills heldby the 7th Division and the Cavalry Di-vision. Odds of more than ten to one, butnot too great for our sterling fighters. TheGerman troops had received the ImperialOrder, they had been told that upon themdepended the vital issue of the campaign,and in truth this was so, for their failurewas no less our lasting victory.The field grey masses swarmed the lowe**


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32 THE STORY OF YPKESslopes under a blaze of crackling, unerringrifle fire from tlie trenches, while the vaultabove them was trashed by shrapnel fromthe guns. Wave after wave of men surgedon to meet with annihilation. The deadmen hampered the living, and when at lastthe inestimable mass of survivors reachedthe trenches held by the Cavalry Division,the British, who had suffered few casualties,simply melted away in the woods behindand withdrew to another position in therear.The Germans did not dare face those

deadly woods from which the incessantripple of skirmishers' musketry still flayedthem. They halted on the Zandvoorderidge to reform, and during the pause SirDouglas Haig was able to withdraw thewhole southern line and reform it along theKlein Zillebeke ridge from Gheluvelt tothe canal. The French, ever ready in co-operation, were able to send over to the


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THE STORY OF YPEES 33right flank three infantry battalions and acavalry brigade from the 9th Corps. Mean-while the thrust at Hollebeke had beenheld by the Cavalry of the 2nd Division,and they had inflicted terrible losses uponthe attacking columns whose hopeless taskit was to turn Hollebeke to ease the attackupon Zandvoorde. The situation wascritical, but there were still some smallreserves in hand for emergency, and theposition was still tenable.The failure of the Zandvoorde-HoUebeke

turning movement was manifest, so on thefollowing day, the memorable 31st ofOctober, 1914, the German assault wasrenewed on the original line down theMenin road, while at the same time a simul-taneous attack was delivered from Zand-voorde.At daybreak a French reinforcement

that had come over from the 9th Corpscounter-attacked south-east of Gheluvelt,


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34 THE STORY OF YPRESbut the masses of enemy were impenetrableand the attack was halted. The fortunesof the day centred upon Gheluvelt, anddespite all efforts the 1st Division was atlast driven in and its flank forced to retreatdown the road toward Ypres.The attack from Zandvoorde had also

been pressed home so that the 7th Divisionhad not only their left flank enflladed atGheluvelt but their right flank on the Klein-Zillebeke ridge turned. They too had toretreat through the woods toward Ypres.At this critical juncture Sir John French

was at Hooge and in personal touch withthe march of events. As the Germansdrove their huge column along the Meninroad into the British Salient they exposedan ever-growing vulnerable flank. Sir JohnFrench seized his opportunity. This flankwas promptly attacked from the North byall troops that could be mustered from the1st Army Corps and 27,000 menthe 1st


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THE STORY OF YPRES 35Division and part of the 2nd Division^werehurled against this weak point.

It was a master stroke. The enemy wereheld, the retiring British troops rallied, andthe great mass of the German thrust at-tacked from front and flank was mowndown wholesale. For a brief moment theyheld together, then the rout commencedand the broken masses streamed backthrough the deadly woods toward their ownlines.

Despite the incessant three days' fightingthe victorious British pursued with rifleand bayonet, while the 6th Cavalry Brigadecleared the woods of little isolated bodiesand stragglers.

It was a grim bit of work, that rout ofthe German masses, when the debris of thevast broken fighting machine tried to escapeback to their own lines. That belt of wood-land and hills round Ypres proved the last


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36 THE STORY OF YPEESresting place of many thousands of Ger-mans.The battle was destined to drag on an-

other fifteen days, but the great effort wasover. The Germans had suffered a hammerblow from which they could never recover.The crisis was past, for Sir John French'smaster stroke had brought victory. Thepressure on the Allied line slackened andthe road to Calais was still closed.The bombardment of the city began on

the 1st of November, for the Germans hadseized Messines and HoUebeke, and theslight hills gave them the necessary gunpositions. Then began the agony of thetownsfolk.For ten days the guns had roared in the

woods around the city. Refugees hadpoured in from burning farmsteads anddriven in terror down the soldiery-chokedroads.The weather was the merciless, dispiriting


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THB CIVILIANS' FLIGHT.


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38 THE STOEY OF YPEESdamp of a Flanders autumn, cold, dreary,and miserable. The refugees who had fledbefore the horde of Uhlans spread ghastlytales of outrage and infamy. Here andthere one came across a vivid picture of thepersecution. A high-wheeled country cartpiled with hastily packed gear and massesof furniture, the outside of the cart decor-ated like a gipsy caravan with still morebundles of poor peasants' goods. Proppedagainst the furniture in the cart was adingy, shapeless feather mattress, on whichlay a young girl, her face so pale and trans-parent that the grey shadows of deathbeneath her eyes seemed black and shocking,like corrupted flesh. Her bosom was band-aged, and the blue cyanide gauze of anArmy fleld dressing showed clotted with therust of blood. Beside the cart trudged therelations, and an old priest in flapping blacksoutane and little bib of clear white bead-work. An old bowed man led the heavy


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THE STOEY OF YPRES 39Flemish cart-horse and pulled aside obe-diently to clear the road for gun-limbershurrying up.A wounded French territorial, limpingdown to a dressing-station near Vlamer-tinghe, paused and asked the old cur6 aquestion. The answer came in short, burn-ing sentences and gesticulations that werepoignant in their wealth of expression.They told the tale of a Belgian girl and aUhlan officer.The arches and cellars of the municipal

offices beneath the Halles were filled withrefugees. Children separated from families,mothers from daughters. The whole placea fantastic medley of nightmarish soundsand signs of misery.Through the masses flitted the white-

cowled nuns, Sisters of the Irish Convent,Poor Clares and other Orders. They workedunceasingly to help, comfort, and alleviatedistress, but all the religious buildings in


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40 THE STORY OF YPKESthe town were full of refugees, of woundedsoldiers, of billeted troops, and the bitterbut essential things of war. Ypres was nohaven of refugeall must take the roadagain.Then came the first shellslarge, long-

range, howitzer projectiles that whined andwailed as they fell. The houses round thePort de Lille and outside the rampartswere the first to suffer; then the bombard-ment became general. Shells exploded inthe Grand Palace, and this square intowhich every main street in the town ledbecame a shambles.

People took refuge in their cellars, butthe shells swept through, bursting^ in thebasement and bringing the building downin murderous cataracts of brick upon thepoor wretches beneath. The women wept,prayed, and crowded for safety into theCathedral and the Church of St. Nicolas.They did not know the German in those


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THE STORY OP YPRES 41days, and the poor fools thought the Houseof God would be a sanctuary against theshells. On the second day of the bombard-ment a shell fell upon some school-childrenplaying in the Rue de Temple. A secondshell destroyed the house where a dressing-station for wounded civilians had beeninstalled. Dead soldiers and dead civilianslay side by side among the debris.To add to the terrors of this desultory

bombardment, fire broke out in the streetsof mean dwellings and spread unchecked,consuming an outlying portion of the town.Rumours flew from mouth to mouth asthe fortunes of the day wavered, and thetownspeople, who dared not leave, eagerlyquestioned the haggard wounded whopoured in from the front. Day after daythe battle continued, now dulling downwhen the countryside was wrapped in wetfog, then beginning again with redoubledfury when the languid breeze lifted the veil.


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42 THE STOEY OF YPRESDbwn the railroad line stood an armouredtrain mounting a single large-calibre gun,

and all through the days of battle thisduelled steadily with the distant Germanmortars. On the 15th of November thefirst news reached us that the sluices hadbeen opened, and that Flanders from Bix-choote to Dixmude was under water. Asif in revenge, the German artillerists turnedtheir attention to the sluices and lockgatesof the canal in Ypres, and vast shells fell,demolishing these water controls. Theirdemolition but added to the inundationsand general misery.New regiments arrived, marched out to

Hooge and Zillebeke, and were seen no morebut as tattered handfuls of woundedtheskeletons of companies, commanded by acorporal.The enemy were held; Bavarians and

Wurtembergers alike were broken and ex-hausted. In desperation the High Com-


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THE STOKY OF YPEES 43mand brought up the Prussian Guard, theEmperor's Own 1st and 4th Brigades, andmarched them to attacli the point of theSalient at Gheluvelt.Day and night minor attacks and inces-

sant bombardments had gone on. TheGermans had almost given up hope but per-sisted in these wearing down attacks, fortheir whole military reputation was at stake.Their failure in the great three days andthe decisive Allied victory was echoing tothe corners of the civilized world, and themyth of German military supremacy, dam-aged by the previous defeats upon the Mameand the recovery by the Allies of the powerof the offensive, was still further demolishedby their definite defeat at Ypres. There wasstill one more attempt to come.On the 11th of November, after a pre-

liminary bombardment of unparallelled in-tensity they launched the two Brigades ofthe Prussian Guard, some 1,300 men of the


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44 THE STOEY OF YPRESpicked soldiers of the German Army, pledgedto victory or death. The Guard chargedNorth of the Menin road, while the otherline troops delivered a, parallel assaultalong the Southern side. This made theirline of advance almost parallel to theBritish front. Only the Guard attackreached our line, the other was withered byour fire, but the Guards came on magnificentin their steadiness, moving in mass forma-tion as if on parade and dying methodicallyin ranks and companies.

Despite their casualties, so vast weretheir numbers and such the momentum oftheir mass that they penetrated the Britishline at several points and passed throughinto the woods. Once in the woods theirmass broke up and the superiority of theindividual British fighter against the herdof trained Germans told once more. Volleyfiring and individual man shooting took aterrific toll. Even so, scattered units of the


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THE STORY OF TPRES 45Guard penetrated through the woods al-most to our gun positions, but every sparegunner and regimental fatigue man thatcould be hastily sgraped together took up arifle and helped to bring the advance to astandstill. A counter attack was deliveredwhich once more cleared the woods. Therewere deadly hand to hand grapples withrevolver and bayonet, and dusk fell upon thevictorious remnants of the British forcestill holding their positions before whichthe Guard lay dead in wide piled swathesand knots.With the collapse of this culminating

effort, the enemies' bombardment of thecity was intensified. It seemed as if theyknew that they would never gain it, butwere determined to wreak their vengeanceupon the defiant town. Day and night theguns roared ceaselessly, the sullen mutterof their rage audible right down to Picardy.The woodwork of the Cloth Hall and the


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46 THE STORY OF YPEESCathedral roof blazed and burnt in spark-shot veils of smoke, and the great Churchof St. Nicolas lay part in ruins.Wrapped in its shroud of smoke the city

endured its agony, and its old-world beautypassed away beneath the iron hail. Mostof the inhabitants had fled, and none butmilitary remained. The dull clash of thefalling masonry, and the shrill whine ofshell splinters ricochetting from the roofs,echoed and re-echoed in the desertedcloisters of the church. Inside the Cathe-dral, all lay piled in disordercrosses,marble statues from the tombs, the old oakchoir-stalls, rags of burned canvas that oncewere priceless picturesall lay scarred andsmashed beneath the masses of fallenmasonry and plaster from the roof. Brokenbeauty was everywherehere a carvedangel's head, here a fretted pinnacle, andover all the whole mass glittered with thesheen of many jewels, the broken lozenges


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XHE BURNIXG OF THS HALLES, NOVEMBER, I9I4,


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48 THE STORY OF TPEESof many-stained glass that once had madethe Cathedral windows glow with sump-tuous colouring.The tall twin turrets of the Halles Tower

stood battered and flame-scarred against thesky, and the memory of Ypres that manyhold is the night viewa rolling crimsonsky shot with the orange flashes of the fall-ing shells, and projecting in silhouetteagainst the flames the tall towers of theCathedral and the Halles.Sometimes a burst of sable smoke would

obscure the view and then would floataway, disclosing the towers as before; orperhaps the eye of a native could discerna new wounda missing pinnacle or a blackbulk of roof that had changed to a red andangry gap against the lurid background ofthe fire. So finished the first phase of themartyrdom of Ypres. Shell and fire, themad vengeance of the disappointed German,


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THE STOEt OF YPRES 49had raped the beauty that had lasted forsix hundred years.But Yprea still stood, some houses still

intact, and the spirit of Ypres endured todrive back the Germans once again. Sixmonths later began the second battle ofYpres.


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50 THE STORY OF YPRES

II;HE first battle of Ypreshad died away in thesnowstorms and bliz-zards of the third weekof November, and as ifdispirited by the vio-lence of the elements,

the bombardment of the city weakened to adesultory fire of a dozen or so shells a day.The rain quenched the smouldering em-

bers of the fires, scoured the white drift ofplaster and ashes from the buildings, andwashed the poor faces of the dead.The fierce fighting had settled to the long

slow misery of trench warfare, and in placeof the open give-and-take of field operations,Germans and Allies alike were bound bythe conditions of climate and flat terrainof Flanders. Both sides dug themselves in,


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THE STORY OF YPRES 51and the phase of trench warfare became theroutine of the war.

Slowly regaining confidence, the towns-people ventured back, urged by necessityto rescue such goods as the fortune of thebombardment had spared to them.They found a city of ruinsa terrible

and unforgettable sight. For day after dayshells had been rained upon Ypres, pro-jectiles of all sizes, from the large twelve-inch naval armour piercing shells, to thelittle four and a half inch field-howitzershrapnel. At the height of the bombard-ment, the fire was so intense that competentartillerists estimated it as ten to fifteenshells a minute.The Grand Place was encumbered withheaps of masonry from the Halles, littered

with piles of brick and splintered woodworkfrom the torn fronts of the houses. Shellholes eight to ten feet deep yawned atintervals, and the interiors of riven houses


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52 THE STOEY OF YPEESseemed to have the monstrous untidiness ofa jumbled doll's-house.A large number of the houses were intact,and had only suffered external scars orminor injuries; but in places whole streetshad disappeared into a wilderness of fallenbrick, and houses yawned roofless to theskies.

These interiors were pitiful ; it seemed asif a giant knife had cut out the fronts, ex-posing to the passer-by the most intimateof domestic arrangements. The paperflapped wildly from the walls, pictures hungawry, and the opened, untidy disarray ofcupboards and chests betrayed the pre-cipitancy of their owners' flight.Groups of soldiery stood in the streetsgazing round-eyed at the devastation. Little

two-wheeled carts drawn by sturdy dog-teams and steered by thick-set peasantsassisted at the work of salvage. New troopsmarched in, gazed amazed, and marched


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'AFTER THE FIRST BOMBARDMENT.


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54 THE STORY OF YPRESonward to their lines with faces grim-setin determination. In an Irish regimentevery man carried some relic of the wreck-age of the Cathedralmore as an inmemoriam of a sacrilege to be avengedthan as a souvenir of war. The very vast-ness of the desolation seemed to shock thepeople into silencethat instinctive hushwhich comes over humanity in the presenceof the dead.

All through the bombardment the Archi-prtre of the Cathedral and some of theservitors worked hard trying to extinguishthe flames started by shell-fire, but thework was hopeless and the building lay awreck.

Shell-holes yawned in the pavement,tombs gaped, and slabs of riven marble layin heaped disorder. A few of the morevaluable things had been saved and lay inthe vaulted chambers of the clergy house,but the nave was choked with fallen stone-


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THE STORY OF YPEES 55work and debris, and blue sky shone tbrougliragged holes in the vaulted roof. In thesilence of the great wrecked church the windwould moan softly, and little bits of stainedglass from the shattered windows falltinkling at one's feet.Incongruous in the Cathedral Square

stood the modern statue of Van der Peere-boom, a grotesque frock-coated modernhideous and blatant, but the only thingthat chance had spared. The Museum wasgone, and the old Hotel Merghelynck,which had been entirely furnished as aperiod museum of the eighteenth century,was damaged. The celebrated Cloth Halllay a roofless skeleton with only the cellarsof the ground floor unharmed. The towerstill stood, but in the square lay the brazenbells and cogged drum of the belfrythemechanism of the famous Carillon ofYpres, whose tuneful music had soundedhourly for hundreds of years across the flat


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56 THE STORY OF YPRESmarsh levels of the Flanders lowlands.Nothing had been sparedthe Germans hadnot even left Ypres the music of its bells.

As time went on, conditions settled down

to the more or less humdrum existence ofa town in the firing zone. Christmas passeda day of scant rejoicing, for neither peacenor goodwill were dominant emotions withthe people of Ypres.The inhabitants had returned to the town,

and in many cases elected to remain ratherthan face the troubles of trying to removethemselves and their goods to a safer spot.The dogged Belgian spirit manifested itself,and the poorer classes clung obstinatelyto their imperilled homes. Curious scenesoccurred when refugees returned and foundanother family living in the house thatthey had abandoned.

There was little looting, but also littlesecurity of property, and it was openly said


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THE HOUSE OF GOD.'


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58 THE STORY OF YPKESthat some loose characters among the poorerclasses had become strangely aflfiuent sincethe bombardment. Certain it was thatthey were far better supplied with thisworld's goods than ever they were beforethe finger of calamity had touched them.A spirit of enterprise arose, and nearly everysmall house in the town developed into alittle shop driving a thriving trade in smallluxuries with the soldiers. Food and com-forts of all kinds were in brisk demand, andthe country folk from all round throngedinto Ypres to sell their produce at highpricesand the prices were notoriously,nay, infamously high. With such utterdesolation around them the soldiery sufferedthese extortions with a dry good-humour,and were content to get these little allevia-tions of their discomfort at any price.

It is generally during a war that goodcooking is most appreciated, and the Parisrestaurateurs reaped fortunes after the fall


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THE STORY OF YPEES 59of Napoleon and after 1871. So on asmaller scale culinary enterprise broke outin Ypres, and the restaurant In de Hemelwas started. The venture was initiated ina bonnet-shopone of the few houses inthe Eue de Lille that had escaped destruc-tion. No money was spent on decoration,and the napery and utensils were miscel-laneous but serviceable. Madame, the pre-siding genius, was a retired cook, a lady ofgreat reputation as a skilled compiler ofFlamand dishes. Before the war she hadretired, but was sometimes lured from herworthy husband and induced to superintendthe kitchen when some local burghersome richard, to use her own expressiongave a banquet.Madame fled from the bombardment,and, returning to salve her belongings, wasso horrified at the awful cooking of officers'servants, that she protested against it as


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60 THE STOEY OF YPRESlikely to disable more officers than theenemies' fire.

Blending enterprise and patriotism, shestarted her restaurant In de Hemel, andopened it to all officers.

It achieved instant success, and the littleroom was crowded with officers of all ranksand nationalities, while others that thespace could not accommodate waitedhungrily for a vacant chair. The menuwas not that of Soyer or Escoffier, but itwas excellent of its kind, and hungrysubalterns would risk the six-mile walkfrom the trenches and back for the joy andwarmth of a good meal at In de Hemel.Madame always cared most for the actual

fighters from the trenches, and wouldcheerfully ignore a major of the ArmyService Corps to feed a hungry subaltern ofa Scottish regiment. The wounded, too,have cause to bless her, for from the back-door of her kitchen a ceaseless train of


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THE STORY OF YPEES 61sturdy Belgian wenches carried free giftsof little custard puddings, bowls of soup,and similar diet to the Casualty Clearing-Stations.

It was little enterprises such as these thatshowed some of the sterling qualities of theBelgian temperament, and one need notfear but that after the war Belgium will riseagain to great prosperity, her greatest assetbeing the industry and resourcefulness ofher people.By degrees Ypres became a show place;

every soldier required picture postcards ofthe famous ruins; souvenirs were eagerlyacquired, and a small kerbstone industry inshell fuses, stained-glass fragments, andrelics of all kinds sprang up. Small boysacquired wealth, and the Cathedral guidemust have accumulated a substantialbalance. The shelling which sometimesoccurred did not seem to disturb the towns-folk; they had grown accustomed to it. If


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62 THE STORY OF YPRESa shell or two fell they took refuge in theircellars, coming out again so soon as thebombardment stopped.On Sundays a regular church parade took

place in the Grand Place. The townsfolkand their friends from the surroundingcountry fore-gathered and walked up anddown discussing the happenings of the day.Tall khaki-clad military policemen kept thetraffic routes clear of hawkers and stalls,and moved the crowd about as imperturb-ably as if on point duty in London.

It was a curious life, this period betweenthe battles; a medley of civilian and mili-tary interests, a continuous pageant ofsharp contrastsnuns and turbaned Sikhs,mud-plastered Tommies and neat littleBelgian lace-makers, red cross motor am-bulances and go-carts pulled by dogs,estaminets cheek by jowl with dressing-stations, staff officers in a convent school.The sinister aspect of the campaign seemed


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THE STORY OF YPRES 63to pass unnoticed; our thin line had heldthe German legions, and slowly but surelymore troops were coming. England wastraining, preparing for war; Kitchener'sarmies were in the making; and for thewhile the remnant of the Regulars, andthose fighting gentlemen the Territorials,had stemmed and held the German tide.We could not but be conscious of theoverwhelming pressure on the German side,and our daily intelligence summary chroni-cled the movement of vast armies of Germantroops moving slowly but stirely towards us.At that date public consciousness had not

assimilated the sheer immensity of Germandesigns, the vast magnitude of their opera-tions, and the enormous and overwhelmingmasses of troops that they had put in thefield. Nowhere was this curious obliquityof vision more pronounced than at the front.We could only see the essential facts of ourown individual sectors, and for us the


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u THE STORY OF YPEESmenace of the German hordes did notexist we had held them, and would holdthem again; give us more troops and wewould drive them to the Ehine.With the coming of spring came the new

troops, the first Canadian ExpeditionaryForce; and soon all Canada, from Quebecto Vancouver, was to ring with the sad,imperishable glory of the name of Ypres.


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THE STORY OF YPRES 65

III,JHE Salient of Ypres, as

' it had stood since thefirst battle, can be re-garded as a semicircu-lar bulge of our linesinto the territory heldby the Germans. The

city itself was the centre or hub of thewheel, and roads ran out from it like spokestoward the various segments of the trench-line some three and a half miles away.Along these roads were hamlets whose

names will live for ever in history. At themiddle of April Hooge was a brigade head-quartersa comfortable chateau but littletouched by shell-fire; now it is a heap ofbrick cut through by a front-line trench.St. Julien, Zonnebeke, and Pilkem werelittle villages used as brigade headquarters,


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66 THE STOEY OF YPKESand haying dressing-stations established forthe wounded, store dumps for transport andsupplies, and all the various little officesof the smaller units. Potije, a nearer ham-let, was used as a park for engineeringstoresbarbed-wire, explosives, mine props,and all the miscellany of trench stores.For many weeks there had been little

activity on this part of the front. NeuveChapelle appeared to have distracted theenemy's attention, and he was heavilyengaged with the French operations inArtois. Events succeeded one another withextraordinary rapidity, and the second bat-tle of Ypres seemed to spring out of theminor engagement at Hill 60. On the nightof the 17th of April we exploded a seriesof mines under Hill 60 and rushed the posi-tion. It was a point to which the Germansattached the greatest importance, and theycounter-attacked fiercely for four days.Successive attacks and counter-attacks


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THE STOEY OF YPRES 67raged round the celebrated hill, and we wereeventually driven from what remained of

SECOND BATTLE OP TPRESPOSITION BEFORETHE BATTLE ON THE MORNING OP APRIL 22ND.the position. To-day there is no hillit hasbeen mined out of existence.The weakness of our position in Ypres


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68 THE STOEY OF YPEEShad always been tlie extent of the Salient,and the fact that all our communicationsran through the city. The town itself pos-sessed but little military value, but it wasthe key of the road to Calais, and had apolitical value in that it was the only re-maining town of any size left unconqueredin Belgium. For political reasons it wasessential that not a scrap more of the soilof Flanders should be surrendered, althoughthe position was an unfavorable one for theAllies and a much better line of dfefencecould have been sited on the slightly higherground further back.The northern end of the Salient where it

touched the Yser Canal was held by theFrench Colonial troops; then came theCanadians. The point of the Salient, itsextreme westerly projection, was held bythe 28th Division, and to the south theylinked up with the 27th Division, whoseright flank abutted on Hill 60.


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THE STOEY OF YPEES 69The first warning that we had of theimpending offensive was the violent spread

of the Hill 60 action; then on Tuesday, the20th of April, a new bombardment started.

In Ypres we were used to large shells,but this was a new and more appallingdevelopment of artillery than we had evermet with. The enemy opened fire uponthe town with the giant 42-centimetre siegemortarsthe guns that had crushed Namurand Li6ge.Suddenly and without warning the bom-

bardment began. With a dull drone thatfilled the air the giant shell could be heardcoming for some eight seconds. The noiseof its approach increased till it sounded likethe roar of the passing of an express trainthen fell the shell, and the giant burst ofits detonation seemed to shake the solidearth.The Grand Place was filled with people

passing about their ordinary avocations


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70 THE STOEY OF YPRESwhen the first of these monsters fell. Itburst in a group of houses to the north sideof the square, of which the Hotel de laChatell^nie was one, and the blast of itsexplosion drove a hail of fragments andmasonry across the open space.

All was confusion; the vast cloud ofsmoke and dust ascended to twice the heightof the Cathedral towers and bellied outlike a dark yellow fog across the square.After the hail of fragments had descendedthere fell a moment of shocked silence, thenout of the murk rose cries too terrible tohear.The Place was a shambles, for bodies lay

in all directions, some mercifully dead,others mere heaps of agony. The headlessbody of the mounted policeman lay thirtyyards away from the grotesque that hadbeen his horse; a child lay motionless,pinned down by a giant pile of wreckage.Ambulances and helpers were on the


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THE STORY OF YPEES 71scene in a flash. The figures of the menmoving through the fog and dust of de-struction seemed vague and distorted, fan-tastic and unreal. The whole square reekedwith the acrid smell of the explosion, andthe dry lime-dust scent of builder's yardthat rose from the crushed housesa scentthat will ever bring back memory.The soldiers plunged in among the

tangled beams that had been the hotel, andcommands and shouts for stretcher-bear-ers rose through the high-pitched cryingof the hurt. A crowd gathered, and aFrench soldier came carrying a little girlin his arms. Her long fair hair fell in agold cascade over his upper arm, and partof the pale tresses were dark and clotted.Her bare arm hung down, and a clear redtrickle of blood had formed a crimsontracery upon the pale marble of her skin.There was nothing to be done, or said; theambulance men accepted the frail burden,


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72 THE STORY OF YPEESand after a brief examination the doctorthrew out his hand with a gesture of sadimpotence.Hardly had the first ambulance left the

square when the second shell fell, not farfrom where the first had landed. Afterthat the giant projectiles fell at intervals oftwenty minutes. As record was kept oftheir fall the gunners' design soon becameapparentthey were registering theirtarget. An aeroplane wirelessed the resultof each shot back to them, and they madetheir corrections of aim accordingly. Itwas soon clear that their objective wasto destroy the roads and so hamper ourcommunications. As the crater formed bythe explosion of a 42-centimetre shell issome thirty or forty feet across, and someseventeen or more deep, it will be readilyappreciated what labour is needed to repaira road damaged by one of these vast pro-jectiles.


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THE STOEY OF YPEES 73The first day the enemy refrained from

using other shells against the town, butsimply used the big 42-centimetre siege-guns. Every twenty minutes the sky wouldbe filled with the roaring of the wings ofthe angel of death, the shell would fall, andthe astonished soldiery in the trenchesround the town would mark the vast columnof smoke from the explosion.

These smoke columns were extraordinary,a phenomenon entirely different from allprevious effects of shelling. With the burstthey shot up to some two hundred feet, asolid greasy column of black and yellowsmoke. Above them and about their edgethe eye could distinguish a fringe of frag-mentsbricks, stones, fabric of houses, andpossibly of men. These solid bodies hungpoised for an instant, seemingly motionlessat the extremity of their flight, then fellback again into the fog of destructionwhence they had ascended. The smoke


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74 THE STOEY OF YPEESclouds hung for a while immobile in theair, then grew larger, bellied out andswollen like vast funeral plumes. Thefaint rays of the spring sunlight wouldpenetrate the mist of clouds, and a beamwould strike the pillar of yellow smoke,which would change in the light, takingon a curiously unreal pinkish tinge andall the incongruous lights of a desert sand-storm.The danger of one of these vast shells

reaching communications was quickly real-ized, and the whole available force of Bel-gian labour units at the disposal of theBritish were turned on to widen the roadsat certain critical points. Under the com-mand of a British subaltern speaking manytongues, a scratch force of Royal Engineers,the 44th and 40th Belgian Compagnie deTravailleurs, and sundry transport lorriesborrowed from the Army Service Corps,worked like demons at the threatened


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THE STOKY OF YPEES 75points. Their object was to widen the roadand hedges; lampposts, buildings, anyobstacle that presented itself, was ruthlesslyblown down or rooted up, and its debrisused to make the new road bed.A constant stream of lorries loaded stoneand rubble from the wrecked houses in the

town, and carried it to the road-makers.By nightfall all threatened points had beendoubled in width, and the exhausted troopshad accomplished their aim.

This road-widening project was a smalland almost insignificant matter, but exer-cised a very vital effect upon the fortuneof the battle. The very next day a 42-centi-metre shell landed on the most criticalroad-junction of allthe point where themain road from Vlamertinghe and the rail-road crossed the canal at the very entranceto Ypres. The shell fell with mathematicalexactitude upon the level crossing and thecentre of the old road, creating a thirty-foot


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76 THE STOEY OF YPREScrater and leaving the rails and sleepers ofthe level crossing projecting in the air likesome giant comb. The new section of roadheld the traffic reinforcements; guns andsupplies were able to pass unhindered, justskirting the edge of the vast crater.

So incessant was the bombardment ofshells of all calibres that fell upon this entryto the town that weeks elapsed before thedamage could be properly repaired, thoughtemporary measures adding much to thewidth of the route were carried out underfire whenever necessary.

It was on the 22nd of April that the stormbroke in all its violence. Shelling had beenincreasing, though intermittent, all daylong, and the evening and night were des-tined to be memorable for all time as acarnival of horror and of fear.Tho trenches on the north of the canal

and on the left of the Canadian 3rd Brigadewere held by the French Colonial troops of


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THE STOEY OF YPEES 77the 45th Division, Turcos, and Zouaves.Dusk was falling when from the Germantrenches in front of the French line rose

SECOND BATTLE OF TPRESPOSITION ON THEEVENING OF APRIL 24TH.that strange green cloud of death. Thelight northeasterly breeze wafted it toward


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78 THE STOEY OP YPEESthem, and in a moment death had them bythe throat.

It was a new and devilish engine ofwarfare, one for which white troops werewholly unprepared, and which held forthese brave Africans a sheer terror of thesupernaturalone cannot blame them thatthey broke and fled.In the gathering dark of that awful night

they fought with the terror, runningblindly in the gas-cloud, and dropping withbreasts heaving in agony and the slowpoison of suffocation mantling their darkfaces. Hundreds of them fell and died;others lay helpless, froth upon their agon-ized lips and their wracked bodies power-fully sick with tearing nausea at shortintervals. They too would die latera slowand lingering death of agony unspeakable.The whole air was tainted with the acrid

smell of chlorine that caught at the back ofmen's throats and filled their mouths with


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after the second bombardment, may, 1915.


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80 THE STOEY OF YPRESits metallic taste. Behind the gas-cloudcame the advancing hordes of Germans,under cover of a violent artillery fire.In Ypres panic reigned among the

civilians. Shells fell incessantly, and ton-gues of flame shot up lighting a scene ofDantesque terror. Shelled out of theirbillets, the troops held in reserve at Ypresmarched out in the dark to the. sound offiring, ranging up on the Canadian flank.The sky was lit for miles by the incessantflash of gunfire and bursting shells. Flarelights ascended like meteors to the heavens,and all the air was sickly with the strangemetallic taint of gas. The roads werecrowded with supply-waggons, ambulances,and transport, and overhead vast flights ofshrapnel shells whined and burst.No one knew what had happened, and

Africans far south of the canal were inter-mingled with the Canadian Reserve bat-talions. The road to Vlamertinghe was


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THE STORY OF YPRES 81choked with halted supply-waggons comingup, and a medley of Zouaves, civilianrefugees, French soldiers, limberless gun-teams, pouring madly in a wide stream tothe south.Behind them the battle raged, a wildfrenzy of artillery fire and a cadenced rise

and fall of tapping musketry. Ypres stoodflaming in red ruin, and the blood-red skyreflected the surging rage of war. TheCanadians held their place, their flankexposed and the Germans creeping steadilyround ; the Canadian reserves went forwardto the support without waiting for orders,and in that infernal holocaust all Canadagained eternal fame. Attack and counter-attack raged the whole night through, andsmall units of reinforcements crossed thewidth of the Salient and connected the ex-posed Canadian left with the bank of thecanal. Between us and the French hadbeen a four-mile open gap, yet by some ever-


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82 THE STORY OF YPEESmemorable miracle the German line hadnot pressed through. Thunderous and in-ceggant the artillery fire raged on.

These night scenes on the Vlamertingheroad were wonderful. The townsfolkstreamed down the road with their facultiesalmost numbed and paralyzed by terror.Each seemed to carry a large round bundle,some pushed laden hand-carts, others drovecursing in some ramshackle two-wheeledgig. The flight was prodigal in its waste-fulness; burdens were cast aside, beasts oreven children strayed unnoticed, and stillthe motley torrent poured ona river offear in which the individuals moved help-lessly, like wreckage in the freshet of amountain burn.

Children wailed, and men's voices cursedand growled in uncouth Flamand accents.


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THE STORY OF YPEES 83The sky seemed a vault of flame, and thetall budding poplar-trees that made anavenue of the causeway rustled and whistledeerily in the wind. Here came a stolidgroup of peasants, laden as it seemed withvalueless unnecessary gear that wouldimpede their progress; there an old manstaggered on, leaning upon the frail sup-port of some young girl ; then came a groupof soldiers, breathless and gasping fromthe gas. The harsh Arabic gutturalswheezed painfully from their lips, and one,the grotesque bloated figure of a Zouave,was too far gone to talk. He hung inertly,supported by his suffering comrades. Be-hind the flight rose the pyre of Ypres;ahead lay the little village and station ofVlamertinghe,' bathed in the green moon-glow and constantly red-lit by falling shell.The batteries in the fields to each side ofthe road fired unceasingly, and shells hur-tled away to burst in violet flashes by


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84 THE STORY OF YPKESLangemarck and Poelcapelle. The Germangunners answered, and high-explosives burstthunderously in the fields, or big shrapnelsburst overhead with the crash of iron oniron, and a buzz of bullets like some dis-ordered chord upon a giant guitar.By Vlamertinghe a farm building burntsmokily, Kghting the station-yard and mak-ing clear the sheer horror of the flight. Ateam of open waggons and flat trucks stoodin the station, and the grey bulk of thearmoured locomotive stood, menacing, likesome antediluvian ^monster come to life.Round the train swarmed the frenziedcrowd of civilians, and far ahead into thedark the strange procession of refugeesmarched painfully, stepping from sleeper tosleeper along the line.Dominant and cool above the panic-

stricken crowd stood the figure of a youngFrench officer, the railway-transport officerof Vlamertinghe. He had been a rising


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THE STOEY OF YPEES 85young politician in private life, a secretaryof Monsieur Delcass6. The wonder andawe of this night of fear had lifted him, andhe dominated the panic by sheer force ofgenius. Women, children, and badlywounded and gassed soldiers were placedon board the waiting train, the brute rushof the frenzied townsmen beaten back,discipline and some semblance of orderpreserved. At midnight the last train leftthe shell-shattered station of Vlamertinghecrowded with women and wounded, andwith white-coifed Sisters from the Conventof the Poor Clares crouching upon thefootboards. Shells wailed and wept overthe village, and the permanent way behindthe train was hit again and again by a dozenlong-range shells. Moving from the eastcame the first flush of reinforcements, andas the false dawn lit the sky, the first marchof heroes to assist the hard-pressed Cana-dians had begun.


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86 THE STOEY OF YPRESThe shelling of Vlamertinghe did not

check the exodus which poured on downthe great road and along the railway-trackto Poperinghe, a town some three milesaway. Outside Poperinghe lay the secondline of defence, held at the moment by apiquet of the Town Guard under the CampCommandment, and reinforced by a half-company of the Army Service Corps driversand mechanics. A hard-pressed officer ofthe Intelligence Corps checked and mar-shalled the stream of fugitives, and theywere passed on to sleep in the churches,leaving their carts and barrows in themarket square. The gassed and woundedwere turned off to the hospitals, and allaround the town the fields were full ofexhausted fugitives sleeping on the openground.

It was a sad and terrible picture, thisriver of fear, with its constant wail ofsound and short-cut, muffled cries. Reach-


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THE tAST TRAIN FROM VLAMERTINGHE.


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88 THE STORY OF YPEESing safety, the fugitives became incoherentand vociferous, shouting the horror of theirfate and describing incidents of dread withhorrid gestures. Behind them the red glowin the sky and the lightening flashes ofartillery formed a grim background to theirfear, and the incessant gunfire reverberatedlike some Satanic chorus.The dawn of Friday the 23rd revealed the

true state of affairs. The recoil of theFrench Colonials had exposed the left flankof the 3rd Canadian Brigade, but by mid-night the 10th and 16th battalions of theCanadian 1st Brigade, who had been in re-serve, had reached the gap and reinforcedtheir countrymen. With prodigious valourthey repeatedly counter-attacked the ad-vancing Germans and in the dark of thatApril night the struggle swayed backwardand forward in a soldiers' battle. All wasconfusion, there were no staff orders, butthe men fought on their own initiative and


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THE STOEY OF YPEES 89arrested the onset of the German waves.During the night small detachments ofvarious units of the 27th and 28th Divisionscrossed the Salient, and formed a mixedblock of five battalions under the commandof Colonel Geddes of the Buffs. This re-inforcement was known as Geddes' detach-ment and it took up a position from thecanal to the left wing of the Canadian 3rdBridage, occupying the line from Boesingheto a point about a mile north of Shell-TrapFarm and a mile west of St. Julien. Thisthin line closed the broken salient.On the north of Boesinghe the German

attack had crossed the canal and Germantroops held the western bank in a smallSalient that protruded in a curve fromBoesinghe to Steenstraat, but the Frenchhad recovered from the surprise and the at-tack was stemmed by massed artillery fire.Meanwhile the situation had been dealt

with by the staff and Allenby's Cavalry,


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90 THE STORY OF YPRESand General Eimington's two Indian Di-visions were hurrying to support the threat-ened points.

All day long a terrific fire poured uponthe Salient and the city. Incessant attackswere delivered against the Canadian frontfrom Grafenstafel to Fortuin, but the in-domitable defenders held fast.

Just before dawn on the following day,Saturday the 24th, came the second greatgas attack. A -vast volume of gas wasreleased and the deadly waves flowed overthe Canadian trenches enveloping thedefenceless men. It was death in one of itsmost terrible forms, an agonising, suffoca-ting death, long drawn out and cruel beyondbelief. Even men who reached casualtyclearing stations and hospitals were beyondreach of medical aid, for nothing could bedone to alleviate their sufferings or remedytheir condition. It was a murder, a filthyGerman murder, contrary to every conven-


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THE STOEY OF YPEES 91tion or rule of war, and abhorrent to anyrace, civilized or savage. The world receivedthe news with horror and disbelief, but itwas a crime which awoke civilization to arealisation of the true meaning of the war

V

J^


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92 THE STOEY OF YPEESand the true value of German honour andculture. It is a crime that has already costthe German nation dear, and its expiationshall be a lasting memory of blood andtears, for not even the crimes of a nationcan escape the inexorable laws of Justicethat rule the world.The 3rd Brigade had now been twice

gassed and had been fighting continuouslysince the 22nd. It could no longer with-stand the pressure, and pivoting uponGrafenstafel which was magnificently heldby the 2nd Canadian Brigade, it fell backsouth of St. Julien, upon Fortuin.

In the meantime the 10th Brigade hadjoined up between the Canadian left flankand Geddes' detachment, and these accom-modated their line to the new position takenup by the remnant of the Canadians.From St. Julien poured down the German

waves of assault and all that day assaultand counter assault raged over the triangle


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THE STOEY OF YPEES 93between Shell-Trap Farm, St. Julien andFortuin. The German losses were stupen-dous and the toll taken by the raging British troops, furious over the murder of theircomrades, broke down the masses of theGerman thrust.

This was the climax of the assault uponthe Canadian troops, and that evening thesurvivors of the 3rd Brigade were with-drawn from the line and their place takenby the Lahore and the first units of the 4thDivision.On Sunday April the 5th, a counter at-

tack was delivered by the York and DurhamBrigade and the 10th Brigade against St.Julien, an attack which was held up byartillery and machine gun fire though theouter edge of the village was penetrated.That same night the 2nd Brigade of Cana-dians was withdrawn, but they were againsent in upon the following day and remainedin the trenches till the succeeding Thursday,


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94: THE STOEY OF YPRESthe 29th, having endured a complete weekof gome of the most terrific fighting thworld has ever seen.Meantime the bombardment of the city

had never ceased. For three days the flightof fugitives had continued, and by Satur-day there was not a living civilian left inthe burning city. Day and night the shellsburst, and the century-old houses flamed fora red second in the moment of their disso-lution. By day a dark pall of smoke anddust overhung the pyre; by night a crim-son glow in the sky marked the holocaust.Outside the city the battle raged, andDivision after Division poured up to holdthe blood-drenched debateable ground ofthe Salient. AUenby's Cavalry and theLahore Division of Indian Cavalry, theYork and Durham Brigades of the North-umberland Territorial Divisionthese lat-ter but three days out from Englandrushed up from the base. They detrained


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THE STOEY OF YPEES 93at Poperinghe, and marched steadfastlyonward into the raging inferno of Ypres.It was a wonderful sight, this arrival of anew Territorial Division unused to fire, andyet marched straight up into one of thebloodiest actions the world has ever known.They came on cheerfully, curiously in-terested in the strange sights of war aboutthem, and got their first sight of the famouscity from the equally celebrated road. Thehead of the column halted at the curve inthe road whence the city can be seen aquarter of a mile away, and the men laydown to rest in the fields on each side.

Before them were the wide plains ofFlanders, level as an inland sea, lined hereand there with sparse hedges and lines oftall poplar-trees. The city lay in the sun-light smouldering like an enormous bonfire,and the low trail of its smoke hung sombrein the sky, sweeping toward the low hills ofKemmel and Bailleul. High above the


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96 THE STOEY OF YPEESsmoke-cloud hung the little white puff-ballsfrom anti-aircraft guns, and high abovethem frail aeroplanes droned slumberouslyin the blue vault of the sky. Along thecurve of the canal columns of black andyellow smoke showed where the enemy'sheavies were falling; while on the risingedge of the distant plain similar clouds,barely discernible against the earth haze,showed our reply.The men's interest was soon abated, and

they began to brew tea; the officers weremore active, locating the different positionson their maps and trying to preserve anappearance of unconcern. Menaced withbattle, they betrayed no unusual emotion;all essential expressions were familiar, ex-cept that perhaps they were rather shy. Itseems intolerable that at such a time menshould feel nervous and awkward, like aprovincial at a ball, yet they seemed queerly


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THE STOEY OF YPRES 97self-conscious before the officer who hadbeen sent to chaperone them into battle.

All honour to those northern battalionswho marched gaily to a most gallant death.The fighting was fiercest from Grafen-

stafel to Fortuin, for the thrust of the Ger-mans was directed at the northern face ofthe Salient which had now become an oblongprojection with dangerous angles at Grafen-stafel and Polygon Wood. This positionwas extremely perilous and on Monday ageneral counter attack by the Allies tookplace in an endeavor to straighten out theline.

In the north the French were successfuland the enemy were driven from theirlodgement upon the western bank of thecanal and Het Sas and Boesinghe re-captured. The Germans counter attackedat Fortuin and the 8th Battalion of theDurham Light Infantry were forced back tothe Hannabeeke stream. The attack of the


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98 THE STOEY OF YPEESNorthumbrian Brigade toward St. Juliensuffered heavily for it was barraged andheld up by wire, and the Lahore Division,despite the utmost gallantry, was also un-fortunate in its assault. The counterattack was thus brought to a halt and othermeasures determined upon.The first phase of the battle may be taken

as the German assault and gas attack uponthe Salient. The second phase began withthe reinforcement of our line upon the 24thand closed with the failure of our attemptto regain the old ground on the 26th. Thencame a period of rest and re-organisation.

It soon became obvious that the linemust be shortened and withdrawn to a newline within the salient. Trenches werehastily improvised, and the lines and re-serve trenches dug round and through thruined outskirts and battered rampart* of


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THE STOEY OF YPRES 99Ypres itself by the Belgian Travailleuraand British Engineer companies. On the3rd of May the retreat to the new line wassafely accomplished, an example of brilliantStaff work. All stores were withdrawnfrom the old trenches, and a few speciallyprepared land mines left in their place. Fora day the Germans shelled our emptytrenches, and did not find that we had gonetill the 4th of May. Followed another tendays of constant and bitter fighting.From the 4th of May to the 8th there was

a lull in the fighting. Bombardment con-tinued and trench fighting was incessant,but both sides were anxiously consolidatingtheir new positions and no big offensiveswere launched.On the 5th of May Hill 60 was re-

captured by the Germans by means of agas attack, but little of the hill remainedafter the previous bombardment and min-


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100 THE STORY OF YPRESing operations, and its military value liadceased.On the Sth an attack upon the 20th Di-

vision at Verlorenhoek was started. Thebombardment was intense and the trencheswere obliterated while our casualties fromshell-fire were terribly heavy. As a resultof this our line was pushed in and had tobe reformed behind Verlorenhoek village.On the 12th the 28th Division that hadbeen fighting continuously all through the-battle of Yprestwenty-two days of cease-less contest^was withdrawn and its placetaken by the 1st and 3rd Cavalry Divisions,who were dismounted and sent into thetrenches. During the same period the frontwhich had been drawn in round Verloren-hoek was changed locally and reformedupon a stronger line of better trenches.On May 13th in the middle of a bitter

cold rainstorm a terrific bombardment watlaunched against the cavalry front.


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THE STORY OF YPRES 101The masse6 artillery of the enemy

vomited shells of all calibres, churningground and trenches alike into a mass ofmud, burying men alive and completelyobliterating the new Kne.Here and there units held their linedespite hideous casualties, but the 7th

Brigade was almost wiped out and com-pelled to fall back, thus leaving a nastygap. In the afternoon a counter attack bythe whole 8th Brigade, supported by thenaval armoured motorcars, charged andretook the position, but so terrible was thebombardment that in the evening we wereagain forced to relinquish it.

This action was the last essential assaultin the battle of Ypres, and the conflict dieddown to the steady hammer and tongs war-fare of the Salient.Of all the sectors of the British line the

Salient of Ypres has the bloodiest record.There is never even comparative quiet there,


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102 THE STOET OF YPEESand the smouldering embers of trench war-fare break out continually into fierce burstsof flaming assaults.One of these occurred a year later, 3rd of

June, 1916, when a terrific bombardmentlasting four hours blotted out the trenches ofthe Canadians, the successors of the heroesof the second battle of Ypres, and the follow-ing German attack penetrated toward Zille-beke. For fourteen days there was fiercefighting, and at the end of that period theCanadians had regained their old positionsand the German thrust had been washedout in blood.Once again Ypres had proved invulner-

able, once again the German assault hadbeen costly immeasureably costly tothemselves, but they were no longer attack-ing the city of Ypres as a living Belgiantown, for thirteen months before the cityof Ypres had passed into history as a Cityof thd Dead.


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THE STOEY OF YPEE8 103After the second battle was over it washardly possible to find one's way about the

ruins, as streets and houses alike had beensmashed into one tangle of fallen masonry.Over all hung the scent of burning anddecay, of powdered plaster and the sicklyscent of dead bodies. Here and there apath had been cleared through the piles ofwreckage, and attempts had been made tokeep the main roads open. Over all reignedthe silence and stillness of Death, and not aliving creature moved to wake the sleepingechoes.

It was the same in all quarters of thetownruin, silence, and desolation. Thevery immensity of the destruction bowedone down as in sad, silent homage before aloved one's bier.

It was all like some strange city in a deadworld, some horror from the Apocalypse.The very earth on which the city had stoodwas ploughed with shells, destroyed with


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104 THE STOEY OF YPKESashes, and drenched with salt human blood.Shell-pits gaped in the graveyards, exposingcharnel and the mouldered yellow skulls oflong-buried dead. Here and there a cloudof bottle-blue carrion flies rose with ametallic buzz from some fragment that hadbeen flesh.A jagged stump of wall projected fromthe ruins of what had been the Cavalryriding-school, and some unknown hadscrawled a verse from the old French ofFrangois Villon

FrSres humains qui apres nous vivez,N'ayez les coeurs contre nous endurciz.Car, se pauvres de nous avoir pitieDieu en aura de vous plutot merci.The great beauty of Ypres has passed to

destruction, the great glory of Ypres hasattained immortality.

All down the canal, and in every acreof the Salient, are English graves, graves of


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all that is left,


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106 THE STOEY OF YPEESthe men of France, graves of the soldiersof Canadaand it is holy ground. Theirepitaph and that of Ypres were written byour greatest poet some three hundred yearsago:When wasteful wars shall statues overturn,And broils root out the work of masonry,Nor Mars his sword, nor War's quick fire

shall burnThe living record of your memory.


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Epilogue/^UT of the ashes and shell powdered^-^ brick work, from the broken stones ofthe dead City of Ypres has come a cry ofgladness and relief. For two years the lowhills round the city have been a girdle offlame, day and night the great shells havecurved high across the Salient, beatingagainst the fallen masses of the tallchurches, churning the red heaps of Flem-ish bricks. By day, the funeral plumes ofshell hovered over the ruins, by night, thered light of shell bursts displayed them assilhouettes of the terror of the war. Yetall the while the armed men of the Alliesmoved unperturbed among the ruins,brought up their supplies along the 'fireswept roads, and steadfastly held the

107


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108 EPILOGUEmurderous line of trenches that maintainthe Salient.From the low spur of hills that runs from

Hill 60 toward Mount Kemmel, throughthe villages of Wytschaete and Messines, theeager eyes of the enemy could look downupon the flat enclosure of the Salient, mark-ing the fall of all their shells.

Life in the Salient was undergroundlife; no movement could be made by daythat the enemy could not discern ; and evenat night all traffic routes and every arteryof communication were under fire.The Messines-Wytschaete ridge was en-

tirely in German hands and its holdersconsidered it impregnable and all important.It passed to them during the terrific con-fiict of the first battle of Ypres, and indeedwas the only measure of success they wereable to snatch from out that stupendousdisaster to German arms. Even had theBritish at that time appreciated the im-


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EPILOGUE iogportance of the position, it is doubtfulin any case, with the troops then at ourdisposal, that the ridge could have beenheld. In German hands throughout thelong period of siege warfare the naturalposition of the Kidge became a giganticfortress, strengthened and defended byevery modern measure known to field en-gineers.Behind the ridge the German batteries

fired upon the Salient and upon the City ofYpres. Their observers upon the hillscould see the fall of every shell upon thechosen target and so alter or correct theirgunners' aims. The Allies, on the otherhand, had no means of observation todirect their fire and the enemy, on theridge, for two long years thus enjoyed anadvantage of the utmost military impor-tance.

Slowly and surely the Allied scheme ofoffensive against the German armies has

Documents

WWI The Second Battle of Ypres Belgium