Histories > Western Front > The Battles of Ypres ("First Ypres"), 19 October - 22 November 1914
 
Quote
They went forth first a little Army;
All its men were true as steel.
The hordes of the enemy were hurled against them;
They fell back, but their heart failed not.
They went forward again and held their ground;
Though their foes were as five to one.
They gave time for our host to muster:
The host of men who never thought to fight.
A great host and mighty:
Worthy of the men who died to gain time.
A psalm written by A.W. Pollard CB, used at a special service on 5 January 1918. Later quoted in the British Official History.
Summary

As the main body of the BEF was fighting its way forward in Artois and the Flemish hills, having recently moved up from the Aisne, so the 7th Division and 3rd Cavalry Division were falling back westwards from Ghent. They met and formed a continuous body of troops around Ypres. Misinformed by intelligence about the overwhelming German strength advancing towards them, Sir John French ordered the BEF to advance to capture Menin with a view to moving on towards Courtrai. The initial battle of encounter soon changed into dogged defence by the BEF against huge odds, as the enemy attacked in force with the intention of breaking through to outflank the Allies on the River Yser. Despite very heavy losses, the defence held - although there were times when it seemed that Ypres must be lost. With the Belgian Army along the Yser on the British left also desperately holding on, the German Army failed in this last colossal attempt of 1914 to break the enemy line and turn its flank. Ypres, and the Old Contemptibles, achieved immortal fame.
The senior British commanders responsible for this action
No image available  
John French,
Commander in Chief		 Douglas Haig,
I Corps		 Horace Smith-Dorrien,
II Corps		 Henry Rawlinson,
IV Corps		 James Willcocks,
Indian Corps		  
Despatch
Read Sir John French's Despatch to the Secretary of State for War on this battle.
Order of Battle

The Battles of Ypres 1914 ('First Ypres') was considered by the 1921 Battles Nomenclature Committee to comprise of three phases: "Langemarck", "Gheluvelt" and "Nonne Bosschen". These were indeed the major phases when fighting was at its peak, but the battle did not stop in the gaps suggested by the dates given below.

The Battle of Langemarck : 21st - 24th October 1914

I Corps : 1st Division and 2nd Division

IV Corps : 3rd Cavalry Division and 7th Division

The Battle of Gheluvelt : 29th - 31st October 1914

I Corps : As above but now all under command of this Corps

The Battle of Nonne Bosschen - 11th November 1914

I Corps : 3rd Cavalry Division, 1st Division, 2nd Division and 3rd Division. Four battalions of the 5th Division and the newly arrived 14th Londons (London Scottish) were also engaged.
Landscape for battle
Some 15 miles to the north of Ypres (today: Ieper) stands Dixmude (Diksmuide), beyond which is flat land to the sea. Beginning at Dixmude and running to the east of Ypres are a series of gentle ridges that enfold the town in an arc. To the south they join and run in one high ridge south past Messines (Mesen) towards Armentieres. To the west of Ypres is flat country, with the small town of Poperinge lying amid hop fields. To the South-West of Ypres and west of Messines are the Flemish Hills. The Ypres countryside was dotted with many thick woods, with villages and hamlets spread along the roads that fan out of the town to the east and isolated houses scattered widely. Although these features made artillery observation difficult, they were ideally suited for infantry defence. The land was farmed for sugar beet, turnips and other root crops, with a few orchards and some grazing land for cattle. There was little industry except in Ypres itself; notable exceptions were a tile works in Zillebeke and brickworks in Zonnebeke villages. The land is cut by several streams running generally southeast-northwest; a canal runs from Dixmude, into moated Ypres and south towards Courtrai. Railways ran out of Poperinge into Ypres and out towards Roulers (Roeselare) and Menin (Menen). In places the water table is high, with water lying not far below the surface.
Typical view of the Ypres area: View from the 'sGraventafel crossroads south-west across Zonnebeke (two tall chimneys of brick works right-centre) to the slightly higher ground south of the Menin Road.
View from 's Graventafel crossroads South-West across Zonnebeke (two tall chimneys of brick works right-centre) to the slightly higher ground South of the Menin Road.
What happened?

The final clash of the armies on the Western Front in 1914 began as a battle of encounter. General Foch, commanding the group of French armies in the north, planned to advance eastwards to break the enemy's front and separate Von Beseler's III Reserve Corps (then moving west from Antwerp) from the main body. The BEF, although not under his direct orders, complied with their ally. At the same time Falkenhayn ordered his newly-formed Fourth Army to smash through the Belgian remnants on the Yser, capture the Channel ports and roll up the Allied forces.

 
A rough outline of the BEF's deployment in Flanders
As the BEF advanced, it clashed with an enemy that turned out to be five times larger than itself; the difference in artillery was even greater. The army dug in and defended against wave after wave of attack, under fierce shellfire. Gradually, the British forward position - it would be inaccurate to yet call it a line - was pushed back. Each village, wood and road junction saw heavy fighting and the names became immortalised. Zandvoorde; Gheluvelt; Langemarck; Zonnebeke; Hooge. There were two days of particular crisis (31 October and 11 November 1914) when it seemed the last reserves had been committed, the line was giving way and surely the Germans must break through. But on each occasion, enough reserve of energy and courage was found to finally defeat the German attack.

The detailed analysis of this battle is work in progress, more to be released soon:
Tactics
The initial advance towards Menin used pre-war fire-and-movement tactics, but the British fought most of the First Battle of Ypres by defending from hastily entrenched positions. The training in musketry and the handling of the machine guns now came into its own, with the British regulars able to cut down exposed attacking German infantry in great numbers. Local counterattacks by British units were often improvised and launched without artillery preparation or support, and they suffered similarly. Trench defences were erected as quickly as possible, but rarely had any stout head cover or real defensive strength. Artillery support was mostly fired with shrapnel, as high explosive shell was in short supply. The principle point of learning from this battle was that exposed attacking infantry stood little chance of success against stout entrenched defence.
Casualties
BEF casualties in this battle were approximately 54,100. More than 700 officers - all experienced men of the Regular Army - lost their lives at this time, including the following senior officers. They were, as it turned out, "the men who died to gain time".
Lt-Col Walter Loring, OC 1st Royal Warwicks, was killed in action near Becelaere on 23rd October 1914.
He has no known grave and is commemorated on the Ypres Menin Gate Memorial to the Missing.
Lt-Col William Bannatyne, OC 1st King's (Liverpool), died when the victim of a sniper near Westhoek on 24th October 1914.
He has no known grave and is commemorated on the Ypres Menin Gate Memorial to the Missing.
Colonel Charles King, OC 2nd Yorkshire, was killed in action on 30th October 1914.
He has no known grave and is commemorated on the Ypres Menin Gate Memorial to the Missing.
Lt-Col Henry Cadogan, OC 1st Royal Welsh Fusiliers, died when attempting to save his mortally wounded Adjutant (Lt Alfred Dooner) on 30th October 1914. They are buried together in Hooge Crater Cemetery.
Lt-Col Hugh Crispin, OC 2nd Royal Sussex, was killed in action on 30th October 1914.
He has no known grave and is commemorated on the Ypres Menin Gate Memorial to the Missing.
Colonel Frederick Kerr, GSO1 of 1st Division, died when the Divisional HQ in Hooge Chateau was hit by shellfire on 31st October 1914. He is buried in Ypres Town Cemetery Extension.
Lt-Col Edwin Cook, OC 1st Life Guards, died of wounds on 4th November 1914.
He has no known grave and is commemorated on the Ypres Menin Gate Memorial to the Missing.
Lt-Col Beauchamp Pell, OC 1st Queens, died of wounds whilst in enemy captivity on 4th November 1914.
He is buried at Zandvoorde British Cemetery.
Lt-Col Gordon Wilson, OC Royal Horse Guards (The Blues), killed near Zillebeke on 6th November 1914.
Buried in Zillebeke Churchyard.
Brig-General Norman McMahon, OC 10th Infantry Brigade, killed on 11th November 1914.
He has no known grave and is commemorated on the Ypres Menin Gate Memorial to the Missing.
Lt-Col Malcolm Green, OC South Lancs, was killed in action on 17th November 1914.
He has no known grave and is commemorated on the Ypres Menin Gate Memorial to the Missing.
British casualties in the Ypres area between 14 October and 30 November 1914
Formations that lost more than 5,000 men killed, wounded or prisoner
7th Division: 9,865 of which 372 officers
3rd Division: 8,355 of which 351 officers
1st Division: 6,237 of which 281 officers
2nd Division: 5,769 of which 227 officers
Indian Corps : 5,591 of which 292 officers
6th Division: 5,319 of which 183 officers
The total loss of the BEF in France and Flanders from the commencement of the war to 30th November 1914 was approximately 86,000 men.
Effects
The defeat of the German offensive in Flanders ended with both sides entrenched along more than 400 miles of continuous front from the North Sea to Switzerland. The fact that there was now no flank that could be turned meant that the only way forward on this front was by frontal attack, against increasingly fortified and at times nigh-on impregnable trench systems. The war now assumed the characteristics that are so familiar to us. Germany could afford to sit on the defensive; the Allies had little choice but to carry out such attacks.

By the end of the battle, both sides were exhausted. Britain had lost a considerable portion of its pre-war military strength and had all but expended its ammunition stocks. The death in action of many officers would prove to be a crippling loss, for the army would now have to fight and expand having lost the core of its trained staff and regimental officers. The many subalterns and experienced NCOs also lost would be sorely missed in months to come.

Ypres had become an icon for the British, associated with the staunch defence carried out by the depleted, outnumbered, regular units. The salient around Ypres, so dangerous to defend, may have better been evacuated from a purely military, tactical viewpoint (although there were few adequate choices of defensible position between Ypres and the Channel coast). But the losses and nature of the fighting here in 1914 were such that it became a symbol: it could not be given up. The defence of the symbol would cost many lives in the winter of 1914 and for the next three years.
Ypres Myths and Legends
The "Old Contemptibles" was the title proudly adopted by the men of the BEF who saw service before or on 22nd November 1914. They were the originals, and most were regular soldiers or reservists. All those who took part in First Ypres qualified. They derive their honourable title from the famous "Order of the Day" given by Kaiser Wilhelm II at his headquarters in Aix-la-Chapelle on the 19th August, 1914:- "It is my Royal and Imperial Command that you concentrate your energies, for the immediate present upon one single purpose, and that is that you address all your skill and all the valour of my soldiers to exterminate first the treacherous English; walk over General French's contemptible little Army." The precise translation has been debated endlessly, but the irony of the choice of title is clear.
References
Recommended reading about Ypres 1914
The Ypres battlefields today
Click here for a virtual tour of the battlefield
Click for information about touring the Ypres area

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