WATERLOO AND THE FIRST BATTLE OF YPRES.
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The Ypres Times.
The battles of Waterloo and Ypres are separated, as near as may be, by a round century.
Until Ypres was fought, Waterloo stood out as our crowning military triumph streets
and public buildings were named after it. The very word itself took on a new meaning
-all this was, perhaps, no more than natural. Had not the invincible Buonaparte, before
whose military genius all Europe had gone down, turned tail and galloped from the
field of Waterloo before the unshakeable.valour of the British squares Had not Welling
ton's great victory remoulded the destinies of the world, and earned a dukedom for its
hero The name was truly one to make British hearts swell with pride and British
crowds throw their hats in the air.
No such dramatic demonstrations greet, or have greeted, the name of Ypres. No
bonfires have blazed in its honour no crowds have danced and shouted the name round
roasting oxen. And yet, great as the glory of Waterloo undoubtedly was, when generations
to come weigh the two events in the light of sober historical knowledge, Waterloo will
no longer hold first place in the records of British glory.
The battle of Waterloo lasted a few hoursthe battle of Ypres, in its first, second
and third editions may be said to have lasted three years. However, let us dismiss the
question of time. Let us put aside for the moment the grim struggles of 1915 and 1916,
and content ourselves with reflections on the first battle of Ypres.
This battle lasted fifteen days, and, during those fifteen days, the little British force
engaged achieved what many military experts have pronounced to be the greatest feat
of arms in the history of the world. The troops engaged in this historic battle were the
1st, 2nd, and 7th Divisions, and the 3rd Cavalry Division. This handful of troops, of whom
all but the 7th Division and the 'Household Cavalry were already war-worn with two
months' incessant fighting, for fifteen days turned stubborn faces towards an attack
which, it may confidently be said, would have shattered any other troops in the world.
Only the grim tenacity, which is the special birthright of the British soldier, could have
successfully withstoodthroughout those fifteen daysthe desperate odds of numbers
and position arranged against them.
From Bixschoote on the north the Ypres Salient jutted out to Becelaire on the
east, and thence dropped away back to Hollebeke on the south. The position forced
upon us by the accident of unforeseen circumstances was, strategically, as bad as any
position which troops can be called upon to occupy. The Salient was an accentuated
salient, perilously suggestive of three sides of a square. The ground held was the lowest
lying ground that could be found. Rain that fell on the German position drained down
into our trenches. The mouths of the German guns gaped down upon our men.
Why such a position was held, with a line of hills offering every advantage of position
just behind Ypres, no one under the rank of General can say. A soldier's business is not
to question, but to obey. Tommy Atkins and his superb officers were told to hold the
Ypres Salient, and they held it. The Germans dominated them from the higher ground,
outnumbered them by ten to one, and over-gunned them at every point. Theoretically
nothing could prevent the enemy from sweeping away the attenuated khaki line of obstruc
tion, turning the flank of the allied position, and rolling up its left wing in hopeless con
fusion. Those in command knew this, and the order went out that the line was to be held
at all costs. The thin curved khaki line set its teeth and grimly faced the impossible.
And so, our children's children will read, in the history books of the day that,
though it was a military certainty that the Germans must break through at Ypres,
they yet did not break through, because of the unparalleled courage and determination
of a handful of the Old Contemptibles."*
By LORD ERNEST HAMILTON (Author of The First Seven Divisions.")
♦The word handfulis no mere phrase. When it was all over, the four battalions of the 1st Brigade
could, between them, muster no more than 5 officers and 500 men. Ninety per cent, had gone
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