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THE FRENCH AT YPRES, 1914.
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THE JOURNAL OF THE YPRES LEAGUE.
Voi.. 2. No. i. Published Quarterly. January, 1923.
By A FRENCH STAFF OFFICER.
Note.See map enclosedFrench units are designated by Arabic numerals, British by Roman.
After taking a valiant part in the battle of the Marne, where it had measured itself
victoriously with the Prussian Guard in the marshes of St. Gond, the 9th Corps, under
the orders of General Dubois, had followed the enemy up to the mountains of the
Champagne in the neighbourhood of Horonvilliers. It was there that it received orders
from the Grand Quartier General to entrain on October 19th.
After a journey of over twenty-four hours, it detrained between Hazebrouck and
Bailleul, Corps H. Q. detraining at the former place. This rich unspoilt Flemish country
crowded with soldiers and civilians, formed a striking contrast to the devastated Champagne
regions that had just been left. Hazebrouck presented a particularly picturesque sight
Red-trousered French soldiers mixed with the men of the Indian Divisions from Lahore,
Bengal and Bhopalthere were British cavalrymen, a few Senegalese, and the great crowd
of civilians, of Belgians fleeing from the German flood, and of Frenchmen from the North
badly scared by true and false rumours of the atrocities committed by the Teuton Armies
while, interspersed among all this heterogeneous mass, were a few interlopers of no very
definite nationality, undoubted intelligence agents of the German Government.
But Headquarters of the 9th Corps had hardly detrained before it received orders
to move on Ypres with all units available, to reinforce its British comrades who were being
attacked by superior forces.
The situation to the east of Ypres was as follows The I. British Corps was established
between Steenstraat and Zandvoorde in a big salientthe I. Division stretched from
Steenstraat to the south of Langemarck, whence the II. Division on its right extended to
Zonnebeke then the VII. Division and the III. Cavalry Division held Zonnebeke
BecelaereGheluvelt and the outskirts of Zandvoorde.
On October 22nd the 17th Division, as Advance Guard of the 9th Corps, marched to
Ypres, where it received orders to move on Passchendaele by Zonnebeke, interposing itself
between British units. It was to be supported on the right by the 6th Cavalry Division
in touch with the VII. Division, and on the left by the 7th Cavalry Division, co-operating
with the I. Division.
The 17th Division came into action on the 23rd, relieving the II. Division by passing
through them, re-taking the big -village of Zonnebeke, which the Germans had captured
the day before, and throwing them back to Broodsceinde. On the same day the 18th
Division, which had detrained in its turn, was pushed on to Ypres in the wake of the 17th
