Aii Instructional Tour of the
Ypres Salient
Edwin Pye, 5th Bn., C.E.F.
238
THE YPRES TIMES
unhooked and car number 1 hauled car number 2 out on to the road. Then, again
acting as limber, with Driver Frank Waghorn (later, Lieut. M.C., D.C.M., M.M.)
at the wheel, made Hyde Park Corner at top speed.
The two prisoners, captured that morning, Bernhard Klesse and Paul Rösner,
were of the 3rd Battalion, 11th Reserve Infantry Regiment, 117th Divisionone a
Landwehr and the other an Ersatz Reservistboth had volunteered for duty at the
barricade. Although unwounded they had endured a terrible ordeal. Yet, despite
their distress, they showed no symptoms of fear. Indeed, they exemplified such forti
tude and resolutenessthose soldierly qualities which most of us strived to maintain
but, on occasion, gravely feared we would be found wanting when the crucial moment
arosethat they commanded the utmost respect of their captors.
The prisoners, on being interrogated, stated that their company12thhad been
sent to replace the Sth Company of the 2nd Battalionwhich had been withdrawn
in disgrace following the successful raid by the British Columbia Battalion on 17th
November.
Both prisoners declared that the light railway was used solely for the purpose
of bringing up rations and ammunition, and, that the Germans were not mining in
the Douve Sector.
Thus ended the episodeand "The Army Commander was pleased
LAST April, a party of officers of the 1st, 2nd and 3rd City of London Regiments
(T.A.) visited the Salient under the guidance of their Brigade Commander
with the primary7 object of studying on the ground certain phases of the first
battle of Ypresin particular the defence and recapture of Gheluvelt on October
31st, 1914.
The travelling arrangements for the tour were made for us by the Ypres League,
whose representative came with us, and to whom the warmest thanks of the party
are due for all that he did to make the tour a success.
Travelling by the night boat to Dunkerque, we reached Ypres in time for break
fast, and then proceeded by char-a-banc to Kruiseik. There the director recounted
the events of the period 19/26th October, 1914; the gradual extension of the Allied
line from Vermelles to the Sea; the abortive attempt by the 7th Division to advance
to MENIN and the river Lys, and the simultaneous advance of five new German
Corps, whose objective was Calais. From this encounter dated the birth of the Salient.
Here, at Kruisecke, by the exercise of a little imagination, it was possible to
visualize to some degree the German attack on the 1st Bn. Grenadier Guards on the
morning of 29th October, so vividly described in Lord Ernest Hamilton's "The First
Seven Divisions."
In a roadside cottage at Kruiseik Cross Roads there is a colour print by a
well-known artist, depicting an incident in the fighting at this spot.
Its owner was delighted to show it to us, and it is worth more than a passing
glance, for it shows the locality as it then was. It is not easy for anyone visiting
the Salient to-day, who was not there in 1914, to realize how remarkably the landscape
has altered. It is true that the greater number of the houses, and other buildings
have been rebuilt on or near their former foundations, and that most of the old
