Battle of the Yser

YSER, BATTLE OF THE. On Oct. 10, 1914, the Belgian field army encamped on the west bank of the Ghent-Terneuzen canal (see ANTWERP, SIEGE OF). The British Naval Division, which had embarked at St. Gilles-Waes, regained Dunkirk except two battalions, which were cut off, and passed into Holland; the French Fusilier Marine Brigade, half of the British 7th Division and the 4th Belgian Brigade were holding Ghent and had repulsed an attack on that city by the 1st Res. Ersatz Bri gade. Information had been received that a Bavarian cavalry division had advanced towards Deynze exploring between the Schelde and the Lys ; that a column of 20,000 men had passed through Courtrai and Menin and that the German IV. Cavalry Corps was holding the region Tourcoing-Ypres-Poperinghe. The only way for the Belgian army to baffle the threat of envelop ment on a large scale was an immediate march to the coast. It was decided to transport all the forces without delay to the region of Ostend-Thourout-Dixmude-Furnes, the infantry by rail, the artillery and transport by road, under the protection of all the cavalry and Rawlinson's Corps.

Plans of Opposing Commanders.

The "race to the sea" had in the meantime caused the Western Front to extend to La Bassee. The British army had been withdrawn from the region of the Aisne and was beginning to detrain west of Lille. A few French divisions, taken from other sectors, were given the same destination. It seemed to Gen. Joffre that the moment had come for bringing about the much-desired envelopment of the German right wing by a concentric offensive against Lille. The British army, the Belgian army and some French reinforcements would constitute, it was believed, under the high command of Gen. Foch, an ensemble capable of securing a decisive victory. Unfortunately, the assembling of the Allied troops by means of the Paris-Calais and Paris-Hazebrouck railways would take time. On the other hand, it was necessary to take in account that the Beseler Army Group would not fail to follow the Belgians.

The mission of the Belgian army was once again that of gain ing time. The king, anxious to keep his left wing resting on the sea, and to preserve at all costs a fragment of national territory from invasion, thought best to entrench the army on the river Yser and the Ypres canal.

Events soon proved the wisdom of this decision. The British II. and III. and Cavalry Corps were stopped at the Lys by the German IV., VII. and XIII. Corps; Rawlinson's Corps found Menin in the hands of the XIX. Corps. Beseler's troops now entered Bruges and Ostend. It was known that numerous de trainments were taking place west of Brussels and that a new German IV. Army had installed its headquarters at Ghent. In fact Falkenhayn, the new chief of the German general staff, had anticipated the Allies' projects and like them, considered the moment for a decisive victory to have arrived.

With four new army corps, composed mainly of volunteers, the XXII., XXIII., XXVI. and XXVII. Res. Corps, Beseler's group and the artillery park from the siege of Antwerp, Prince Albert of Wurttemberg was charged to proceed to the Yser with his right resting on the sea, in order to attack in flank and in rear the Allied left, whose front the VI. Army was engaging be tween Arras and Armentieres. Falkenhayn considered that : "The conquest of the coast was the sole means of frustrating the war of blockade which England contemplated and of retaliating through our destroyers, submarines, aeroplanes and Zepplins. . . . If we succeeded in driving the enemy out of the Yser val ley and pursuing him at the point of the sword, there was no doubt that, having replenished our ranks and our stores, we should be in a condition to overthrow the western front." Thus the Belgian army, which had only just moved into posi tion in the general Allied line, found itself in focus for a new battle. It occupied a front of 4o km., from the sea to Boesinghe, with 41 divisions and 1 1 divisions in reserve behind the centre. The cavalry division was operating with de Mitry's French Cav alry Corps, east of the forest of Houthulst. On the army's right. a French territorial division extended as far as Ypres and Rawlin son's Corps had entrenched itself along the line Passchendaele Gheluvelt.