On the same day, the 27th, Gen. von Falkenhayn, the chief of the German general staff, issued instructions for a new attack with increased forces. Six fresh divisions, brought from quiet parts of the line, to form under Gen. von Fabeck, the right of the VI. Army, were on the 3oth to take the place of the four cavalry corps and attack Ypres from the south-east for the purpose of breaking through on the front Messines—Gheluvelt, which was held by two of the three cavalry divisions, now all united under Allenby's command, and Capper's division. At the same time, all the German troops north of the La Bassee canal were ordered to make a general attack. The addition of six divisions to the Ypres front gave, excluding cavalry, the Germans 151 to the French and British six and one half ; but their artillery was even more overwhelming, for Fabeck, apart from what the other German commanders before Ypres possessed, was allotted over 25o heavy and super-heavy guns and howitzers, to which the Allies could only oppose 5o, and of these more than half were of old and obsolete patterns.
There was some preliminary fighting on the 29th, when the British lost a little ground near Menin road. On this date, the eve of the second German offensive at Ypres, the line was held from the Lys to Zonnebeke by part of Wilson's division, the cav alry corps and the 7th, 1st and 2nd Divisions, all three since the 27th under Haig, who henceforward commanded in front of Ypres. Thence Dubois's IX. Corps and de Mitry's cavalry corps carried it on to the canal. The greater part of the Allied front maintained its ground on the 3oth, but, under the heavy pressure of the six fresh German divisions, Allenby's cavalry divisions and Capper's division were forced back to the Messines-Wytschaete ridge, losing Zandvoorde and Hollebeke. Further danger in this sector was averted by Gen. Dubois, at Haig's request, sending his own reserve of four battalions and three batteries to the assistance of the British cavalry, and Gen. Haig himself despatching first two battalions and later three more, under Maj.-gen. E. Bulfin.
Matters, however, became more serious on the 31st, when, after a heavy bombardment, a convergent attack of five German divisions and three brigades on Haig's three divisions broke the line on a two battalion front at Ghelu velt, despite the desperate resistance of the 1st Battalion of the Queen's, which was annihilated. Elsewhere the front held, but at Messines part of the village was lost, and immediately south of the Menin road the line was pushed back. The situation was critical, and Just at this time the staffs of Lomax's and Monro's divisions of Haig's corps were nearly all killed or disabled by a shell that struck Hooge Chateau.
A counter-attack ordered by Brig.-gen. H. Landon (3rd Bri gade) drove back the Germans who had advanced from Gheluvelt along the Menin road; the village itself was recovered owing to the stout defence of the 1st South Wales Borderers north of the break, who held on to the park and chateau to the north of the village until a determined counter-attack of the 2nd Worcester shires initiated by Brig.-gen. C. Fitzclarence (1st Brigade) recap
tured it ; whilst south of the road a third counter-attack by the 2nd Royal Sussex, 1st Northamptonshire, and 2nd Gordon High landers, under the orders of Maj.-gen. E. Bulfin, regained all the ground that had been lost there, and more. At night, however, a retirement was made to a selected line east of Gheluvelt.
On Nov. 1 the Germans con tinued to attack, and Messmes was lost by Allenby's cavalry corps, but the French XVI. Corps (32nd, 39th and 43rd Divisions under Gen. Grossetti) arriving to relieve the cavalry, greatly strength ened the defence. Wytschaete and the rest of the ridge, however, were lost by the French next day. The Allied line was now held by the British and French alternately : from the Lys to opposite Messines by the British; thence as far as the Ypres-Comines railway by the French ; thence along the front of Shrewsbury forest and Polygon wood to Zonnebeke by Haig's three divisions; and thence to the canal, by the French again ; and this remained the distribution until the end of the battle. During Nov 3, 4 and 5 the German attacks somewhat died down ; a composite division of Smith-Dorrien's II. Corps (under Maj.-gen. F. W. D. Wing) and the French 11th Division reinforced the Allies. But this assist ance was counter-balanced by three out of five German divisions on the Belgian front being brought down against Ypres.
The German supreme command now decided to attack the haunches of the Allied salient round Ypres from the north-east and south-east. Four more divisions, including a composite one of the Guard Corps, and the 4th (Pome ranian), one of the best in the whole army, were despatched to the sector with more heavy artillery. On the 4th, Crown Prince Rupprecht was given a definite order to break through south-east of Ypres, and whilst this offensive was in preparation to continue attacks all along the line, and the Duke of Wurttemberg was or dered to move against the north-east part of Ypres. During the 6th, 7th, 8th and 9th the Germans managed to make a little prog ress at several points; they gained Le Gheer on the edge of Ploegsteert wood, and Zwarteleen near Hill 6o, barely 2M. from Ypres; but elsewhere they were repulsed with heavy loss, and Grossetti's corps recovered ground lost between Wytschaete and St. Eloi. On the loth, after a long and desperate defence, Dix mude (13m. north of Ypres) was lost by the Belgians, and a very heavy attack was delivered against the French on the north-east and north of Ypres which gained a small amount of ground.