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THE COURSE OF THE WAR......... and the battles in which the men fell

        1914  -  The  British  Expeditionary  Force  fought  its  first  battle,  which  was  not  much  more
        than  a  small  skirmish  between  cavalry  scouts,  at  the  end  of  August.   After  the  Battle
        of   Aisne  had  ended  in  late  September,  the  BEF  under  Field  Marshal  French,  had  been
        switched  to  the  extreme  left  of  the  Anglo-French  line  with  its  chief  mission  to  protect
        Boulogne, Calais and Dunkirk - Channel Ports vital to the arrival of British reinforcements
        and supplies. (Thomas Whiffen)

        The Battle of Ypres took place between 19th October and 22nd November 1914 and was the
        last battle to be fought in open warfare. The Germans were fully aware of the importance of
        the Channel Ports to Britain, but had so far failed to take them and time was running out,
        but a successful push on Ypres would likely lead to their capture and make Britain’s further
        participation in the war doubtful. The Allies suffered a total of 75,000 casualties. The war
        was a just five months or so old and the total manpower losses were catastrophic.  (Alfred
        Taylor/Hugh Trevor Crispin)

        The 1st Battalion, the Bedfordshire Regiment was based at Mullingar in Ireland in 1914 but
        hurried back to the UK, landing in France on 16th August 1914 as part of General Haig’s
        British Expeditionary Force. They fought in the early engagements of the war, including the
        Battle of Mons and again during the stand at Le Cateau, where five Victoria Crosses were
        won by their Division. After taking part in the Battle of Marne and the Battle of Aisne, they
        were rushed north to Flanders where they were involved in the first Battle of Ypres. By the
        end  of  November,  the  Division  had  suffered  5,000  casualties  and  stayed  in  a  purely
        defensive role.  (Frederick May)

        In October 1914, the 11th (Prince Albert’s Own Hussars) fought an historic battle as part of
        the British Expeditionary Force and  between 19th and 23rd October 1914 they successfully
        fought in the Ploegstreert area, helping to stop the advance of the three German cavalry
        divisions. By late 1914 they were no longer mounted and fought in the trenches just like the
        infantry. (Arnold Vansittart)

        1915 - The Battle of Loos was  one of  the major  British offensives mounted on the Western
        Front in 1915.  It marked the first time the British used poison gas during  the war, and is
        also famous for the fact that it witnessed the first large-scale use of the new (or Kitchener’s
        Army)  units  which  included  the  6th  Battalion,  East  Kent  Regiment.  The   battle   also
        marked  the  third  use  of  specialist  Royal  Engineer  Tunnelling  Companies, who  deployed
        mines  underground  to  disrupt  enemy  defence  lines  through  the  use  of  tunnels  and  the
        detonation  of  large  amounts  of  explosives  at  zero  hour.  (WilliamHarris/Bruce
        Dickinson/John Groombridge)

        The war was also fought at sea.  HMS “Clan McNaughton” was a  merchant ship which was
        requisitioned in November 1914 after returning to her home port of Tilbury, Essex.  She was
        then  hastily  converted  into  something  she  was  never  intended  to  be,  a  warship,  which
        would have included mounting guns up on deck, well above her normal centre of gravity.

        A few days before Christmas 1914, the ship, (which was crewed by a mixture of reservists,
        including some men from Newfoundland, as well as one or two Royal Naval pensioners and
        the  50  or  so  young,  inexperienced  trainee  sailors)  set  sail  for  patrol  duties  in  the  North
        Atlantic.   It  is  known  that  she  had  to  put  into  Liverpool  on  the way,  seemingly  for  some
        problem to be resolved, but after she sent a radio message at 6am on the morning of 6th
        February 1915, she was never heard of again. (Harry Tuthill)






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