Page 20 - Sylvia Malt - Side by Side

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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