In the First Battle of Ypres, its first major engagement, the 7th Division would earn undying fame and be called “Immortal”. But how did it come to be there? It’s a part of its story that is often skipped.
Place names in this artcle are given in their current Flemish spellings, which sometimes differ from the versions used at the time, unless the contemporary version is so well known that to use the present-day name would only serve to confuse.
4 October 1914
3pm: Divisional HQ, located at Lyndhurst in the New Forest of Hampshire, received orders to commence embarkation at 8pm. Trains would depart for Southampton docks at 15 minute intervals, and units near enough to the docks would march. Commanding Officer Major-General Thompson Capper was ordered to the War Office by car to receive instructions as to the role his division was expected to fulfill, from the Secretary of State for War, Lord Kitchener. He found he was to assist in the relief of beseiged forces at Antwerp by attacking the enemy’s heavy artillery in the direction of Malines (Mechelen.) 7th Division would come under command of a new IV Corps commanded by Lieutenant-General Sir Henry Rawlinson. A force of British marines and French forces would also be available for this operation.
5 October 1914
The method of the hurried move to Southampton cause difficulties, as ships were loaded essentially on a “First come, first served” basis and units had to be split up onto different ships. In many cases, artillery horses were shipped separately from their guns.
Divisional HQ and Northumberland Hussars Yeomanry sailed on “Minneapolis.” Other ships in the convoy that carried the division were “Armenian”, “Caledonian”, “Cestrian”, “Cornishman”, “Cymric”, “Lake Michigan”, “Sistern”, “Turcoman”, “Victorian”, and “Winifredian”. By 6.30pm, embarkation was fully completed. The sea journey was affected by information from the Admiralty that a grain ship had been sunk by a mine off Zeebrugge. Much of the convoy was nearing the Ostend area and was ordered to Dover until all was declared clear to proceed.
6 October 1914
6.30am, first disembarkations took place at Zeebrugge and continue throughout the day: arrivals included Northumberland Hussars Yeomanry, half 58 Battery RFA and three sections of the ammunition column, half the Border Regiment, half Gordon Highlanders, half Queen’s (Royal West Surrey Regiment), half Royal Scots Fusiliers, Royal Warwickshire Regiment, half Yorkshire Regiment, 7th Divisional Cyclist Company, half 23rd Field Ambulance, and 3 Company of the Divisional Train. Progress was slow due to insufficent cranage and horse gangways.
As the troops disembarked they were formed into groups and proceeded to billets in and around Bruges (Brugge). The dismounted men went by train, and the mounted men, horses and vehicles went the ten miles by road. Divisional HQ went to the Hotel de Flandre in the city centre. All were in billets by 9pm, but with the usual difficulty of finding accommodation for the horses. The ships had loaded with two days ration and forage, and as some units had been moving for this time or more, they found no supplies available and had to rely on their wits and local help.
Imagine some one hundred and fifty men, and twelve officers, suddenly appearing in a small outlying street of the far-famed Belgian city, at the untimely hour of 4 a.m., and all clamouring for a night’s lodging. To begin with, it was not an easy matter to arouse the slumbering people; and the billeting party had to wait long before each door, ere slippered feet were heard along passages, and drowsy voices inquired suspiciously as to our business; then appeared more or less clad figures, who gazed anxiously at the cloaked men standing at the door (for the Germans lay at the back of every mind). However, the talismanic charm of ‘Englishmen’ did wonders. It was 4.30 a.m. before I tumbled into an extremely comfortable bed, and had barely laid my head upon the pillow—so it seemed—when a great knocking at the door aroused me with a start from vivid dreams of home, as an orderly entered the room with the alarming statement that the column was moving off in ten minutes.
Chaplain E. J. Kennedy, attached 23rd Field Ambulance, from his book “With the immortal seventh division”
7 October 1914
The rest of the convoy arrived and disembarked, with the 1st South Staffordshire Regiment being last to land at around noon. It had been a considerable feat of organisation and logistics, if rather rushed. The headquarters staff of 20th Infantry Brigade recorded that they could hear heavy gunfire from the Antwerp direction while their ship was waiting to enter Zeebrugge harbour.
During the day, it became evident that the situation in Antwerp had worsened, and the original intention for the expeditionary force had been rendered impossible. The 8000 British marines that were to play a part were now bottled up in Antwerp themselves, and there was no sign of promised French Territorial Divisions or Fusiliers-Marins. It was also decided that Zeebrugge was unusitable as a base for operations, and instead Ostend would be used. Ominously, division received information from the War Office of a large enemy troop build-up north of Lille and that it was likely to move to threaten the division.
8 October 1914
Rawlinson decided to move 7th Division westwards, to cover the landing of 3rd Cavalry Division at Ostend. It would prove to be a long and fatiguing day, especially as it proved rather chaotic at first. 20th Infantry Brigade only received its orders to move at 7am half an hour before it was due to depart, and with its units widely scattered around Jabbeke and Varsenare it took some to be able to comply and it only got moving at 8.30am. The units moved the thirteen to fifteen miles during the day, and by night were cantoned in an arc about 4 miles from Ostend. There was no contact with the enemy, although a German aeroplane was seen observing the British movements and Ostend was reported to be “full of German spies and other undesirable and evilly-disposed persons.” Divisional HQ went to Villa Britannia on the seafront in Ostend. It had been a long and fatiguing day, with some units having march orders and destinations altered, and the sad sight of thousands of Belgian civilian refugees fleeing westwards. Some units failed to be rationed. 2nd Wiltshire Regiment camped at the racecourse at Ostend and soon found that King Albert and Queen Elisabeth of the Belgians were nearby at their pavilion. The division was by now quite widely dispersed: for example, part of the Divisional Ammunition Column went to Blankenberg, 21st Field Ambulance to Bredene.
44 (Mechanical Transport) Company of the Army Service Corps, assigned as 7th Division’s Supply Column reported that they disembarked not at Zeebrugge, but actually at Bruges itself. It then proceeded in two separate sections to Aalter and Beernem.
News was received that the force of French Fusiliers-Marins had arrived in the Ghent (Gand/Gent) area. Rawlinson ordered Capper to move his headquarters, two infantry brigades, and a portion of his artillery to Ghent to cover the withdrawal of Belgian troops who were now evacuating Antwerp, but he also advised “not becoming seriously involved with the enemy.”
9 October 1914
At 7.35am, the divisional quartermaster learned that due to the non-arrival of a ship, the supply depot for the force had run out of tea, sugar, iron rations, and petrol. It took time and much shuffling of transport before the supply system was fully established, and it was really only once the division was at Ypres that this was achieved.
The division, except for 21st Infantry Brigade, 3rd Brigade Royal Garrison Artillery, the Divisional Ammunition Column and the Signal Company, entrained for the move to Ghent on this day. It was slow progress, with “everything had to be extemporised with temporary military and civil railway staffs” and not helped by the railway station having no ramps for loading vehicles or horses, and being crammed with Belgian refugees fleeing form the fighting elsewhere. The 2nd Queen’s reported that the Belgian method of unloading only from one end of the train slowed this considerably. Inexperience in rapid entraining of a major military force now also exposed itself. The Divisional Adjutant reported that “the animals would have been less worn out had the distance to Ghent (40 miles) been done by road.” Those elements still at Ostend were ordered to return to Bruges by rail.
The Flandria Palace Hotel was taken over as a temporary medical facility.
Telephone communications were still in place with Antwerp and the Belgian GHQ, now at Eecloo (Eekloo). With Germans threatening to intercept the withdrawal from the city, it was believed that a strike from Ghent towards Lokeren would be the best measure to stop it. Very soon afterwards, another messahge came, stating that the situation had changed and that the main threat was now developing near Alost (Aalst). The 7th Division deployed advanced guard outposts east, southeast and south of Ghent, while Belgian cavalry held its flanks and the Fusiliers-Marins were in the southeast on the Aalst road, During the night, the latter came under attack and suffered about 200 casualties.
10 October 1914
The units continued to arrive at Ghent throughout the day and took up positions east of the city, but news came that Belgian troops were safely clear from Antwerp. Civilian refugees were by now flowing through the area in large numbers. Preparations were made for 7th Division to move westwards, until further information came that the Belgians had in fact not yet fully withdrawn, and Rawlinson ordered the division to stand fast. Some units heard French and Belgian firing, and 1st Royal Welsh Fusiliers reported that a few shots came over its position SE of Merelbeke. 54 Field Company of the Royal Engineers successfully blew up an iron grider bridge over the Scheldt at Swynaerde (Zwijnaarde).
Later in the day, as the Germans advanced on their flank when a French unit withdrew, the 2nd Royal Warwickshire Regiment came under fire and Corporal 1721 Richard Element was wounded. (He later returned to action and earned a DCM at the Battle of Festubert in 1915.) During the afternoon, the element that had returned to Bruges was ordered to Beernem. It was not easy, as the routes through Bruges were jammed with the Belgian Army withdrawing from Antwerp, but Beernem and reportedly excellent billets were reached by 8pm.
During the day, Private 1136 John Swift of the 2nd Royal Warwickshire Regiment was accidentally killed by a man of the 1st Royal Welsh Fusiliers. He was buried in the nearby churchyard at Lemberge. In 1955, he was reinterred in Cement House Cemetery near Langemark, Ypres. As far as I can tell, Swift was the first man of the division to lose his life on active service.
11 October 1914
Large hostile forces were by now closing around Ghent. The Belgian, French and British forces in the area were all ordered to withdraw westwards, and 7th Division was last to go, commencing its move at 10pm. There was confusion and delay on the night march, particularly as the Fusiliers-Marins were on the move at the same time. By daylight next day, the division had reached Hansbeke, Bellem, Somergem and Aeltre (Aalter) and had placed rearguard defences on the Lys Canal.
12 October 1914
With the German threat at Ghent developing, Rawlinson pressed Capper to maintain the pace of the withdrawal, and the division moved towards Thielt (Tielt). The element of the division at Beernem was ordered to move to Coolscamp. Among them was the 2nd Yorkshire Regiment, which found itself being billeted at a pea canning factory.
The situation in terms of logistics and supply was becoming complex and difficult. Aone one point, the horse transport of the 7th Divisional Train was held up for half an hour at a railway crossing; meanwhile the motorised Supply Column, carrying goods that the Train would collect, arrived at the allotted place – a crossroads south of Kruiskalsyde – but under pressure to return as soon as possible to the depot, the Column had no choice but just to dump the goods there on the ground. Forage would also beginning to be a problem area, and on 13 October two officers motored to Roulers (Roeselare) to negotiate a supply of hay using local farm carts.
13 October 1914
The division continued its march, going another ten miles and reachingRoeselare on a wet day. When four miles out of Tielt, 1st Grenadier Guards heard rumours that Germans were advancing on the town and that they may need to protect their supply column. The rumours proved groundless and the march continued. Reports of its horses beginning to suffer due to their physical condition, poor harness and poor driving. Some of the battalions did not get into Roeselare until 8-9pm. 2nd Border dug in at an outpost position two miles out of town at Den Aap. 2nd Wiltshire had a lively day. It had been warned to move to Dunkirk and had sent most of its transport and baggage towards Nieuwpoort, when it was instead ordered to move on Roeselare. An officer was sent urgently by car to Nieuwpoort to redirect the transport. Meanwhile, B Company was sent to guard Ostend docks while some of the Royal Naval Division (escaped from Antwerp) embarked for home there, and while the rest of the battalion was assembling near the railway station to begin the march to Roeselare, two German aeroplanes each dropped a bomb near C Company but without damage. The transport eventually caught up with the battalion during the night.
14 October 1914
The division marched twelve miles to Ypres, much of which was on poor roads, although some 1000 footsore men were moved there by railway. The 2nd Royal Scots Fusiliers took 11 hours to move 12 miles, such were the conditions and problems with transport at the head of the column. The sound of gunfire from the Armetieres direction, many miles to the south, was heard.
The division remained at Ypres on 15 October, with some units relieving French units east and southeast of the city. Divisional HQ was set up in the Banque de Courtrai in the Grote Market.
- The Northumberland Hussars Yeomanry went into the Cavalry Barracks, as did 2nd Wiltshires of 21st Infantry Brigade.
- 20th Infantry Brigade was disposed south and southeast of the city, and was ordered to entrench on 15 October, with outposts on the line from Voormezele to “pond west of Zillebeke”. It found this wooded area “full of German patrols and snipers”:
- 1st Grenadier Guards moved to man outposts at Kruistraat, where it encountered and destroyed a German patrol, killing three dragoons.
- 2nd Scots Guards moved to man outposts at the Halte on the Menin Road near Zillebeke.
- 2nd Border Regiment relieved the 10th Hussars to man checkpoints at exits from the city, then moved to entrench at Zillebeke, where its scouts “did good work, accounting for twenty five over-curious Teutons”. This is probably the same incident referred to in the battalion’s diary for 15 October, when it reported an encounter with an uhlan patrol while searching a wood near Zillebeke: shots were exchanged at close quarters, with no casualties to the battalion.
- 2nd Gordon Highlanders moved to man outposts between Dickebusch (Dikkebus) and Voormezele.
- 21st Infantry Brigade was disposed southwest of the city and reported capturing “several Uhlans” on 15 October. It had outposts to cover the roads coming in from Langemark and Boesinge.
- 22nd Infantry Brigade was disposed to the east of the city, on the Zonnebeke road.
- C and D Companies of the 2nd Queen’s, and elements of 1st Royal Welsh Fusiliers, opened rifle fire on a German aircraft that flew over them just after they had arrived at Ypres station. They reported that it came down about three miles away; a cavalry parol captured the occupants and the damaged aircraft was brought into the city.
Having been sent to Dunkirk, the lorries of 7th Division’s Supply Column were loaded up with oats but this was not completed until after 8pm. By then, the town gates had been locked and military authorities (presumably French) refused to let the column leave until morning. It then proceeded to Elverdinghe near Ypres.
15 October 1914
The Northumberland Hussars Yeomanry, patrolling SE of Ypres, came into contact (the war diary says “in touch”) with enemy cavalry near Klein Zillebeke and Zandvoorde. 20th Infantry Brigage was ordered to entrench a position to cover the south of Ypres: 2nd Scots Guards did so near Verbrandenmolen.
2nd Wiltshire Regiment held a long 1910-yard line from the Menin Road to the Zonnebeke road SE of Wieltje. On a night of heavy rain, some of the rudimentary trenches collapsed and buried several men: “they were extricated with some difficulty but were uninjured.”
16 October 1914
At 2am in the rain, Lieutenant Philip John Egerton of the 2nd Border was accidentally wounded by his own men. As an enemy attack was anticipated he had warned his platoon to open fire on anyone in front of their trenches, which were near Zillebeke. For reasons best known to himself, he then decided to walk along the front of his line. In the dark, he was fatally wounded by his platoon.
On the night of the 16th I informed Sir Henry Rawlinson of the operations which were in progress by the Cavalry Corps and the Third Corps, and ordered him to conform to those movements in an easterly direction, keeping an eye always to any threat which might be made against him from the north-east. A very difficult task was allotted to Sir Henry Rawlinson and his command. Owing to the importance of keeping possession of all the ground towards the north which we already held, it was necessary for him to operate on a very wide front, and, until the arrival of the First Corps in the northern theatre – which I expected about the 20th – I had no troops available with which to support or reinforce him.
Field Marshal Sit John French, commanding British Expeditionary Force, in his despatch covering the first battle of ypres
The division marched out early in thick fog to take up a line from Broodseinde (near Zonnebeke) down through Gheluvelt (Geluveld) to Kruiseik. 20th Infantry Brigade was to hold Zandvoorde to Gheluvelt; 21st Infantry Brigade advanced through thick woods and carried the line on to Reutel and Noordemdhoek, with part of B Company of the 2nd Wiltshire Regiment sent to occupy Becelaere; 22nd Infantry Brigade moved on Zonnebeke with 1st Royal Welsh Fusiliers as advanced guard. The latter were told by locals of the presence of 17 German uhlans, but they quit Zonnebeke 20 minutes before the RWF arrived at 6.30am. Several battalions report minor skrmishes as they advanced.
During the night, a Corporal of the 2nd Wiltshire reported enemy massing some 400 yards away on the right flank. 15 Platoon of D Company opened fire and firing soon spread to other parts of the battalion’s line. Captain Magor was killed while this was in progress. On the Wiltshires left, the 1st South Staffords reported hearing continuous rifle fire the whole night.
17 October 1914
Divisional headquarters set up in a chateau near the “5km” marker on the Menin Road. The battalions took the opportunity to strengthen and improve their position by entrenching.
A platoon patrol of the 2nd Wiltshires, probing towards Terhand, encountered a German cavalry patrol, which withdrew. An armoured car joined the patrol and soon reported that the enemy had set up a machine gun in the mill at Terhand. The patrol withdrew to Reutel.
18 October 1914
IV Corps ordered the 7th Division to advance in the direction of Menin, and it reached the line Zandvoorde – Kruiseik – Terhand. At this stage there was no word of a German attack approaching from the Menin direction, although 2nd Gordon Highlanders sustained a few casualties from shellfire while digging in.
Various liaison officers from General Headquarters visited divisional HQ during the afternoon, expressing surprise that the division was not attacking Menin, but it had had no orders to do so. Such orders came from GHQ during the afternoon and the liaison officers expressed the opinion that, of German forces towards Courtrai and Wevelgem, there was “nothing much” there. Local intelligence suggested different, and would prove to be correct. Later in the afternoon, IV Corps and 2nd Cavalry Corps staff met with 7th Division and concocted a plan for an attack on Menin to take place on 19 October.
Sources
War diaries, all National Archives collection WO95: Divisional HQ General Staff (1627), Divisional Adjutant (1635), Divisional Commander Royal Artillery (1638), Divisional Assistant Director of Medical Services (1640), Divisional Commander Royal Engineers (1641) and all subordinate units.
British Newspaper Archive