The liberation of Landrecies

By Chris BakerArticles
Google Maps. Location of Landrecies highlighted.

My first ever visit to this part of France was in 1991. I had been on a business trip to Brussels and had added two or three days on to the end of it for this purpose, so I went in my own car (a red Honda Prelude, if you must know). I was still fairly new to this Great War stuff but had recently been reading about Mons and the Somme, so I drove down through Mons, Bavay, Maubeuge, Le Cateau and Cambrai before reaching the Somme. Landrecies was a place I had heard of in connection with the retreat from Mons in 1914. So when I pulled up at a small roadside military cemetery just outside the town I was a bit baffled to see that it as all about 1918. It was one of those moments when you realise that you still have a great deal to learn.

4 November 1918

Landrecies was liberated on 4 November 1918 as part of a wider action known as the Battle of the Sambre.

Part of a map from the British Official History of Military Operations. The solid red line on the left marks the British front line before the attack began on 4 November 1918. Landrecies, and the Sambre-Ors Canal which runs through it, can be seen in the centre. It was in the attack area of British XIII Corps and specifically its 25th Division. The division deployed its 75th and 74th Infantry Brigades to make the assault. By next morning, the front had been advanced to the red line shown with digits “5”. The southern boundary of 25th Division, with 32nd Division to its south, lay close to where Landrecies British Cemetery was soon created.

Landrecies British Cemetery

According to the Commonwealth War Graves Commission, the cemetery was made by the 25th Division in November 1918 and all burials date from the period October 1918 to January 1919. It contains 165 Commonwealth burials of the First World War, 14 of which are unidentified. An analysis of burials soon reveals that 61 of the known burials are of men killed before 4 November, the earliest being on 23 October. A detailed study shows that many were of 32nd Division and were brought forward for burials from locations to the west. A further seven of the burials are of dates after 4 November, of which two were of men of the Labour Corps who died after the Armistice of 11 November 1918. In other words, this apparently “battlefield of 4 November” cemetery is in truth only 55% such.

The burials dated 4 November 1918 are mainly of six battalions.

  • 22 burials – 1/8th Battalion Royal Warwickshire Regiment (75th Infantry Brigade, 25th Division)
  • 18 – 1/5th Battalion Gloucestershire Regiment (75th Infantry Brigade)
  • 14 – 2nd Battalion King’s Own Yorkshire Light Infantry (32nd Division)
  • 7 – 1/8th Battalion Worcestershire Regiment (75th Infantry Brigade)
  • 7 – 16th Battalion Lancashire Fusiliers (32nd Division)
  • 3 – 9th Battalion Devonshire Regiment (7th Infantry Brigade, 25th Division)
The cemetery today (CWGC). The houses were not there when I visited some decades ago!

Landrecies Communal Cemetery

Three men who died on 4 November 1918 are buried in the town communal cemetery, along with 54 of other dates, mainly in 1914 and 1940.

One of them, Sapper 158777 Albert William Langley, was of 182nd Tunnelling Company of the Royal Engineers, a unit tasked trying to save the bridge and locks at Landrecies from demolition. Two of his company comrades were also killed: they lie in Cross Roads Cemetery at Fontaine-Au-Bois. The others in the communal cejmetery were of the 1/5th Gloucesters and 1/8th Worcesters.

The Mairie in the ruins of the town, evidently once some clearing up had begun to take place after the Great War (postcard thanks to Geneanet).

For more photos of Landrecies visit this website

Preparations for the attack

The following details are from a narrative report attached to the war diary of the headquarters of 75th Infantry Brigade (National Archives WO95/2249). Note the reference to the crossing of the canal: rafts and lifebelts.

The attack

The British Expeditionary Force of 1918 was formidable, co-ordinating artillery, tanks, machine guns, infantry, and air support; provided with excellent signalling, logistic, engineering and medical support. Attacking in foul weather which ruled out visual signalling, it liberated Landrecies as planned.
More than 800 Germans taken as prisoner, and numerous field guns, machine guns and mortars captured by 75th Infantry Brigade alone.
Casualties that would be considered light by the standards of the Great War for an operation of this type.
The town was captured on 4 November 1918 and a line established beyond it. I have highlighted in yellow the location where Landrecies British Cemetery would soon be established.

Links

Article: the 1914 capture of 4th Field Ambulance near Landrecies

25th Division