THE GREAT WAR *VIRTUAL TOUR* Race To The Sea
THE RACE TO THE SEA
The Formation Of The Western Front (1914)
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The first Soldiers of the BEF arrived in France on the 7th August. Commanded by Field-Marshal Sir John French, his foe was General Alexander von Kluck who was the Commander of the German First Army. The BEF comprised of two Corps of Infantry, and a Cavalry Division; 85,000 men and 290 guns. With Lieutenant-General Sir Douglas Haig Commanding I Corps and General Sir Horace Smith-Dorrien Commanding II Corps. Both Corps of the BEF and the Cavalry Division were in action, although the bulk of the fighting was carried out by Smith-Dorrien’s II Corps along the line of the Mons Canal. General von Kluck’s First Army comprised of four Corps and three Cavalry Divisions; 160,000 men, and 550 guns.
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| GENERAL SIR HORACE SMITH-DORRIEN |
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| LEUTENANT-GENERAL SIR DOUGLAS HAIG |
The BEF prepared to join the French advance to the East, but
the weight of two German Armies sweeping down from the North forced the French
Fifth Army to pull back to the West, leaving the BEF ahead of the French
Armies, and dangerously exposed on either flank. However, in a meeting on the 23rd August, with Lanrezac,
Commander of the French Fifth Army, Sir John French agreed to hold the line of
the Mons Condé canal for 24 hours to cover the French withdrawal. Strung out
along a 20-mile length of the canal, the BEF faced the main German onslaught
through Belgium. After some desperate fighting in the afternoon, II Corps began
to fall back from the canal line, and at 01:00hrs on the 24th
August, Sir John French gave the order for a general retreat. British losses
totalled 1,600, almost all from II Corps, while German losses were not certain,
they were estimated to be between 6000 and 10,000. Disengaging from an enemy to
affect a withdrawal, is traditionally a complicated operation, but this was
carried out successfully along most of the Battlefront.
There was, however, a costly Battle at Elouges on the 24th
August to protect the withdrawal of II Corps, in which the BEF losses were more
significant than at Mons itself. Between the 24th August and the 5th
September, in the heat of Summer, an Army of nearly 100,000 Troops retreated
200 miles along narrow pavé roads with all of their equipment, transport, and
horses. Throughout this time, they were relentlessly pursued by a massively
superior German Force. The achievement of the BEF in maintaining its discipline
and the feat of organisation and supply was remarkable. On several occasions,
the BEF was forced to fight rear-guard actions; the largest of these actions
was at Le Cateau on the 26th August and was undertaken by I and II
Corps Villers Cotterêts, involving the 4th (Guards) Brigade, who
were the rear guard of I Corps. On the same day, 15 miles away at Néry, the 1st
Cavalry Brigade defeated an attack by a whole German Cavalry Division, in what
became one of the most well-known incidents of the retreat. The Theatre of
action then moved Northwards, from the banks of the Aisne and developed into The
Race to the Sea.
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| EMPEROR WILLIAM II |
The expression the race to the sea was coined sometime after the events it describes took place. It refers to the confused struggle between the German and Anglo-Franco Armies during the months of September and October 1914, on the plains of Northern France and Belgium, after the defeat of the German Army on the river Marne, and its subsequent withdrawal to the river Aisne. Each side attempted to attack the rear of their Enemies Northern flank in order to envelop it, and this resulted in a series of movements which took the belligerents North, towards the Belgian border and the shores of the North Sea. The race came to a halt in October, when the War of Movement became a War of Position. During the two months it lasted, the Germans usually had the initiative, forcing the Allies to fill the breaches which threatened the Channel Ports and their vital communications with Great Britain. On the 19th August 1914, Emperor William II issued an Order to his Northern Armies:
It is my Royal and Imperial command that you concentrate your energies, for the immediate present, upon one single purpose, and that is that you address all your skill and all the valour of my Soldiers to exterminate first the treacherous English and walk over British General French's contemptible little army.
The Old Contemplates
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| DURING THE RETREAT |
As the French Fifth Army and BEF retreated, the German Schlieffen Plan began to unravel. The plan contained several fundamental flaws and, due to the Allied retreat, the German First and Second Armies were drawn to the South and the East, instead of wheeling to the West as planned. As a result, the German First Army passed to the East of Paris; the French commander, Joffre, saw a significant opportunity to halt the German advance. If the Germans were attacked from the West and, at the same time the French Fifth Army and BEF halted their retreat, and attacked from the South, the German First and Second Armies would be forced to withdraw. Joffre began to assemble a new French Sixth Army around Paris, in order to put his plan into operation. Sir John French, however, was not intending to join the advance. His resolve had been severely shaken during the retreat, and he now wished to completely withdraw the BEF from the Line for a period of recuperation. The Secretary of State for War, Lord Kitchener, made a visit to Field-Marshall French in an attempt to stiffen his resolve, and after a personal appeal from Joffre, French consented to join the General’s advance.
The French Sixth Army began their advance against the Germans on the 5th September, opening the Battle of Marne. The Battle was fought between the 5th and 12th September and is arguably the most important Battle of the First World War. By its end, the Germans had begun a general withdrawal along their 250-mile Front, and The Schlieffen Plan was dead; Germany had failed to gain a quick victory, which was her only guarantee of success.
Unable to open up a corridor, the Germans turned their unsuccessful efforts Northwards, in front of Ypres, and along the River Yser. Both sides held their ground in the clay soil, and the respective Lines gradually became defined. Under the heavy rain, the clay sides of the deep shell scrapes began to fall in, filling the holes with thick, sticky mud. The Germans worked with great thoroughness, gradually transforming the villages into veritable fortress’. The fighting was characterised by random gun and rifle fire, whilst occasionally, sharp fusillades spread like trains of powder along the lines, only to die down again; from time to time, daring raids were carried out under cover of the autumnal fog, but all the time, the primary Battle was now being delivered in Flanders. The long, armed vigil in the mud, with its local fighting, was the precursor of the coming great struggle of the Spring and Summer of 1915; it also established the trench lines of the Western Front.
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| MOVING UP TO THE FRONT |
After a few months these trenches had spread from the North Sea to the Swiss Frontier. As the Germans were the first to decide where to stand fast and dig, they had been able to choose the best places to build their trenches. The possession of the higher ground not only gave the Germans a tactical advantage, but it forced the British and French to live in the worst conditions. Most of this area was rarely a few feet above sea level. As soon as soldiers began to dig down they would invariably find water two or three feet below the surface. Water-logged trenches were a constant problem for soldiers on the Western Front. Nevertheless, the Germans now faced the prospect of a long drawn out War, and the balance of resources against her made it very doubtful that this was a War which they could win.
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| TYPICAL BRITISH FRONT-LINE TRENCH |
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