7th Division from landing to First Ypres 1914 - The Long, Long Trail (original) (raw)

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.

IWM Q57114. “Troops of the 2nd Battalion, Scots Guards polishing their and their fellow soldiers shoes at a camp at Lyndhurst in the New Forest where the 7th Division was forming, 15/16 September 1914.” Photographer Christopher Pilkington, attached Scots Guards. The division was rushed to Flanders short of mobilisation stores and only recently having assembled. Most of its units had been recalled home from distant garrisons of Empire.

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.

Divisional headquarters had been in the Grand Hotel in Lyndhurst.

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.

IWM Q57122. “On board SS Lake Michigan troopship at Dover, 6 October 1914. On the left is Sergeant Major Robertson of 2nd Battalion, Gordon Highlanders, and in the centre Sergeant Major Moncur, 2nd Battalion, Scots Guards.” Photographer Christopher Pilkington, as above. I believe the man standing on the right is RSM Richard Baker of the 1st South Staffordshire Regiment.

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.

Imperial War Museum photograph Q50702. “The landing of the 7th Division at Zeebrugge, 6th October 1914.” Photographer Harold Burge Robson, a Second Lieutenant with the Northumberland Hussars.

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.

Many Britons would know of the hotel that the division made its temporary headquarters, for it had regularly advertised in the newspapers and was a popular, if expensive, location.

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.

IWM Q57135. “20th Brigade, 7th Division, leaving Zeebrugge for Bruges by train, 7th October 1914.” Photographer Christopher Pilkington, attached Scots Guards.

From Divisional HQ war diary. Crown Copyright. The situation on 7 October 1914. The map carries the note “must be regarded as approximate, as some units still en route.” Note that 22nd Infantry Brigade was south of the city in the area of Loppem and Oostkamp; 21st Infantry Brigade east at Assebroek and Sint-Kruis; and 20th Infantry Brigade west at Jabbeke and Varsenare.

Postcard view from Geneanet. The 2nd Scots Guards marched out to Varsenare and placed outposts. The tall building on the left is the town hall. Other than for the addition of trees and modern street furniture, this scene is little changed today. Poor Varsenare and many villages along the division;s march route would soon fall under German occupation.

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.

Q57146. “Transport of the 2nd Battalion, Scots Guards passing through the town of Jabbeke during the 7th Division’s march from Bruges to Ostend, 8 October 1914”. Photograoher Christopher Pilkington, as above.

IWM Q57150. “2nd Battalion, Scots Guards halted at Jabbeke on their march from Bruges to Ostend, 8 October 1914. Lieutenant Colonel R.G.I. Bolton is in the foreground.” Photographer Christopher Pilkington, as above.

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.

The Flandria Palace Hotel on Koningin Maria Hendrikaplein in Ghent, in better days before war came to Flanders. From Collectie Archief Gent.

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.

Officers of the 1st South Staffordshire Regiment, said to have been taken near Ghent on 10 October 1914. Source: regimental museum via website Staffordshire Past Track, with thanks. Within a month of the battalion landing at Zeebrugge, virtually every officer seen here had been killed, wounded or taken prisoner of war.

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

From the war diary of the 1st South Staffords, then at Zwijnaarde covering one of the bridges over the Scheldt south of Ghent.

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.

IV Corps set up temporary headquarters in the Villa Doris in Ostend. “Part of the Zeedijk between Van Iseghemlaan (left) and Kapucijnenstraat (right). On the far right the “Villa des Cygnes”, the later “Hotel Osborne”. The third building from the right is the “Villa Doris”, built in 1879. Two caryatids, sculpted by the Bruges artist Hendrik Pickery (1828-1894), decorated the windows of the ground floor.” From “Old Ostend in Pictures”, 1995, from the website of Royal Ostend Native and Historical Circle vzw. The building is no more, but one of the caryatids stands (or stood, I have not checked) on Mercatorlaan in Ostend.

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.

IWM Q57180. “2nd Battalion, Scots Guards transport in Tielt market square, 12-13 October 1914.” Photographer Christopher Pilkington, as above. The battalion reported that they, other units of thier brigade, and French troops, had fired on a German aeroplane and brought it down at around 7am on 13 October, and that Tielt was much congested with troops.

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.

7th Division’s Operation Order 11 defined where the units should billet and the outposts that should be posted.

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.

Part of a map from the British Official History of Military Operations, France and Flanders, 1914 volume ii. It shows the deployment of British formations in the Ypres area 14-15 October 1914. The 7th Division had taken up a line from the south to east of the city. There was then a wide gap to a Belgian division (shown in brown, top). German forces, at this point only a cavalry screen, are shown in green.

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.

32-year-old Egerton died of his wounds next day and is buried in Ypres Town Cemetery. A Boer War veteran, he had been commissioned in 1903.

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.

2nd Queen’s deployment at Zonnebeke, 16 October 1914. War diary WO95/1664. The battalion’s role was to cover the Zonnebeke-Langemarck road (now Langemarkstraat, NW of the village). HQ was set up next to the railway, which no longer exists but which can easily be traced today by locating the former station. It was in the area between the path that has replaced the railway, and Albertstraat.

Pre-war Zonnebeke. Postcard with thanks to Delcampe.

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.

From “Bond of Sacrifice”. Magor had been commissioned in 1900 and was a veteran of the Boer War. He has no known grave.

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.

From 2nd Scots Guards war diary.

Captain Thomas Henry Rivers Bulkeley CMG MVO, whose patrol towards German forces near America turned back after coming under fire, was killed on 22 October 1914. Commissioned in 1899, he was a veteran of the Boer War (in which he was wounded) and had been ADC to the Duke of Connaught. Image from “Bond of Sacrifice.”

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.

The mill at Terhand, where a German machine gun was observed. I am unsure of the original (German) publication in which this image appeared. I found it at the website “Geluwe in beeld”, with thanks for its use. When 7th Division advanced on 18 October, the Germans quit Terhand and it was the 2nd Wiltshire that held it, albeit not for long.

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.

From the war diary of 2nd Bedfordshire Regiment, 21st Infantry Brigade. 29 casualties from rifle fire and shrapnel brought the advance to a halt. The officer killed was Second Lieutenant Charles Ockley Bell. The Commonwealth War Graves Commission has his date of death incorrectly as 12 October 1914. He has no known grave. The man who was missing was Pte 9389 Sidney Dickens, originally buried at Koelberg German Cemetery, later brought into Harlebeke New British Cemetery (XVII. C. 3)

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.

Official History. During 18 October, 7th Division reached the line Zandvoorde – Kruiseik – Terhand. The Northumberland Hussars Yeomanry moved to Waterdamhoek. There was gap on its left before 3rd Cavalry Division which was facing Roeselare – and very much superior enemy forces – unappreciated by British intelligence – coming towards it. The scene for a surprise and epic encounter was set.

From war diary of 7th Divisional HQ General Staff.

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

Antwerp

7th Division

The Battles of Ypres, 1914 (First Ypres)

Sir John French’s fourth despatch