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Born-East Finchley

The Race to the Sea - September-October 1914

By the middle of September 1914, the Aisne battlefield had stagnated into trench warfare and in order to break this impasse, both sides tried to outflank each other in a general movement northwards. Moving up through Picardy, Artois and Flanders, the race was over by 19th October when the North Sea was reached. The Western Front, a line of trenches stretching from Belgium to Switzerland, was now a reality. Initially it was the French army that conducted this movement whilst the British Expeditionary Force remained on the Aisne but by 6 October British reinforcements were needed to help beat off German attacks around Lille. They moved north and along with reinforcements from Britain, they took up new positions in Flanders, on the left of the Allied line and much closer to the Channel ports.

During early October, 1914, the 16th Lancers of 3 Cavalry Brigade, 2nd Cavalry Division made their way north from the Aisne and by 11th October had reached Hazebrouck. On 16th October they were sent to Warneton to provide protection for the Royal Engineers who were building a bridge there. But this work was interrupted by the arrival of enemy troops and after a day of fighting, mainly dismounted, 16th Lancers retired that evening and fell back to Messines. One of their casualties on this day was Christopher Redding who was killed.