Current Information:

Born-Durham

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 19^th 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.

The Battle of Armentières  12th October-2nd November 1914

The official History pinpoints the battle of Armentières to a series of battles that took place between the river Douve and a line between Estaires and Foumers. It was part of the Race to the Sea and it determined the line of the Western Front in that sector. It was fought by III Corps which consisted of 4th and 6th Divisions as well as 19 Brigade.

On 18th October the 1st Shropshire Light Infantry battalion of 16 Brigade, 6th Division marched through Bois-Grenier to Rue du Bois where they went into in Corps reserve. On 20th October they moved to Le Quesne where they entrenched in order to cover the village. 6th Division were heavily attacked on 23rd October particularly in the right centre of their line where 16 Brigade, facing almost south, held the right face of a salient the apex of which was at le Quesne.  At dawn the enemy attacked the trenches of the 1st Buffs and 1st Leicestershire battalions and some reached the parapet of the trenches held by the 1st Shropshire and 2nd York & Lancaster battalions but were unable to penetrate the actual trenches. 1st Shropshire were still in these trenches on 25th October when there was a terrific bombardment of their lines at 4am followed by a general attack by the enemy along the whole line. German troops broke through on the battalion’s right and the situation became critical. However they managed to hold on to 9pm when, under the cover of a rainstorm, 1st Shropshire were withdrawn and moved back to billets in Bois Grenier. At some stage during the day Thomas Brown was killed.