Current Information:

Age-19

27, George's Road, Highbury

Bethune Town Cemetery, France

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.

The Battle of La Bassée,

This was fought by II Corps (3rd and 5th Divisions) between 10th October and 2nd November 1914 and as the name suggests it focused on an area around the town of  La Bassée in northern France. It was part of the Race to the Sea and it determined the line of the Western Front in that sector. There were some initial British successes but La Bassée remained firmly in enemy hands and when German reinforcements arrived the village of Neuve Chapelle was captured by them as well. Towards the end of October, the fighting on this front died down as the attention of both armies switched to Ypres.

Early in the morning of the 22nd October the Germans attacked and captured the village of Violaines. The 1st East Surrey battalion of 14 Brigade, 5th Division assisted in the British counter attack that followed, by maintaining machine gun and rifle fire on the enemy positions. That night the battalion took up a position 500 yards south of Richbourg-L’Avoue, where they entrenched. Here they stayed for a week being continuously subjected to heavy German shelling with the inevitable casualties. On the 26th October the enemy attacked at the junction of 3rd Division and 5th Division and broke through the British line to capture Neuve Chapelle. Counter attacks later on that day and on the following day failed to regain the lost trenches. They tried again on 28th October but once again the attack failed and as the troops fell back they exposed the flank of 1st Royal West Kent and threatened to once again break the British line. A number of units, including 1st East Surrey became involved in the ensuing struggle and they prevented the pursuing Germans from penetrating the gaps. On 30th October 1st East Surrey were relieved by Indian troops from these forward positions but were heavily shelled during the relief and they eventually moved back to billets at La Couture. However as they were entering the village a large shell landed close to the head of the column resulting in ten casualties. Herbert Love died from wounds on 31st October but the exact date on which he was wounded is not known.