Current Information:

Age-35

6, Percy Gardens, Isleworth

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 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 German hands. German reinforcements arrived and  the village of Neuve Chapelle was captured by them. Towards the end of October, the fighting on this front died down as the attention of both armies switched to Ypres.

13th October was a day of heavy fighting for the 1st Dorset battalion of 15 Brigade, 5th Division, which began when they advanced for 2000 yards along the north bank of the La Bassée canal as far as the Guinchy brickstacks. On their left the 1st Bedfordshire battalion was forced out of the village of Givenchy and this exposed their flank and left them isolated just as they were faced by an enemy attack. At the same time they were enfiladed by machine guns on the railway embankment south of the canal and were forced to withdraw with 400 casualties, 130 of them killed.  They fell back 500 yards to Pont Fixe where they remained, under fire, until relieved on 15th October when they moved back to billets at Festubert. On 18th October 1st Dorset came under shell fire as they moved forward to Rue d’Ouvert where they remained for the next two days and then, on 20th October moved to billets at Rue du Marais. On 21st October in response to heavy firing from the direction of Violaines, they set out to support the 1st Cheshire battalion who were coming under pressure there and ended the day in entrenched positions near the village. These positions were heavily attacked on the following day, 22nd October and the battalion was slowly driven back and by the evening were in Festubert. One of their casualties during the day was Frank Adamson.