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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 & 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 Messines - 12th October-2nd November 1914

The Battle of Messines was one of the actions that took place during the Race to the Sea and it took place between the Comines-Ypres canal and the River Douvre. It involved the 1st and 2nd Cavalry Divisions and elements of the 3rd, 4th and 5th Divisions as well part of the Indian Division.

On 19th October the 1st Lincolnshire battalion of 9 Brigade, 3rd Division moved into trenches near Herlies and for the next ten days they were in the thick of the action as the enemy continued to try to break through the allied line. They fell back 800 yards to new positions on 22nd October when 9 Brigade shortened their line by moving to new trenches from Helpecarbe to Le Pluich, and on the following day they withdrew again to a line on the Richebourg-Armentières road. On 26th October the enemy broke through the line to capture Neuve Chapelle and the counter attack that followed drew in many units, including 1st Lincolnshire who had only been relieved from the line early that morning. At 3pm on the following day, 27th October the 1st Lincolnshire, 4th Royal Fusiliers and 2nd South Lancashire battalions launched an attack to try to regain the lost trenches. 1st Lincolnshire, on the left of the line, sent B & C Companies forward but they met heavy machine-gun fire from the cottages and buildings that dotted the ground over which they attacked. They were held up and their advance was restricted to 800 yards before they were forced to seek shelter.  Here they remained until dark when two new lines of ‘trenches’ were dug.  Their casualties for the day amounted to nearly 100 and included George Barnard.