Current Information:

Enlisted-Stratford

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 16th October, the 1st Lincolnshire battalion of 9 Brigade, 3rd Division had taken part in the general advance which continued on the morning of 17th October, when 1st Lincolnshire set off to capture the village of Herlies.  This they did at the point of a bayonet. Unfortunately, divisional HQ were unaware that Herlies had been captured and ordered a further artillery bombardment, which of course fell on the men of 1st Lincolnshire. They left rapidly and when the shelling stopped and they could return to the village they found all the Germans gone. Richard Wyatt died from wounds on 19th October.