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Age-28

17, Ronalds Road, Highbury

The Battle of Neuve Chapelle

Between 10th and 13th March, 1915, the Indian Army Corps and IV Corps attacked the village of Neuve Chapelle in the Artois region of France. During the winter of 1914-1915, reinforcements had arrived from Britain and this was seen as an opportunity to use them to break through the German lines.

It started well. At 7.30am on 10th March, a 30 minute hurricane bombardment destroyed the German wire and front line trenches and at 8.05am the infantry went in. Neuve Chapelle was captured and over a mile of the German line taken. But that was the end of the success.  The British chain of command was weak and their communications poor, which was hardly surprising given that many of the troops had no previous experience of battle. The Germans re-organised and reinforced during the night and no further gains were made. British casualties mounted to 12,000 by the time the offensive petered out on 13th March.

On 10th March, 1915, 7th Division attacked at Neuve Chapelle with 21 Brigade. They assembled between the Orchard and the Moated Grange and at 9am the two leading battalions, 2nd Royal Scots Fusiliers and 2nd Yorkshire moved forward to support trenches on the Rue Tilloye suffering some casualties from machine-gun fire as they crossed the open ground and then from shell fire as they waited in the support trenches. At 2pm, they moved forward to their positions and on meeting no opposition moved forward a further 200yds beyond the Armentieres road where they waited for the general advance which finally began between 5.30-6pm. By now the enemy were prepared and 2nd Yorkshire were soon halted by frontal and flank fire and went to ground where they remained overnight as the fire continued. They remained in this position throughout 11th March, in trenches that varied in distance from the enemy from 30-300 yards sustaining casualties throughout the day from German fire.

At 4.30am on 12th March the Germans began a bombardment along the whole of the British front at Neuve Chapelle and at 5am followed this up with an infantry attack, aided by thick mist. On the right of the line they attacked the Moated Grange and the original German line between that and Sign Post Lane and in so doing came up against 21 Brigade where a number of old communication trenches made it possible for the Germans to get close unseen. Coming up against 2nd Yorkshire their attack failed completely, Combined machine gun and rifle fire stopped the Germans from getting within 30 yards of their positions   Later in the day the bombers of 20 Brigade and and a company of 2nd Wiltshire bravely advanced along the disused communication trenches forcing the Germans back to their main trench and capturing 40 yards of it.  This rapid attack took the enemy by surprise and many surrendered. Two more companies of 2nd Wiltshire and some of 2nd Yorkshire hurried forward to occupy this trench in strength taking 200 of the enemy prisoner while doing so. On 13th March the battalion was relieved and moved back to reserve trenches before going into billets in Laventie on 14th March. During the course of the battle 2nd Yorkshire suffered over 300 casualties, including Albert Samuels who was killed on 12th March.