Now all roads lead to France and heavy is the tread
Of the living; but the dead returning lightly dance.
Edward Thomas, Roads

Sunday, December 22, 2024

What Happened at Bois des Nonne Bosschen During the First Battle of Ypres?


Fighting at  Nonne Bosschen, 11 November 1914

On three days during the Fall of 1914's First Battle of Ypres,  the tide of victory turned on actions at three locations near where the extreme eastern boundary of the salient crossed the Menin Road: Polygon Wood, Gheluvelt Chateau, and Nonne Bosschen. The action at Nonne Bosschen—fought on 11 November—was the final significant action of the last major battle in the west of the war's first year. Afterward, it was evident that any decisive movement would necessitate a new approach for breaking through the massive and deep trench system that had ended the war of maneuver.

At the dawn of 11 November 1914, the German Army, though, had not quite given up on breaking through at Ypres. The Fourth Army was ordered to prepare another assault over a broad front. After an intense bombardment, their best advance was just north of the Menin Road. A force estimated at 13 German Guards battalions captured Gheluvelt Chateau and they pushed almost a mile farther to Bois de Nonne Bosschen, a small wooded area just northwest of Polygon Wood. The defending British troops in the sector were from the 1st Guards Brigade under the command of Brigadier General Charles FitzClarence, who would later be killed in the action.


Key  Locations During the First Battle of Ypres

After they captured a British Guards' trench, counterattacks—enabled by reinforcements and artillery fire that prevented the attackers being reinforced—drove the German Guards back. The most famous of these is commemorated with the painting shown at the very top of this page. At 1400 hours, the 2nd Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry, accompanied by a company of the Northamptonshire Regiment and the 5th Field Company, Royal Engineers who did not want to be left out of the action, moved forward to clear Nonne Boschen of the 1st Prussian Foot Guard.  The official history of the British Second Division, described the decisive action:

A combined charge was then made on the enemy, who, though standing bravely to meet the attack, again lost heavily in killed and wounded, besides many prisoners. The Prussians thereupon fell back to the trench they had captured earlier in the day from the Black Watch and Camerons. . . When night fell, the stretch of ground won by the Prussians was only 500 yards in length. Their losses were very heavy, for although they advanced with great gallantry in close formation they were decimated by the accurate and rapid rifle-fire of Sir John French's infantry, combined with the splendid practice made by the Divisional Artillery. When the Prussians broke through the northern exits of the Nonne Bosschen Wood they came within a hundred yards of the 9th, 16th, and I7th Batteries of the XLIst Brigade R.F.A., and within rifle fire of the gunners of the 35th (Heavy) Battery. Here again they suffered considerably from rifle fire, the gunners of the four batteries using their rifles with excellent effect.

General Fitzclarence made an effort to organize a counterattack the following morning, but the opportunity was lost when he was fatally wounded. After a last effort, on 17 November, German forces moved into a defensive mode in the west and sent available troops to the Russian Front. Sporadic fighting continued until 22 November, when the arrival of winter forced an end to the battle. The Allies claimed a victory.  A month later, the Ypres battlefield would be the site of the famous episode, the 1914 Christmas Truce.


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