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Born-Shoreditch

Y Farm Military Cemetery, Bois-Grenier, France

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 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 La Bassé

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.

The 2nd Royal Scots battalion of 8 Brigade, 3rd Division had been in action during the Battle of the Aisne but were relieved from the front line on 25th September. On 1st October they began a series of route marches northwards away from the Aisne and on 12th October they reached Les Lobes from where they joined in an attack on Croix Barbée and Pont du Hem. Over the next three days forward movement ground to a halt as both sides entrenched but on the morning of 15th October, 2nd Royal Scots managed to advance a further 300 yards so as to conform to the position of 1st Gordon Highlanders. At some point in the day Charles With was killed.