First Name: | Frederick George | Last Name: | ANDREWS | |
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Date of Death: | 21/10/1914 | Lived/Born In: | Sydenham | |
Rank: | Lieutenant | Unit: | South Lancashire2 | |
Memorial Site: | 1. Sydenham, St Bartholomew 2. Le Touret Memorial, France | |||
Current Information:Age-43 76, West Hill, Sydenham Born-New Zealand
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 Bassée, 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. On 17th October, 1914, the 2nd South Lancashire battalion of 7 Brigade, 3rd Division, moved up into the line in front of Illies. They remained here for four days during which time the enemy launched a number of heavy attacks on the British line. The strongest of these came at 7am on 21st October under the cover of a mist and 2nd South Lancashire, on the right of 7 Brigade, was forced back after the Germans had successfully penetrated their positions. They suffered over 200 casualties on this day, one of them being Frederick Andrews. |
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