Current Information:

Age-33

Distinguished Conduct Medal

10, Napoleon Road, St. Margaret's, Twickenham 

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 26th October at 4pm, the Germans launched a strong attack after a heavy and accurate artillery bombardment against the left of 5th Division and the right of 3rd Division and broke through to capture Neuve Chapelle. Over the next two days counter-attacks were made to try and win back lost positions and other battalions, such as the 2nd Yorkshire Light Infantry  of 13 Brigade, 5th Division, were drawn into the fight. But Neuve Chapelle remained in enemy hands and there were many casualties on both sides, the victims of attacks and counter attacks, sniping but most of all, shell fire. One of these casualties was Archibald Macdonald of 2nd Yorkshire Light Infantry who was killed on 28th October.