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Age-30

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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 19^th 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 Armentières  12^th October-2^nd November 1914

The official History pinpoints the battle of Armentières to a series of battles that took place between the river Douve and a line between Estaires and Foumers. It was part of the Race to the Sea and it determined the line of the Western Front in that sector. It was fought by III Corps which was made up by 4th and 6th Divisions plus 19 Brigade.

On 20th October, 1914, the 2nd York & Lancaster battalion of 16 Brigade, 6th Division moved to Radinghem, just to the south of Armentières, to take over part of the line held by the 1st East Kent ( Buffs). Their stay here was short because an enemy breakthrough resulted in a withdrawal back to Le Touquet where they spent the next two days improving the trenches in the face of some sniping and shell fire.

At 6am  on 23rd October the Germans penetrated between two platoons of A Company forcing a withdrawal. This tactic was employed at other points of the line held by 2nd York & Lancaster and despite the assistance of a platoon from 1st East Kent (Buffs), there was a general retirement to the Bridoux road. This is according to the Battalion Diary however the Official History of the War ‘Military Operations has a somewhat different version in which an attack against 6th Division on 23rd October hit hardest in the right centre of their line where 16 Brigade, facing almost south, held the right face of a salient the apex of which was at Le Quesne.  At dawn the enemy attacked the trenches of 1st Buffs and 1st Leicestershire and when beaten off they then reached the parapet of 1st Shropshire and 2nd York & Lancaster  where some German soldiers made it into the trenches before being killed. Either way the action resulted in the deaths of nineteen men from 2nd York & Lancaster one of whom was Henry Grey.