Alf left England on the 4^th October 1914 as part of 23 Field Ambulance attached to 20^th Brigade of the 7^th Division. The brigade consisted of the 1^st Battalion Grenadier Guards to which Alf was attached along with 2^nd Battalion Scots Guards, 2^nd Battalion Gordon Highlanders and the 2^nd Battalion Border Regiment. They sailed on the SS Victoria and landed in Zeebrugge, Belgium on the 7^th October having been delayed by submarine scares and the need to await other ships in the convoy.

The initial bulk of the British Expeditionary Force had already landed in France in August and by October had fought the battles of Mons on the 23^rd August, Le Cateau on the 26^th August and at The Marne and The Aisne in September. By the beginning of October the ‘Race to the sea’ was well underway but there were still pockets in Belgium which were resisting the German advance. One of these was the fortified city of Antwerp. The idea of landing the 7^th Division at Zeebrugge was that they could reinforce the Belgians and the Naval Division holding Antwerp. However this plan was overtaken by events and Antwerp fell to the Germans on the 10^th October thus negating the need for the reinforcement.

As a result it was decided that the division should make their way South and West through Belgium to join up with the B.E.F who by this time were around the town of Ypres.

First Battle of Ypres, 1914

19-Oct-1914 —22-Nov-1914

This battle occurred in the late autumn at a crucial point in the “Race to the Sea”, when the Allied Armies and the German Armies were engaged in an attempt to outflank one another in a desire to reach and secure the ports on the northern French coast. With the agreement of the French Commander-in-Chief (General Joffre), the British Commander-in-Chief (Field-Marshal Sir John French) withdrew British forces of the British Expeditionary Force (B.E.F.) from their positions on the Aisne battlefield. They moved to Artois and Flanders to extend the left flank of the French Army and hold back the German advance towards the coast.

At the same time the British 3rd Cavalry Division and 7th Division were covering the withdrawal of the Belgian Army from Antwerp. These two divisions were then moved to the east of Ypres on a line between Langemarck – Poelcapelle – Zonnebeke – Gheluvelt – Zandvoorde.

In September 1914 four new German Army Corps had been formed (approximately 48,000 men in total). Over two thirds of the men were young, inexperienced volunteers between 17 and 19 years of age (known as Kriegsfreiwillige). As a result of the young age of so many of the soldiers, the Corps became known as the “Kinderkorps”. The word “Kinder” translates as “children” in English.

These four Corps were incorporated into the newly established German Fourth Army. By 19^th October, with only a few weeks of training, they were on the march towards Ypres from the north east. From 20^th October they encountered the experienced, well-trained soldiers of the British Expeditionary Force (B.E.F.) who were holding a series of positions making up the forward British Line north-east and east of Ypres.

The First Battle of Ypres took place between 19^th October and 22^nd November 1914 and consisted on many continuous battles that flowed into one another.

At the time the BEF was seriously outnumbered both in men and artillery. The professional British army of 1914 was not designed for European warfare involving the mass movement of armies. In August 1914 the British army consisted of around 160,000 men, many of which were deployed overseas in far flung parts of the British Empire. Against these few the Germans managed to muster a numerical superiority of 6 to 1. The training and professionalism of the BEF however proved to be a distinct advantage, although machine guns were issued within the British army the average soldier’s expertise and marksmanship with the rifle often led the Germans to believe that they were facing a numerically large force armed with many machine guns. The BEF’s legendary ‘fifteen rounds a minute’ would have a telling effect in the battles to come.

As the First Battle of Ypres commenced the line held by the BEF was very thin. It was more a series of outpost trenches rather that the continuous fortified line that would later produce the stagnant trench warfare that would pervade for the next years.

The First Battle of Ypres was a crucial test for the BEF. If their thinly held line gave way the Germans could cut through and swing north to the channel ports thus cutting off the British from the supply source and splitting the Allies line.

The First Battle of Ypres was virtually the death knell of the professional British army. The casualties of the previous battles had been catastrophic and the few that were left were soon to be swallowed in the maelstrom of Ypres. Reserve forces, garrison battalions and territorial units would take the place of those lost and continue to hold the line until the arrival of Kitchener’s New Army. Until then, on the shoulders of so few men rested the future of Britain’s involvement in the war. The poem below epitomizes the feelings held at the time towards the men of the BEF by the nation.

A scanty line – an outpost line,

But that line a ring of fire!

Impregnable their flaming guard

Who made our shield their pyre

 

We staked an Empire on their hold,

Our world to win or lose.

The few that held that line held all,

We had no right to choose.

 

Flame of the Spirit was their guard

Oh grim heroic bluff!

God only knew how few they were

He knew they were enough

 

          

 

Alf’s Wartime History

With a lot of help from friends and family I have been able to piece together some of Alf’s movement in the First World War. I know that he was in the RAMC Territorials prior to the outbreak of war and shipped out pretty quickly once war had been declared. I have been able to ascertain from family documents that he initially left Wellington Barracks in London with the 1st Battalion, Grenadier Guards. The Guards were part of the 20th Brigade, 7th Division which included 2nd Battalion Scots Guards, 2nd Battalion Border Regiment and 2nd Battalion Gordon Highlanders. Alf at this time was part of 23 Field Ambulance which was the medical unit for that brigade. In the initial stages of the war the stalemate of trench warfare had not been reached, it was, at that time, a war of movement. He landed at Zeebrugge, Belgium on the 7th October 1914 having sailed with the Guards on the SS Victoria. From then on I have been able to trace the movement of Alf’s unit through to Ypres, their involvement in the first battle of Ypres through to January of 1915. From January 1915 he transfers to the 1st London Sanitary Section. I have not been able to find any records for this unit and therefore have been unable to trace Alf’s movement. I know that he stayed in Belgium and France until July 1916 when he was returned to England having served nearly two years at the front. So, in reality, the only movements that I can trace are those of his unit between October 1914 and January 1915. Because of this it seemed sensible to concentrate only on that period of time and as the documents for his unit and the history of the division are quite concise it enabled me to plot the route he took from Zeebrugge to Ypres and also to track the locations of his unit around Ypres.

Thanks for joining me!

As with most families I have often wondered about the lives and times of my ancestors. In the age of the internet there are so many opportunities to find out more about them, what they did, the lives that they led and the historic times that they lived through. Looking back it just seems to me that my parents and grandparents lived through momentous events in history, the likes of which (thankfully) I have never had to experience. It is thanks to them that I and future generations have the freedom, the time and the ability to investigate the past in a way that was never afforded to them. This is my tribute to one of my ancestors and my own personal thank you to them all.

Grandad Alf

I guess the first clue that I ever got that my Grandfather Alfred Thompson was involved in the First World War was the fact that he was deaf, not just a bit deaf, not a selective deafness that so often inflicts males of the species but a total all enveloping deafness that was almost tangible. The most obvious manifestation of this was when he was driving. In the 60’s and 70’s cars were mechanical beasts, not the computerised purring automobiles of today, but mechanical goliaths that belched fire and brimstone. His deafness was most apparent when he started the car, there were no rev counters so the only way he could tell if the engine had actually started was when he heard it. Needless to say that for him to hear it the engine had to be at full throttle. Only when he could hear it and had woken up half the neighbourhood did he decided to set off. That level of accelerator control continued for the whole journey. We could be crawling along at 20 m.p.h but the engine would sound as if it was doing 80 in second gear. We could always tell when he was on his way home, you could hear the car coming form several streets away. I remember asking my Dad why he did this and Dad explained to me that he had lost his hearing during the first war, the sound of the artillery guns and the constant shelling had permanently damaged his ability to hear. At that time I did not ask anything more. However like most people I now wish that I had. I am not sure that Alf would have said much about his experiences, his generation did not share their nightmares so easily.

As the years went by I did pick up one or two other bits of information that stuck in my mind. I remember the name ‘Hellfire Corner’. This was a road junction in Ypres, Belgium along which the troops would journey on their way to the frontline. Also I heard that he was a stretcher bearer in the Royal Army Medical Corps, although at a young age I did not realise the true horrors that he must have gone through.

Good company in a journey makes the way seem shorter. — Izaak Walton