la bassee 15th july 1915

[11thargyll]

H

 

Hi, i have this trench map but can't find any information on the attack it refers to. any help would be much appreciated. p.s. i have other maps from the same Major Hon. A.C. Murray, i think he became an M.P. after the war?

[ajsmith]

The attack was part of the 2nd Battle of Artois. 

[11thargyll]

thanks, was that not over by mid june tho'?

[ajsmith]

It finished officially on the 18th June. 15th June: In what was referred to as the Second Action of Givenchy, British and Canadian forces attacked northwest of La Bassée, France and captured the front line, but were pushed back by German grenades and a shortage of ammunition. The war diaries of the participating battalions could be a source of more detailed information.

[11thargyll]

thanks

[Old Forge]

7 hours ago, ajsmith said:

The war diaries of the participating battalions could be a source of more detailed information.

2/Wilts Diary, if it helps put a little flesh on the bones:

 

 

 

 

 

[Old Forge]

...and the rest of the entry for 16th June:

 

 

HTH,

 

Richard

[Old Forge]

I have the 21st Brigade diary as well, which gives a lot more detail (free for download from TNA at the moment as well). Not sure if this is of interest but can post relevant extracts if it is.

 

Cheers,

 

Richard

[Knotty]

Hi 11thargyll

 

It might be worth seeing if you can get hold/borrow of a copy of Phil Tomaselli book entitled “Givenchy in The Great War, a village on the front line 1914-1918”. It breaks down into a year by year study of all the actions centred on the village, this might give you an in-site as to what was happening around the date you quote.

 

Just an idea

 

John

[JWK]

From the other side:

 

Fritz Limbach (of German IR16), who was based at the other side of the canal (at F5? Difficult to read in the photo), mentioned the attack in his letter to his parents dated 20th June 1915:

 

Quote

 

At the moment we’re enjoying our 4 day rest. And this time we really deserved it. We had an awful lot of work because of the attack the English, of which you can read in the Daily Communiqué of General HQ of the 16th [*]

Apparently the English wanted to attack here too, but agreed against that after they got thrashed to the right of us. So we only had the artillery-bombardment preceding the attack, that is: not our Kompanie as we were in the reserve-trenches at the time.

I can tell you the Prellbock was a beautiful sight when we arrived on the 17th. Not one sandbag on top of the other. Luckily we still had a part with which the artillery couldn’t do much, that part was still perfectly in order. The rest was a mishmash of sandbags, duckboards, poles etc. You just cannot imagine it. But everything has now been cleared in some degree, and put back together even more secure and tighter than before.

In the 4 days we were up there the English tried twice more to attack to the right of us. The first time they reached midway between the English and German trenches, but then got só hit by our machinegun fire that no-one made it back. The second time they were bombarded by our artillery the moment they got out of their trenches, and they quickly aborted that attack.

They say that during a new attack the English soldiers refused to come out of their trenches, and in the end the English artillery started bombarding their ówn trenches. But that didn’t do the trick either, the English could not bring themselves to attack again. I think they were lucky: if they had attacked us it would have ended véry badly for them.

 

 

 

[*] The Daily Communiqué of German HQ of 16th June 1915:

Quote

On the other hand, two attacks by four English divisions between the Estaires-La Bassée road and the La Bassée canal collapsed completely. Our brave Westphalian regiments and parts of the guard let in there completely rejected the onslaught after bitter hand-to-hand fighting. The enemy suffered heavy losses; they left several machine guns and a mine launcher in our hands. After their defeats on the 13th and 14th, the enemy did not dare to retreat to the positions of the Badeners who held their own with great tenacity at the Loretto height.

 

Ánd in was in the Dutch newspapers of the time:

 

The Vlissingsche Courant, a newspaper in neutral The Netherlands, also mentioned the battle in an article on 19th June 1915 :

Quote

Western wartheatre, [ .... ] . The English suffered new defeats north-west of the La Bassée-canal. Their attacking forces were annihilated. Only a few escaped. [ .... ]