October 10 – November 2nd 1914
The
Battle of La Bassee was part of the “Race to the Sea”, which was a series of
battles that established a line from the North Sea to Aisne, the initiation of
the Western Front.
When
the Battle of Aisne stabilized, the British turned their attention to Flanders
and the German threat of capturing the port cities. To prevent this from
happening, the BEF’s II Corps was transferred by train to Abbeville on October
8th-9th, where Sir John French would plan a general
offensive aimed at recapturing Lille. In order to accomplish this, he would
have to move his army northeast towards La Bassee.
On
October 12th, II Corps was ordered to move east to a line north of
Givenchy, where they were confronted by four German cavalry divisions from the
I and II Cavalry Corps. This confrontation delayed the BEF from reaching their
goal for three days and resulted in 2,000 British casualties.
Smith-Dorrien
discovered that the German cavalry were to withdraw on October 15th,
however he did not know they were being replaced by the infantry from the
German VII Corps, thus requiring him to develop a new offensive plan. The new plan
entailed II Corps to attack from the southeast in hopes of outflanking German
troops, which were attacking the French lines to the south.
He
launched his attack on October 16th and even though he recaptured
Givenchy, he failed to reach La Bassee and it resulted in the BEF suffering an additional
loss of 1,000 British casualties.[i]
The
offensive failed to reach La Bassee because the German VII Corps received reinforcements
from the German XIII Corps, thus thickening the German lines. The total
casualties for Givenchy amounted to 4,000 British and 2,000 German – killed,
wounded or missing. [ii]
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