Fresh Meat - The Search For New Recruits I THE GREAT WAR - Week 14

by Panzer
October 30, 1914. In the last three months and two days since
the Austro-Hungarian Empire declared war on Serbia, hundreds of thousands of men have
died violently in battle. These men were the professional or trained conscript armies of
Europe, but with their passing and with no end of the war in sight, the warring nations
were now forced to send untrained recruits, even teenagers or middle aged men, to die
in battle like lambs to the slaughter.
I’m Indy Neidell; welcome to the Great War.
When we left off, we saw the Germans retreating from Warsaw, the Austrians launching and losing
a big attack on the Russians at Ivangorod, the British and Germans suffering enormous
losses at Ypres, the Belgians holding the line at the Yser, and the Japanese blockading
the German port of Tsingtao. Here’s what happened next:
On the Western Front, German Army Chief of Staff Falkenhayn had assembled an army of
new recruits to fight at Ypres in Flanders , and as novices in battle up against the
British professionals, they had died by the thousands marching in large masses up against
machine guns and rapid rifle fire. But there were thousands more German recruits coming,
and this week the new reserve recruits managed to gain some ground further north. On October
24th, they crossed the Yser River.
This was really bad news for the Belgians, as the Germans could finally reach the sea.
The Belgian commanders proposed retreat, but King Albert refused. The situation called
for something drastic though, and after a further 20,000 Belgians were lost in battle,
something drastic was done. The lock gates at Nieuport were opened at high tide to flood
the surrounding land with seawater, and after a few days the Belgian countryside was flooded
a mile wide as far south as Dixmude. This was impassable and the Germans were forced
to withdraw. The allied left flank was now secure and Albert was now not only king, he
was a national hero.
As a side note here, one of the ambulance drivers around the Nieuport area was British
aristocrat Dorothie Fielding, who, for her work on the western front became the first
woman to win the British Military Medal for Bravery. She also received the French Croix
de Guerre and the Belgian Order of Leopold II for her service. Just thought she deserved
a mention here.
Looking back, German hopes of reaching the sea were by now as vain as British hopes of
pushing the Germans deep into Belgium, and we see further south that the battle ON the
Ypres salient was now the battle FOR the Ypres salient.
Falkenhayn was still optimistic about breaking through here and nearly did so at Neuve Chappelle
the 27th, but was beaten back in hand to hand combat by Indian troops the next morning,
but German reinforcements were being brought up along the whole sector and Falkenhayn’s
next offensive would soon begin.
See, to him, the capture of Ghevault was essential and a prelude to the eventual capture of Ypres
and the sea. In response, French General Foch agreed to send support from further south