Source: File: British
soldiers in the trenches in the La Bassee Canal Sector.jpg, 2015. 12:22, 31 July 2014 By
Dailyrecord.co.uk. [online] Available at:<http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/scottish-news/world-war-one-anniversary-use-3941810> [Accessed:
13 February 2015].
''Destroyed bridge at La Bassee, France, during World
War I. The canal runs diagonally across the photograph with remnants of the
bridge still attached on the left bank. Three men stand on this side and look
down into the canal surveying the ruins. The man-made skin of the canal and the
debris can be clearly seen.''
Source: File: Canal at
La Bassee, showing destroyed bridge.jpg, 2015. First World War 'Official Photographs' British Western Front (16) V.25. [online]
Available at:<http://digital.nls.uk/first-world-war-official-photographs/pageturner.cfm?id=74545918> [Accessed:
13 February 2015].
Grounds lost on
25 January - on right
Of the British -
came to be regained,
In a General
Headquarters account
For French and
British movements.
Attacks
Friday 5 February
the day was fine,
As English
Howitzers began their work,
Setting alight
enemy observations -
While aircraft of
both sides occupied
Blue skies -
Allies making chase
Of enemy craft,
high above the Lille
Neighborhoods -
In close quarters
They rattled at
each other, to bring
The other down -
With puncture
Wounds to both,
the German craft
Made a hurried
descent - two miles
Short of their
own aerodrome.
Below in the
brickfields, situated
South Of La Bassée Canal - in close
Proximity to
Cuinchy - began
A night attack on
5th - to gain
Success on German
sap-heads.
Then on the 6th,
this new advantage
Made for
advance - from 2 p.m.
As French and
British Artillery honed
Fire on the brick
stacks, of close
German defences -
and beyond.
The heaviest of
allied Howitzers
Rained down upon
the railway's
Triangle - From
20 miles distant
The boom and
shatter of shells,
Were heard -
while beneath
The speed of
shells, was both
Fearful and
impressive - as debris
And smoke blurred
the foul air.
After that
barrage of 15 minutes
The British, from
three sides,
Emerged to
storm forth between
Stacks of bricks, upon the strong
Enemy defence -
keeping under
Cover of choking
dust, to capture
With little loss, taking prisoners
By greatest
surprise -
While trenches
between -
Slightly north -
were also taken.
Gains
With these enemy
points,
Take under
possession - those
Forward fighters
on the canal,
Kept a continual line
southwards
And reformed
their positions,
Before the
brickfields.
British losses
seemed less
Than Germans - who had left
Seventy dead -
while a mortar
And machine gun
were taken,
With unwounded
prisoners -
To number
nineteen, along
With other, less
wounded men.
Within the early
hours of the 7th,
Germans would not
be seen
To accept this
situation, as they
Made a strategy along the bank
Of the canal
- to shout out
'Don’t shoot we
are engineers.'
This novelty
being old -
These false
sappers soon came
Under held fire,
faced a machine
Gun to fall back - to leave thirty
Of their dead before the line.
An afternoon
attempt also
Suffered failure,
to get to
Close
quarters - the artillery
Kept that enemy
well at bay.
The artillery’s
accuracy,
Was given heavy
praise,
As one heavy
German Battery
Was hit, to
explode - and how
At only forty
yards away,
The guns blew the
Germans
From their
ill-sited trenches.
Afterwards
As on February
6th, most casualties
Of the enemy were
due to shellfire.
The grounds about, after 15 days
Of varied fights,
had left enemy
Corpses littering
the area -
Before crumbling
of three brick stacks,
Constructions of
barbed wire
Entanglements
were easily made
In daylight, without being fired upon.
Little occurred
over two further days,
While it was seen
how the enemy
Relied on
incendiary shelling,
To create damage
to besieged towns -
As on Armentieres
- in creations
Of candle packed
projectiles
In celluloid wax,
and phosphorus -
So flammable as
to ignite in the sun.
To conclude, how
amid all this,
Was made an act
of humanity,
During fighting
of Givenchy.
Partially buried
by a fallen parapet,
Lay a British
Officer, found by
A German Officer,
who came to aid
Him - despite
bullets about, stopped
And dug him out -
passing him
His flask of
brandy - and was then
Killed by a
straying bullet.
by Jamie Mann.
Anon.,1915. Terrible
Effects of British Howitzers -Storming a Brickfield - Gallant Charges by
British Infantry -Heavy German Losses. The Daily Telegraph, [online] 13 Feb. P.9. Col.6. Available at:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/ww1-archive/11406417/Daily-Telegraph-February-13-1915.html
[Accessed: 13 February 2015].
Mann, J., 2015. 100 years Ago - Poems by Jamie Mann. [letter] (Personal
communication, 13 February 2015).
#WW1 #WW1centenary #GreatWar #WW1poem #GreatWar #ww1centenary
#worldwarone #worldwaroneremembered #WW1La Bassée
