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Ypres October 29 th 1914
The Cloth Hall and Cathedral
Troops were assembled at the railway siding ready to march into Ypres. There seemed no visible fighting although they could hear artillery in the distance.
1 st London Brigade Marching into Ypres
The Prodigal Son Never Returns
Chapter 8
Norm Jordan arrived in Marseilles on October 2nd 1914, two weeks before his father and brothers. He hadn’t enjoyed the short sea journey at all, the ship was cramped and he became seasick immediately the swells began.
He, along with his battalion, The Royal Fusiliers, were then loaded on trains to join their countrymen at Ypres in the Flanders region of Belgium.
Norm, a shy boy who typically found it difficult to make friends, had met and befriended a fellow called James Hargreaves. Despite completely different backgrounds they got on extremely well. James’ middle-class family included a father who was a doctor with his mother a nurse. James had also lied about his age to enlist, sharing the same birthday as Norm.
They arrived at Ypres on October 14 at last able to stretch their legs and walk around the pretty town dominated by the Cloth House and the Cathedral beside it.
Sightseeing was soon replaced by the horror of combat - the two boys were about to partake in the 1st Battle of Ypres.
1st Battle of Ypres
On October 19th near the north Belgian city of Ypres, Allied and German forces began the first of three battles to control the city and its advantageous coastal positions during this First World War.
After the Germans had advanced through Belgium and eastern France with minimal resistance, their great push was curtailed in late September 1914 by a decisive Allied victory in the Battle of Marne. The ‘Race to the Sea’ began as each army attempted to outflank the other on their way northwards, hastily constructing trench fortifications as they went. The race ended in mid-October at Ypres, the ancient Flemish city with its fortifications guarding the ports of the English Channel and beyond, the North Sea.
Following the Germans capture of Antwerp in early October, Belgian forces and troops of the British Expeditionary Force commanded by Sir John French withdrew to Ypres, arriving at the city between October 8th and 19th to reinforce the Belgian and French defences. Meanwhile the Germans prepared to launch the first phase of an offensive aimed at breaking the Allied lines and capturing Ypres and other channel ports, thus controlling access to the North Sea.
On October 19th a protracted period of fierce combat began as the Germans opened their Flanders offensive. The Allies steadfastly resisted while seeking their own chances to go on the attack wherever possible. Fighting continued with heavy losses on both sides.
The Allied forces suffered 7,960 deaths, 29,563 wounded and 17,875 missing presumed dead. Winter weather forced the battle and killing to a halt. The area on the British side to Menin and Roulers on the German side became known as the Ypres Salient, a region that would see some of the war’s bitterest and most brutal struggles over the next few years.
Norm and his mate James were billeted out in a farmhouse on the outskirts of Ypres. The Belgium family who cared for them were very nice although neither boy could speak Flemish or French, the two languages spoken in the house.
On the morning of October 19th they woke to the sounds of loud banging on the front door. Mrs Joossens came quickly down the stairs and opened the door standing in front of her was a sergeant from the British army.
‘Sorry if I woke you Ma’am but I need to collect the two soldiers you have been billeting. Immediately.’
The two boys heard the conversation and came to the door.
‘OK lads time to go. We’ve got a war to fight and by all accounts your war starts today.’
Acknowledging the sergeant they gathered their packs and said farewell to Mrs Joossens. The two young soldiers followed their sergeant as he rounded up another twenty or so Royal Fusiliers. It seemed they were all about the same age as Norm and James. They marched through Ypres and headed for the line at Langemarck a town north of Ypres and neighbouring Passchendaele.
October 21st 1914
At five in the afternoon the Fusiliers arrived at the front line facing the German army. The British Commanders were expecting a push from the German 4th Army, their task was to stop it.
Norm and James sat waiting in the trench, smoking. They’d both recently started, as every other soldier seemed to do so. Whether it alleviated boredom or calmed their nerves, cigarettes were given to them as part of their rations. They were smoking and silent, both very nervous if not terrified.
Unbeknownst to them, in the opposite German trenches were young soldiers not much older than they were. Nicknamed the ‘Kinder Korps’, these German university students had been willingly seconded into the army to boost the strength of their country’s battalions. The German commanders didn’t intersperse these young men amongst older, more experienced soldiers; they banded them together in the one battalion.
Enemy artillery began to rain down on the British positions. At first their range was inaccurate so they didn’t cause too much havoc. However it didn’t take long before the Germans worked out the coordinates and shells were dropping in or close to the Allied trenches. Norm and James witnessed their first casualty – a soldier, only ten yards away, received shrapnel to his neck almost severing his head. Both boys were in shock but knew they had to pull themselves together.
Captain McDonald their Commander moved down the trenches alerting troops to the fact that when the barrage ended a charging German army would confront them.
As expected, the barrage ceased. They waited in silence an acrid smell from shells permeating throughout the trenches. Looking out with a periscope Captain McDonald saw a mist drifting over no man’s land. Not a mist he had experienced in his home country of Scotland but nevertheless a mist Smoke from the barrage was making it problematic to see more than fifty yards ahead. He saw movement and faintly made out a row of enemy troops making their way to attack the British line. He quickly blew the whistle to alert his troops of the impending attack.
Norm and James looked at each other and nodded as if to say, we’ll be all right we know how to fight. This composed approach did nothing to calm the butterflies in their stomachs.
The Krauts started to fire their rifles and machine guns were attacking the trenches. In return the Allies began to fire back with rifle, machine gun and mortar. The Germans were dropping like flies but more and more kept coming; it was a bloodbath.
A German soldier managed to reach James and Norm’s section of the trench and leapt forward to jump in. Norm held up his bayonet and impaled the eighteen-year-old student soldier from Heidelberg Withdrawing the
