NIEUPORT.
It was now apparent that our destination was north, one more step in the
direction of Blighty, towards which we had constantly moved since
leaving El Arish. But it was as near as we ever should get until the
final crossing. We were to join that small, isolated batch of the
British Army which had taken over the coastal sector from the French
with such high hopes in the middle of the year. Ever since the first
furious German onslaught in 1914, when the Kaiser had come in person to
see his myrmidons seize the coast road to the Channel Ports, and when
they met the wonderful defence of the Belgian and French troops
culminating in the flooding of the Yser lowlands, the Nieuport sector
had settled down to a quiet front.
The intention was for the British Fourth Army, under General Rawlinson
to steal quietly in, and on an appointed day to startle our friend the
enemy by a quick turning movement along the coast, which, worked in
conjunction with the Ypres offensive would free Ostend and Zeebrugge. A
far-reaching conception, but unfortunately doomed from the first by its
over-importance. The Hun had found out. Someone had told him there were
British soldiers on the coast, so he stampeded--not in the way we should
have liked but in a disastrous manner for ourselves. It had been part of
the scheme to preserve the secrecy of this movement by not bringing up
the guns when the infantry came, for there is nothing like gun positions
for "giving the game away.
Pages:
70
71
72
73
74
75
76
77
78
79
80
81
82
83
84
85
86
87
88
89
90
91
92
93
94