Operation Hush
Operation Hush | |||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Part of The First World War | |||||||
The Yser front in 1917 | |||||||
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Belligerents | |||||||
United Kingdom | Germany | ||||||
Commanders and leaders | |||||||
Sir Reginald Bacon John Philip Du Cane |
Friedrich Bertram Sixt von Armin Ludwig von Schröder | ||||||
Strength | |||||||
5 divisions | 3 marine divisions, 1 army division | ||||||
Casualties and losses | |||||||
None | None |
Operation Hush was a British plan to make
, linked by advances by the French and Belgian armies in between.Unternehmen Strandfest (Operation Beach Party) was a German spoiling attack, conducted on 10 July by Marine-Korps-Flandern, in anticipation of an Allied coastal operation. The Germans used mustard gas for the first time, supported by a mass of heavy artillery, captured part of the bridgehead over the Yser and annihilated two British infantry battalions. After several postponements, Operation Hush was cancelled on 14 October 1917, as the advance at Ypres did not meet the objectives required to begin the attack.
In April 1918, the Dover Patrol raided Zeebrugge to sink blockships in the canal entrance to trap U-boats, which closed the canal for a short time. From September to October 1918, the Belgian coast was occupied by the Allies during the Fifth Battle of Ypres.
Background
Strategic developments
The German occupation of the Belgian coast in 1914 caused the
In early 1916 the idea of a coastal attack was revived and talks began between
The Battle of the Somme in 1916 forced Haig to postpone an offensive in Flanders until 1917 and the coastal attack depended on retaining the Yser bridgehead, because the river was deep, tidal and 100–200 yd (91–183 m) wide. Lieutenant-Colonel Norman MacMullen (GSO I) and a small planning group formed in January 1917 at General Headquarters (GHQ), recommended that the operation should not begin until a general advance from Ypres had reached Roulers, which Haig accepted.[4] A coastal offensive was to be conducted if one of three conditions were met, that the offensive at Ypres had prompted a collapse in the German defence, if the Germans took troops from the coast to replace losses in a long battle in the Ypres area or if the Allied advance at Ypres had reached Passchendaele ridge and the Fifth Army was advancing on Roulers (now Roeselare) and Thourout (now Torhout).[5]
Tactics
To land troops swiftly, retaining the benefit of surprise, Bacon designed flat-bottomed craft which could land on beaches. The pontoons were 550 ft × 32 ft (167.6 m × 9.8 m), specially-built and lashed between pairs of monitors. Men, guns, wagons, ambulances, boxcars, motor cars, handcarts, bicycles, Stokes mortar carts and sidecars, plus two male tanks and one female tank, were to be embarked on each monitor. HMS General Wolfe and the other monitors would push the pontoons up the beach, the tanks would drive off, pulling sledges full of equipment, climb the sea-walls (an incline of about 30°), surmount a large projecting coping-stone at the top and then haul the rest of their load over the wall.[6]
The Belgian architect who had designed the wall was a refugee in France and supplied his drawings. A replica was built at Merlimont and a detachment of tanks under Major Bingham rehearsed on it, using "shoes" on the tank tracks and special detachable steel ramps carried by the tanks, until they could climb the wall.[7] In experiments on the Thames Estuary, the pontoons performed exceptionally well, riding out very bad weather and being easier to manoeuvre than expected, leading to hopes that they could be used again after the initial assault to land reinforcements.[8] Night landings were also practised, with wire stretched between buoys to guide the pontoons to within 100 yd (91 m) of their landing place.[6]
After Unternehmen Strandfest (Operation Beach Party), a German spoiling attack, 52 Squadron Royal Flying Corps (RFC) and the Fourth Balloon Wing, developed III Wing methods of co-operation during artillery observation, by having balloon observers direct preliminary ranging until shells were landing close to a target, then handing over to the aeroplane observer for the final corrections of aim. When the air observer had ranged the guns, the balloon observer took over again. The new method economised on aircrew and had the advantage of telephone communication between the ground and the balloon, since aircraft wireless could only transmit.[9]
Air co-operation with Royal Engineer
Prelude
British preparations
The Third (Corps) Wing of IV Brigade RFC moved north with XV Corps (Lieutenant-General Sir John Du Cane) in June and was temporarily made an independent mixed command, responsible for army co-operation and defence when the line was taken over from the French.[10][a] By 10 July the Fourteenth (Army) Wing of IV Brigade had arrived, the brigade taking responsibility for reconnaissance in the area Keyem (now Keiem), Ichtergem, Bruges, Blankenberghe (now Blankenberge), Oost and Dunkirk Bains until 13 July, then Keyem, Oostcamp, Zeebrugge, Oost and Dunkirk Bains, while Royal Naval Air Service (RNAS) units reconnoitred as required. The offensive patrol front was from Stuyvekenskerke (now Stuivekenskerke) to Oost and Dunkirk Bains and by RNAS aircraft north of Nieuwpoort to 3 mi (4.8 km) west of Dunkirk. RNAS aircraft conducted night-bombing sorties in the area Dixmude, Thourout, Ghent, Retranchement and Nieuwpoort Bains. The 9th (Headquarters) Wing acted as a mobile reserve on the Flanders front.[10]
When the XV Corps took over from the 29th and 133rd divisions of the
The 1st Division (Major-General Peter Strickland) and the 32nd Division (Major-General Cameron Shute) took over and had only limited artillery support for several days, until the British artillery had completed the relief. Du Cane ordered that the positions were to be held at all costs but the main French defences had been built in the south bank and the bridgehead, which was 800 yd (730 m) deep from St Georges to the coast, had been held as an outpost. Three breastworks gave limited protection from artillery-fire and there were no underground shelters for reserves. Tunnellers began work on dugouts in the sand dunes but few had been completed by early July. A defence plan for the bridgehead was issued on 28 June, relying mainly on artillery but of 583 guns in the Fourth Army, only 176 had arrived by 8 July, the remainder being with the First and Second armies, in support of operations towards Lens and Lille, due to arrive by 15 July.[14] On the night of 6/7 July, German aircraft bombed the main British aerodrome at Bray-Dunes near Dunkirk, caused nine casualties and damaged twelve aircraft. Reconnaissance flights by IV Brigade RFC and the RNAS aircraft were hampered from 7 to 9 July by ground mist and clouds down to 900 ft (270 m). Vague reports of increased activity behind the German front had been received but a special flight early on 8 July found nothing, despite the unusual amount of movement, as the Germans prepared to attack; on 9 July all aircraft were grounded by bad weather.[15]
British plan
A landing operation would begin at dawn under the command of Rear-Admiral Bacon and an army division in three parties of about 4,500 men each, would disembark on the beaches near Middelkirke, covered by a naval bombardment and a smoke screen generated by eighty small vessels. Trawlers would carry telephone cable ashore and tanks would disembark from the landing pontoons and climb the sea-wall to cover the infantry landing. The infantry would have four
The northern landing brigade was to send a flying column with specialist engineers to Raversyde, to destroy the German artillery battery there and then advance east or south-east, to threaten the German withdrawal route to the south and isolate Ostend. All the landing forces were to rush inland towards Leffinghe and Slype, occupy bridges over the Plasschendaele canal and road junctions nearby. Extra transport would move with the two XV Corps divisions advancing from Nieuwpoort.[17] XV Corps would break out of the Nieuwpoort bridgehead between St. Georges and the coast, with a barrage from 300 guns with naval guns in support over a 3,500 yd (2.0 mi; 3.2 km) front. A 1,000 yd (910 m) advance would be followed by a one-hour pause. Four similar advances over six hours would take the land attack to Middelkirke, where it would link with the landing force, keeping three divisions in reserve. The German defence was expected to have two brigades in the first two defence lines as the attack began. The plan was approved by Haig on 18 June and the 1st Division was chosen to make the coastal landing.[18][b]
German preparations
On 19 June a patrol from the 3rd Marine Division captured eleven soldiers of the British 32nd Division which, with increased artillery and air activity, was taken by Admiral von Schröder the commander of Gruppe Nord and Marine Korps Flandern, as a sign that the British contemplated a coastal operation.[c] Unternehmen Strandfest (Operation Beach Party) a spoiling attack by the reinforced 3rd Marine Division with the 199th Division in reserve, was planned to capture ground east of the Yser, from Lombartzijde creek to the sea, led by the Guard Corps commander General Ferdinand von Quast, who took over Gruppe Nord on 30 June. Parts of the 3rd Marine Division was withdrawn during the second half of June to rehearse an attack by frontal assault, with covering fire from eleven torpedo boats off the coast; artillery reinforcements with 300,000 rounds of ammunition were moved to the coast.[20][d]
Batterie Pommern
In June 1917 Krupp completed the construction of Batterie Pommern at Koekelare with Langer Max, the biggest gun of the world, an adaptation of its 38 cm type. The gun played an important part in the German defence of Flanders and was used to bombard Dunkirk 31 mi (50 km) distant, to stop the unloading of supplies and was sometimes used for diversionary operations. The gun fired its first shell at Dunkirk on 27 June; during the Third Battle of Ypres the gun was also used to shell Ypres.[22]
Unternehmen Strandfest
Unternehmen Strandfest (Operation Beach Party, also the Battle of the Dunes) began with a German artillery bombardment on 6 July, though not of an intensity sufficient to suggest an attack. The dawn of 9 July was wet and stormy; Strandfest was postponed for 24 hours at 6:10 a.m., about two hours before zero hour. The next day was overcast, with a strong wind and the bombardment increased at 5:30 a.m. The British floating bridges near the coast were destroyed and near Nieuwpoort, only one bridge and the lock-bridge remained intact. By 10:15 a.m., telephone and wireless contact with the British front was lost. The shelling was heaviest from the Geleide Brook to the coast, held by the
German aircraft made low-altitude
The main attack advanced in five waves, close behind a creeping barrage. Groups of the specialist Marine Korps Sturmabteilung (assault detachment) made up the first wave and advanced to the third breastwork, overwhelmed the defenders and moved forward to the Yser bank after a short pause. The second wave overran the British troops at the second breastwork and then dug in at the third breastwork; the third wave advanced to the Yser bank to reinforce the first wave and set up machine-gun nests. The fourth wave carried engineer stores for consolidation and moppers-up with flame-throwers dealt with the British survivors in the first breastwork, then advanced to the third breastwork, as the fifth wave took over the second breastwork.[25]
In twenty minutes German troops reached the river bank and isolated the British parties still resisting, 70–80 per cent having already been killed or wounded by the artillery bombardment,
...the enemy was using a new gas shell freely. Shell bursts like a small H.E. Gas makes you sneeze and run at the nose and eyes. Smell is like cayenne pepper. This actually was the "Blue-Cross" shell, a different type from the mustard ("Yellow-Cross") shell. Both new shells were used in this action.[26]
— Charles Bean Australian official historian
and at 8:30 a.m., British observers on the far bank saw troops holding out near the Northamptonshire battalion headquarters. A counter-attack was attempted by troops of the Rifle Corps battalion before the troops opposite were overrun. By 8:45 a.m. the captured position was consolidated and some of the blocked British dugouts were excavated by the Germans to rescue the occupants. All of the British garrison in the bridgehead was lost and more than 1,284 prisoners were taken; about forty British troops managed to swim the Yser where they were caught in the German bombardment.[25] German casualties were about 700 men.[19] Overnight 64 men from the two infantry battalions and four from the 2nd Australian Tunnelling Company swam the river, having hid in tunnels until dark. Further inland in the 32nd Division area from the Geleide Brook to St. Georges, the 97th Brigade was attacked. The German advance stopped at the second breastwork, which had been made the objective as the ground behind could be easily flooded; a counter-attack overnight by the garrison and some reinforcements regained the position, except for 500 yd (460 m) near Geleide Brook.[27] On 10 July, German smoke-screens, low cloud and fighter attacks made air observation very difficult but some new German battery positions were detected. The front line was plotted from the air late on 10 July and early on 11 July. An extra flight was transferred to 52 Squadron for artillery observation of the great concentration of German guns but when British aircraft began to direct artillery-fire, they found that the Germans had put smoke generators around the main batteries to conceal them.[15]
Aftermath
Analysis
Admiral
In 1996, Robin Prior and Trevor Wilson wrote that the amphibious part of the plan was extremely risky, given the slow speed of the monitors and the pontoons having no armour. A German mobile force was on hand as a precaution and the area could be flooded.
Subsequent operations
On 11 July Rawlinson ordered that lost ground be recovered by outflanking the new German line along the canal in the Dunes sector. Du Cane noted that instant counter-attacks made on local initiative usually succeeded, while those ordered later by higher authority were too late to exploit disorganisation among the attackers; adequate preparation and a methodical attack was necessary. The remainder of the bridgehead was constricted, the German artillery reinforcements were still present and after a successful counter-attack, British troops would be vulnerable to another German operation.[33]
Du Cane wanted to wait until the rest of the British artillery arrived and the main offensive at Ypres had begun. Rawlinson accepted Du Cane's views and counter-attacks planned for 12 July by the 32nd Division were cancelled.[33] The 33rd Division was moved to the coast in August and took over from Nieuwpoort to Lombartsyde, spending three weeks in the line, under night bombing and gas shelling. Two of the 33rd Division battalions were kilted Scottish and suffered severely from mustard gas burns, until equipped with undergarments.[34]
To keep British preparations secret, crews from 52 Squadron RFC and the 1st Division were segregated on 16 July, at Le Clipon, a camp enclosed by barbed wire and a story was put about that it was in quarantine. The 1st Division artillery was reduced to three 18-pounder batteries and nine tanks, two cyclist battalions, a motor machine-gun battery and a machine-gun company. It was planned to create three brigade columns, each of which would embark on two monitors, 2,500 men being carried by the pontoon lashed between the monitors.[8] Special fighter patrols were arranged to keep German reconnaissance aircraft away from training areas and arrangements were made for early warning of German aircraft approaching Dunkirk, fighters standing by to intercept them.[35]
Operation Hush was revised to incorporate the cancelled counter-attack plan; the attack on Lombartzyde would begin from the ground still held north of the Yser, by the
The presence of two British divisions in the coastal sector convinced the German commanders that the danger of a British coastal offensive remained.[19] The best tidal conditions for a landing would occur again on 18 August and the Fifth Army made its second general attack at Ypres on 16 August at the Battle of Langemarck, partly to meet the postponed landing date but failed to advance far in the most vital sector, leading to another postponement to 6 September. At a meeting on 22 August, Haig, Rawlinson and Bacon discussed three alternatives, another postponement of the coastal operation, conducting the operation independently or moving the divisions from XV Corps to the Fifth Army.[38]
Rawlinson favoured an independent operation, which he thought would get as far as Middelkirke, bringing Ostend into artillery-range, which would make the Germans counter-attack, despite the pressure being exerted on them at Ypres. Bacon wanted the area between Westende and Middelkirke to be occupied so that 15-inch naval guns would be within range of Bruges 31,000 yd (18 mi; 28 km) away and Zeebrugge 34,000 yd (19 mi; 31 km) distant. The Zeebrugge–Bruges canal would also be in range and its locks could be destroyed. Haig rejected the proposal and the September operation was postponed, this time for a night landing under a full moon in the first week of October, unless the situation at Ypres changed sooner.[38]
In September, Rawlinson and Bacon became pessimistic and Haig postponed the operation again but told them to be ready for the second week of October. The 42nd (East Lancashire) Division moved from Ypres, relieved the 66th (2nd East Lancashire) Division in late September and found that the area was under frequent German artillery-fire, bombing and gas attacks. The coastal sector was also beneath the flight path of German Gotha bombers attacking Dunkirk, which was attacked on twenty-three nights in September.[39] Hopes rose after the Battle of Broodseinde (4 October) and again after the Battle of Poelcappelle (9 October), although the coastal operation could not start before the end of the month.[31]
After the First Battle of Passchendaele (12 October), Hush was cancelled; on 14 October, Rawlinson wrote, "...things have not been running at all smoothly – it is now clear that we shall do nothing on the coast here".[31] The 1st Division left the camp at Le Clipon on 21 October and the rest of the Fourth Army followed on 3 November. On 23 April 1918, the Dover Patrol conducted the Zeebrugge Raid and sank block ships in the canal entrance to stop U-boats leaving port.[40] The Belgian Army and the British Second Army began the Fifth Battle of Ypres on 28 September 1918 and on 17 October, Ostend was captured.[41]
See also
Notes
- ^ From 30 January 1916, each British army had a Royal Flying Corps brigade attached, which was divided into wings, the "corps wing" with squadrons responsible for close reconnaissance, photography and artillery observation on the front of each army corps and an "army wing" which by 1917 conducted long-range reconnaissance and bombing, using the aircraft types with the highest performance.[11]
- 49th Division, 66th Division, IV Brigade Royal Flying Corps, 4 (Naval Wing) Royal Naval Air Service (approximately 200 aircraft), Dover Patrol. German units: 4th Army, Guards Corps, Marine-Korps-Flandern, 3rd Marine Division, 199th Division.[18]
- ^ In 1941, Charles Bean, the Australian official historian, wrote that the Germans decided on a spoiling attack on the coast to strengthen a weak spot, because of the offensive being prepared by the Allies at Ypres, rather than being prompted by the discovery of British troops on the coast.[19]
- ^ Thirty field batteries, twelve light howitzer batteries, sixteen heavy howitzer batteries, ten mortar batteries, seven siege batteries and three long-range naval guns.[21]
Footnotes
- ^ Liddle 1997, pp. 201–212.
- ^ Liddle 1997, p. 202.
- ^ Liddle 1997, pp. 202–203.
- ^ Robbins 2001, pp. 319–320, 337.
- ^ Liddle 1997, pp. 203–204.
- ^ a b Liddle 1997, p. 205.
- ^ Harris 1995, p. 101.
- ^ a b Edmonds 1991, p. 117.
- ^ a b Jones 2002a, pp. 150–152.
- ^ a b Jones 2002, p. 144.
- ^ Jones 2002, pp. 147–148.
- ^ Bean 1941, p. 961.
- ^ Jones 2002a, pp. 147–148.
- ^ Edmonds 1991, pp. 117–118.
- ^ a b Jones 2002a, pp. 148–149.
- ^ Edmonds 1991, p. 116.
- ^ Liddle 1997, pp. 206–207.
- ^ a b Liddle 1997, p. 207.
- ^ a b c Bean 1941, p. 964.
- ^ Sheldon 2007, p. 36.
- ^ Edmonds 1991, p. 120.
- ^ Lange Max Museum: temporary exhibition. De III. Flandernschlacht in onze regio.
- ^ Edmonds 1991, pp. 137–138.
- ^ Edmonds 1991, pp. 118–120.
- ^ a b c Sheldon 2007, pp. 37–39.
- ^ Bean 1941, p. 962.
- ^ Edmonds 1991, pp. 120–121.
- ^ Liddle 1997, pp. 210–211.
- ^ Fuller 1936, pp. 117–119.
- ^ Prior & Wilson 1996, p. 70.
- ^ a b c Liddle 1997, p. 210.
- ^ Harris 2009, pp. 361–362.
- ^ a b Edmonds 1991, pp. 121–122.
- ^ Seton Hutchinson 2005, pp. 62–63.
- ^ Jones 2002a, p. 147.
- ^ Edmonds 1991, pp. 116–123.
- ^ Seton Hutchinson 2005, p. 64.
- ^ a b Edmonds 1991, pp. 232–233.
- ^ Gibbon 2003, p. 106.
- ^ Bennett 1919, pp. 26–203.
- ^ Edmonds & Maxwell-Hyslop 1993, p. 293.
References
- ISBN 978-0-7022-1710-4. Retrieved 17 July 2013.
- Bennett, J. J. (Jackstaff) (1919). The Dover Patrol The Straits: Zeebrugge: Ostend Including a Narrative of the Operations in the Spring of 1918. London: Grant Richards. OCLC 11652496. Retrieved 17 July 2013 – via Archive Foundation.
- ISBN 978-0-89839-166-4.
- Gibbon, F. P. (2003) [1920]. 42nd (East Lancashire) Division 1914–1918 (pbk. repr. Naval & Military Press, Uckfield ed.). London: Offices of ISBN 978-1-84342-642-4.
- Edmonds, J. E.; Maxwell-Hyslop, R. G. B. (1993) [1947]. Military Operations France and Belgium, 1918: 26th September – 11th November, the Advance to Victory. History of the Great War Based on Official Documents by Direction of the Historical Section of the Committee of Imperial Defence. Vol. V (Imperial War Museum & Battery Press ed.). London: ISBN 978-0-89839-192-3.
- Fuller, J. F. C. (1936). Memoirs of an Unconventional Soldier. London: Nicholson & Watson. OCLC 464068255.
- Harris, J. P. (1995). Men, Ideas and Tanks: British Military Thought and Armoured Forces, 1903–1939. Manchester: Manchester University Press. ISBN 0-7190-4814-1.
- Harris, J. P. (2009) [2008]. Douglas Haig and the First World War (pbk. repr. ed.). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-89802-7– via Archive Foundation.
- Jones, H. A. (2002) [1928]. The War in the Air, Being the Story of the Part Played in the Great War by the Royal Air Force. Vol. II (Naval & Military Press ed.). London: Clarendon Press. ISBN 978-1-84342-413-0. Retrieved 12 November 2014 – via Archive Foundation.
- Jones, H. A. (2002a) [1934]. The War in the Air: Being the Story of the Part played in the Great War by the Royal Air Force. Vol. IV (Naval & Military Press ed.). London: Clarendon Press. ISBN 978-1-84342-415-4. Retrieved 28 November 2015 – via Archive Foundation.
- Liddle, P. H. (1997). Passchendaele in Perspective: The Third Battle of Ypres. London: Pen & Sword. ISBN 978-0-85052-588-5.
- Prior, R.; Wilson, T. (1996). Passchendaele: The Untold Story. Cumberland: ISBN 978-0-300-07227-3– via Archive Foundation.
- Robbins, S. N. (2001). British Generalship on the Western Front in the First World War, 1914–1918 (PhD). King's College, University of London. OCLC 59273312. Docket uk.bl.ethos.275639. Retrieved 16 January 2016.
- Seton Hutchinson, G. (2005) [1921]. The Thirty-Third Division in France and Flanders 1915–1919 (Naval & Military Press ed.). London: Waterlow & Sons. ISBN 978-1-84342-995-1.
- Sheldon, J. (2007). The German Army at Passchendaele. London: Pen and Sword Books. ISBN 978-1-84415-564-4.
Further reading
- Histories of Two Hundred and Fifty-one Divisions of the German Army which Participated in the War (1914–1918). Document (United States. War Department) number 905. Washington D.C.: United States Army, American Expeditionary Forces, Intelligence Section. 1920. OCLC 565067054. Retrieved 22 July 2017.
- Jacobs, Kristof (2018) [2007]. "7: The Operations of the 1st Division on the Belgian Coast in 1917 'Operation Hush'". Nieuwpoort Sector 1917: The Battle of the Dunes (Eng. pbk. trans. Unicorn, London ed.). Erpe: Uitgeverij De Krijger. pp. 139–172. ISBN 978-1-910500-88-0.
- Karau, M. D. (2014). The Naval Flank of the Western Front: The German MarineKorps Flandern 1914–1918. Barnsley: Seaforth (Pen & Sword). ISBN 978-0-313-32475-8
- Peaple, S. (2023). From Maubeuge to the Rhineland: A History of the 1st Division in the Great War (1st ed.). Solihull: Helion. ISBN 978-1-912866-20-5.
- Simpson, A. (2006). Directing Operations: British Corps Command on the Western Front 1914–18. Stroud: Spellmount. ISBN 978-1-86227-292-7.