Ypres 1914
Comines Canal
6th November 1914
The front on either side of the Comines Canal (which was never actually completed and part of it is now incorporated into the Palingbeek Park) was held by two groups of French troops. On the northern side was Général Moussy with six battalions of infantry and on the southern side Général Olléris with another six battalions.
Advancing through the early morning fog the Germans caught the French by surprise, in particular on the northern side, just as the 90e RI were carrying out a relief.
The front was pierced in three locations and the French were forced back almost as far as Verbranden-Molen (between Larch Wood (Railway Cutting) CWGC Cemetery and Hill 60). The British were forced, in turn, to retire in line with the French, and this only exacerbated the hole that was forming.
At this point when all could have been lost, occurred one of those bizarre incidents of battle.
Général Jean-Baptiste Moussy gathered up all the stragglers and troops to hand; eighty or so infantrymen, the clerks and staff of his 33e Brigade and four squads of cavalry (7e Hussards and 20e Dragons) all of whom dismounted but were still in their cavalry boots, and helmets. Then, sword in hand, the general led his ramshackle crew in a counter-attack against the Germans.
With help from the British Household cavalry on his left the line was stabilised and in places the French regained their former trenches. At nightfall there was little doubt that the Germans had come very close to forcing a passage between the two Allies.
Général Moussy was killed on the 21st May 1915 when a shell fell on his command post at Grenay (just to the west of the Loos Battlefield).
7th November 1914
The following morning the two French detachments either side of the canal had managed to link up again, but the previous days events had reduced their numbers to a line that was weakly held. Although reinforcements would arrive, it was dark again by the time the line was properly manned.
This left General Haig in the precarious position of holding the eastern approach to Ieper (from approximately Broodseinde, through Polygon wood to the Menin Road and on to Zwarteleen) without being able to control the troops on his two flanks.
The following day French and Haig travelled to Général Foch’s Headquarters at Cassel. Although Foch remained optimistic that all was well he could not offer further reinforcements to hold the Comines Canal; only a few kilometres from Ieper. To make matters more difficult, the War Office in London had advised French that there were fewer than 10,000 reinforcements available in Britain for transfer overseas.
The only good news being the arrival of the French 11e DI at Voormezele on 9th November.