Oppy Wood

David Bilton

• Publisher: Pen & Sword Military
• Year: 2020
• Print ISBN: 9781844152483
• eBook ISBN: 9781783409457
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: North American History
• Index: History

This latest book in the Battleground Europe series describes the battles over several years, and in particular 1917 and 1918, for a wood and small village. The Germans stubbornly refused to retreat as the area held a key position in their defense of Arras.In the bitter fighting, thousands of young men mainly from East Yorkshire (Hull) and East Lancashire were sacrificed.

Chapter One

1914-1916 The Germans Arrive

On 1 August uncertainty vanished when Germany invaded Luxembourg; war now seemed inevitable. As if to further re-enforce this eventuality, the next day the German government presented Belgium with an ultimatum requiring her to let German troops march over her territory and, on 3 August, declared war on France.

In order to protect herself, to help her allies and to defend Belgian neutrality, guaranteed by treaty obligations between Britain and Belgium, Britain had no option but to demand that Germany call off her invasion of Belgium; failure to co-operate would mean that a state of war would exist between them. On having received no reply by the midnight (Central European time) 4 August deadline, the British government declared war. The stroke of 11pm by Big Ben signified the start of the Great War for civilisation.

Leaving for the front.

By this time the German army had already occupied Luxembourg and cavalry had crossed into Belgium; while on the day that Britain entered the war the German Second Army had advanced on Liege. The Schlieffen plan was now in motion; for it to succeed the deadlines it imposed had to be met.

Although Belgian resistance was stiff, the German advance was rapid and on 8 August the French had to send an infantry regiment to hold the Meuse bridges north of Dinant and link with the Belgians at Namur. Realising that the Germans were preparing a wide sweep on the west side of the Meuse, the French moved their Fifth Army to hold the line behind Namur and up the Sambre to link with the British Expeditionary Force; in turn the BEF would link up with the Belgians to form a complete defensive line. This would mean stiffer resistance than the Germans had expected and, to counteract this move, von Bulow ordered von Kluck’s First Army south, instead of southwest, deviating from the Schleiffen Plan and thereby reducing the size of the western wheel of the troops.

On 20 August the Germans entered Brussels. In a show of strength the entire First Army marched through the city; it took three days and nights for the 320,000 men to pass through. By the start of the third week of August the occupation of Belgium was all but complete but this short period of time had given the Allies time to deploy and the German First, Second and Third Armies (the cream of the army) now faced the BEF and the French Fifth Army across the Sambre. Possibly more importantly, the small and weak Belgian Army, together with the civilian population, had set an example of heroism and determination to the rest of the world.

French mobilisation.

Franctireurs fighting German troops in Lowen.

Assured that there would be little opposition from the Belgians, the Germans were both surprised and angered when, from the moment they crossed the frontier, they found themselves fired on. Their immediate response was to blame civilian snipers. Similarly, bridges, tunnels and telegraph lines that were blown up had to be the work of civilian saboteurs. The rapid advance meant that German troops did not always know who was in front of them or to their sides and as a result they sometimes fired upon each other unknowingly; looting alcohol to quench their thirst during the long marches also resulted in a number of shooting incidents. Again, believing such casualties to be the result of the work of franc-tireurs, the invaders went looking for revenge.

The shooting of civilians as a reprisal began on the first day of the invasion; convinced that Catholic priests were organising and encouraging the franc-tireurs the Germans decided that the problem was best solved by filling the civilian population with fear. Systematically the Germans began to burn villages and execute civilians. The first executions took place at Warsage (six civilians shot) and the first village to be burned was Battice.

Such reprisals had been planned by the Germans before the war; they had even had posters printed before the invasion that listed the offences that would be punishable by death. The posters also warned that not just individuals, but the whole area, where a hostile act took place, would be considered responsible; hostages would be taken at random and shot. Behind them, the advancing armies brought a trail of burning and death with mass executions replacing individual executions. On 19 August, the town of Aerschot suffered the first mass execution. After rounding up the population in the town square with men on one side and women on the other, 150 individuals were picked out at random and shot; the process was repeated at Andenne, Tamines and Dinant (612 executed, one of whom was a three-week-old baby).

Priests were suspected of inciting civilians to violence – a priest going off to war.

Visé had been occupied on the first day of the invasion and the German army had moved on. However, on 23 August there was a report of sniping and in response the Germans sent an infantry regiment to execute a selection of the population and then set fire to the town. Similar occurrences happened all over Belgium but events in the city of Louvain stand out above them all.

The site of a mass execution in Dinant.

A satirical view of the executions.

Until 18 August, Louvain had been the tactical Headquarters of the Belgian Army. It was a medieval city, famous across the world for its library that had been founded in 1426; housing some 230,000 volumes it also contained a unique collection of medieval manuscripts. The city also boasted many fine examples of Gothic architecture and a collection of Flemish masters. On the second day of the occupation a German soldier was shot in the leg; the occupation forces claimed it was the work of a sniper. Believing that government and local officials were encouraging resistance, executions began and the Germans selected hostages from the population. To make matters worse, on 25 August, Belgian troops carried out a raid on German rearguard troops at Antwerp who fell back in confusion on Louvain. In the city shots were exchanged, again the Germans claimed they were result of civilian action.

German reaction was as swift as it was horrific. They went through the city on a wanton rampage of looting, burning, shooting and general destruction. The next day General von Luttwitz, the Military Governor in Brussels, cal...

Table of contents

• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• INTRODUCTION BY SERIES EDITIOR
• ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
• PREFACE
• AUTHOR’S INTRODUCTION
• ACCOMMODATION IN THE AREA
• Chapter One - 1914-1916 The Germans Arrive
• Chapter Two - April 1917 The First Battle
• Chapter Three - May 1917
• Chapter Four - The Indirect Approach 28 June 1917
• Chapter Five - The Final Battles March to October 1918
• Cemeteries in the Area
• WALKING AROUND OPPY
• EXPLORING THE OPPY AREA BY CAR
• Select Bibliography & Further Reading
• INDEX