British 7th Division lands in Belgium

On the morning of 6 October 1914 units of the British 7th Infantry Division began to come ashore at the Belgian port of Zeebrugge. In the following days the 3rd Cavalry Division also landed at Zeebrugge and Ostend. Both formations had been sent to Belgium to save besieged Antwerp together with the Belgian army.

A division from overseas garrisons

The 7th Division was formed in September and early October 1914 at a camp near Lyndhurst in Hampshire. It was made up of regular army battalions brought home from garrisons scattered across the British Empire. It was thus one of the last divisions composed of experienced soldiers of the regular army. It numbered about 18,000 men and was commanded by General Thompson Capper. The 3rd Cavalry Division, forming since 1 September, was under General Julian Byng. Both divisions became part of the new IV Corps of General Henry Rawlinson.

Too late for Antwerp

Sending regular divisions to Belgium was part of the help promised to the Belgians by Winston Churchill when he arrived in Antwerp together with the British Royal Marines. According to Lord Kitchener’s orders, the 7th Division was to help relieve the fortress by striking at the German heavy artillery in the direction of Mechelen.

The first units came ashore at Zeebrugge at about 6.30 a.m. on 6 October, and the disembarkation went on into the next day. The soldiers were taken to billets in Bruges. Meanwhile the situation in Antwerp was deteriorating rapidly. During the night of 5–6 October the Germans forced the river Nete, and on the evening of 6 October the Belgian command decided that the field army would leave the fortress and cross the Scheldt to the west. Rawlinson, who reached Antwerp late that evening, quickly concluded that the city could no longer be held.

Covering the retreat

Instead of going to the relief, Rawlinson’s divisions had to cover the retreat. Part of the 7th Division was moved to the Ghent area, where together with Belgian units and the French Marine Fusiliers Brigade it formed a screen for the columns falling back from Antwerp. On 11 October, as superior German forces approached from the east, the screen began to withdraw westwards.

On 14 October the 7th Division became the first British infantry division to enter Ypres. A few days later it found itself in the very middle of the First Battle of Ypres, in which for many days it defended a wide sector of the front against a much stronger enemy. The division suffered such heavy losses there that it regained its full fighting value only at the beginning of 1915.