The Germans take Lens and Bailleul

On 4 October 1914, according to the British chronology of the war, German troops occupied Lens and Bailleul. Lens, a mining town in the Pas-de-Calais department, was the centre of one of France’s most important coalfields. Its loss was a painful consequence for the French of the fighting at Arras, which had been going on since the beginning of October.

Sunday in Lens

The war reached Lens gradually. The first German patrols appeared here as early as the beginning of September, and in the last days of September refugees from around Douai streamed through the town. Of about 35,000 inhabitants, fewer than half remained in the town. During the night of 3–4 October a company of French cyclist chasseurs entered Lens, which together with a squadron of dragoons was to defend the canal crossings.

At dawn on Sunday 4 October the Germans attacked from the direction of Douai. The fighting went on along the canal, where the French took cover behind mine wagons. At about 11 a.m. the defenders were ordered to fall back towards Liévin and the Lorette heights, and by noon there were no French soldiers left in the town. German shelling killed several civilians that day. The mayor of Lens, Émile Basly, a former miner and deputy, was summoned to the German command in nearby Sallaumines and held as a hostage. He was released only the next day. Towards evening German columns entered the town. According to local accounts this was 4 October, although the British official history states that Lens was taken by the I Bavarian Reserve Corps a day later, on 5 October.

The front came to a halt a few kilometres west of the town, at the foot of the Lorette and Vimy heights. Lens remained under German occupation until October 1918 and became an important supply centre for the German army. Before retreating, the Germans flooded and destroyed the mines, and the town itself, shelled for four years, lay in ruins.

Which Bailleul?

The capture of Bailleul under the date of 4 October is a puzzle. Bailleul, a town in French Flanders near the Belgian border, was occupied by German cavalry only several days later. According to the British official history, General von Hollen’s IV Cavalry Corps passed through Bailleul on 7 October, and local historians describe a large column of German cavalry that entered the town on the afternoon of 8 October. The Germans then took as hostages the mayor, Frédéric Moeneclaey, his deputy and two councillors, who answered for the inhabitants’ good behaviour.

It is therefore possible that the chronology means another place of the same name, Bailleul-Sir-Berthoult, a village between Arras and Vimy. In the first days of October Bavarian reserve divisions were advancing towards it, and when the front settled a few days later the village found itself just behind the German line.

The occupation of Flemish Bailleul was short-lived. As early as 14 October (according to local sources, 15 October) units of the British 4th Division entered the town, and for several years Bailleul became an important base of the British army behind the front.