Race To The Sea - The Implications Seaward

The Implications Seaward

While the BEF was following events to the Marne and returning northwards, there had been coordinated efforts by relatively small forces of the Belgian field and fortress armies, the French marines, the Royal Marines, the Naval Brigade (reserve sailors half retrained as infantry), the Royal Naval Air Service (RNAS) (mounted in armoured cars) and vessels of the Royal Navy. The aim was to screen the Belgian coast from German occupation, so denying the use of its harbours to U boats and permitting access for supplies from Britain. Initially, the northern part of the German forces was tied up by the Belgian defence of Antwerp. The Royal Marines occupied ports such as Oostende, while the RNAS, in its armoured cars, provided a mobile screen to hinder German movements northwards from the main advance towards Paris. Following an extempore but careful fortification of the western extremity of Belgium by flooding, the Battle of the Yser provided an anchor onto which the future Western Front could be locked by the First Battle of Ypres.

The importance of the Belgian and French ports such as Calais and Boulogne-sur-Mer in supplying the BEF was perceived at the time: to maintain a British army in France at all, the allies had to control the English Channel. To do so, particularly against U-boats, the Strait of Dover had to be controlled. Thus both its coasts had to be occupied by the Allies so that a barrage of vessels, mines and nets could be maintained there. In the event, the aim of retaining control of the French coast was achieved by coordination between naval and military forces of Belgium, France and the United Kingdom, and no French port was lost. The extent to which this requirement was understood before the event is not clear. It was perhaps so obvious, at the Admiralty at least, that it was not stated explicitly. Certainly, the U-boat threat was well appreciated, but the First Lord's account of the time and its events makes no mention of the need to stop the threat at the strait.

These considerations made crucial the BEF's return to the north before the fluid situation there had solidified into a line reaching the coast west of Dunkirk. On the whole, the main German forces involved in this aspect of the 'race' came from eastern Belgium, after having been tied up there by operations associated with the resistance of Antwerp. Thus, the Belgian army, in the prepared fortifications of Antwerp and on the Yser, in conjunction with the planning of the British Admiralty, played a key role in the progress of the war.