This week Sabine’s battlefield guide Saturday
The attempt of the Belgian army to recapture Keiem
On the evening of 18 October 1914 the officers of the general headquarters discuss with the staff of the 4th Division of General Michel the conditions of the counter-attack to get Keiem to the Allies. The assault will be launched by the 1st battalion of the 13th line regiment commanded by Major Delcourt and followed in support by the 1st battalion of the 8th line regiment with Major Vasseur. The whole operation was directed by Colonel Couteriau.
Major Delcourt, who thinks that 2 isolated battalions, already reduced, going to be launched against a large contingent of the enemy army massed in the woods of Koekelare and in the village of Sint-Pieterskapelle, makes a statement to Colonel Couteriaux: “We are marching to our deaths, sir, but the battalion will do its duty. At that moment their fate is decided, the soldiers of the first battalion of the 13th line regiment were in a trench behind Stuivekenskerke.
Gather, at arms!!! Satisfied to leave the dirty work, they walked in groups of four towards the Kloosterdreve, cross the Tervate bridge. On the road to Keiem, encouraged by two of their superiors who had returned from the hospital only yesterday, Major Delcourt and Captain Mahieu.
the major ordered the deployment of the 3 companies of his battalion:
to the North: Pasquier Coy will establish itself at marker 6 on the road to Leke.
To the East: Mahieu Coy will beat the road to La Chapelle, where the enemy should come out of Koekelare Wood.
To the South: Brabant Coy and Pottier Coy of the 8th Line will set up at the edge and search the houses of the village. While the three companies take their places, the 8th Company prepares to enter the village. Wer es da’ one of the two german sentries shoots, he is dirctly shot, the other prisoners of war declare that there are 3 or 4 battalions in the village and surrounding area.
On the outskirts of the church, the Belgian troops were greeted by heavy fire from the cemetery, a hail of bullets slammed into the road and the walls. The advance is made from house to house with vigorous assaults. Germans arrived from all sides and tried to infiltrate the Belgian lines. It must have been about 3 o’clock in the morning when everyone was in place. on the right they had heard gunfire and shouting in the direction of the Brabant company, but since then a few hours had passed, a cold morning, the men were hungry and cold, suddenly they saw strange movements in the fields. Look out, they are Germans’. In the meantime the German troops had been reinforced. Now they came crawling to occupy the shelters that are abundant to the east of Keiem.
Lieutenant Louppe quickly returned to his machine-gun position but fell to his knees, wounded, but ordered his men to fire. At the same time, major Delcourt, who was advancing on the road to direct the battle more closely, was hit by a bullet in the right flank. The wounded lieutenant called out to him: “Major, can I help you? but it was too late. he is dead. Captain Mahieu takes over the command, a hard job, the situation is changed. He orders the wounded lieutenant to abandon his section of machineguns and ask Couteriaux for reinforcements. Lt Louppe, bleeding profusely, realised that he had to complete this task, and crawled out of the village to reach the moat of the Keiem Tervate road, which was about two kilometers long and passed by injured people everywhere. He raised himself above the ditch and shouted: Major Delcourt is dead, he finally reached the trench on the Ijzer. reinforcement is send but it not enough to help change the situation. Following the destruction of the big guard and the order to retreat given by Couturiaux, from the village came Adjutant Culot with a cart and two dogs, a machine gun and two men , that was all that remained of the machine gun company of the division and one corporal and seven men from a forgotten little post, they had stayed there after the departure of the last fighter of the Pasquier company. The remaining men tried to reach the bridge at Tervate. Throughout the afternoon of the following night a procession of wounded and mutilated men passed by. On the grass next to a muddy trench in stuivekenkerke they bivouac. Lt. Brabant calls on the remaining men of the 1 battalion of the 13 line, there will be 120 men and 2 officers left after the night of the 18th and the day of the 19th October 1914… Three outposts were lost and of the four battalions that took part at Mannekesvere and Keiem, three were seriously decimated and a fourth was almost completely destroyed.
The Belgian Military Cemetery of Keiem is a post-WWI collective cemetery. The ground was acquired from private property by the Ministry of National Defense in February 1924. the cemetery was inaugurated on 12 July 1925. The number of dead of the 8th and 13th Line Regiments of 18 and 19 October 1914 are 147 out of 590 . 364 of the 590 dead could not be identified.
source : de ijzerslag 1914 bij M Senesael
images: Keiem,major Delcourt and his grave in Keiem, entrance cemetery, Van Bockstaele Arthur one of the soldiers that died on the 19th of October 1914