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 Many historical accounts of the closing months of WW1 tend to
'gloss' over the combatant events of October and November 1918, some writers
even referring to those two months as a 'mopping up exercise'. Such a view is
not truly reflective of the many actions that took place, especially as the
"Western Front" was never truly broken and that as the German Army was pushed
backward, their front line remained intact. The ever advancing allies, pushing
their foe back stretched their own supply lines to the limit; eventually
bringing the allied advance to a temporary halt as September moved into October.
Thus arrived a most important part of the advance by the
allies toward Germany; the task of liberating the many towns and villages that
had been subject to occupational rule for over four long years. Such villages
were fiercely defended by German soldiers, but fall they must if the allied
advance was to continue; any failure to capture a village could adversely impact
the time to victory, but more importantly for the local inhabitants, prolong the
misery of occupation. This period is known as the Battle of Courtrai and it took
place between 14th - 19th October 1918.
For the small village of Ledegem, occupied by the Germany army since 1914, the
advance of the 29th Division of the 2nd Army would be a momentous period. On
October 1st the inhabitants of the community thought that their day had come
when the 12 Battalion Royal Scots had briefly entered Ledegem but their
exhilaration turned to disappointment as the Germans fiercely defended their
positions beating the Royal Scots back to the line of the railway. But as we now
know the allies were determined to advance at all costs and as the "last big
push" commenced in the early hours of the 14 October 1918, it was the 2Bn
Leinster Regiment that fought its way into and through the village, pushing the
German front line backward once more and setting the people of Ledegem free from
occupation. Four hours after zero hour Ledegem was declared to have been taken,
but the success had not been without cost. The morning of the 14th October 1918
was one with a heavy low lying fog. Whilst this gave some advantage to the
advancing troops it also hid from view well disguised machine gun emplacements
that were 'passed by' and then continued to fire upon the support troops as they
followed the 2/Leinsters. Seventy seven men of the regiment were seriously
wounded, some to die from wounds a few days later, and thirteen men died in the
initial advance. The second line of the advance was undertaken by the 4th
Battalion of the Worcestershire Regiment who advanced as the low laying fog
started to lift exposing them to the previously hidden German machine gun
emplacements. It fell upon the men of the 4/Worcesters to overcome these machine
guns and they suffered heavy casualties as they moved forward to consolidate the
liberation of the town. The occupying forces had aggressively defended their
positions within the town and for both the Leinsters and the Worcesters this was
not a "mopping up" engagement but a fierce fight for ground!
The route of the advance started from a position adjacent to an area known, on
British maps of the time, as Raymond Farm and just north of the Heulebeek River.
On modern maps of the area this would be the ground moving eastward between the
main N32 Papestraat and the river Heulebeek. The advance continued through the
centre of Ledegem town continuing on a heading East South East on 102 degrees,
through Barakken to a point that was known by the British as Bert Fork just east
of Overheule. You can locate this on a modern road map at a point where
Meerlaanstraat meets Sint-Eloois-Winkelstraat next to the A17 (E403) (See map)
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