The British had moved eight divisions towards the northern front line: two from the infantry in II and III corps, two cavalry corps under Allenby. He also had an infantry and cavalry corps under Rawlinson and was in close contact with de Mitry by the forest of Houthulst. As well, the Indian Corps and Haig's I corps was arriving soon. Sir John French thought that the German army could not match a great force like this. However, he was wrong. .
The Germans had out numbered the Allies in men, however, they were barely trained constricts. Nevertheless, they created a decent six and a half new corps during the summer. Four of the newly formed corps were sent on trains heading for Belgium on October 10, 1914. However, these new corps were never trained greater then company, battery or squadron level. Nevertheless, they were young, youthful and passionate, which promised Duke Albrecht of Wurttemberg, the army commander. The new Fourth Army under the command of Duke Albrecht of Wurttemberg was already in the field. At Antwerp, the siege troops had formed the III Reserve Corps under the command Beseler, which was moving quite steadily towards the west to meet the new troops from Germany. .
The Allies in Ypres first experienced Duke Albrecht of Wurttemberg's Fourth Army on October 19 and 20. The battle began with a nine-day German attack, which was only brought to a standstill with the appearance of French reinforcements and the premeditated flooding of the Belgian front. Belgian troops released the gates of the dykes holding back the sea from the Low Countries. The flood covered the last ten miles of trenches in the north, and later demonstrated an obstruction to the movement of allied troops and equipment. The main attack was on the front lines south of La Basée Canal, where they attacked the British Expeditionary Forces. The German forces had outnumbered the British Forces three to one men.
