The 1st Battalion, Devonshire Regiment was a Regular Army unit and, after absorbing some 500 reservists, departed for France, landing at Le Havre on 21 August 1914, just 17 days since Britain's entry into the war, as part of the British Expeditionary Force (BEF). The battalion joined the 8th Brigade of the 3rd Division in early September 1914, and then transferred to the 14th Brigade of the 5th Division later in the month. The battalion served on the Western Front throughout the war, seeing action first during the Battle of La Bassée in October where they helped in the capture of Givenchy Ridge, followed by the First Battle of Ypres, where the battalion, in common with most of the rest of the British Regular Army, sustained very heavy casualties. The 1st Devons lost in the battle two thirds of their officers and a third of the other ranks. The battalion then took part in the Winter operations 1914–1915, occupying trenches in deep mud and snow before, in April 1915, suffering 200 casualties from shelling and German counterattacks after holding Hill 60 after its capture a few days before.