6 October. It was soon obvious that the combined British, Belgian, and French forces were too weak to hold the city, and Kitchener decided on an evacuation two days later. IV Corps and the remnants of the Belgian Army successfully re-joined Allied forces in Western Belgium, with the Cabinet returning Rawlinson's Corps to Sir John French's command. IV Corps marched into Ypres on the night of 13–14 October, where the BEF, advancing northwards, was preparing to meet the German Army. Located at the centre of the British line, IV Corps met the main thrust of the German attacks between 18 and 27 October and suffered heavy casualties. On 28 October, IV Corps was put under the temporary command of Douglas Haig while Rawlinson went to England to oversee the preparation of 8th Division. When he returned in November the German attacks on Ypres had died down. Rawlinson wrote to the Conservative politician Lord Derby (24 December 1914) forecasting that the Allies would win a war of attrition but it was unclear whether this would take one, two or three years. In 1915, IV Corps formed part of the First Army (General Douglas Haig). At the battle of Neuve Chapelle (10–12 March 1915), he massed 340 guns. The weight of this bombardment on a comparatively narrow front enabled the attackers to secure the village and of the German front line. The arrival of German reinforcements prevented further advance. Rawlinson concluded that an enemy's line of trenches could be broken 'with suitable artillery preparation' combined with secrecy. He also drew a lesson, that trench warfare called for limited advances: 'What I want to do now is what I call "Bite & Hold" – bite off a piece of the enemy's line like Neuve Chapelle & hold it against all counter-attacks...there ought to be no difficulty in holding against the enemy's counterattacks & inflicting on him at least twice the loss that we have suffered in making the bite'. At the end of 1915, Rawlinson was considered for command of the First Army, in succession to Haig but the command was instead given to Sir Charles Monro. He was promoted to temporary general on 22 December 1915. Promoted to the substantive rank of lieutenant-general on 1 January 1916, Rawlinson assumed command of the new Fourth Army on 24 January 1916. The Fourth Army would play a major role in the planned Allied offensive