The second Battle of Ypres
The German Commander von Falkenhayn prepared a new offensive at the Ypres salient in spring 1915. The background of this offensive was the veiling of the preparations for the great offensive at the East Front at Gorlice-Tarnów as well as the proof testing of the new gas weapon.
The Germans had already used gas at the East Front in January. Gas shells were used west of Warsaw against Russian positions without the "T substance" showing effect. It was too cold and the weapon froze instead of evaporating. This "T substance" caused a flood of tears, however, did not kill. This ought to change in April when the director of the IG Farben (chemical giant), Carl Duisberg together with Fritz Haber, the head of the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute in Berlin and Germany`s leading industry chemist developed a method to make chlorine gas ready for use against trenches.
On April 22, 1915 the Germans, among them Otto Hahn (nuclear scientist) who led a gas unit near Ypres, put into position 6,000 steel tubes with 180 m ³ chlorine gas between Steenstrate and Poelcapelle. On this sunny day the German artillery opened its preparation fire at 17.00 on the positions of the French 87. Territorial and the 45. Division with its Zouave regiments from Algeria, African Light Infantry (white punishment battalions) and native Algerian marksmen. Next to them the Canadian division, the first of the Commonwealth divisions, was placed. The remaining Ypres sectors were held by three regular British divisions.
A white yellow poison cloud rolled on six kilometres of breadth against the French British positions little later. Thousands of Zouaves and Algerians streamed fast coughing and blue in the face in the back positions. Seven kilometres of front line were laid bare by this attack but the German infantry did not use its given chance. Instead of advancing far to the hinterland, they dug themselves in. The 4. Army further attacked in a concentric direction on Ypers on April 23. Since it was missed on the German side to provide reserves sufficiently, the attack remained without success. So the Allies could rescue the front again. On April 25 the German Supreme Command had stopped the breakthrough attempt because of heavy losses.
The Allies identified the gas fast and as chlorine connections are water-soluble they managed with wet cloths in front of the face. The scenario of such gas attacks is like a look into Dante's hell. On May 1 the gas attack recurred south of Ypers with names like Hill 60, Dump and Caterpillar, in a small fight sector. Here a young officer, Second Lieutenant Kestell-Cornich, saved the situation as he and his 40 soldiers fired into the gas cloud to hold back the Germans. Although the German troops could approach Ypres except for three kilometres they do not succeed in the breakthrough. The reserves were missing.
The third Battle of Ypres
The unrestricted U-boat war induced Great Britain to seize measures against the bases of the hated submarines at Ostende and Blankenberge . The British Commander-in-Chief Sir Douglas Haig planned an operation in the Flanders region already in 1916. However, these plans were postponed because of the Battle of the Somme. The intention Haigs was a breakthrough up to the Belgian coast. In addition, the front line ought to be shortened and an encirclement of German troops made possible so.
Haig thought, like already at the Somme offensive, that the German Army was close to collapse. The Prime Minister David Lloyd George was opposed to the offensive very critically, however, gave his blessing to the plans since he could not find any alternative.
The Germans, however, were in a precarious situation. Because of the two-front-war the resources were tight. Greater offensives were no longer possible at this time. Hindenburg and Ludendorff wanted to watch ones opportunity in regards to the U-boat war and the collapse of Russia before they carried out major regroupings. But Haig did not intend to give the Germans any breathing time. He did stick firmly to the offensive thought. Activities south of Ypres came to meet his plans.
Mine warfare
A thorn for a long time already in the British side was the Messines Ridge. General Herbert Plumer wanted to take it with his 2. Army. At first miners drilled 19 galleries through the mountain and deposited at their ends, directly under the German lines, 500,000 tons of explosive. The length of the tunnels under the battlefield was about 8 km. These cargo loads were ignited on June 7, 1917 at 03.10, almost all of them. The bang of the explosions still could be heard in England. 2 000 guns of the British artillery had used up three and a half millions shells for three weeks before. 10,000 soldiers died by the mine explosions and the 3. Bavarian Division was destroyed almost completely. As a result, the German defence collapsed.
Nine Allied divisions went over to the attack after that and were supported by the use of poison gas and 22 tanks. Within three hours the front arch was taken and the Germans had to retreat. The Battle of Messines is regarded as one of the few relatively successful offensives in World War One and confirmed the morals of the Allied troops. Plumer wanted to continue the attack, was held back, however, since the troops ought to be refreshed first and defensive positions built up.
Three of the 19 mines did not explode. One blew up in a thunderstorm in 1955, however, killed only a cow fortunately. Another mine was discovered and defused by the Germans. To this day, one more mine still lies buried.
The German Flanders position was defended by ten divisions. Among them established units like the 3. Guard Division or the 111. Infantry Division. Ernst Jünger, after the war a famous author, fought with that 73. Füsilier Regiment. 1,556 guns were placed at the 11 km wide front sector which was to be taken by the British 5. Army. 2,299 cannons were assembled on the British side, approximately every five metres one gun. This was a tenfold tighter gun line than during the Battle of the Somme.
Rain and mud
On July 31, 1917 at 3:50, after a fifteen-day-long artillery fire, the real great offensive in Flanders began with the attack at Pilckem. The first stage target was the plateau of Gheluveld. The British 5. and 2. Army, as well as parts of the French 1st army on the left wing were supported by 136 tanks of which many got stuck in the craters arisen by the artillery fire.
As usual, the heavy bombing with 3,000 guns only had warned the defenders and by 14.00 they went over to the counterattack. The German artillery fire as well as extremely heavy rain handicapped the British troops in enormous way. A British battery commander described the soil conditions so: "The ground is stirred up by three metres of depth and has the strength of porridge. The inside of the shell craters is so soft that one could sink in it ...inside these craters hundreds of dead German soldiers must be buried and their own shells plough up the area once again and bring them back to light ".
The rain, according to meteorologists the heaviest for 30 years, slowed down the British advance and made the use of tanks impossible. Haig stopped the attack on August 4 to secure the positions. In comparison with the Battle of the Somme where on the first day 20,000 dead had to be lamented, the losses were not so high at Ypres. The 5. Army reported 7 800, the 2. Army about 1 000 fallen and missing men. Together with those of the French Army 35,000 men. The Germans suffered just as heavy losses.
On August 16, Haig continued the attack at Langemark and gained 500 metres. Further attacks at Gheluveld also led to only ridiculous area benefits at enormous losses. At the same morning the next British offensive between the rivers Yser and Lys, also known as Battle of Langemark, started. Although the British succeeded to conquer some smaller villages, this time, the hoped-for breakthrough, however, also could not be gained. It failed once again because of the extremely grim German defence. The attack was stopped on August 20.
Haig replaced the commander of the offensive, Sir Hubert Gough with Herbert Plumer by transferring his troops further to the north. Plumer had already conquered the front bend successfully at Messines. Plumer planned some smaller conquests and opened several attacks in the course of September and October. He carried out an attack at the road to Menin on September 20 in which 1.4 km of area gains could be achieved. During this attack the British lost 21,000 soldiers. After several attacks on September 22, the Allieds, succeeded a 800 m deep area gain at the road to Menin losing 300 men, though.
On September 26, Plumer attacked the Polygon woods and on October 4 Broodseinde. During the attacks, 1.8 km of areas were conquered under the loss of 30,000 soldiers. Another attack on October 9 at Poelcapelle failed and the Germans even managed to make area wins in return. Haig, however, demanded larger area gains and firmly believed in a German Army collapse.
Passchendaele
A renewed offensive attempt was made on October 12 at Poelcapelle. Actually, only this battle and an operation following on this were described as Battle of Passchendaele after the village which was to be taken during this attack. The notion nevertheless also was used in the vernacular for the entire operation.
The offensive still took place under bad weather conditions so that the artillery could not be driven close to the battlefield and the attacking soldier`s progress was very slow. For the prepared German defenders it was easy to avert the attack. The losses of the attackers were about 10,000 soldiers.
Meanwhile, the exhausted ANZAC Corps was replaced by Canadian units. The Canadians had a particularly good reputation on the Allied side. The Canadian 4. and 5. Division had obtained their positions by the middle of October.
The Canadian general Arthur Currie face commented face to face with Haig that the conquest would cost about 16,000 soldiers. Haig insisted nevertheless on the execution of the attack.
The Canadian general Arthur Currie face commented face to face with Haig that the conquest would cost about 16,000 soldiers. Haig insisted nevertheless on the execution of the attack.
The attack was started on October 26 and the Canadians could conquer the village of Passchendaele as well as the surrounding hills and held the area wins with the help of two British divisions on October 30 until further reinforcements arrived on November 6. This attack did cost the British High Command the expected 16,000 soldiers. Because of the heavy losses on November 10 the British stopped the offensive.
The offensive near Ypers failed and the planned breakthrough was not reached. On both sides were heavy losses. The Allies had to lament the loss of 325,000, the Germans of about 260,000 soldiers. Because of the conquest of Passchendaele the offensive was celebrated nevertheless by the Allies as success. The British area gains in Flanders were re-taken during the German spring offensive in 1918.
Ypres has lost nothing of its halo even after 90 years. The "Flanders Fields", so the mythical notion and organ tone in the English death fugue of Doctor John McCrae - his poem about the bloody poppy-seed fields is still part of British school matter - attract masses from the Commonwealth, primarily from England.
There are victim numbers for every battle but the battles were actually an ongoing massacre around Ypres. 500,000 British lost here their life between 1914 and 1918. During the Third Battle of Ypres, in July 1917, approximately 250 000 died, just as many Germans.100 000 were killed in or near Paschendaele. The English Chancellor of the Exchequer then, Lloyd George, late Prime Minister mentioned about General Douglas Haig, the Commander of the 1. British Corps: »Haig is completely unconcerned how many soldiers he is about to lose, he simply wastes the life of these boys. If he would look after allegedly British victories at the victim list he would not want to win so often in the future".
The United Kingdom lost 764,000 soldiers during the Great War. They fought for Ypres against the Germans literally until collapse. Winston Churchill, the British Minister of War then, suggested therefore in January 1919 to buy the ruins of Ypres from the state of Belgium to the memory of the fallen or to ask for as a present of the Belgian people to the British people: „I would like that we purchase the ruins of Ypres ... There is no more sacred place for the British race in the whole world. Nothing should be rebuilt as it was in the past. Ypres must be turned into one single big cemetery. A memorial for future generations, panels with the names of all casualties, blossoming poppy over the graves".
It did not come Churchill`s way. “Belgium does not need ruins to remember its misery”, Minister Joris Helleputte gave him to understand. Furthermore Churchill thus also violated the Roman Catholic Flemish resurrection faith. After the war, the residents of Ypres who escaped the battle at the beginning of 1915 had returned to their town which was destroyed except for the foundation walls and started to rebuild it. The British got their monument after all. Remains of the town gate by which the street of the big market place leads to Menin served as a foundation. More was no longer left of the gate after the end of the war. The necessary bridge across the Kasteelgracht lay likewise in ruins.
The "Menin Gate", solemnly opened in1927, a monument made of bright stone, is more memorial place than town gate, more Roman triumphal arch than Belgian Arc de Triomphe. The names of almost fifty-five thousand British soldiers who could not be buried or did not have any recognizable traces for themselves are chiselled on the walls. There are far more names but for everyone the place did not suffice.
All noises die away here every evening shortly before 20.00. The traffic then rests. Natives go round the Gate because it is always closed for the passage around this time. Exactly at 20.00 horn players assemble under the dome and blow for the last appeal, the last post. The only just 10-minutes long ceremony has taken place every evening for seventy-five years, though not under the German garrison in the Second World War between May 20, 1940 and September 6, 1944. Every evening, young and old, natives and tourists, many English, few Germans meet at the Menin Gate.
All noises die away here every evening shortly before 20.00. The traffic then rests. Natives go round the Gate because it is always closed for the passage around this time. Exactly at 20.00 horn players assemble under the dome and blow for the last appeal, the last post. The only just 10-minutes long ceremony has taken place every evening for seventy-five years, though not under the German garrison in the Second World War between May 20, 1940 and September 6, 1944. Every evening, young and old, natives and tourists, many English, few Germans meet at the Menin Gate.