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25 February 2025: Apocalypse at Ypres
One of the greatest battle in account , the desperate battle at Ypres in October - November 1914 was the climactic fight of the “ Race to the Sea ” – an all - out German button to better through the confederative personal line of credit and catch Calais and the other French ports on the English Channel , thus dividing the Allies , threatening to best the Gallic forces from the north , and maybe even pose the stage for an invasion of Britain .
muse these huge interest , the First Battle of Ypres ( so - scream to distinguish it from at least two subsequent battles ) was conduct on an epic scale , bringing together more man and more firepower than some whole wars did in the previous one C . Including the armed clashes to the north on the River Yser and in the south to Armentières , it involved about a million men on both sides , let in around 600,000 German soldiers , 250,000 French , 100,000 British , and 65,000 Belgians .
The losses were astounding . From October 12 to November 12 , 1914 the British sustained 56,000 casualties , admit 8,000 killed , 30,000 injure , and 18,000 overleap ( of whom perhaps a third or more were also drink down ) . While it ’s harder to receive accurate identification number for the other combatants , the Germans suffered around 135,000 casualties across all categories , the French 85,000 , and the Belgians 22,000 . bear that one 4th of the casualties were fateful , as in the case of the British , it seems secure to assume that around 75,000 soldiers lost their life at the First Battle of Ypres .
The First Phase: Langemarck
After thepreludeat La Bassée , Armentières , Messines , and the Yser , the main battle of Ypres commenced on October 20 and endure about three calendar week . In this time the nondescript , low - lying countryside of Flanders , its farms and grazing land branch by bang-up hedges and crisscross by drain canals under a grey sky , was convert into underworld on earth by three huge but in the end unsuccessful German assaults – one at Langemarck begin October 20 , the 2nd at Gheluvelt beginning October 29 , and the finis at Nonneboschen ( the Nuns ’ Woods ) on November 11 ( above , a German nighttime onslaught ) .
The first German push at Langemarck began just as the British Expeditionary Force was come at Ypres , while to the north the Belgians fought urgently to harbor off German forces along the Yser , with the assist of Gallic reinforcements orchestrate as the new Détachement d’Armée de Belgique under General Victor Louis Lucien d’Urbal , composed of the II Cavalry Corps under de Mitry , a brigade of Gallic marines , and the 87th and 89th Territorial Divisions ( still en route ) .
As scrap bait across the total Flanders front , British Expeditionary Force commander Sir John French , still incognizant of the huge force lay out against the Allies , ordered the British I Corps ( include the 1st and 2nd Divisions ) to attack east of Ypres with the intention of free the Belgian city of Bruges . The move was to be align with a French advance to the S . However this goal proved to be unrealistic to say the least ; Henry Wilson , the British liaison to the French Army , sarcastically notice , “ Bruges for all practical intent is as far as Berlin . ”
The programme miscarry to survive impinging with the enemy , as the British divisions , including the 7th Division holding the southern flank , mosh into five German divisions from the newfangled Fourth Army bring forward in the opposite way . The British dug in but the Germans , ascertain to bring out through , sent wave after moving ridge of infantry against the shallow , unfortified British trench , shape up in close formation against machine gun and mass rifle fire . The result was an appalling massacre , with both side keep very heavy casualty , but the Germans suffering most of all , as some regiments lost over 70 % of their strength .
The Germans eventually succeeded in forcing the British back , capturing Langemarck on October 22 , but the price was out of all balance to the profit . William Robinson , a unpaid worker expeditiousness number one wood with the British Army , recalled shocking scene : “ The foeman seemed to uprise out of the ground and sweep towards us like a peachy tidal undulation , but our simple machine guns pour blade into them at the rate of six hundred shot per minute , and they ’d go down like grass before the scythe … The Germans were climbing over slews of their own stagnant , only to adjoin the same fate themselves . ”
In the same vein Alexander Johnston , a mid - higher-ranking military officer , spell in his diary : “ Two of the crack shots in the Regiment were able to methodically pick off Germans one by one , who were lose in the haze and did not know where they were , as they loomed out of the mist at about 50 yards range , and in this way alone dispose of over 100 of them ! ” And an anon. British nurse recorded several officers ’ account in her diary : “ They tell there were 11,000 Germans idle , and they were using the dead piled up rather of trenches . ”
accord to the “ myth of Langemarck ” which take appreciation in German memory , the Reserve partitioning were compose of inexperient , untrained college students who belong to their deaths tattle patriotic song , and the conflict was remembered as the “ Kindermord bei Ypern , ” or “ The Massacre of the Innocents at Ypres . ” of late historians have cast doubt on the truth of this fib ( it seems most of the Reservists were aged working - class men ) but the “ Kindermord ” became a vital part of national socialist propaganda , dwelling on the tragic courage of idealistic German youth , who died jubilantly maintain the Fatherland .
Reality was n’t always so heroic . A German soldier from Alsace , Dominik Richert , was unapologetic about ducking out of battle with a friend when he could :
Even when they were n’t campaign , soldiers on both sides prevail rain , cold-blooded , hunger , lice , and fundamental sustenance organisation , induce team spirit to plump . In a varsity letter to his wife another German soldier , Paul Hub , described their note near the front line : “ If there is n’t any straw then you just fall asleep on the naked floor . We never take our clothes off . Lots of menage are being inject to pieces , place alight and burning . It was a terrible survey when night came … Maria , this variety of warfare is so unspeakably miserable . ”
Attack on Dixmude
While the main thrust of the first German offensive attack around nor'-east of Ypres , the Germans were also advancing against the Belgians and Gallic positions behind the River Yser . On the far northerly goal of the front , the defenders were attend by shallow - draft monitors from the Royal Navy which bombarded the advancing German Ersatz 4th Division , directed by artillery sentinel in a balloon tethered further west on the Belgian coast .
The Germans tried to soften up the defenses with an unrelenting gun bombardment along the integral Yser front . As village after small town went up in flames , Philip Gibbs , a British warfare newspaperman , described beholding :
To the Confederate States the Germans capture a bridge deck across the Yser at Tervaete on October 21 , but the Belgians preclude them from crossing in force . Meanwhile Gallic marine were fighting doggedly to concord Dixmude against two German division , outnumbering the French by around six to one . From October 23 - 24 the Germans mounted fourteen freestanding assault on Dixmude , but failed to fascinate the city , again encountering fantastically fierce electric resistance and sustaining heavy casualties . One German soldier , Kurt Peterson , described the fighting at Dixmude in a varsity letter to his parents : “ We all lay like logs on the ground and all about us end sizz and howled . Such a night is enough to make an older human of one … We have had enough of warfare . One is not necessarily a coward because one ’s whole nature revolts against this atrociousness , this gruesome drubbing . ”
Canalblog
As German guns pounded the Belgians and French positions along the Yser , on October 24 the Germans deliver the goods in driving the Allies back north of Dixmude , and it became increasingly obvious that there was a real chance of a German discovery . Now at the hypnotism of the Gallic General Ferdinand Foch , Belgium ’s King Albert decide to use his last , most drastic defence reaction : they would start the dikes and flood the plain stitch along the Yser .
See theprevious installmentorall ledger entry .
