YPRES AND THE BATTLES OF YPRES.

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YPRES AND THE BATTLES OF YPRES

YPRES

AND THE BATTLES FOR ITS POSSESSION

The town of Ypres lies in a sort of natural basin formed by a maritime plain intersected by canals, and dominated on the north, north-east and south by low wooded hills.

These canals, of which the Yser Canal is the most important, follow a general direction south-east—north-west. A number of streams flowing in the same direction also water the plain. In addition, there are the Dickebusch, Zillebeke and Bellewaarde ponds.

The hills forming the sides of this basin are very low and partly wooded. The line of their crests runs approximately from north to south, through Houthulst Forest (road from Poelcappelle to Clercken), Poelcappelle, Passchendaele, Broodseinde, Becelaere, Gheluvelt, the strategic Hill 60 (south of Zillebeke) and St. Eloi. Further south is the Messines-Wytschaete ridge, and to the south-west the Hills of Flanders.

Houthulst Forest is the largest of the woods. Next come the islets of Westroosebeke and Passchendaele, then, south of Zonnebeke, Polygone Wood, Nonne-Bosschen (or Nonnes) Wood, and the Woods of Glencorse, Inverness and Herenthage.

In this region, with its essentially maritime climate, the war assumed a character entirely different from that of the rest of the front. The marshy ground, almost at sea-level, is further sodden by constant rain and mists, and forms a spongy mass, in which it was impossible to dig trenches or underground shelters. Water is found immediately below the surface, so that the only possible defence-works were parapets. The bursting shells made huge craters which, promptly filling with water, became so many death-traps for wounded and unwounded alike.

The defence on both sides consequently centred around the woods, villages, and numerous farms, which were converted into redoubts with concrete blockhouses and deep wire entanglements. The slightest bits of rising ground here played an important part, and were fiercely disputed. The crests which dominate the basin of Ypres were used as observation-posts—the lowering sky being usually unfavourable for aerial observation—while their counter-slopes masked the concentrations of troops for the attacks.

It was therefore along the line of crests and around the fortified farms that the fighting reached its maximum of intensity.

The principal military operations which took place in the vicinity of the town between October, 1914, and November, 1917, may be divided as follows:—First, a powerful German offensive—a counter-stroke to the battles of the Yser—then a very definite effort to take the town. The rôle of the Allied armies was at that time purely defensive.

The second stage was marked by a British and Franco-British offensive, begun in the second half of 1916 and considerably developed during the summer and autumn of the following year. The object of these operations, which ended in November, 1917, was the clearing of Ypres. All the objectives were attained and the plains of Flanders were opened to the Allies.

A final effort by the Germans in great strength to the south of the town was checked by the resistance of the Allies in April, 1918. In September and October, 1918, the enemy troops finally evacuated the country under pressure of the victorious Allied offensive.

BRITISH SENTINEL ON NIGHT-DUTY IN FRONT OF THE RUINED CLOTH HALL

THE GERMAN OFFENSIVE OF 1914

Preliminary Operations

After the victory of the Marne, which drove the Germans north of the Aisne, began the operations known as "the Race to the Sea." Each side endeavoured to outpace the other, with the object of surrounding the enemy's marching wing.

This remarkable "Race to the Sea"—a widely extended movement splendidly carried out by General Foch, and in which the Allied forces in their march towards the north constantly outstripped the enemy—might have been used as the starting-point for a grand Allied offensive against the German right, but the exhaustion of the Belgian army, after the terrible trials which it had just gone through in its retreat on the Yser—following on the fall of Antwerp—and the delays in the transport of the British troops from the Aisne front to the north, prevented the development of this offensive.

It was therefore only possible for the Allied armies to fix their front and make it impregnable.

The stages of this race to the sea and the fixation of the front took place between September 20 and October 23, 1914.

The Forces Engaged (Oct. 1914)

When the First Battle of Ypres opened, the front described a wide semi-circle passing through Zonnebeke, Gheluvelt and Zandvoorde, running thence south of Messines, and finally linking up with the line to the east of Armentières.

At the beginning of the battle all this part of the front was held by the British army, as follows: from Zonnebeke to Zandvoorde, the 1st Corps (Haig) and 4th Corps (Rawlinson); from Zandvoorde to Messines, the Calvary Corps (Allenby), two infantry divisions, and the Lahore Division, which had just landed at Marseilles; lastly, from Messines to Armentières, the 3rd Corps (Pulteney).

Facing these forces were