First Battle of Ypres

First Battle of Ypres Part of the Race to the Sea on the Western Front (World War I) Actions of the First Battle of Ypres Date 19 October - 22 November 1914 Location 50°51′51″N 2°53′44″E / 50.8641°N 2.8956°E / 50.8641; 2.8956Coordinates: 50°51′51″N 2°53′44″E / 50.8641°N 2.8956°E / 50.8641; 2.8956 Ypres, Belgium Result Decisive Allied victory Belligerents United Kingdom British India France Belgium German Empire Commanders John French Ferdinand Foch Erich von Falkenhayn Strength British Army: British I Corps, British II Corps, British III Corps, British IV Corps, Cavalry Corps, Indian Corps French Army: IX Corps, XVI Corps, XXXII Corps, XX Corps, I Cavalry Corps, II Cavalry Corps[1] German Fourth Army German Sixth Army Army Group Fabeck Group Gerok Army Group Linsingen Cavalry[2] Casualties and losses British Army: 7,960 killed in action[3], 29,562 wounded in action and 17,873 missing in action French Army: 50,000-85,000 killed, wounded and missing[3] Belgian Army: 21,562 killed, wounded and missing[3] 19,530 killed 83,520 wounded 31,265 missing[4]

v • d • e Race to the Sea 1st Picardy – Flirey – Albert – 1st Artois – Arras – La Bassée – Messines – Armentières – Yser – 1st Ypres v • d • e Western Front Liège – Frontiers – 1st Marne – Antwerp – Race to the Sea – 1st Ypres – 1st Champagne – 2nd Ypres – 2nd Artois – 2nd Champagne – Loos – 3rd Artois – Verdun – Somme – Arras – 2nd Aisne – Messines – 3rd Ypres – Cambrai – Spring – Hundred Days

The First Battle of Ypres, also called the First Battle of Flanders (French: 1re Bataille des Flandres), was a First World War battle fought for the strategic town of Ypres in western Belgium. The German and Western Allied attempts to secure the town from enemy occupation included a series of further battles in and around the West Flanders Belgian municipality. The strategies of both the Allied and German armies are not entirely clear. The accepted and mainstream reasoning for the Ypres battle was the British desire to secure the English Channel ports and the British Army's supply lines; Ypres was the last major obstacle to the German advance on Boulogne-sur-Mer and Calais. The French strategy revolved around a desire to prevent German forces from outflanking the Allied front from the north. This was the last major German option, after their defeats at the First Battle of the Aisne and First Battle of the Marne. The Ypres campaign became the culmination point of the Race to the Sea. The opposing Armies both engaged in offensive operations until the major German offensive occurred in mid-October, which forced the Allies onto the strategic defensive and limited to counter-attacks. The battle highlighted problems in command and control for both sides, with each of the Armies missing opportunities to win a significant decision early on. The Germans in particular underestimated the numbers and strength of the Allied defences at Ypres, and called off their last offensive too early. The Battle was also significant as it witnessed the destruction of the highly experienced and trained British regular army. Having suffered enormous loses for its small size the “The Old Contemptibles” disappeared to be replaced by fresh reserves which eventually turned into a mass conscripted Army to match its Allies and enemies. The result was a victory for the Allies, although losses were particularly heavy on both sides. The Germans called the battle "The Massacre of the Innocents of Ypres" (in German Kindermord bei Ypern) as most of the German casualties were a mixture of young inexperienced and highly trained reserves.

Ypres, and theBattle of the Yser marked the end of the so-called Race to the Sea.

Background

Overall strategic situation on the Western Front at the time of the battle

The British were building up for a push on Menin, but were unaware of a buildup by the Germans for their own offensive.

Battle

The British Expeditionary Force, under the command of Field Marshal Sir John French, was redeployed north from the mobile fighting of the first two months of the war to join two divisions of reinforcements recently landed in Belgium. They advanced east from Saint-Omer, met and halted the German Army at the Passchendaele Ridge to the east of the Belgian town of Ypres. The First Battle of Ypres was preceded by the Battle of the Yser which ended when the Belgians opened the sluice gates of the river Yser to let in the sea into the low lying land to prevent further German advances ^[5]. Both sides dug in for trench warfare. The town of Ypres was rapidly demolished by artillery and air attack.

The Germans called the battle "The Massacre of the Innocents of Ypres" (in German Kindermord bei Ypern).^[6] Eight German units consisted of young volunteers, many of them enthusiastic students, suffered huge casualties during a failed attack on a smaller but highly-experienced British force, many of them veterans of the Second Boer War. The BEF was supported for the first time by battalions from the Army of India and the British Territorial Force, whose support was essential in holding the Germans at bay. The BEF was severely weakened at First Ypres, but the battle allowed the Allies time to strengthen their lines.

In 1917, the Mons Star was awarded to those surviving British troops who had served in France or Belgium prior to the end of the First Battle of Ypres; the last surviving holder of this decoration, Alfred Anderson, died in November 2005.

Many of the German student volunteers are buried at the Langemark German war cemetery.

The future leader of Nazi Germany, Adolf Hitler, claimed to have participated in this battle as a Gefreiter.

See also

• Media related to First Battle of Ypres at Wikimedia Commons
• Second Battle of Ypres
• Third Battle of Ypres
• Fourth Battle of Ypres
• Order of First Battle of Ypres

References

Bibliograpghy

Bibliography

• Beckett, Ian. Ypres The First Battle, 1914. Longman; 2004. ISBN 978-0582506121
• Lomas, David. First Ypres 1914: The Birth of Trench Warfare. Greenwood Press; 2004. ISBN 978-0275982911
• Gardner, Nicolas. Trial by Fire: Command and the British Expeditionary Force in 1914. Pearson; London. 2003. ISBN 0582506123
• Martin Gilbert: The Routledge Atlas of the First World War, second edition, Routledge 2002 ISBN 0-415-28508-9
• Paul Van Pul : In Flanders Flooded Fields, before Ypres there was Yser, Pen & Sword Military, 2006 ISBN 1-84415-492-0

External links

• Peter J Palmer, Langemarck: the Battle and the Myth
• Peter J Palmer, Battle of Nonnebosschen, 11 November 1914
• General Joffre's report on the battle
• Battles: The First Battle of Ypres, 1914

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