THE WESTERN FRONT

THE SECOND BATTLE OF YPRES:  APRIL - MAY 1915

Acknowledgements

Map (b/w): robert_patersons_weblog Map (coloured): www.greatwar,.com Frezenberg: ww1blogb by English artist William Barnes Wollen Gas Attack: (detail) fineartamerica.com. by American expatriate artist John Singer Sargent Gas: oldmagazinearticle.com. Artist unknown. Flanders Fields: digitalartwork by Airpower Art – fineartamerica.com. Monument: commons.wikimedia.org.

    As we have seen the First Battle of Ypres, ferociously fought in the months of October and November of 1914, just managed to keep the city in Allied hands. But the Germans remained hopeful that a break through could be made, be it only to gain access to the Channel ports, so vital to the Allied cause. This said, the offensive launched by the Germans on the 22nd April was primarily intended to divert the attention of the Allies from the number of troops they were having to send to the Eastern Front in support of the Gorlice-Tarnow Offensive in Galicia. However, the decision to employ chlorine gas – some 150 tons of it – in advance of the opening attack upon Langemarck, proved more productive than expected. The French and Algerian forces who were on the receiving end were taken completely by surprise. Many were immediately struck down by this frightful new weapon (eventually put at 6,000), and the remainder moved swiftly back to avoid its effects. British and Canadian forces, stationed near St.Julien, were quickly sent in to block the gap this had made in the frontline – four miles wide – but were themselves forced back by the sheer weight of the German attack. They eventually regrouped along the Frezenberg Ridge (situated east of Ypres) early in May. In the meantime, the Germans had taken the town of Langemarck (see map below); reached as far west as Steenstraat; crossed the Yser Canal, and advanced two miles south to capture the high ground around Pilckem. If, originally, this attack had not been seen as “limited”, and back-up forces had been readily available, then the Germans might well have had the necessary strength to advance on Ypres and, at the same time, cut off the Allied divisions defending the Salient. It could have been a close-run thing. But, even so, this offensive, was to reduce quite substantially the size of the Salient, the vital buffer area denying the Germans the prize capture of Ypres and possible access to the Channel ports beyond.

    ThexGerman offensive of April 1915 included four significant battles. All were bitterly fought and all were highly expensive in casualties. The Battle of Gravenstafel Ridge (22nd-23rd April), which included the opening gas attack on the French and Algerian forces, occurred between the villages of Langemarck and Gravenstafel. As wexhave seen, this enabled the German army to make substantial gains in the north of the Salient. The next day saw the Battle of St. Julien, two and a half miles north-east of Ypres. It was here that another gas attack was launched, this time against Canadian forces. They gallantly made every effort to hold the line, but the Germans captured St. Julien, and two attempts by British forces failed to retake the town. Eventually, in early May, the Allies were forced back to the forward slopes of the Frezenberg Ridge, east of Ypres.

     It was on this ridge that the third battle took place (8th to 13th May). After a furious artillery bombardment, the Germans sent three waves of infantry against the British trenches. The Allies eventually managed to hold the line, but all units suffered very heavy casualties, particularly the Monmouth Regiment and the Canadian Light Infantry. Thexoffensive finally came to an end with the Battle of Bellewaard (the 24th and 25th May). Here, close to Zonnebeke, gas was again used. The Allies fought hard and suffered heavily in defending the line – particularly the Royal Dublin Fusiliers – but they were eventually forced to take up a less precarious position three miles nearer to Ypres. For their part, the Germans were running short of manpower and supplies, and needed to bring the battle to an end. The map above shows the extent of the German advance from April 22nd to May 4th.

     The salient, though reduced in size, was still in Allied hands, but the city it defended now lay deserted. In April, the Germans, having made sufficient ground, had launched their “hate shoot campaign”, a bombardment which reduced virtually all of Ypres to rubble. Casualties in this battle were estimated at 58,000 for the Allies and 38,000 for the Germans. As we shall see, the casualties for the Third Battle of Ypres, beginning July 1917, were to be much higher.

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     Thexgas attack on the 22nd April was the first time gas was used on the Western Front. (It was introduced on the Eastern Front in January during the Battle of Bolimów). It was employed a number of times after this, by the Allies as well as the Central Powers, and in many cases chlorine gas was replaced by phosgene and mustard gas, types which not only affected the lungs and eyes, but also burnt exposed skin. As a first resort soldiers were advised to soak a handkerchief in urine and place it over the face. This helped, but by July 1915 gas masks had become part of a soldier’s kit, and this made these dreadful poisons far less effective than anticipated. However, gas was often used as a terror weapon and, until it was launched by shell or mortar fire, those who administered the gas faced a real risk to themselves if the wind suddenly changed direction! They saw the launch in many different ways. One described it as “a hellish, sulphurous haze”, another as “a monstrously beautiful image”, and another, believe it or not, as “a scene from a fairy tale”! Those badly affected by the gas suffered a violent and agonizing death, and it is estimated that throughout the war the use of these chemical weapons resulted in 1.3 million casualties and 190,000 deaths.

     Incidentally, LieutenantxColonel John McCrea, a Canadian surgeon, took part in this Second Battle of Ypres. When his close friend and former student Lieutenant Alexis Helmer was killed on the 2nd May, he attended his burial. The next day, sitting, we are told, on the step of an ambulance wagon, he wrote the following poem. It became one of the best known and best loved of the wartime poems, and played a major part in the poppy becoming adopted as the Flower of Remembrance after the war. He died of pneumonia in January 1918.

     ……ThexAmerican poet and university professor Moina Michael came across the above poem in New York in November 1918, and was so moved by it that she replied to it, confirming by its title that We Shall Keep the Faith. It reads:

     …… Andxit was during this Second Battle of Ypres, on the 15th May, that the English war poet Julien Grenfell was killed. On the following day, The Times newspaper published his best known work, Into Battle. The last stanza reads:

    …… Hillx60, one of the promontories on the Western Front which proved of particular importance strategically, was situated just a few miles south-east of Ypres. (see map above). Captured by the Germans in November 1914, its height – about 150ft – provided uninterrupted views over the approach roads to the city. In April 1915, at the beginning of this second battle of Ypres, British engineers tunnelled to its base and, on the 17th April, blew it up by means of six mines. In the chaos and confusion that followed, the British quickly captured this important though somewhat diminished height. Less than three weeks later, however, the Germans, ever determined, retook the hill, and it remained in their hands until the Allied capture of Messines Ridge in June 1917. (My father served in the First World War and I remember him telling me about Hill 60.) ……

     …… This imposing monument, The Brooding Soldier, was unveiled at St.Julien in July 1923 to commemorate the Canadian First Division’s part in the Second Battle of Ypres. It was the work of the English-born architect Frederick Chapman Clemesha.

     In May, as we shall see, the Allied spring offensive continued with the Second Battle of Artois, a joint French/British venture aimed at reducing the large German salient. It was to achieve little and cost dearly.

 In Flanders fields the poppies blow

Between the crosses, row on row,

That mark our place; and in the sky

The larks, still bravely singing, fly

Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago

We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,

Loved and were loved, and now we lie

In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:

To you from failing hands we throw

The torch; be yours to hold it high.

If ye break faith with us who die

We shall not sleep, though poppies grow

In Flanders fields. ......

Oh! you who sleep in Flanders Fields,

Sleep sweet – to rise anew!

We caught the torch you threw

And holding high, we keep the Faith

With All who died.

We cherish, too, the Poppy red   

That grows on fields where valor led

It seems to signal to the skies

That blood of heroes never dies

But lends a lustre to the red

Of the flower that blooms above the dead.

And now the Torch and Poppy Red

We wear in honour of our dead.

Fear not that ye have died for nought

We’ll teach the lesson that ye wrought

In Flanders fields. ......

The thundering line of battle stands,

And in the air death moans and sings;

But Day shall clasp him with strong hands

And Night shall fold him in soft wings. ......

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