battles of Ypres

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Ypres, Battles of (World War I) There were a total of four battles near the Belgian city of Ypres, representing various attempts by the belligerents to overcome the war of attrition that developed on the Western Front by outflanking their entrenched positions to the south.1. After the retreat of the British Expeditionary Force from Mons, on 12 October–11 November 1914 the Germans attacked and captured the Messines ridge, but failed to take Ypres or to reach the Channel ports. 2. Another German attack (22 April–24 May 1915) failed to break the Allied line. This battle represented the first major Canadian involvement in the war, and proved a ‘baptism of fire’. Suffering from the first chemical gas attack of the war, the Canadian reputation for bravery was earned by its 1st Division suffering a casualty rate of 46 per cent. 3. An Allied offensive with fundamentally Australian and Canadian support started on 7 June 1917, when they exploded nineteen mines dug under the German positions. It continued into the Passchendaele offensive, which lasted until November 1917. 4. The last battle was part of the final German Marne offensive in March-April 1918. The Germans were held at the River Lys and once again failed to capture the devastated city of Ypres. It is estimated that over 500,000 British and Commonwealth troops died fighting around Ypres during World War I.

battles of Ypres three major engagements of World War I fought in and around the town of Ypres in SW Belgium. The first battle of Ypres (Oct.–Nov., 1914) was the last of the series of engagements referred to as "the race for the sea." The German thrust toward the Channel ports of Dunkirk and Calais was stopped by the British at Ypres, but in the process the British Expeditionary Force of 100,000 was reduced to half its original size. The second battle began on Apr. 22, 1915, when the Germans, using poison gas for the first time in the war, launched another massive assault on the salient at Ypres. The attack was unsuccessful and was broken off in May. The third battle of Ypres, popularly known as Passchendaele, began on July 31, 1917, and continued until November. The British sought to break the German line, but, bogged down by mud and rain, they advanced only 5 mi (8 km) at a cost of 300,000 lives.

Bibliography: See A. Farrar-Hockley, Death of an Army (1967); E. N. Gladden, Ypres, 1917 (1967).

Ypres, Battles of three battles in World War I fought near Ypres, western Belgium, which was a key point of an Allied salient that blocked the Germans from approaching the English Channel. Mainly British and some Canadian forces were engaged against the Germans in all of the battles. The first battle, in late 1914, stopped a German march toward the sea but resulted in the Allied forces being surrounded. The second battle, in the spring of 1915, marked the first occasion on which poison gas (chlorine, by the Germans) was used as a weapon, against the rules of the Hague Convention. Casualties were in the tens of thousands on both sides. The last battle in July to November of 1917, also called the battle of Passchendaele, was the longest and bloodiest. It was fought in torrential rains with a quarter of a million casualties on both sides, and an effective pushback of the German line of only five miles.

Ypres, Battles of Several battles of World War I fought around the Belgian town of Ypres. The first (October–November 1914) stopped the German ‘race to the sea’ to capture the Channel ports, but resulted in the near destruction of the British Expeditionary Force. The second (April–May 1915), the first battle in which poison gas was used, resulted in even greater casualties, without victory to either side. The third (summer 1917) was a predominantly British offensive. It culminated in the Passchendaele campaign, the costliest campaign in British military history, which continued until November.