Resource 3

Why do we remember the fighting on the Ypres Salient?

Task

Look at the sources below. Along with your own research, explain why what happened on the Ypres Salient during the First World War is still remembered.

Was the fighting around Ypres so different to what happened at other parts of the Western Front?

Source 1a

In the 1st Battle of Ypres (1914), the Allies captured Ypres from the Germans. This was the first of three major battles around Ypres. For most of the War the German army surrounded Ypres on three sides, bombarding it regularly. To counterattack, the Allied forces made costly advances from the Ypres Salient into the German lines on the surrounding hills but with limited success. The fighting continued until 1918 when the Germans were finally pushed back.

Source 1b

The Ypres battlefield in 1915 taken from behind the German lines looking towards Ypres from the high ground Source 1c

The Ypres Battlefield (near Passchendaele), autumn 1917.

Source 2a

The first gas attack: 22 April 1915.

It had been a quiet day almost balmy for late April, only an occasional explosion or short burst of machine gun fire had disturbed the monotonous routine in the trenches. It was almost five o’clock in the afternoon, the sun still shone, a pleasant light breeze had sprung up. The soldiers yawning and stretching, made an early evening cup of tea, some of them were looking forward to nightfall and the prospect of being relieved at the end of their spell in the trenches.

Gunner Jim Sutton of the 9th Canadian Battery was sweeping the German lines through binoculars when he spotted the yellow cloud that rose from the German trenches and slowly drifted towards the British positions. He called to Major McDougall. ‘Take a look at this, sir. There’s something funny going on.’

The wind shifted and the cloud which had threatened to engulf the Canadians, drifted north and rolled across the front of the Algerian Division, joining with others to form a high impenetrable wall of yellow-green smoke. The unfortunate Algerians had no chance.

From their position above the gas cloud Gunner Sutton and his officer saw the panic – saw that the Algerians were running for their lives, throwing away rifles as they staggered and stumbled, dazed and terrified, away from the lethal fumes. In the (Algerians) front line trenches where the gas was thicker they had no time to run, and not many survived. The gas clouds overwhelmed them so swiftly that men collapsed at once. Lying retching, choking, gasping for breath, they suffocated to death in minutes.

Along four miles of its length between Poelcapelle and Steenstraat the (Allied) line was empty. Fifteen minutes after the gas was first released the German army was ordered to put its gas masks on and advance. They were prepared for a fight, but there was no one left to fight with. Within an hour the Germans had advanced more than a mile and they had hardly needed to fire a shot. Flushed with victory they started to dig in.

Pp 192- 195. Lyn Macdonald. 1915: The Death of Innocence

Source 2b

© www.greatwar.co.uk All rights reserved

An artist’s impression of the release of chlorine gas from German Trenches.

The chlorine cylinders were stored upright. Long hoses were draped over the top of the trench parapet and over into no-man’s land. Success depended upon the wind being in the right direction and the land sloping away from the German trenches. Source 3a

© nla.pic-vn6298250 Hurley, Frank, 1885-1962, photographer. http://nla.gov.au/nla.pic-vn6298250

Ypres winter 1915 – 1916. There is significant damage but the town is still identifiable. Source 3b

Dept. of National Defence/Library and Archives Canada

Damage in a street in Ypres after the 2nd battle of Ypres in 1915.

Source 3c The remains of the Cloth Hall in 1918

Source 3d

A tourist postcard showing the Cloth Hall in 1919

Source 4

Allied casualties (British, German casualties French, Belgian and Commonwealth Forces) First Battle of Ypres – October & November 1914 125,000-155,000 135,000

Second Battle of Ypres – April & May 1915 85,000 35,000 Battle of Passchendaele (known as the Third 310,000 400,000 Battle of Ypres) – July – November 1917 Battle of Lys (known as the Fourth Battle of 80,000-100,000 100,000-120,000 Ypres) – April 1918 Fifth Battle of Ypres – September & October 5,000-10,000 Numbers not available 1918 Total 605,000 – 660,000 670,000 – 690,000

The total number of men killed, missing or wounded during the five battles which were fought around Ypres. All numbers are approximate. Source 5a

Soldiers of the British Indian Army on the Ypres Salient, October 1914. Units of the Indian Army had arrived in Marseilles on 29th September and were sent straight to take part in the 1st Battle of Ypres.

Soldiers of the British Indian Army fighting in Belgium in 1914. Source 5b

Belgian soldiers in 1914 halting the German Army north of Ypres around the town of Dixsmuide. They took heavy casualties but succeeded in halting the Germans when the low lying land was flooded.

Source 5c

© IWM (Q5238)

British soldiers being driven to the front lines around Ypres in London buses Source 5d

Canadian soldiers at the Battle of Passchendaele, 1917.