The Battles of Ypres
First Battle of Ypres - 1914 After the German advance through Belgium and northern France was halted in September 1914, the centre of gravity of the war shifted to the Westhoek region. The Belgian Army halted the German attacks by flooding the Yser plain (27-29 October 1914). To the south, the British and the French fought to stop the German attempt to break through the Allied line at Second Battle of Ypres - 1915 In the spring of 1915, the Germans tried again to break through at Ypres: this resulted in the Second Battle of Ypres. On April 22 1915, between Steenstrate and Langemark, they used gas for the first time. The Allies had to withdraw a number of kilometres in the north and east but despite this the Germans were completely unable to break through the line. The Ypres Salient had shrunk considerably and the city centre was just three to four kilometres from the front line. Third Battle of Ypres - 1917 The Third Battle took place in the summer of 1917. This major British offensive was initially successful in the southern part of the Ypres sector with the mine battle of Messines Ridge on June 7. After a long pause of seven weeks the attempt to break through the Ypres Salient itself was launched on July 31 along a 15 kilometre front. A lack of sufficient assault troops, bad weather and the complete physical destruction of the battlefield itself by intense shelling resulted ultimately in the catastrophic battle for Passchendaele on October 12. A strategically insignificant advance of eight kilometres was achieved at a cost of 275,000 Commonwealth casualties, 95,000 of whom died. German Offensive - 1918 In the spring of 1918, the land gained in 1917 was lost to a German offensive. During the battle around Kemmel Hill on April 25. 1918, the Ypres line almost collapsed. But the French and British defence held and by May 10 German resources were exhausted. In the following months the Allied forces would be considerably reinforced by the arrival of more than a million American troops. Liberation Offensive - 1918 In the liberation offensive of September 28 to November 11 1918, the Germans had to give way to the Allies, who finally broke through the infamous Salient and pushed through beyond the River Schelde. On November 11 the Armistice was signed in a railway carriage near Compiègne. By this time, however, the medieval city of Ypres had been totally destroyed. It was said that a man on horseback could look right across it - from one side to the other. All rights to the pictures on this page are owned by the City of Ypres
Ypres. This was the First Battle of Ypres, which took place from October 22 to November 22, 1914. On the last day the Ypres city centre, including the famous Cloth Hall and St Martin's Cathedral, was burned down by a German incendiary bombardment. Following this, the armies dug in on the heights that formed a semi-circle around the city. The famous Ypres Salient was born.