Chapter Four: The Second Battle of Ypres – Hill 60 – Gas

15GW620 British infantry attacking.

15GW616 British troops prepare for a gas attack.

Belgian, British and French commanders were determined to deny the town of Ypres to the Germans but it left them in a difficult defensive position. The Allied forces found themselves defending a saucer-shaped salient of some fifteen square miles. Ypres was to the rear of the Allies’ defensive front line in the centre of the saucer. The German Army, however, was in good defensive positions on the slightly higher ground around the rim of the saucer.

The Second Battle of Ypres was fought from 21 April – 25 May 1915 for control of the strategic Flemish town which stood in the way of the German Army reaching the Channel coast. By the end of the battle the Ypres Salient had been compressed and Ypres itself was closer to the front line. Bombardment gradually reduced the town to rubble. Poison gas had been used on the Eastern Front by the Germans but it still surprised the Allies in the west and about 7,000 gas casualties were admitted to field ambulances and casualty clearing station. From May to June, 350 British deaths were recorded from gas poisoning.

North of the Salient the Belgian army held the line of the River Yser, whilst the north end of the salient was held by two French divisions. The eastern part of the Salient was defended by one Canadian division and two British divisions.

15GW700 Ypres town square, with the Cloth Hall (Lakenhalle) and St Martin’s Cathedral largely destroyed by shell fire.

15GW702, 15GW703, 15GW704 The Cloth Hall (Lakenhalle) Ypres in 1915.

15GW705, 15GW706 The entrance to Ypres through the Menin Gate; in fact the gate had been removed some years before the war.

15GW701 Ypres, its destruction underway.

15GW617 Ypres’ ramparts with added fortifications, occupied by British troops in 1915.

15GW618 Steady destruction underway at the Menin Gate area, Ypres.

15GW624 A former London bus lies wrecked, having brought up British troops from Ypres to just behind the Front.

15GW632 Men of the Honourable Artillery Company cleaning their rifles in a trench opposite the Mound at St Eloi (at the southern end of the Salient), April 1915.

15GW629 A senior officer entering his headquarters receives a salute. He is probably of general rank.

15GW627 Using outbuildings to snipe at the enemy positions. In the Salient buildings such as these would be flattened as the fighting continued over the years.

15GW626 A sniper in a stable waiting for a target.

15GW637 The Walker Periscope sniping attachment.

15GW708 Men of a Territorial battalion, 1/5 York and Lancaster Regiment, soon after their arrival at the northern end of the Ypres Salient, are engaged in constructing a shelter, using a culvert which they have boarded over.

15GW707 A view from inside the culvert shelter looking out. The 1/5th Battalion York and Lancs have acquired a mixture of rifles: the Long Lee Enfield, usually associated with Territorial battalions, and the Short Lee Enfield.

15GW623 British high command trenches: where the water table was high with sides constructed trenches from sandbags well above ground.

15GW636 Honourable Artillery Company (HAC) officers in Sanctuary Wood, June 1915.

15GW634 Dugouts in Maple Copse in the Summer of 1915.

15GW628 A contraption for firing over the top of a trench. The Walker Periscope attachment consisted of an extra butt and a trigger pulling lever.

15GW630 Men of the HAC examine a British Army greatcoat that has been ripped to shreds by a shell.

15GW651 HAC in the trenches at St Eloi, March 1915.

15GW635 Dugouts in Sanctuary Wood August 1915.

15GW638 Looking across No Man’s Land at the German held village of Zillebeke. The German Front Line can be seen as a line of sandbags

15GW621 Germans occupying a barn, which serves as a lookout post, in Belgium.

15GW622 Germans have turned this farm building into a strongpoint.

15GW595 Germans in an elaborately constructed fire trench.

15GW621 Germans manning a front line trench.

15GW601 Officers of the German General Staff with the Commander in Chief, Kaiser Wilhelm II.

15GW608 Soldiers pose with British bombs from an aircraft brought down behind the German lines.

15GW609 A French bomb, which failed to explode, dropped on German positions.

15GW610 A Roman Catholic priest and a Lutheran pastor unite to conduct a service for German troops. There could be little doubt left in the minds of the listeners as to which side the Almighty was favouring in this great war.

15GW602 A German 77 mm field gun, on an improvised and precarious looking timber mount, positioned to fire at allied aircraft

15GW596 Constructing trenches using multi-toned sandbags to aid camouflage effect. Note the wire netting used to hold the walls in place and the wooden implements for patting the sandbags into angular shapes – evidence of German efficiency.

15GW585 A German cavalry regiment pauses during the move north to join the advance guard to German operations around Ypres.

15GW586 At the end of a sap dug towards the Allied lines this Maxim machine gun team plan an unpleasant surprise for any would-be attackers.

15GW639 A German cyclist with a folding bicycle.

15GW632a Comforts of home – a German soldier repairing a greatcoat which bears the cuff title ‘Gibraltar’. This was worn by three Hanoverian regiments that served in the British Army and garrisoned Gibraltar during the US War of Independence.

15GW754 Earliest known photograph of Hitler in uniform.

15GW755 Hitler with his arms around two of his comrades; he is the one in the light coloured fatigue coat.

15GW756 Hitler, wearing a pickelhaube, in a headquarters dugout, where he served as a runner.

15GW752 Hitler’s military identity discs: Bavarian Reserve Infantry Regiment 13, 3. Companie, Number 718.

15GW573 Bavarian Reserve Infantry Regiment 16, 1. Companie, Number 148.

15GW756 Taking no part in this fun band – all have make-shift instruments – Hitler stands, hands in pockets, looking on at this ‘Band of Noise’ rehearsal.

15GW760 Hitler is seated right, with moustache.

15GW761 Hitler is seated left, with moustache.

15GW762 Again Hitler is seated on the outer edge of this group, front row, next to the officers.

15GW773 In 1915 Hitler was stationed in the French village of Fournes-en-Weppes, near Fromelles. He had already had a vicious ‘blooding’ in the First Battle of Ypres, after which he was promoted to corporal, decorated with the Iron Cross and served as a regimental runner.

15GW593, 15GW594 Germans of the 127th Infantry Regiment (9th Württemberg) Infantry comfortably positioned on Hill 60. The trench sign reads ‘Zug=Grenze’ which could be loosely translated as ‘Platoon Boundary’.

15GW763 Cramped quarters in this German trench (officer seated).

15GW764 An officer emerging from his dugout.

15GW766 Germans attacking across a deep defensive trench covered with barbed wire.

15GW765 German troops constructing a railway behind the front.

15GW767 German casualties after an attack.

15GW589 Panoramic view of Hill 60 from the Allied second line, looking across the railway cutting towards the German positions, which may be discerned from the line of sandbags on the hillside.

15GW588 Looking across No Man’s Land towards the German-held village of Zwarteleen; to the right of the village is a good view of the spoil heap formed when the Ypres-Comines railway was constructed and which, because of its height above sea level and surrounding land, was designated Hill 60 in 1914.

15GW625 Photographed shortly after Hill 60 was captured on 16 April by men of the Royal West Kents, seen here consolidating their position.

15GW592 The Bluff, a hard fought over area to the south of Hill 60.

15GW619 British Tommies enjoying a meal together out of the line.

15GW646 Men of the 1/5th Battalion King’s Own Royal (Lancasters) Regiment in trenches in the Ypres Salient.

15GW642 A Scottishbattalion at Hill 60 in 1915.

15GW644 British troops at Hill 60 in 1915.

15GW643 British troops at Hill 60 in 1915.

15GW641 A captain of at Scottish regiment armed with a telescope.

15GW640 British soldiers at Hill 60 spot an aeroplane.

15GW779a ‘Short back and sides – sir?’ A break from the Front Line for necessary tidying up.

15GW582 An artist’s depiction of the new terror weapon being used for the first time against the French in the Ypres Salient, 22 April 1915.

According to one observer, who noted white puffs of smoke that seemed to act as a signal:

‘Almost at once a thick curtain of yellow smoke arose and was blown gently towards the French trenches by the north-east wind. This curtain, which advanced like the yellow wind of Northern China, offered the peculiarity that it spread thickly on the ground, rising to a height of some feet. Some of the French got clear in time, but many stood their ground and were overcome by the fumes dying poisoned. The fumes, rolled on over two kilometeres of ground from front to rear.’

15GW570 Germans laying out pipes for the poison gas.

Chlorine gas was the first killing asphyxiating agent used by the Germans in the war. By April 1915 the German Army had 168 tons of chlorine deployed in the Ypres Salient. In the first release of poisonous gas on the Western Front French Colonial troops from Martinique were targetted. At about 5 pm, the gas was released, forming a grey-green cloud that drifted into the trenches causing the terrified soldiers to retreat before it. A massive four and a half mile gap was broken open in the Allied line. However this opportunity for a break-through was not expolited as the German infantry were reluctant to follow through. French and Canadians reformed the line.

During the Second Battle of Ypres gas was used by the Germans on three more occasions: in April against the 1st Canadian Division; in May against the British at Mouse Trap Farm; and at Hill 60. In August chlorine gas was used on the Eastern Front against the Russians.

15GW571 Poisonous fumes seen rolling towards Russian positions on the eastern front. The photograph was taken by a Russian pilot in 1915.

15GW569 The bodies of gassed French Morrocan troops near Langemark, 22 April 1915.

A series of photographs that appeared in the German press showing the capture of Hill 60:

15GW578 A picture that appeared in a German newspaper in the Spring of 1915 showing German field ambulance orderlies treating a fellow soldier with oxygen, having suffered injury from asphyxiating gas. The caption read: ‘Protective measures against British gas shells’. Clearly a propaganda ploy by the Germans to justify their introduction of the banned weapon. It would be late September of 1915, at the Battle of Loos, before the British used gas in retaliation.

15GW603 German medics giving first aid to wounded in a captured British position on Hill 60.

15GW605 The body of a dead British soldier in a trench captured by the Germans.

15GW606 A captured trench showing a pump for draining water and some dead British soldiers.

15GW604 British prisoners captured at Hill 60.

15GW614 British gas casualties from the fighting at Hill 60 recovering out in the open at No.8 Casualty Clearing Station, Bailleul.

15GW573 British wounded demonstrate for the camera the makeshift masks they adopted at Hill 60.

15GW615 Men of the 1st Battalion Cameronians seen here using a Vermorel liquid sprayer, containing a solution to disperse chlorine gas.

15GW647 British Tommies putting on a show for the camera to prove that they are not downhearted by the latest German methods to kill them.

15GW611 Pads of cotton waste were issued to British troops in May 1915, one month after the Germans first used poison gas in Flanders. Soda water was used to moisten the pads and, if not available, then urine was used as a readily available substitute.

15GW600 German officers equipped with gas masks and helmets. Each man has a signalling pistol for firing as well as Model 24 Stielhandgranate (handgrenades).

15GW572 A French soldier wearing the new steel helmet, ‘Adriane’, along with an early gas protection mask.

15GW575a, 15GW575b A complicated anti-poison gas system with an oxygen bottle, designed by the French and called the ‘Masque Vanquit’. Note the horn to warn others of gas.

15GW574 Early French mask, named the ‘Masque Robert’, was made of India-rubber.

15GW581 A French Marine equipped with an early respirator, one of the more successful types being tested.

15GW648 Another French variation.

15GW579 ‘What a man at the Front looks like now’ is the caption under this photograph of a soldier in the Honerable Artillery Company. Also added are the words ‘The war-time holiday of the H.A.C. I have just got my new “respy” and I really look more of a nut than ever.’

15GW580 Another attempt at anti-gas protection: this Highlander wears a mask, goggles and what appears to be a hood and gauze.

15GW649 An early British development.

15GW650 This German medical orderly carries breathing aids for the treatment of chlorine gas victims.

15GW577 Respirator parade for British soldiers: This regular drill was made necessary by the use of asphyxiating gas by the Germans.

15GW584 A British soldier with his dog at the entrance to a dugout near St Julien in the Ypres Salient. He is wearing a make-shift gas mask on his cap, which can be pulled down quickly over his face in the event of a poison gas attack.

15GW633 More developed equipment for this sniping team – a range-finding scope for the man spotting and a telescopic sight for the sniper.

15GW665 A sniper’s position showing three hits on ‘Huns’, dated June 3 1915.

15GW666 British sniper wearing a grass-style camouflaged hood.

15GW652 The ground at Hooge torn by shell fire.

15GW656 Crater left when a British mine was blown-up under the German positions at Hooge.

15GW655 Men of the Liverpool Scottish occupying the German trench at Bellewaarde Farm, Hooge, 16 June 1915.

15GW654 The Liverpool Scottish attacking the German lines at Bellewaarde Farm. The banner signals the limit of the British advance.

15GW668 British troops marching through wooded country to the trenches.

15GW659 British troops with a trench mortar

15GW660 A Vickers machine gun being operated in Sanctuary Wood.

15GW661 British troops with a trench oven.

15GW662 Painting trench sign posts.

15GW663 Dead Germans.

15GW658 The business end of a British trench.

15GW657 Germans cut down during a counter-attack.

15GW774 British officers in a dugout near Ypres with the walls decked with pictures taken from the Sketch magazine of the famous French actress and singer Gabrielle Deslys.

15GW776 15GW777 Officers and men of the 7th Battalion King’s Own Scottish Borderers in Flanders.

15GW775 A German ‘Jack Johnson’ shell exploding amongst farm buildings in the British lines.

15GW778 Officers and men of the 1/5 Battalion York and Lancaster Regiment about to set off for the trenches near Fleurbaix. They are, left to right: Sergeant Major Lumb, C Company; Captain Mallinson; Captain Hugh Parry-Smith, C Company; Captain Johnson, B Company, and Captain Willis, A Company. Two unidentified officers’ servants are standing behind in the doorway.

15GW734 British officers of the 1/5 Battalion, York and Lancaster Regiment wearing early gas protection. This battalion had arrived in the Salient shortly before the first gas attack in April 1915. The tubes on the right are rockets to be fired in the event of an attack.

15GW736 A German work detail marching to the trenches near Ypres. Note the waders and bandoliers of extra ammunition.

15GW735 The beginning of the Ypres Salient in the north and the extreme point of the entire British Army in Flanders in 1915. The armies of three nations came together at this place: French soldiers occupied trenches on the left bank of the drained Yser Canal, starting near the large trees; opposite them were the Germans and the British. The ‘X’ marks where the German front line began and the dot the British. At this point the opposing British and German trenches were about ten to twelve yards apart in places. The 1/5th Battalion of the York and Lancaster Regiment manned this hot spot for a period in the summer of 1915, when the photographs were taken.

15GW740 Where the French and British lines met on the banks of the Yser.

15GW751 Rotherham men of A Company, 1/5 Battalion York and Lancaster Regiment. At this point in the line No Man’s Land was only a few yards wide. Two of the men are armed with rifle grenades.

15GW739 The drained Yser Canal, with a flimsy bridge of planks for infantry to cross the mud.

15GW746 Chevaux de frises barbed wire obstacles guarding the British trenches. The German front line is on the horizon.

15GW743 Lieutenant Harry Colver, 1/5th Battalion, York and Lancaster Regiment, took a series of photographs of exceptional quality before he was killed in a phosgene gas attack on 19 December 1915. Above he is seen in International Trench (identified by Jon Cooksey), which had been captured recently from the Germans.

15GW741 1/5th Battalion, York and Lancaster Regiment’s HQ with Colonel Fox (centre, with moustache) and some of his officers.

15GW738 North Zwaanhoff Farm on the east bank of the Yser Canal had been reduced to rubble by the German artillery (identified by Jon Cooksey). This position was close to where the Ypres Salient began in the north. At the time this photograph was taken by Lieutenant Harry Colver, the 1/5th Battalion, Yorks and Lancaster Regiment, was occupying this section of the line.

15GW742 Captain George Hewitt (left) at the entrance to his dugout in the Yser Canal sector. Lieutenant Colver on the right and Lieutenant Cattle in the middle.

15GW771 Captain Colver’s men, A Company, relaxing in the fire trench at Fleurbaix.

15GW747 Dugouts at Fleurbaix. The man seated has taken the wire stiffener out of his hat and re modelled it to resemble a civilian flat cap of the day.

15GW750 Men of the York and Lancs on the Yser Canal.

15GW744 Lieutenant Hess poses by a shell case which serves as an alarm in the event of a gas attack.

15GW721 View looking towards the German lines from the Second Line; the line of sandbags across the centre is a recently captured German trench which presently serves at the British Front Line; across No Man’s Land is the German Front Line.

15GW745 View of the British rear area on the Yser Canal taken from a communication trench.

15GW749 Men of the York and Lancs on the Yser Canal.

15GW770 View looking towards the German positions from the parapet of International Trench. The ruined farm – Farm 14 – was immediately behind the German Front Line. A British attack on 6 July failed to capture this stronghold. There are some grave markers to the left, alongside what was the communication trench connecting International Trench with the German Second Line.

15GW772 Captain Hugh Parry-Smith, officer commanding C Company based at Birdwell Drill Hall, Barnsley, pre war, sighting up through a periscope with a rifle attached.

15GW748 View taken by Lieutenant Colver of Farm 14 through a periscope. The German Front Line can be seen as a line of sandbags to its front.

15GW769 German infantry preparing a farm building for defence.

15GW729 One of two German trench mortars captured by the British in an attack in September 1915. The two officers, Captain Rideal, Machine Gun Officer with the 1/5th Battalion, York and Lancaster Regiment and its Adjutant, Captain Parkinson, are in a destroyed part of International Trench. The weapon is a 91 mm Lanz minenwerfer and was first employed by the Germans at the beginning of the year. This particular one was shipped back to England by Lieutenant Harry Colver and was displayed at the Regimental HQ at Rotherham.

Information used in this chapter was based on the following titles in the Battleground Europe series of guide books:

Ypres – Sanctuary Wood and Hooge and Ypres – Hill 60 by Nigel Cave. See also Flanders 1915 by Jon Cooksey in the Images of War series.

These are available from Pen & Sword History Books Ltd.