Tour Two:

Ypres

Ypres is a town whose hold on me is relentless. Winston Churchill, speaking after the end of the war, said that ‘a more sacred place for the British race does not exist in the world’. It is a place whose very presence keeps the war alive. It is truly possible to live history in all its raw and emotive parts here. Churchill wantedYpres to be left obliterated, as it was in 1918, as a monument to the sacrifice of the British Empire. In this hope, I am delighted that his wishes did not come to pass. Ypres, today, is a beautiful city and one which remembers the sacrifices made in its defence. The vast majority of British troops who served on the Western Front during the war spent at least some time here; your visit is a pilgrimage in every sense of the word.

A brief pre-war history

Ypres is an ancient place. Raided by the Romans in the first century BC, its prosperity and importance was established during the Middle Ages. It was during the twelfth and thirteenth centuries that Ypres’ main trading product, cloth, brought wealth to the area and gave reason for the drapers to build a magnificent and imposing Cloth Hall to act as the heart of the mini trading empire. The hall today is, like the whole centre of the town, rebuilt from the ashes of 1914-1918; but more of that later. It was also during this period that black cats were thrown from the top of the Cloth Hall in an act meant to purify and protect the city and its inhabitants from evil and witchcraft. Every three years Ypres remembers and resurrects this part of its history with the Kattenstoet (Festival of the Cats). You will be relieved to hear that real cats have now been replaced by the stuffed-toy variety. Be warned, I was there for the 2012 celebrations and, forgetting the overall odd nature of the event, it is the incessant cat noises looped through a speaker system in the Grote Market (the impressive central square) which will have you running for cover.

From the fourteenth century onwards, Ypres found itself besieged, conquered, hit by plague and ruinously managed. During the Hundred Years’ War it was attacked by the Bishop of Norwich for three months, resulting in the usual starvation and desolation for the inhabitants in such circumstances. Plague hit in the fifteenth century and by the late sixteenth century the cloth trade was virtually dead. From a thirteenth century population of 40,000 the city now had a mere 5,000.

From the seventeenth century onwards, Ypres became a focus for political ambition and military strategy in realising it. The Spanish were ousted by 6,000 of Oliver Cromwell’s troops in a pact with the French who then occupied the city, famously fortifying it through the work of the leading engineer of the time, Vauban. The Austrian-Netherlands were rulers in the early eighteenth century before the French regained control just before that century ended.

Vauban’s fortifications made this a potentially vital strategic location. Napoleon visited and inspected the city in 1804 and the British improved the fortification system further on their way to Waterloo in 1815.¹

Very little of Vauban’s fortifications survived into the twentieth century and Ypres, now very much a part of the newly established Belgium, was a relatively sleepy and forgotten part of Europe. That was, of course, until 1914.

Ypres during the Great War

Ypres’ significance during the outbreak of the war was that it stood in the path of the planned invasion route of the sweep through Belgium and into France which the Schlieffen Plan dictated. After British troops first clashed with the Germans at Mons, they retreated to the Marne and Le Cateau, ultimately succeeding in halting the German army advance. Then followed the “race to the sea”. What became known as the Immortal Salient was formed after the first Battle of Ypres in 1914 (see below) – an arc of defensive lines running eastwards from Boesinghe and then south, to just in front of Ploegsteert, with the town of Ypres positioned in the middle. Ypres, as the base of the bulge in the line, was a crucial part of the British supply line to the front; but it was also hugely vulnerable as it could be fired on from three (in fact, at some stages, four) sides. Hence, it was tactically vital to the British but at some point it took on something much more; it became symbolic of Allied efforts to hold back the German advance and thus took on a strategic quality. Ypres must not fall.

Ypres was under near constant shelling throughout the war but there were four major battles:

First Ypres: 19 October – 22 November 1914

This first battle was part of the closing stages of the “race to the sea”. The British were desperate to protect the Channel ports and keep open their supply lines; the Germans, knowing that they must not be outflanked, still endeavoured to break through the British line in the hope of fulfilling their pre war plans. This would be the last signs of mobile warfare on the Western Front for over three years.

Initially, the British and French had pushed the Germans away from the city and on to the ridges which surrounded Ypres. From this position the Germans carried out several assaults on the British line. It was during this stage of the battle that the story of the “slaughter of the innocents” – enthusiastic patriotic German students who lost their lives in extreme numbers – was perpetuated and would go on to hold a significant place in Nazi propaganda as part of the “stab in the back” myth. When you visit Langemarck cemetery, these stories will be explored further.

At the end of October, the Germans did almost break the British line but, due to German command overestimating the size of the Allied forces in the area, they failed to exploit the success. By mid-November the fighting had, to a large degree, ceased. The war of movement was over. The British and French had held Ypres.

The battle had highlighted the problems which would dog fighting on the Western Front for the following years. Holding a position was much easier than taking it. Also, German intelligence gathering and communication had been dire and were major contributions in preventing their victory. Overcoming these issues in a war with modern weaponry but poor and vulnerable lines of command and communication would bedevil both sides.

Second Ypres: 21 April – 25 May 1915

The German objectives were to capture Pilckem Ridge and other surrounding areas; in this they were largely successful due to the impact of the use of poison gas on a large scale on the Western Front for the first time. During the attack on Gravenstafel on 22 April, 6,000 French and colonial troops were incapacitated within ten minutes due to the release of Chlorine gas, with many Canadians also killed or injured later that same day by this psychologically terrifying weapon.

By 25 May Germany had carried out her last assault (another attack preceded with the release of gas) of the short campaign. Germany now held all the high ground surrounding Ypres and the Salient was fully formed. The rest of the war in this region could be best summarised as the Allies trying to remove the Germans from the ridges of high ground whilst the Germans settled in to position and shelled the British below.

It was after Second Ypres that Germany, perhaps in an act of spoilt-child petulance or, more fairly, in order to destroy the communication link, ramped up the artillery bombardment of Ypres. The city would be systematically destroyed. All civilians were now evacuated; they would return to rubble, dust and bones.

Third Ypres: 7 June – 10 November 1917

In spring 1917, the Allies had launched a co-ordinated offensive as part of Robert Nivelle’s, the new French Commander-in-Chief, plan to break through the German fortifications above the RiverAisne. The British advanced at the River Scarpe to limited success whilst the Canadians enjoyed triumph with the capture of Vimy Ridge, north of Arras, between 9-12 April and the 9th (Scottish) Division advanced even more significantly to the east of Arras on the 9th. The Battle of Arras was a diversion for the main thrust of the Nivelle Offensive. The French operations were disastrous. No breakthrough was achieved and with 187,000 casualties the morale of the army broke and mutinies spread. These mutinies largely took the form of a refusal to engage in any further offensive operations, rather than any out and out revolutionary fervour.

It was this that would lead to pressure on the British to maintain the operations on German positions on the Western Front so that General Pétain, replacing the disgraced Nivelle, could rebuild the shattered French armies. Essentially, the French needed time.

Field Marshal Sir Douglas Haig had long wanted to attack in Flanders; this had been his preference in 1916 but events at Verdun then forced his hand to attack on the Somme instead. His aim was to break through to the Belgian coast line, capture the ports, thus neutralising the very serious U-boat menace and disrupting German railway movement, before wheeling south to roll up the German line and achieve overall victory.

Messines 7-14 June 1917

In a rarity for this war, meticulous planning and preparation with genuine foresight and strategic thinking for an attack in the Messines Ridge area had been underway. The aim was to remove the German artillery’s capacity to disrupt the forthcoming Third Ypres assault by enfilade fire from the high ground to the south. For over a year, tunnelling had occurred under the German strongpoints on the ridge. Shafts were dug to depths of a hundred feet and more and ammonal explosives painstakingly dragged through the claustrophobia-inducing cavities by very brave men working in perilously dangerous conditions. Eventually, one million pounds of explosives were laid in twenty-five mines. General Sir Herbert Plumer’s Second Army was to carry out this assault.

On 7 June the charges were blown. ² The explosion was so huge that the German garrison at Lille thought they were under attack and some people in England believed an earthquake was occurring. Although almost certainly an exaggeration, one estimate suggests that approximately 10,000 German soldiers were obliterated – some buried alive, others simply vanished – in that moment of earth-shattering intensity. The following attack was a complete success. The Germans- bewildered, stunned, beaten – simply struggled to operate. The Second Army took nearly all of its objectives on the first day. The element of surprise, combined with limited and achievable objectives, had proven to be a great success.

Third Ypres/Passchendaele 31 July – 10 November 1917

Unfortunately, Plumer would not be given, nor was it ever the intention to give him, the opportunity to follow up this initial success. Haig wanted to strengthen and prepare before making the main assault, to break out of the Salient to the east. He also placed the thrusting cavalryman, Sir Hubert Gough, in charge of this next part of the campaign; favouring his “breakthrough” potential over the “bite and hold” tactics of Plumer.

What this meant was that, as men and resources flooded the area in preparation for the attack, the German Army had six weeks to observe the movements and build up of the British.

Proceeding a ten-day artillery bombardment of the German positions (3,000 guns firing 4.25 million shells), troops left their trenches on 31 July. Though the first day went quite well, what followed was the imagery that many associate with the whole of the war. Flanders experienced the heaviest rainfall it had had for seventy years. The heavy shelling destroyed the complex and delicate drainage system of ditches and streams so that the whole vista became one long, continuous stretch of glutinous mud. This would be just as much an enemy to the advancing soldiers as any weaponry they faced. The soil in and around Ypres is largely made up of blue clay, which means that drainage is poor at the best of times. You do not need to dig deep to come across water. When you visit the trench systems at Sanctuary Wood you will likely see this for yourself.

Through the rain and mud, the offensive gained little success in early August and dragged on through the rest of the month before Haig called a temporary halt to operations, due to the appalling conditions. Plumer was then drafted back in to take on the next stage of the offensive. Making optimal use of a very dry September and staged “bite-and-hold” ³ tactics, Plumer enjoyed success at the Menin Road Ridge, Polygon Wood and Broodseinde. Then the appalling weather returned.

The final phase of the battle saw a month long campaign by Gough’s Army and the French culminating, finally, in the capture of Passchendaele by Canadian forces on 6 November. This final stage of fighting had been horrific. The capture of the high ground on which the village stood gave Haig an excuse to call an end to the battle.

Casualty figures for this battle are disputed. If we take a middle estimate then both sides suffered around 300,000 casualties.⁴ These are, clearly, brutal numbers. Historians continue to argue passionately about the necessity and legacy of this particular engagement. British Prime Minister Lloyd-George was famously scathing of Haig’s conduct of this campaign in his memoirs but, of course, this was very much a part of the defence of his own legacy. The campaign had succeeded in removing the pressure from the French Army and it had inflicted a scale of casualties on the Germans with which they simply could not continue.⁵ With the British also finding some success with the bite and hold tactics – which could be carried out across the Western Front on a limited basis, thus drawing German troops into combat across large areas of land at an increasingly constant rate – it can be argued that, for all the horrors of Third Ypres, the campaign forced the Germans to gamble in 1918 and thus laid the ground for Allied victory.

It is these controversies and considerations that, perhaps, will roll around in your mind as you make your journey across the land so viciously contested in 1917.

Fourth Ypres: 7-29 April 1918

Operation Michael (or the Kaiser’s Offensive) opened on 21 March 1918. This was Germany’s final attempt to try to win the war before arriving US forces provided an unstoppable number of troops for the Allied cause.

7 April was the beginning of an offensive by German forces to drive up through Neuve Chapelle and across the River Lys, heading north west to the channel ports. Initially this attack was a great success as the Germans recaptured the Messines Ridge and were close to splitting theAllied line, thus leaving Ypres open for encirclement. It was a very close run thing. Haig issued his famous ‘backs to the wall’ Order of the Day, which urged every man to fight to the last in the face of such an onslaught.

With a combination of Allied tactical withdrawal and German breakthroughs, theAllies gave up all the ground that they had fought so bloodily to capture in 1917. Ypres was on the brink. Yet the Germans, despite their seeming proximity to victory at this stage, were a nearly spent force. Ludendorff’s advances had been impressive but the casualties were very heavy; he was now outrunning his supply lines and the soldiers were desperately tired. By the end of April, the battle at Ypres petered out. By August, the German army was exhausted and from then onwards the momentum laid with the Allies, whose “hundred days” drive to victory followed.

Finally, the front lines left Ypres.⁶ The town, or what was left of it, as both a place of strategic necessity and symbolic importance, had survived.

After the war

In 1919 Ypres was a wasteland; a memorial to the sin of war. Yet work on recovering a future for the city from the death and destruction got under way almost immediately. Chinese labourers, Allied forces, German prisoners of war and the returning local population began the awful task of clearing and making safe the battlefields.

Ad hoc graveyards were everywhere, literally marking the places where men had fallen. Large cemeteries were left where they had sprung but many smaller ones were removed and bodies transferred to larger burial grounds. As the cemeteries were constructed and developed, the process to memorialise and remember also began immediately and by 1921 plans for the design of the Menin Gate were being considered.

Defying any early calls to leave the desolate city as a monument in itself, it was the returning civilian population who drove the rebuilding agenda. Why had the war been fought if not to secure their future?

Money from German reparations helped the resurrection; by 1925 the church (St Martin’s Cathedral – although not actually a cathedral since 1801) was rising from the ashes and the main square also reborn. In 1934, work on rebuilding the Cloth Hall also began. All of this work was undertaken by following the original medieval plans.⁷ The wretchedness of war would not be allowed to be the victor; hope would prevail.

Although under occupation during the Second World War, Ypres largely avoided further heartbreak during that conflict.

Battlefield tourism began almost immediately after the war. The first visitors were soldiers interested in revisiting where they had fought or travelling to visit the grave of comrades. In this last respect, many mothers and wives would make pilgrimages to the graves of their sons and husbands. In the years following the Second World War, interest in the First World War dropped off and so did visitors to Ypres but a resurgence of interest, driven by the dwindling numbers of veterans and then by significant anniversaries of events in the war, has seen the number of visitors increase exponentially. Visits by British school children, in particular, have helped drive the increase in visitors since the 1980s and help to keep the memory of the conflict alive.

As I said at the start of this short overview, Ypres is a truly wonderful place today. A visit to the city and its battlefields is an experience which makes an indelible imprint on one’s soul.

In the following pages I outline a suggested series of visits for your itinerary, at the end of which I hope that you (and your students) will agree with me that a visit to Ypres is an affecting, emotional and truly life-changing experience.