Battle of Ypres

World War I destruction in Ypres, Winter 1917

The Battle of Ypres was a series of engagements during the First World War, near the Belgian city of Ypres, between the German and the Allied armies (Belgian and British colonial forces).

A study of the battle notes that, ”even on ‘quiet days’ [at Ypres] casualties [sometimes] ran into the thousands—[as fighting continued] every day, for four long and grisly years… Although for purposes of continuity historians have categorized events at Ypres into three or four major [or five] battles, in fact the fighting there was continuous.”^[1]

During the five peaks in the engagement at Ypres, casualties may have surpassed one million.

• First Battle of Ypres (19 October – 22 November 1914). During the Race to the Sea. more than 220,000 casualties.
• Second Battle of Ypres (22 April – 16 May 1915). First mass use of poison gas by the German army. Around 100,000 casualties.
• Third Battle of Ypres (9 July – 10 November 1917) also known as the Battle of Passchendaele. Between 400,000 and 900,000 casualties.
• Fourth Battle of Ypres (7 – 29 April 1918) also known as the Battle of the Lys. Around 200,000 casualties.
• Fifth Battle of Ypres (23 September – October 1918) an informal name given to a series of battles in northern France and southern Belgium, also known as Advance of Flanders and Battle of the Peak of Flanders. Around 10,000 Allied casualties; German casualties unknown.

References

1. Groom, Winston (2003). A storm in Flanders : the Ypres salient, 1914-1918 : tragedy and triumph on the Western Front. Internet Archive. London : Cassell. p. 9. ISBN 978-0-304-36635-4.

• Dancocks, Daniel G. Welcome to Flanders Fields: the First Canadian Battle of the Great War : Ypres, 1915. Toronto: McClelland & Stewart, 1988.