In May and June, 350 British deaths were recorded from gas poisoning. The division was unprepared for the warfare prevailing on the Western Front, where linear tactics were ineffective against attackers armed with magazine rifles and machine guns. They formed up after 11:00 p.m. on 22 April, with the 16th Battalion (Canadian Scottish) of the 3rd Brigade arriving to support the advance. Canadian troops defending the southern flank of the break-in identified chlorine because it smelled like their drinking water. [22][c], On 24 May the Germans released a gas attack that hit Shell Trap Farm and to the area around the north west, which was affected the most by the attack. [37] The Third Battle of Ypres, also known as the Battle of Passchendaele, was fought from 31 July to 10 November 1917. It was also the first time a former Colonial power defeated a major European power in European soil. During the Second Battle of Ypres, Lt. Col. John McCrae M.D. [15] The next day the York and Durham Brigade units of the Northumberland Division counter-attacked, failing to secure their objectives but establishing a new line closer to the village. Additionally, the French endured around 10,000. The order is attributed to a Medical Officer, Capt. The First Battle of Ypres had been fought the previous autumn. On 24 April the battalion, subjected to a German gas attack near St. Julien, was nearly annihilated. [16] On 26 April 4, 6 and 7 Battalions, the Northumberland Brigade, the first Territorial brigade to go into action, attacked and gained a foothold in the village but were forced back, having suffered 1,954 casualties. But with shellfire and the aid from the 9th Argyll & Sutherland Highlanders they managed to hold their trenches to the end.[23]. There were two more battles in the area and then the Third Battle of Ypres, aka the Battle of Passchendaele occurred in 1917. In the spring of 1915, however, Germany decided to test a new weapon chlorine gas on the Ypres salient. In April 1915 German Fourth Army, facing British Second Army, several French divisions and the Belgian Army, planned an attack towards Ypres. Observing a field test of this idea, the chemist Fritz Haber instead proposed using heavier than air chlorine gas (originally preferring the use of the more deadly phosgene gas, though little was stockpiled for such a use). Hundreds of them fell and died; others lay helpless, froth upon their agonized lips and their racked bodies powerfully sick, with tearing nausea at short intervals. [38], Canadian participation in the Battle of Gravenstafel is commemorated on the Saint Julien Memorial in the village. After all the examples our gallant Allies have shown of dogged and tenacious courage in the many trying situations in which they have been placed throughout the course of this campaign it is quite superfluous for me to dwell on this aspect of the incident, and I would only express my firm conviction that, if any troops in the world had been able to hold their trenches in the face of such a treacherous and altogether unexpected onslaught, the French Division would have stood firm. Opposite the Allies was the German Fourth Army under Albrecht, duke of Württemberg. The Western Front was the name for the battlefields west of Germany. [20] By July 1915, soldiers received efficient gas masks and anti-asphyxiation respirators. Twice cylinders were breached by shell fire, the second time three men were killed and fifty wounded. By its end the Second Battle of Ypres resulted in 10,000 French and 59,000 British casualties, while the Germans lost about 35,000 men. The Second Battle of Ypres was the first mass use by Germany of poison gas on the Western Front. Is it possible that nothing can be done for me?" Installation was supervised by Haber and the other future Nobel prize winners Otto Hahn, James Franck and Gustav Hertz. The city of Ypres before (left), and after (right) the Second Battle of Ypres. April 22–May 5, 1915: ... — Posted October 2, 2018 By the time the Canadians arrived in the Ypres Salient in the spring of 1915, the devastation brought on by the war was on full display. [13][a] The countermeasures were insufficient, and German troops took the village. The Canadian Division received several thousand replacements shortly after the battle. He was killed the following day.[12]. At the first alarm, the Canadian garrison at St. Julien had rushed to man the half-made trenches north of the village, and the two brigades already in line had ordered their reserve battalions up to the left flank. In early April 1915 the Allied forces on the Ypres front comprised (from south to north) elements of the two corps of the British Second Army—which included the 1st Canadian Division—commanded by Gen. Sir Horace Smith-Dorrien, the French 45th (Algerian) and 87th Territorial divisions under Gen. Henri Putz, and the Belgian 6th Division under Maj. Gen. Armand de Ceuninck. The pads were held over the face until the gas dispersed. This battle was fought between the German army and Allied troops from France, Canada, Britain, Africa, Belgium, India, and Newfoundland. Published in Punch 8 December 1915, the poem is still recited on Remembrance Day and Memorial Day. They too would die later – a slow and lingering death of agony unspeakable. The second battle of Ypres was fought between April 22 and May 25 in 1915. In an action at Kitcheners' Wood, the 10th Battalion of the 2nd Canadian Brigade was ordered to counter-attack in the gap created by the gas attack. Having discovered that they could advance, they arrived in large numbers in the area on which the gas had spread itself some minutes before, and took possession of the arms of the dead men. An Important Allied Position. The third Battle of Ypres was fought from July 31 to November 6, 1917. The worst day was 24 April, when 3,058 casualties were suffered during infantry attacks, artillery bombardments and gas discharges. We had only just time to get our respirators on before the gas was over us. Over subsequent weeks, the Germans proved unable to replicate the success of their initial gas attack, and casualties continued to mount on both sides. Field Marshal Sir John French, Commander-in-Chief of the British Expeditionary Force, wrote. By 8:00 pm there were no formed bodies of French troops east of the canal, all their batteries in that sector had been captured, and the entire left flank of the 1st Canadian Division lay exposed to attack. Second Battle of Ypres, (April 22–May 25, 1915), second of three costly battles in World War I at Ypres (now Ieper), in western Flanders. Both sides found that, The battle was immortalized in a painting by, Another Canadian division joined the British Expeditionary Force in late 1915, joined eventually by two more in 1916. The introduction of poison gas, however, would have great significance … Bombarded by artillery fire, most of the city was demolished. We knew there was something was wrong. It followed the canal, bulging eastward around the town. It also marked the first time a former colonial force (the 1st Canadian Division) defeated a European power (the German Empire) in Europe (at the Battle of St. Julien and Battle of Kitcheners' Wood). [19], After the first German chlorine-gas attacks, Allied troops were supplied with masks of cotton pads soaked in urine; it had been discovered that the ammonia in the pad neutralised the chlorine. Fighting on the Eastern Front Updated November 25, 2019 The Second Battle Ypres was fought April 22 to May 25, 1915, during World War I (1914-1918) and saw the Germans conduct a limited offensive around the strategic town of Ypres in Flanders. [18] Fearing the chlorine, few German soldiers moved forward and the delay enabled Canadian and British troops to retake the position before the Germans could exploit the gap. Word was passed to the troops to urinate on their handkerchiefs and place them over their nose and mouth. The Canadian field artillery had been effective but the deficiencies of the Ross rifle worsened tactical difficulties. The Second Battle of Ypres, 1915 The Second Battle of Ypres, as it is known in British military history, encompassed four battles in the northern sector of the Ypres Salient. The Allies reported 5,000 killed and 15,000 wounded.[11]. The Germans overran both divisions' artillery but the survivors rallied and held a new line further back. The Germans were prevented from advancing further by Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry (PPCLI)'s counter-attacks and a night move by the 10th Brigade. It was the first time that Germany successfully used chemical weapons on a large scale on the Western Front. The situation of the defenders at the point of the new salient was becoming more serious by the hour. They made no prisoners. In the first week of April 1915, the Canadian troops were moved from their quiet sector to a bulge in the Allied line in front of the City of Ypres. [4] The French troops in the path of the gas cloud suffered 2–3,000 casualties, with 800 to 1,400 fatalities. The left flank of this line was in contact with the St. Julien garrison, whereas the right bent back some distance from the old front line. This was the famed—or notorious—Ypres Salient, where the British and Allied line pushed into the German line in a concave bend. Scrimger. The battle was the beginning of a long period of analysis and experiment to improve the effectiveness of Canadian infantry weapons, artillery and liaison between infantry and artillery. The effect of the sulphur appears to be only temporary. In The Battles of Ypres, 1915 six engagements involving the Second Army were recorded, four during the Second Battle (22 April–25 May). [1] The gas would be released by siphoning liquid chlorine out of cylinders; the gas could not be released directly because the valves would freeze; wind would carry the gas to the enemy lines. of Guelph wrote In Flanders Fields in the voice of those who perished in the war. Battle of Gravenstafel Ridge (22–23 April 1915). Some got away in time, but many, alas! Capt. The Germans were not prepared to exploit the opening, which gave the French and Algerians time to rush reinforcements…. It lasted from 1914 - 1918. German forces managed to advance and occupy the British line to north and left of the Battalion. The first of these began on 22 nd April 1915 as a surprise attack by the German 4th Army on the French sector of the Allied Front Line. Reinforced by two platoons and a machine gun from the Canadian 13th Battalion, this force formed a short but effective flank. In the British Official History, J. E. Edmonds and G. C. Wynne recorded British losses of 59,275 casualties, the French about 18,000 casualties on 22 April and another 3,973 from 26–29 April. German infantry followed well behind the cloud, breathing through cotton pads soaked with sodium thiosulfate solution and occupied the villages of Langemark and Pilkem, where they dug in, even though they might have occupied Ypres almost unopposed. The ancient city of Ypres, France had been flattened by German shell fire the previous October. The German Army first used chlorine-gas cylinders in April 1915 against the French Army at Ypres,[b] when yellow-green clouds drifted towards the Allied trenches. Those who were enveloped by the fumes were not able to see each other half a yard apart. I shall never forget the look in his eyes as he turned to me and gasped: I can’t die! Illustration for John McCrae's “In Flanders Fields” from a limited-edition book (1921) containing the poem. [citation needed], The Ypres salient was selected for the attack. Most infamously, this battle also served as a testing ground for releasing chlorine gas as a weapon of mass destruction. [33] In 2010, Humphries and Maker, in their translated edition of Der Weltkrieg recorded that by 9 May, there had been more than 35,000 German casualties, 59,275 British between 22 April and 31 May and very many French casualties, 18,000 on 22 April alone. Soldiers realised they were being gassed and many ran as fast as they could. After about a month of fighting, the Germans brought the battle to an end due shortage of supplies and soldiers. Both sides set about developing more effective gas masks. Get a Britannica Premium subscription and gain access to exclusive content. F.A.C. An hour after the attack began, there was a 1,500 yards (1,400 m) gap in the Allied line. Encyclopaedia Britannica's editors oversee subject areas in which they have extensive knowledge, whether from years of experience gained by working on that content or via study for an advanced degree.... Australian soldiers wearing gas masks during the Second Battle of Ypres, 1915. However, the Canadian left, now strengthened by the Canadian 1st Battalion, had stabilized. The Battalion was now under heavy fire from the German forces. It was during this time that Canadian officer John McCrae penned the first lines of the poem “In Flanders Fields” as a tribute to a friend who had been killed in the fighting. [24] The city, bombarded by artillery fire, was demolished. This was primarily to serve as a strategic diversion to cover the transfer of German troops to the Eastern Frontand so its objectives wer… [citation needed], The German commander Erich von Falkenhayn agreed to try the new weapon, but intended to use it in a diversionary attack by his 4th Army. Second Battle of Ypres (22 April – 15 May 1915). Chlorine made the victim cough and therefore limited his intake of the poison. Omissions? The Second Battle of Ypres ended on May 25, with insignificant gains for the Germans. This attack began at 5:00 pm, and the right advanced to the thin line of the 1st Canadian Brigade; the left, briefly assisted by a French battalion, came up abreast and extended to the canal. Although the gas attack opened a wide hole in the Allied line, the Germans failed to exploit that advantage. Hedges and ditches made it difficult to keep order in the darkness, but the Canadians pressed on. The first gas attack came on 22 April. The Germans reported that they treated 200 gas casualties, 12 of whom died. That same day, German heavy guns, including a 17-inch howitzer, began the preparatory bombardment of Ypres, and an increase of tear gas dispersion in the forward area was an ominous sign of the coming battle. The relative vulnerability of the Entente position meant that this sector of the front was characterised by incessant trench warfare. When he volunteered at age 41 for service in the First World War, McCrae wrote to a friend that “I am really rather afraid, but more afraid to stay at home with my conscience.” In April 1915, McCrae and a young friend, Alexis Helmer,…, …a 6-km (4-mile) front at Ypres, Belgium, on April 22, 1915, creating a wind-borne chemical cloud that opened a major breach in the lines of the unprepared French and Algerian units. The Second Battle of Ypres Fought outside of Ypres, Belgium in 1915 Germans trying to break west and south through the “Ypres salient”. The dead were turned black at once. We went along the railway line to Ypres and there were people, civilians and soldiers, lying along the roadside in a terrible state. It was clear that the line on the left had broken, but the extent of the disaster was not realized at first. From April 22 to 25, 1915, the 1st Canadian Division fought with great determination and courage to hold back a German offensive in the salient. The second battle was fought from April 22 to May 25, 1915. The effects are these – a splitting headache and terrific thirst (to drink water is instant death), a knife edge of pain in the lungs and the coughing up of a greenish froth off the stomach and the lungs, ending finally in insensibility and death. A German move to widen the breach had failed, a German attempt to cross the canal in front of the Belgians had met with no success, and the right flank of the Belgian 6th Division still held. Meanwhile, the 3rd Canadian Infantry Brigade prepared for a counterattack to capture the Bois des Cuisinièrs—an oak forest whose name the British and Canadians had translated as “Kitcheners’ Wood”—roughly 1,000 yards (0.9 km) west of St. Julien. The Second Battle of Ypres was the first mass use by Germany of poison gas on the Western Front. There, German forces occupied part of France. Later the Germans threw up red lights over their trench, which would signal a gas release.[23]. [17] Despite hundreds of casualties, the 2nd Royal Dublin Fusiliers participated without respite in the battles at Frezenberg and Bellewaarde. ...haggard, their overcoats thrown off or opened wide, their scarves pulled off, running like madmen, directionless, shouting for water, spitting blood, some even rolling on the ground making desperate efforts to breathe. At daybreak on April 23 the Allies began the arduous process of establishing a continuous line along the Canadian flank to join the French on the Yser canal. Francis Scrimger of the 2nd Canadian Field Ambulance may have passed the order to use urine to counteract the gas, on the advice of Lt.-Col. George Gallie Nasmith. The II Corps and V Corps of the Second Army comprised the 1st, 2nd and 3rd Cavalry Divisions and the 4th, 27th, 28th, Northumbrian, Lahore and 1st Canadian divisions.[3]. This battle also inspired John McCrae's poem 'In Flanders Field'. The French officers, assuming at first that the German infantry were advancing behind a smoke screen, alerted the troops. On 22 April 1915, the Germans released more than 160 tonnes of the gas from thousands of canisters arranged along German lines. For Canadians it was the Second Battle of Ypres in April 1915 that was the most significant as it marked the first major engagement for our troops and, as we shall see, it also marked a new low point in human depravity. However, no German troops were ready to pass through. During the First World War, the Second Battle of Ypres was fought from 22 April – 25 May 1915 for control of the strategic Flemish town of Ypres in western Belgium. Between that position and St. Julien, the 13th Battalion’s two supporting platoons suffered heavy losses while countering the German effort to penetrate behind the trench line and roll it up. In the Second Battle of Ypres, gas weapons had been used extensively for the first time. The reinforcements arrived at the front line about 1:00 am. Successive attacks in echelon to the south were then intended to roll the British line back to the west of Ypres. Ring in the new year with a Britannica Membership, This article was most recently revised and updated by, https://www.britannica.com/event/Second-Battle-of-Ypres, The Canadian Encyclopedia - Canada and the Second Battle of Ypres, Government of Canada - The Second Battle of Ypres (22 April-25 May 1915). The unusual noise of traffic behind the German lines caused so little alarm that three of the eight Canadian field batteries at Ypres would be caught while rotating troops from the front line to the rear. The Canadians, and the French-Algerian troops manning the trenches to their left, watched as a mysterious yello… The Germans' innovative use of gas set the trend for the rest of the war. North of the salient, the Belgian army held the line of the Yser and the north end of the salient was held by two French divisions. Losses during the Second Battle of Ypres are estimated at 69,000 Allied troops (59,000 British, 10,000 French), against 35,000 German, the difference in numbers explained by the use of chlorine gas. The light north-easterly breeze wafted it toward them, and in a moment death had them by the throat. One cannot blame them that they broke and fled. Simultaneously, a second advance moved down the open slopes of Hill Top Ridge toward the German trenches on Pilckem Ridge. Some of the first fighting in the village involved the stand of lance corporal Frederick Fisher of the 13th Battalion CEF's machine-gun detachment; Fisher went out twice with a handful of men and a Colt machine gun, preventing advancing German troops from passing through St. Julien into the rear of the Canadian front line. I was only twenty so it was quite traumatic and I've never forgotten nor ever will forget it. [25] Both sides developed gas weapons and counter-measures, which changed the nature of gas warfare; the French and British used gas at the Battle of Loos in late September. Lance Sergeant Elmer Cotton described the effects of chlorine gas. The Germans then charged, driving the bewildered French back past their own trenches. On the morning of 24 April, the Germans released another gas cloud towards the re-formed Canadian line just west of St. Julien. Although many French troops ran for their lives, others stood their ground and waited for the cloud to pass. The eminent German chemist Walther Nernst, who was in the army in 1914 as a volunteer driver, saw how trenches produced deadlock. not understanding the new danger, were not so fortunate, and were overcome by the fumes and died poisoned. ", The Germans moved field artillery forward, placing three army corps opposite the 27th and 28th Divisions on the Frezenberg ridge (50°52′05″N 2°57′00″E / 50.868°N 2.950°E / 50.868; 2.950). The Ypres salient was the site of three major battles—First Ypres (October–November 1914), Second Ypres (April–May 1915; marked by the Germans’ first… History at your fingertips The Germans released more chlorine gas at them the following day. The First Battle of Ypres was fought in the late fall of 1914 between German, French and British forces. Although the gas attack opened a wide hole in the Allied line, … Around 100,000 casualties. The Allies won the first battle. Corrections? [30][d], After the war, German casualties from 21 April to 30 May were recorded as 34,933 by the official historians of the Reichsarchiv. I have seen some of the wounded who were overcome by the sulphur fumes, and they were progressing favourably. The Second Battle of Ypres saw the first use of chemical weapons in war with its threat of use not taken seriously by the French and British nor was its employment taken advantage of by the Germans. The leftmost Canadian units pushed on for an additional 700 yards (0.6 km), where they found about 200 French soldiers with a machine gun who were occupying elements of a trench and in contact with the enemy. It also marked the first time a former colonial force (the 1st Canadian Division) defeated a European power (the German Empire) in Europe (at the Battle of St. Julien and Battle of Kitcheners' Wood). A bulge jutting into German lines Germans used Chlorine Gas, first use of Poison Gas in war The yellow-green gas killed almost everything in … Casualties were especially heavy for the 13th Battalion of the Canadian Expeditionary Force (CEF), which was enveloped on three sides and had over-extended its left flank after the Algerian Division broke.[8]. It produces a flooding of the lungs – it is an equivalent death to drowning only on dry land. “In Flanders Fields” was published in Punch in December 1915, and it became perhaps the best-known poem about World War I. This latter attack had been ordered by French Gen. Ferdinand Foch at about 8:00 pm on April 22 to regain the ground lost to the gas attack. The offensive was to begin on the night of April 15–16 or with the next favourable wind thereafter. I wish particularly to repudiate any idea of attaching the least blame to the French Division for this unfortunate incident. Three hundred yards (some 270 metres) from the German trench covering the southern approach to the wood, the German defenders detected movement. Days passed without any noticeable augmentation of the German forces, already concentrated unseen in Houthulst Forest. The Battle of Bellewaarde is generally what historians consider to be the end of the Second Battle of Ypres because by its end the Germans were forced to retreat. The Second Battle of Ypres was a battle of the First World War.It was fought for control of the town of Ypres in western Belgium. Conditions to the left of the Canadian front were precarious from the first, but some 200 Algerians, although gassed, took up a position near and parallel to the road between Ypres and the village of Poelcappelle (now Poelkapelle) to the northeast. Among those who escaped nearly all cough and spit blood, the chlorine-attacking the mucous membrane. Other soldiers preferred to use a handkerchief, sock or flannel body-belt, dampened with a sodium-bicarbonate solution and tied across the mouth and nose, until the gas passed. A report of the event by Captain Thomas Leahy, of the 2nd Royal Dublin Fusiliers, shows that their C.O. Let us know if you have suggestions to improve this article (requires login). Please select which sections you would like to print: While every effort has been made to follow citation style rules, there may be some discrepancies. Between the Algerians’ position and St. Julien, a distance of over a mile, was a gap through which the Germans had penetrated, and a German machine gun swept the unprotected rear of the Allies’ old front line. He proposed to Colonel Max Bauer, the German general staff officer responsible for liaison with scientists, that they could empty the opposing trenches by a surprise attack with tear gas. However, the third German assault of the morning pushed the defenders back. "He was sitting on the bed, fighting for breath, his lips plum coloured. Second Battle of Ypres, (April 22–May 25, 1915), second of three costly battles in World War I at Ypres (now Ieper), in western Flanders. From gas poisoning in waves of two companies each, at 11:46 a.m when 3,058 casualties were so heavy little. Posts about Second Battle of Ypres had been in the darkness, many... Trenches produced deadlock Ypres marked the Germans ’ first use of poison gas attack opened a hole... 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