Hooge in World War I
In World War I, the area around Hooge on Bellewaerde Ridge, about east of Ypres in Flanders in Belgium, was one of the easternmost sectors of the Ypres Salient and was the site of much fighting between German and Allied forces.
Within a radius of Hooge are the sites of Château Wood, Sanctuary Wood, Railway Wood and Menin Road. There are four Commonwealth War Graves Commission war cemeteries in this area and several museums and memorials. Hill 62 and Mount Sorrel are further south, while the sites known to British and Commonwealth soldiers as Stirling Castle and Clapham Junction are further east.
Background
Hooge
For much of the war, Hooge was one of the easternmost sectors of the Ypres Salient, being almost constantly exposed to enemy attacks from three sides. After the First Battle of Ypres in 1914, the front line of the salient ran through the Hooge area and there was almost constant fighting in the region over the next three years, during which Hooge and the Château de Hooge, a local manor house were destroyed. Around the village, the opposing front lines were almost within whispering distance of each other. With its ruined village and a maze of battered and confusing trench lines, the area was regarded as a hazardous area for the infantry, where snipers abounded and trench raids were frequent. Both sides saw Hooge as a particularly important area and a key target for heavy artillery bombardment.Geography of the Ypres Salient
Ypres is overlooked by Kemmel Hill in the south-west and from the east by low hills running south-west to north-east with Wytschaete, Hill 60 to the east of Verbrandenmolen, Hooge, Polygon Wood and Passchendaele. The high point of the ridge is at Wytschaete, from Ypres, while at Hollebeke the ridge is distant and recedes to at Polygon Wood. Wytschaete is about above the plain; on the Ypres–Menin road at Hooge, the elevation is about and at Passchendaele. The rises are slight apart from the vicinity of Zonnebeke which has a gradient of From Hooge and to the east, the slope is near Hollebeke, it is heights are subtle and resemble a saucer lip around the city. The main ridge has spurs sloping east and one is particularly noticeable at Wytschaete, which runs south-east to Messines with a gentle slope to the east and a to the west. Further south is the muddy valley of the Douve river, Ploegsteert Wood and Hill 63. West of Messines Ridge is the parallel Wulverghem Spur and the Oosttaverne Spur, also parallel, lies further east. The general aspect south and east of Ypres is one of low ridges and dips, gradually flattening northwards beyond Passchendaele into a featureless plain.Possession of the higher ground to the south and east of Ypres gives ample scope for ground observation, enfilade fire and converging artillery bombardments. An occupier also has the advantage that artillery deployments and the movement of reinforcements, supplies and stores can be screened from view. The ridge had woods from Wytschaete to Zonnebeke giving good cover, some being of notable size like Polygon Wood and those later named Battle Wood, Shrewsbury Forest and Sanctuary Wood. In 1914, the woods usually had undergrowth but by 1917, artillery bombardments had reduced the woods to tree stumps, shattered tree trunks and barbed wire tangled on the ground and shell-holes; the fields in gaps between the woods were wide and devoid of cover. Roads in this area were usually unpaved, except for the main ones from Ypres, with occasional villages and houses. The lowland west of the ridge was a mixture of meadow and fields, with high hedgerows dotted with trees, cut by streams and ditches emptying into canals. The main road to Ypres from Poperinge to Vlamertinge is in a defile, easily observed from the ridge.
Military operations
1914
First Battle of Ypres
During the First Battle of Ypres, the Franco-British captured the town of Ypres from the Germans, the Château de Hooge was used by the commanders of the 1st Division and 2nd Division for a joint divisional headquarters. When the château was shelled by German forces on 31 October 1914, the divisional commanders Major General S. H. Lomax and Major-General Charles Monro were injured, as were several members of their staffs, and some British soldiers were killed and Lomax died of his wounds several months later. By the end of the battle in November 1914 the Germans had been driven back but the front line of the Ypres Salient ran around Hooge.1915
Military mining
From the spring of 1915, there was constant underground fighting in the Ypres Salient at Hooge, Hill 60, Railway Wood, Sanctuary Wood, St Eloi and The Bluff which required the deployment of new drafts of tunnellers for several months after the formation of the first eight tunnelling companies of the Royal Engineers. On 21 February 1915, the Germans exploded the first mine beneath the trenches at Hooge.Second Battle of Ypres
The British were forced to retreat from Zonnebeke, Veldhoek and the St Julien arc from 5–6 May 1915, during the Second Battle of Ypres to a surveyed and prepared position closer to Ypres. From 24 to 25 May 1915, the Battle of Bellewaarde was fought in the area until the end of the German offensive. During the night of reserve troops dug a new trench from the Menin road to Zouave Wood. The Cavalry Corps reoccupied Hooge and the chateau and further north the line was pushed forward and consolidated. The front line was straight from Kemmel to Hooge Chateau then curved back to the north-west of Zouave Wood then north again to Railway Wood, Hooge being at the angle of a pronounced salient.Raid on Hooge Chateau
On 2 June 1915, German artillery bombarded the Hooge area from leaving only two walls of the chateau standing, after which infantry attacked and captured the chateau and stables. A counter-attack on the night of 3/4 June recovered the stables but the Germans held onto the chateau.Actions of Hooge
On 19 July, the Germans held Hooge Chateau and the British the stables and no man's land either side was. Inside the German salient was a fortification under which the 175th Tunnelling Company had dug a gallery long and charged a mine with of Ammonal but waterlogged ground required the explosives to be loaded upwards. The mine was sprung at and left a crater wide and which was rushed by two companied of the 8th Brigade, 3rd Division. No artillery-fire had been opened before the attack and the Germans were surprised as bombers of the 8th Brigade advanced but then had to retire when they ran out of bombs. The trenches near the crater were consolidated and connected to the old front line, the 8th Brigade losing 75 casualties and taking 20 prisoners. On 22 July, the 3rd Division attacked east of the new line during the evening and the 14th Division attacked further north at Railway Wood but lacking surprise, both attacks failed.On 30 July the Germans attacked Hooge against the front of the 14th Division, which had held the line for a week. The area had been suspiciously quiet the night before and at 3:15 a.m. the site of the stables exploded and jets of fire covered the front trenches, the first German flame thrower attack against British troops. A simultaneous bombardment began, most of the 8th Rifle Brigade was overrun and the rest retreated to the support line. A second attempt to use the flame throwers was frustrated by rapid fire but attempts to counter-attack failed and most of the captured trenches were consolidated by the Germans. On 6 August, the 6th Division relieved the 14th Division and made a deliberate attack, with diversions on either flank by the 49th Division near Boesinghe, the 46th Division near Hill 60 and the 17th Division further right along with the 28th Division. From 3 August heavy artillery bombardments were fired at different times during the early hours. French artillery and 3 Squadron RFC participated and two brigades attacked after a hurricane bombardment. The brigades linked at the crater and dug in and German counter-attacks were broken up by the artillery which with direction by artillery-observation aircraft suppressed German artillery retaliation until mid-morning, when visibility reduced. Part of the captured ground on the right was evacuated under intense bombardment during the night. The 16th Brigade had 833 losses and the 18th Brigade 1,295 casualties, mostly from artillery fire after the attack.