Second Battle of Ypres
The Second Battle of Ypres was fought from 22 April – 25 May 1915, during the First World War, for control of the tactically valuable high ground to the east and the south of the Flemish town of Ypres, in western Belgium. The First Battle of Ypres had been fought the previous autumn. The Second Battle of Ypres was the occasion of the first mass use by Germany of poison gas on the Western Front.
Background
The German chemist Walther Nernst was a volunteer driver in 1914 and 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. Observing a field test of this idea, the chemist Fritz Haber instead proposed using heavier-than-air chlorine gas.The professional head of the German Army, General Erich von Falkenhayn, agreed to try the new weapon with the 4th Army. Falkenhayn wanted to use the gas to cover the transfer of units to the Eastern Front to assist the Austro-Hungarian Army against the Imperial Russian Army after its losses in 1914. Gas could not be released directly because the valves would freeze; liquid chlorine from cylinders would be syphoned for it to vaporise and be carried by a breeze to the British and French lines. German troops carried 5,730 gas cylinders, the largest weighing, into the front line for the release.
The installation was supervised by Haber, Otto Hahn, James Franck and Gustav Hertz. Cylinders were breached by shell fire on two occasions and the second time, three men were killed and fifty wounded. Some of the Germans were protected by miners' oxygen breathing apparatus. The Ypres Salient was selected for the attack, the front line followed the canal and bulged eastward around the town. 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. The eastern bulge of the salient was defended by the 1st Canadian Division and two British divisions. The II Corps and V Corps of the Second Army comprised the 1st Cavalry Division, 2nd Cavalry Division and 3rd Cavalry Division, as well as the 4th Division, 27th Division, 28th Division, 50th Division, 3rd Division and the 1st Canadian Division.
Battle
In A record of the Engagements..., E. A. James used The Official Names of the Battles and Other Engagements... to provide a summary of each engagement and the formations involved. In the Battles of Ypres, 1915, there were four engagements involving the Second Army from 22 April to 25 May.- Battle of Gravenstafel
- Battle of St. Julien
- Battle of Frezenberg
- Battle of Bellewaarde
Battle of Gravenstafel Ridge (22–23 April 1915)
A gap in the French front was left undefended. German infantry followed well behind the cloud, breathing through cotton pads soaked with sodium thiosulfate solution and occupied the villages of Langemark and Pilckem, where they dug in, even though they might have occupied Ypres almost unopposed. The Germans had captured 2,000 prisoners and 51 guns. Canadian troops defending the southern flank of the break-in identified chlorine because it smelled like their drinking water. The Germans released more chlorine gas at them the following day. Casualties were especially severe for the 13th Battalion of the Canadian Expeditionary Force, which was enveloped on three sides and had overextended its left flank after the Algerians of the 45th Division broke.
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. They formed up after on 22 April, with the 16th Battalion of the 3rd Brigade arriving to support the advance. Both battalions attacked with over in waves of two companies each, at Without reconnaissance, the battalions ran into obstacles halfway to their objective. Engaged by small-arms fire from the wood, they began an impromptu bayonet charge. The attack cleared the former oak plantation of Germans at a 75 per cent casualty rate.
The Germans reported that they treated 200 gas casualties, 12 of whom died. The Allies reported 5,000 killed and 15,000 wounded. Within days the British were advised by John Scott Haldane to counter the effects of the gas by urinating into a cloth and breathing through it. Both sides set about developing more effective gas masks.
Battle of St. Julien (24 April – 5 May)
The village of St. Julien was in the rear of the 1st Canadian Division until the poison-gas attack of 22 April, when it became the front line. 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. He was killed the following day.On the morning of 24 April, the Germans released another gas cloud towards the re-formed Canadian line just west of St. Julien. Word was passed to the troops to urinate on their handkerchiefs and place them over their nose and mouth. The countermeasures were insufficient and German troops took the village. The next day the York and Durham brigades of the Northumbrian Division counter-attacked, failing to secure their objectives but establishing a new line closer to the village. On 26 April the 4th, 6th and 7th Battalions of 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 Despite hundreds of casualties, the 2nd Battalion Royal Dublin Fusiliers participated without respite in the battles at Frezenberg and Bellewaarde. On 24 April the battalion, subjected to a German gas attack near St. Julien, was nearly annihilated.
The German Army first used chlorine-gas cylinders in April 1915 against the French Army at Ypres, when yellow-green clouds drifted towards the Allied trenches. The gas had a distinctive odour, resembling pineapple and pepper. The French officers, assuming at first that the German infantry were advancing behind a smoke screen, alerted the troops. When the gas reached the front Allied trenches, soldiers began to complain of chest pains and a burning sensation in the throat.
Captain Francis Scrimger of the 2nd Canadian Field Ambulance may have passed the order to use urine to counteract the gas, on the advice of Lieutenant-Colonel George Nasmith. Soldiers realised they were being gassed and many ran as fast as they could. An hour after the attack began, there was a gap in the Allied line. 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.
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 urea in the pad neutralised the chlorine. The pads were held over the face until the gas dispersed. 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. Soldiers found it difficult to fight like this and attempts were made to develop a better means of protection against gas attacks. By July 1915, soldiers received efficient gas masks and anti-asphyxiation respirators. Private W. Hay of the Royal Scots arrived in Ypres just after the chlorine-gas attack on 22 April 1915:
Battle of Frezenberg (8–13 May)
The Germans moved field artillery forward and assembled three corps opposite the 27th Division and 28th Division on the Frezenberg ridge. The German attack began on 8 May with a bombardment of the 83rd Brigade in trenches on the forward slope of the ridge but the first and second infantry assaults were repelled by the survivors. The third German assault of the morning pushed the defenders back. Although the neighbouring 80th Brigade repulsed the attack, the 84th Brigade was pushed back; this left a gap in the line. The Germans were prevented from advancing further by the counter-attacks of Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry and a night move by the 10th Brigade. The PPCLI success was costly, their 700 men were reduced to 150, who were in no shape to fight.Battle of Bellewaarde (24–25 May)
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. A report of the event by Captain Thomas Leahy, of the 2nd Royal Dublin Fusiliers, shows that their C.O. Lieutenant Colonel Arthur Loveband suspected a gas attack and had warned all company officers. Later the Germans threw up red lights over their trench, which would signal a gas release.German forces managed to advance and occupy the British line to north and left of the Battalion. The Battalion was now under heavy fire from the German forces. But with shellfire and the aid from the 9th Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders they managed to hold their trenches to the end.
Aftermath
Analysis
By the end of the battle, British forces had withdrawn to a new line 3 miles closer to Ypres, thereby resulting in a compression of its surrounding salient. The city, bombarded by artillery fire, was demolished. Although poison gas had been used on the Eastern Front, it surprised the Allies and about 7,000 gas casualties were transported in field ambulances and treated in casualty clearing stations. In May and June, 350 British deaths were recorded from gas poisoning. 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. Gas protection was somewhat improved with the issue of improvised respirators made from cotton waste pads impregnated with sodium hyposulphite, sodium bicarbonate and glycerin. The respirators made little difference, however, due to lack of training and the use of local contraptions and poorly made items imported from Britain. The "P helmet" soaked in sodium phenate was issued by December 1915, and the PH helmet was issued in early 1916.Although many French troops ran for their lives, others stood their ground and waited for the cloud to pass. Field Marshal Sir John French, Commander-in-Chief of the British Expeditionary Force, wrote,
The Canadian Division mounted an effective defence but had 5,975 casualties by its withdrawal on 3 May. 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. The Canadian field artillery had been effective but the deficiencies of the Ross rifle worsened the tactical difficulties. The Canadian Division received several thousand replacements shortly after the battle. At Second Ypres, the smallest tactical unit in the infantry was a company; by 1917 it would be the section. The Canadians were employed offensively later in 1915 but not successfully. 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.