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Fifth Battle of Ypres

1918 battle on the Western Front of World War I

Summary

1918 battle on the Western Front of World War I

FieldValue
conflictFifth Battle of Ypres
partofthe Western Front of the First World War
imageFile:Western front 1918 allied.jpg
image_size250px
captionMap of the final Allied offensives on the Western Front, 1918
date28 September – 2 October 1918
placeFrom Ypres to Ghent, Belgium
coordinates
resultAllied victory
combatant1
combatant2{{Collapsible list
titleGerman Empire
1
commander1
commander2
strength128 divisions
strength216 divisions
casualties1
casualties2
campaignbox

The Fifth Battle of Ypres, also called the Advance in Flanders and the Battle of the Peaks of Flanders () is an informal name of First World War battles in northern France and southern Belgium (Flanders) from late September to October 1918.

Background

After the German spring offensive of 1918 failed to achieve a decisive victory, German morale waned and the increasing numbers of American soldiers arriving on the Western Front gave the Allies a growing numerical advantage over the western armies of the German Empire. To take advantage of this, Marshal of France Ferdinand Foch developed a strategy which became known as the Grand Offensive, in which attacks were made on the German lines over as wide a front as possible. Belgian, British and French forces around the Ypres Salient were to form the northern pincer of an offensive towards the Belgian city of Liège. The British Second Army had followed up some minor withdrawals and had fought the action at Outtersteene Ridge on 18 August, after which there was a lull. Allied troops in the area were well rested by late September.

Battle

The Groupe d'Armées des Flandres (GAF, Flanders Army Group, King of the Belgians) attacked at 5:30 a.m. on 28 September, after a three hour artillery preparation. The GAF attacked with 12 Belgian divisions, 10 British divisions of the Second Army and 6 French divisions of the Sixth Army. The British attacked on a 4.5 mi front up to the Ypres–Zonnebeke road, from where the Belgian army attacked on a line north to Dixmude. The Allied attacks quickly penetrated the German defences and advanced up to 6 mi. Much of the ground west of Passchendaele, abandoned during the withdrawal of early 1918, was recaptured. Rain began to fall but by the evening the British had taken Kortewilde, Zandvoorde, Kruiseecke and Becelaere; Belgian troops had captured Zonnebeke, Poelcappelle, Schaap Baillie and Houthulst Forest. On the southern flank, minor operations by three British divisions advanced to St. Yves, Messines and the ridge from Wytschaete to Hollebeke. The German front line ran from Diksmuide to Houthult, Becelare, Zandvoorde and Hollebeke.

Messines, Terhand and Dadizeele fell on 29 September and by the next day, despite the captured ground becoming another slough of mud, all of the high ground around Ypres was occupied by the Allies. By 1 October, the left bank of the leie (Lys) had been captured up to Comines and the Belgians were east of a line from Moorslede to Staden and Diksmuide. The advance continued until 2 October when German reinforcements arrived and the offensive outran its supplies. Due to the state of the ground, 15,000 rations were delivered by parachute from 80 Belgian and British aircraft.

Aftermath

Casualties

The British suffered 4,695 casualties, the Belgians "nett" casualties from among 2,000 killed and 10,000 men ill or wounded. The Allies advanced up to 18 mi, with an average advance of 6 mi and captured prisoners, 300 guns and 600 machine-guns.

Subsequent operations

The offensive was continued with the Battle of Courtrai (14–19 October).

Order of battle

{{lang|fr|Groupe d'Armées des Flandres}}

The Allied units of Army Group Flanders (King Albert I of Belgium), had the French General Jean Degoutte as Chief of Staff.

German 4th Army

Army Group Rupprecht of Bavaria (Crown Prince Rupprecht of Bavaria), commanding the northern German army group, held Flanders with the 4th Army, which had less than five divisions in the area.

  • 4th Army (General der Infanterie Friedrich Sixt von Armin)
    • Naval Corps (Admiral Ludwig von Schröder)
    • Guard Corps (Generalleutnant Alfred von Böckmann)
    • X Reserve Corps (Generalleutnant Arthur von Gabain)

Footnotes

References

  • {{cite book |ref=
  • {{cite book |ref=
Wikipedia Source

This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page.

battles-of-the-western-front-(world-war-i) battles-of-world-war-i-involving-belgium battles-of-world-war-i-involving-france battles-of-world-war-i-involving-germany battles-of-world-war-i-involving-the-united-kingdom battles-in-1918 1918-in-france ypres-salient 1918-in-belgium september-1918-in-europe october-1918-in-europe
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