Duncan -Fifth Battle of Ypres

November 11, 1918

The Fifth Battle of Ypres

Duncan Palm

The Fifth Battle of Ypres has been pronounced at its end. Today isn’t only the end of this battle, it is now said that this was the last major battle of The Great War.

During the this battle Germany started to lose numbers and their moral was plummeting by the minute (Adam Scott). An increasing number of Americans arrived  on the Western Front and gave them a huge advantage over Germany. Ferdinand Foch, a captain along the Western Front saw this and took advantage of this (Ferdinand Foch). He planned several heavy strikes on the German Front (Adam Scott). This process took just about two weeks. By today on November 11th 1918 the war zone was silent. The sweet scent of victory. The German Army was defeated and The Great War is swiftly coming to an end (Adam Scott).

Bibliography

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Luke -Climate and landscape

November 10, 1917

Climate and Landscape

Luke Warren

Ypres, Belgium is a wet and is prone to floods and has waterlogged soil (Duffy).  This can affect the soldiers confidence and living spaces by making the living spaces wet from flooding from higher ground (Duffy). On top of that, there was a biggest rain fall Ypres has seen for years (Duffy).  The Germans attacked on October 20, and the German army’s maneuver was uncontrollable for the Belgian army (Duffy).  The weather caused both sides to make serious compromises the Germans had to reconsider their plans because their last maneuver had failed because of these conditions (Duffy).  The Belgians  fought as well as they could when the Germans attacked again, but they couldn't hold them back. King Albert decided that they had to open up the sluices to create a two mile wide water barrier along the twenty long strip of land between them and the Germans (Duffy). It’s amazing how much something that seems unimportant made such a difference in the battle.

Bibliography

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Duffy, Michael. "Firstworldwar.com." First World War.com. N.p., 22 Aug. 2009. Web. 10 Feb.

2015.

Duffy, Michael. "Battles - The First Battle of Ypres, 1914" First World War.com. N.p., 22 Aug. 2009. Web. 12 Feb. 2015.

Luke -The First Battle of Ypres

October 21, 1914

The First Battle of Ypres

Luke Warren

The Battle of Ypres, particularly the First Battle of Ypres, contained many flanking maneuvers (flanks are when someone or something goes to the opposite side of it's enemy to try a sneak attack to get the drop on it's enemy) (Duffy). The Germans captured Antwerp, Belgium which forced the Belgian defenders to fall back to Nieuport, which was near Ypres (Duffy).  The French and the British went back to Ypres after Antwerp fell (Duffy).  The Allies defended a small important trench from German artillery (Britannica).  The French army flanked south around the city, they held the hope of launching their own offensive attack instead of just doing grouped allied attacks (Duffy).  The German army's attack began on October 20, 1914 when Falkenhayn's Flanders ordered an advance on the allied trench line, trying to get to ports of Dunkirk, Calais, and Boulogne (Duffy).  The Germans struck Belgian forces on the Yser River between Dixmude and Nieuport (Duffy).  The already weakened Belgian forces were forced by the Germans to open the sluices, which were gates or other devices to hold back the sea, on October 27, 1914. The Belgians flooded the land between their position and the Germans' along the twenty mile strip of land between Dixmude and Nieuport. That created a two mile wide water barrier (Duffy). This forced the German army to halt and reconsider their plans (Duffy).  It's astonishing how complicated and horrible war can be.

Bibliography

Duffy, Michael. "Firstworldwar.com." First World War.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 19 Feb. 2015.

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A&E. "First Battle of Ypres." History.com. A&E Television Networks, n.d. Web. 19 Feb. 201

Zach -Who Won The Battles of Ypres and Summary

March 14, 1918

Who won the Battles of Ypres

Zach Finn

The Third Battle of Ypres or otherwise, the battle of Passchendaele, after three months is over. Canada, one of the Allies, won and took over the city of Passchendaele (The Battle of Passchendaele). After the first and second battles, the third battle ended with even more deaths than the first two combined.

The First Battle of Ypres was a battle for the strategically important town of Ypres. Launched by the Germans on October 19. With France and the United Kingdom helping Belgium defend its town against the German Empire, which consisted of Prussia, Bavaria, Saxony, and Württemberg (The First Battle of Ypres).  They fought for 34 days before finally the Allies defended the town of Ypres but with a death count of over 134,000 total. With the German failure on November 22, 1914 the battle was over (Buchan).  

On the 21st of April the Germans launched another attack to capture the town of Ypres,  The Second Battle of Ypres, but this time they came with poisonous gasses to use against the Allies (Duffy). This time the Allies had France, British Empire, and Belgium were there to defend Ypres against the German Empire (The Second Battle of Ypres). But the Allies weren’t much match for the toxic gas and the battle ended in a stalemate but with a tactical victory for the Germans on the 25th of April (The Second Battle of Ypres). But the third wasn't as similar to the first and second battles.

Unlike the first and second battles the Third Battle of Ypres was not started by the German Empire, but by a British general named Douglas Haig on the 31st of July, 1917 (Duffy). The objective of the battle was to destroy German submarine bases on the Coast (The Five Battles of Ypres). The battle was fought for three months before ending in the Canadian capture of the German town of Passchendaele and a death count of over 850,000 (Major Battles of World War I)

Luckily the Allies have survived and won the battles of Ypres, but we hear that another battle may start over in Belgium! Could there be a possible fourth battle of Ypres?

Bibliography

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Feb. 2015.

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Duncan -The Second Battle of Ypres

April 23, 1915
The Second Battle of Ypres
Duncan Palm

During The Second Battle of Ypres, a deadly weapon known as chlorine gas was introduced by the Germans, and the horrors of the horrible aftermath of Ypres haunts soldiers and civilians (Duffy).  This battle had started in May and ended during April. The town Ypres has been turned into a war zone twice, maybe a few more times in the future.

Germany now in control with a new weapon known as chlorine gas, released 5,700 canisters containing 168 tons of chlorine gas which were released at sunrise on 22 April (Duffy).  this attack affected 10,000 soldiers, half of which died within ten minutes of the release, 2,000 were severely hurt with being blistered all over their body and being blinded temporarily or permanently (Duffy). The cloud of gas spread throughout four miles of Allied Trench lines.

After the battle the damage done to homes and building were dreadful. One building that had been completely destroyed was the Cloth Hall, which served as a market and warehouse for their prospering cloth industry(Ypres Cloth Hall). This building is planned to be rebuilt to its original designs in 1950. Everywhere you looked are piles of bricks and rubble (Ypres).  And that was just this battle, imagine how much was destroyed in the other one.

Bibliography

"Cloth Hall." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, n.d. Web. 18 Feb. 2015.

Duffy, Michael. "Firstworldwar.com." First World War.com. N.p., 22 Aug. 2009. Web. 10 Feb.

2015.

"Second Battle of Ypres." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, n.d. Web. 16 Feb. 2015.

"Ypres." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, n.d. Web. 18 Feb. 2015.

Luke -Casualties- Main causes of death

November 4, 1914

Main Causes of Death

Luke Warren

Sadly, the weapon that caused the most deaths were chemical weapons such as mustard and chloride gas (Wikipedia).  The way the gases would work was burn your body openings such as, mouth, eyes, and nose (Wikipedia).  The trenches were another death factor, they filled up with gallons of water and snow (Duffy).  The possibility of frostbite or hypothermia was extremely high (Duffy). In the event of that, the soldiers would have to scoop out the snow or water and if under fire the would have to crawl through the freezing cold (Duffy).

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Duffy, Michael. "Firstworldwar.com." First World War.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 16 Feb. 2015.

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Britannica, n.d. Web. 17 Feb. 2015.

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Luke -Casualties- Missing and dead

Missing and Dead

October 19, 1914

Luke Warren

In the Battle of Ypres, the deaths, wounded, missing soldiers were immense (Duffy).  Imagine if your country was losing hundreds of soldiers and missing soldiers every minute (Duffy).  Accurate death records were not always kept in WWI (Duffy).  The comparison between the casualties in the war versus the soldiers in the war were unbelievable (Duffy).  The missing soldier ratio was just as much or more than the deaths, sometimes as much as 2,000 some soldiers in one battle (Britannica).  In the battles of Ypres there were at least 2,500 missing each battle (Wikipedia).  In the Battle Of Ypres the British and the French particularly suffered almost 2-3,000 soldiers an hour (Duffy).  The numbers of missing soldiers and the soldiers fighting were close if not the same (Wikipedia). The most common cause of this was body on top of body or a “body stack” (Duffy).  Most of the time one soldier had to dig under bodies to even make an attempt at finding his fellow soldiers’ dog tags (Britannica).  The chances of finding any missing soldiers in the mud or snow were next to impossible. The missing soldier ratio was high and the chance of even finding their remains or dog tags were terribly low. It’s hard to believe that so many soldiers in the battle of Ypres were lost  and missing in one battle.

Bibliography

Duffy, Michael. "Firstworldwar.com." First World War.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 16 Feb. 2015.

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Duffy, Michael. "Firstworldwar.com." First World War.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 17 Feb. 2015