The Battle of Ypres
1915
The year was 1915 and the war had reached a point of stalemate. The Western Front is a large line of trenches that stretches over 450 miles, From the Belgian coastline to the Swiss boarder. The Germans had a plot to win the war as quickly as possible, so they built most of these trenches. The constant attempts by both sides had failed. In the months leading up to the second battle of Ypres in 1915 the Germans had been researching a new weapon which still needed perfecting. The Germans then tried a new strategy. They sent waves of men “over the top” and managed to break through causing a separation between the trenches, with the loss of thousands of men. The Allies fought hard to regain the ground and managed to push the Germans back over the river of Yses. Then after about 5 weeks of battling the Germans managed to find the Allies weakness. You may ask what that was; well it was the lack of men to guard the front line. Finally German scientists had finished work on chlorine gas. On the day of April 22, 1915 the Germans were put into the history books for using a new weapon of war. This wasn’t expected by the allied front lines at the time and the Germans were able to gain the edge of surprise. This gas attack allowed the Germans to break through the front lines once again due to the ally’s lack of men. Most of the men that were stationed on the line at the time fled because they didn’t know what to do.
After the French troops had fled, the Canadian troops were brought up to fight and to close the gaps in the lines. They found out very fast that the gas did not move slowly, it spread very quickly. They also noticed that the gas stayed relatively close to the ground. After they were exposed to it for long enough they noticed that they were still alive, but their skin had been badly burned and some of the men’s lungs had been destroyed. So they figured that if they covered their noses and mouths with rages soaked in urine their lungs wouldn’t get damaged. The Canadians also noticed that after some of their collages had been exposed to it for a really long time they felt a slight form of nausea and dizziness. After a while the Germans made a large attack on the front line and realized that the defense was weak because there was no one to guard the line. At some points the Germans were able to walk right past weapons that had been abandoned because of the gas. To get past this greyish green smoke the Germans sprayed a liquid on the ground and then ignited it. It was almost like the first flame throwers one soldier said. This flamethrower caused the gas to rise and this let the Germans move freely in the battlefield. Sometimes the Germans would send in a Kamikaze wave of soldiers to throw the gas grenades into the enemy trenches. Usually this failed because the sharpshooters would pick them off before they came within a threatening distance.
Even though the men had to put up with the gas attacks they also had to deal with the horrible conditions. The entire battlefield was a mud pile with trenches dug in it. One solider said “If you don’t die in a mud pool, you die in a mud hole.” He was referring to men that went over the top and didn’t return. Most of the men died in no-mans land. After this battle was over a total of 6037 Canadian lives were lost. Personally I think that this was a waste of our men, even when the high commanders knew the attack was coming.
A School Link Article. Courtesy of Trevor R, John N, Dan M, and Melissa R., Dr. G.W. Williams S.S., 03/25/99 .
