I recently spent a week in Ypres, following the Canadian action in the area. The tour was based on the excellent book series, For King and Empire, by Ottawa Historian Norm Christie. I highly recommend his books, and his TV series For King and Empire is on YouTube:
Episode 1 covers the Battle of 2nd Ypres.
Battle of 2nd Ypres
The Canadians moved up to Ypres in April 1915 to relieve French troops at the north-east of the Ypres Salient just in front of Gravenstafel Ridge. The trenches were in bad shape, so 1st Division Commander Arthur Currie had a fall-back position known as Locality C on the ridge.
At 5pm on 22 April, the Germans launched a gas attack towards the French positions on the Left of the Canadians. The French troops fled, leaving a large gap on the left flank of the Canadians. The Germans were surprised by the effectiveness of the attack and did not press their advantage.
That night, the Canadians attacked at Kitchener’s Wood, and the next day at Mauser Ridge. The attacks caused a large number of casualties, but the Canadians managed to close the gap in the lines. On 24 April, the Germans attacked again, using gas, and captured St Julien and Gravenstafel ridge. Several Canadian Battalions were cut off and surrounded, and 1500 Canadians were taken prisoner. The Canadians were relieved on 26 April and the British replacements withdrew to consolidate their lines.
By early May, the Ypres Salient had been significantly reduced.
The Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry had been the first Canadian unit to join the conflict in December 1914 and served in the British 27th Division. They were in the front line beside the 28th Division, which included my grandmother’s cousin Ernest Goodfellow in the 1st Suffolks Regiment.
The Germans captured Frezenberg and broke through the lines, routing the 1st Suffolks and the 28th Division. The 1st Suffolks had suffered over 1000 casualties in 6 weeks, including over 400 on 08 May. When the formed up the next day, they only had 27 members remaining. The Regiment was decimated and was amalgamated into composite battalion for an extended period of time until they could be rebuilt.
Despite the gap on the left, the PPCLI fought bravely and held their positions until they were relieved at midnight on 09 May. Of the 550 men that started the day, 397 were casualties of a single day’s fighting. A memorial to the PPCLI actions is located near their front lines.
The memorial was dedicated in 1957. The plaque reads:
HERE
8 MAY 1915
THE “ORIGINALS” OF PRINCESS PATRICIA’S CANADIAN LIGHT INFANTRY COMMANDED BY THEIR FOUNDER
MAJOR A. HAMILTON GAULT, D.S.O. HELD FIRM AND COUNTED NOT THE COST
On the 100th anniversary the memorial was rededicated by the PPCLI Colonel-in-Chief Adrienne Clarkson. My RMC Squadron mate, LCol (retd) Dave Pentney, as president of the PPCLI Association was present at the event (4th from the left).
Current members of the PPCLI dressed in WWI uniforms to honour the battalion's sacrifice.
TOUR
The tour of the 2nd Ypres Battlefields shows the positions of the Canadians during the 2nd Battle of Ypres.
The tour sketch map shows the front line at the start of the battle of 22 April 1915.
The first tour point is the Canadian Front Line when the French army are gassed on 22 April 1915. The French army fled in panic, leaving a large gap on the Canadian left flank. The Canadians quickly moved up to fill the gap.
The Canadians were just to the east of Langemark, noted by the church steeple in the distance. They were in open, flat ground with no terrain features to protect the troops.
A zoomed in view of Langemark.
The Germans underestimated the power of the gas clouds and were not prepared to exploit the gap in the line. During this action, Lance Corporal Fred Fisher won the first Canadian Victoria Cross of the War. The German advance was threatening the Canadian Artillery, and LCpl Fisher set up his machine gun and held the Germans back until the gunners could escape. Fisher continued the attack and was killed the next day defending the Canadian Flanks. His body was never recovered, and he is listed on the Menin Gate Memorial to the missing.
The Canadians launched a counterattack on Kitchener’s Wood (that no longer exists) on the night of 22 April. The Canadians did not hold the Woods but set up a new line of trenches that helped secure the open flank.
The location is visible from the Seaforth (Cheddar Villa) Cemetery.
The name of the cemetery was changed after the War from Cheddar Villa to the Seaforth (Cheddar Villa) Cemetery in honour of the more than 100 Seaforth Highlanders buried in the cemetery. The cemetery contains 148 graves, with 23 unknown soldiers, and 19 graves destroyed by shell fire. The Seaforth Highlanders are represented by headstones lining the walls of the cemetery.
Just up the road from the Cemetery is the Canadian Scottish Memorial commemorating the action at Kitchener’s Woods on 22 April.
The next stop was Mauser Ridge, where the Canadians attacked on 23 April to try to close the gap in the lines left by the French retreat. The Germans had taken the ridge following the Gas Attacks, and multiple assaults by the 1st Division finally closed the gap, at the cost of 850 dead. The farms visible in the distance were heavily fortified and the Canadians paid a high price to capture them.
The next stop is Mouse Trap farm, the headquarters of the 3rd Canadian Division, and Casualty Clearing station. Shelling of the farm ignited the buildings and subsequently the ammunition storage dump. Captain Francis Scrimger directed the removal of the wounded, then swam the farm moat with a wounded officer on his back. Scrimger received the Victoria Cross and survived the war for his actions. Pictured is a bunker in the fields of Mouse Trap Farm.
Due to the heavy fighting in the area, there are a collection of cemeteries. A particularly tight grouping includes the New Irish Farm Cemetery, La Belle Alliance Cemetery, and Divisional Collection Cemetery.
The New Irish Farm Cemetery was started in 1917, but greatly expanded after the war. There are a total of 4,678 burials with 3,267 (70%) unknowns. 60 Canadians killed at Mauser Ridge are in this cemetery.
This cemetery is deceiving, as the view from the front gate shows only a small portion of the number of graves. As you approach the Stone of Remembrance, the ground slopes away, revealing the enormity of the cemetery.
Also included in the cemetery are the graves of 7 members of the Chinese Labour corps. From 1916 on, over 100,000 Chinese labours worked for the British forces. The workers, mainly aged between 20 and 35, served as labour in the rear echelons or helped build munitions depots. They carried out essential work to support the frontline troops, such as unloading ships, building dugouts, repairing roads and railways, digging trenches, and filling sandbags. There about 2,000 Chinese workers buried in Commonwealth Graves, many died of the Influenza outbreak of 1918. The survivors were returned to China in 1919 and 1920.
The Division Collecting Post Cemetery was started in August 1917 with 86 graves, but extended after the war to contain 676 graves, 511 of which (75%) are unidentified. The New Irish Farm Cemetery is visible from the Collecting Post gate.
Swinging around to the right, la Belle Alliance Cemetery is also visible from the cemetery gate.
La Belle Alliance Cemetery contains 60 graves, 10 of whom are unknown. The cemetery was started in March 1916, and used again in August 1917.
The number of casualties in the region was very high as the area was fought over multiple times, but the proximity of the cemeteries helps bring home the extent of sacrifice in the region. The 3 cemeteries from a ground level view.
The next stop is the Canadian Memorial at St Julien, the Brooding Soldier. This statue was the runner up for the Vimy Memorial, created by Frederick Chapman Clemesha, an architect and Canadian Soldier. He served as a Lieutenant in the 46th Battalion and was wounded in the face on 11 August 1918 during the Battle of Amiens. He recovered a few weeks later and rejoined his unit, serving until the end of the war.
This statue was originally going to be used at the 7 other Canadian Memorial sites but was considered so dramatic that it was only installed at this location. This statue was dedicated The white granite monument features the bust of a Canadian soldier standing at “rest on your arms reversed”. On the front of the monument is a bronze plaque with “CANADA” in relief. On the monument’s right side is written: “This column marks the battlefield where 18,000 Canadians on the British left withstood the first German gas attacks on the 22-24 April 1915. 2,000 fell and lie buried nearby”.
This statue was dedicated on 08 July 1923 by Prince Arthur, Duke of Connaught.
This location was just behind the Canadian front Line when the Germans attacked using Gas on 24 April 1915. The 8th Battalion held fast, but the 15th Battalion was decimated with most of the troops killed or captured under the gas attack.
The Canadians were pushed back, so by 25 April the line was well south of St Julien. The Canadians were relieved on 25 April, having suffered more than 6500 casualties in the 3-day battle, the first conflict for the Canadian Corps.
This was the end of the battle for the Canadian Corps, but the Princess Patricia Canadian Light Infantry fighting as part of the British 27 Division were involved in the battle of Frezenberg on 08 May 1915. As described above, they suffered 400 casualties out of battalion of 550 men, but held their line, despite collapses in the 28th Division to the north. By the end of the Battle, the Ypres Salient had been severely compressed, and the Germans commanded much of the high ground around Ypres and shelled it incessantly.
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The Canadian Corps performed well in its first major battle, but suffered 6500 casualties. The PPCLI serving under the British suffered and additional 400 casualties in a single day.
Gas temporarily became a major factor on the battlefield, but gas masks were quickly pressed into service, and improved throughout the war, reducing the effectiveness of gas attacks.
As we will see in subsequent posts, the battle for Ypres raged on throughout the war.
Must be the angle because his hands are on the butt of his rifle
Terrific post, Paul. Good memories of our brief but interesting January visit to this sector plus more detail re: the cemeteries & over to the PPCLI memorial, site of the painting of their battle displayed at the War Museum.
https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcS0ETpxpdnR_XWhT612tKCYKEC8tdYF_6hCeg&s
Looking forward to contributing this summer a piece on the concurrent Franco-Belgian action on the far left flank that set the stage for a close family connection..
Mom always thought that Bill (her Dad) had been gassed in the war. This came from a memory she had as a little girl that every morning when Bill woke up, he would sit on the side of the bed and cough and cough. Bill was never anywhere that used gas, but he did have influenza in 1919. She was only 7 when he drowned but it was definitely a lasting impression.
So many dead and wounded and so many unknown soldiers filling some of the graves. It is all so sad. I thought the statue of the brooding soldier was going to have his hands folded on the butt of his rifle.