On the onset of the battle both Germany and the Allies had
specific goals that made a conflict at Ypres inevitable. The “Race to the Sea”
had been completed, meaning that there were no gaps in the frontline stretching
all the way from the English Channel to Switzerland. There was no going around
the enemy at this point, if either side wanted to advance it would have to be
through a defending army.
This brought the German Command’s attention to Ypres. The
terrain in the region is relatively flat and open. If the Germans could break
through the Allied lines at Ypres it would be a straight shot from west from
Ypres to the coast of the English Channel. If the Germans could push their
armies through from Ypres to the Channel then the Allied armies to the south
would be cut off from the major port cities to the north at Calais and Dunkirk.
This would make bring supplies from England very difficult. From there the
German army could turn south and attack the Allies on their flank to the north,
while keeping up the attacks from the east. It was the hope of the German high
command that a poorly supplied and flanked Allied force would finally collapse
ending the war once and for all.
The British were also keenly aware of the importance of
Ypres. Not only did they understand that the German offensive would like come
through at Ypres. But, it was also understood that at Ypres the tables could be
turned on the Germans. The British could take advantage of the same flat open
terrain the Germans were hoping to exploit. If a British offensive could
breakthrough at Ypres and push to the Belgian city of Ghent and then to the
boarder of the neutral Netherlands then the British would deprive the Germans
of the vital railroad hub at Ghent and retake the coastal Belgian cities of
Ostend and Zeebrugge to the north. Without the rail lines leading from Ghent
the German army would be hard pressed to supply its troops in Northern Belgium
and with the British in control of the ports Ostend and Zeebrugge the British
could shorten their supply lines as they advanced.
In short both the British and the Germans viewed Ypres as
the way to end the war.
The battle was a devastating and indecisive for both sides. By
November 22, 1914 winter weather would effectively end the battle as offensive operations
were no longer be possible. Though nominally a German defeat, as their offensive
failed, the battle was essentially a stalemate with both the German and the
Allied armies more or less in the same position that they started the
battle. By the end of First Battle of Ypres the nations at war were starting to learn that this war would be different from any the world had seen. The British Expeditionary Force (BEF) bore the brunt of the German offensive and was all but destroyed. By this point in the war 160,000 professional soldiers from the British Empire had arrived in France to fight and, by November 22, 1914 over half of them were killed, captured or wounded. The BEF had comprised of half of Great Britain prewar army, meaning that one out of four members of the British army had become a casualty in less than four months of fighting. This was to have a lasting effect on the British army. After Ypres the professional and well trained British Army would be no more, for the remainder of the war the British army consisted of primarily volunteers and conscripts who lacked both training and experience.
Germany would also be changed by the First Battle of Ypres.
The battle would become known as the “Kindermord” or the “Slaughter of the
Innocents.” This battle was in many ways the last real chance for Germany to
win the war and many in the German High Command knew this. All resources had to
be thrown into this fight. To replace the earlier losses of the war Germany
held recruitment drives in trade schools and universities. Hundreds of thousands of young men from the
age of seventeen to twenty dropped out of schooling to answer the call of their
nation. These young men, who had been civilians in August just three months
earlier, were formed into regiments and fighting by October. Of the 134,000
German soldiers who were killed or wounded at First Ypres about 40,000 were
these young volunteers, who it was reported, sang patriotic songs so not to get
separated from one another in the thick fall mists as they charged into battle.
The loss of so many of the young volunteers shocked the German nation, especially
as these were considered the best and brightest of their generation. The first
cracks in the German national moral, which would eventually become the undoing
of the German Empire, would start to show with the Kindermord.
No comments:
Post a Comment