The Battle of the Lys, 1918: South: Objective Ypres

By Chris Baker

The second of two Battelground Europe titles covering this highly significant battle of spring 1918.The German offensive in Flanders in April 1918 came close to catastrophe for the British Armies, but ultimately ended in strategic defeat for the Kaisers men. Following close on the heels of the devastating Operation Michael attack in March, which had been aimed against the British front on the Somme and Arras, this offensive, Operation Georgette, was aimed at strangling the vital railways and roads that supplied the British at Ypres and threatening the vital logistics links with the Channel Ports.Having assembled an overwhelming numerical advantage, the Germans attacked in thick fog on 9 April 1918. By days end, the Germans had succeeded in gaining a crossing of the River Lys and were well on their way to the railway junctions at Hazebrouck. Next day, they extended the attacked front northwards and advanced to the very gates of Ypres, forcing a British retirement from the bloodily won advances during the Third Battle of Ypres. Messines Ridge, captured so spectacularly by the British in June 1917, was soon in German hands and fighting inched towards Mont Kemmel, which dominated the Ypres front. Once this fell, the way was open for the capture of the main supply roads into Ypres.To find sufficient reserves to counter the German attack, the British took the heart-breaking decision to abandon the ground won so dearly in the Passchendaele offensive in the summer and autumn of 1917. Gradually, fresher British and French reserves arrived and held their ground. With disappointing results, mounting casualties and a diminishing return for their efforts, the Germans paused to regroup. Late in the month they unleashed a rapid, unstoppable attack that captured Kemmel from the French forces that had been rushed north to reinforce the threatened line and which had been holding the summit: one of the finest military feats of the Great War.Behind the scenes, however, the Germans were already calling off a continuation of the offensive and so, by a seeming miracle, the bastion that was Ypres remained in British hands.What the British call The Battle of the Lys 1918 is a fascinating yet curiously neglected period of military history. Chris Baker examines this major battle from the strategic down to the platoon level, highlighting the key events, characters and acts of enormous bravery on both sides, both in historical narrative and in a series of tours of the area.This volume concentrates on the northern half of the battlefield; nearly all of the actions described in this volume took place in Belgium.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Open Road Integrated Media
• Release date: Apr 30, 2018
• ISBN: 9781526717023

Chris Baker

Professor Chris Baker graduated from his doctoral studies at the University of Cambridge, before beginning a Research Fellowship there at St Catharine’s College and the Department of Engineering. In the early 1980s he worked in the Aerodynamics Unit of British Rail Research in Derby, before moving to an academic position in the Department of Civil Engineering at the University of Nottingham. He remained there till 1998 where he was a lecturer, reader and professor with research interests in vehicle aerodynamics, wind engineering, environmental fluid mechanics and agricultural aerodynamics. In 1998 he moved to the University of Birmingham as Professor of Environmental Fluid Mechanics in the School of Civil Engineering. In the early years of the present century he was Director of Teaching in the newly formed School of Engineering and Deputy Head of School. From 2003 to 2008 he was Head of Civil Engineering and in 2008 served for a short time as Acting Head of the College of Engineering and Physical Sciences. He was the Director of the Birmingham Centre for Railway Research and Education 2005-2014. He undertook a 30% secondment to the Transport Systems Catapult Centre in Milton Keynes, as Science Director from 2014 to 2016. He retired at the end of 2017 and took up an Emeritus position.

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Battleground series:

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Wars of the Roses - Wakefield/Towton by Philip A. Haigh

Wars of the Roses - Barnet by David Clark

Wars of the Roses - Tewkesbury by Steven Goodchild

Wars of the Roses - The Battles of St Albans by Peter Burley, Michael Elliott & Harvey Wilson

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Aisne 1918 by David Blanchard

Le Cateau by Nigel Cave and Jack Shelden

Walking the Salient by Paul Reed

Ypres - 1914 Messines by Nigel Cave and Jack Sheldon

Ypres - 1914 Menin Road by Nigel Cave and Jack Sheldon

Ypres - 1914 Langemarck by Jack Sheldonand Nigel Cave

Ypres - Sanctuary Wood and Hooge by Nigel Cave

Ypres - Hill 60 by Nigel Cave

Ypres - Messines Ridge by Peter Oldham

Ypres - Polygon Wood by Nigel Cave

Ypres - Passchendaele by Nigel Cave

Ypres - Airfields and Airmen by Mike O’Connor

Ypres - St Julien by Graham Keech

Ypres - Boesinghe by Stephen McGreal

Walking the Somme by Paul Reed

Somme - Gommecourt by Nigel Cave

Somme - Serre by Jack Horsfall & Nigel Cave

Somme - Beaumont Hamel by Nigel Cave

Somme - Thiepval by Michael Stedman

Somme - La Boisselle by Michael Stedman

Somme - Fricourt by Michael Stedman

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Somme - Boom Ravine by Trevor Pidgeon

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Somme - Delville Wood by Nigel Cave

Somme - Advance to Victory (North) 1918 by Michael Stedman

Somme - Flers by Trevor Pidgeon

Somme - Bazentin Ridge by Edward Hancock

Somme - Combles by Paul Reed

Somme - Beaucourt by Michael Renshaw

Somme - Redan Ridge by Michael Renshaw

Somme - Hamel by Peter Pedersen

Somme - Villers-Bretonneux by Peter Pedersen

Somme - Airfields and Airmen by Mike O’Connor

Airfields and Airmen of the Channel Coast by Mike O’Connor

In the Footsteps of the Red Baron by Mike O’Connor

Arras - Airfields and Airmen by Mike O’Connor

Arras - The Battle for Vimy Ridge by Jack Sheldon & Nigel Cave

Arras - Vimy Ridge by Nigel Cave

Arras - Gavrelle by Trevor Tasker and Kyle Tallett

Arras - Oppy Wood by David Bilton

Arras - Bullecourt by Graham Keech

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Hindenburg Line - Epehy by Bill Mitchinson

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Hindenburg Line - Villers-Plouich by Bill Mitchinson

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Hindenburg Line - Cambrai Flesquières by Jack Horsfall & Nigel Cave

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Hindenburg Line - Bourlon Wood by Jack Horsfall & Nigel Cave

Cambrai - Airfields and Airmen by Mike O’Connor

Aubers Ridge by Edward Hancock

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Fromelles by Peter Pedersen

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Poets at War: Edmund Blunden by Helen McPhail and Philip Guest

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Gallipoli by Nigel Steel

Gallipoli - Gully Ravine by Stephen Chambers

Gallipoli - Anzac Landing by Stephen Chambers

Gallipoli - Suvla August Offensive by Stephen Chambers

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Walking the Gallipoli by Stephen Chambers

Walking the Italian Front by Francis Mackay

Italy - Asiago by Francis Mackay

Verdun: Fort Douamont by Christina Holstein

Verdun: Fort Vaux by Christina Holstein

Walking Verdun by Christina Holstein

Verdun: The Left Bank by Christina Holstein

Zeebrugge & Ostend Raids 1918 by Stephen McGreal

Germans at Beaumont Hamel by Jack Sheldon

Germans at Thiepval by Jack Sheldon

SECOND WORLD WAR

Dunkirk by Patrick Wilson

Calais by Jon Cooksey

Boulogne by Jon Cooksey

Saint-Nazaire by James Dorrian

Walking D-Day by Paul Reed

Atlantic Wall - Pas de Calais by Paul Williams

Atlantic Wall - Normandy by Paul Williams

Normandy - Pegasus Bridge by Carl Shilleto

Normandy - Merville Battery by Carl Shilleto

Normandy - Utah Beach by Carl Shilleto

Normandy - Omaha Beach by Tim Kilvert-Jones

Normandy - Gold Beach by Christopher Dunphie & Garry Johnson

Normandy - Gold Beach Jig by Tim Saunders

Normandy - Juno Beach by Tim Saunders

Normandy - Sword Beach by Tim Kilvert-Jones

Normandy - Operation Bluecoat by Ian Daglish

Normandy - Operation Goodwood by Ian Daglish

Normandy - Epsom by Tim Saunders

Normandy - Hill 112 by Tim Saunders

Normandy - Mont Pinçon by Eric Hunt

Normandy - Cherbourg by Andrew Rawson

Normandy - Commandos & Rangers on D-Day by Tim Saunders

Das Reich – Drive to Normandy by Philip Vickers

Oradour by Philip Beck

Market Garden - Nijmegen by Tim Saunders

Market Garden - Hell’s Highway by Tim Saunders

Market Garden - Arnhem, Oosterbeek by Frank Steer

Market Garden - Arnhem, The Bridge by Frank Steer

Market Garden - The Island by Tim Saunders

Rhine Crossing – US 9th Army & 17th US Airborne by Andrew Rawson

British Rhine Crossing – Operation Varsity by Tim Saunders

British Rhine Crossing – Operation Plunder by Tim Saunders

Battle of the Bulge – St Vith by Michael Tolhurst

Battle of the Bulge – Bastogne by Michael Tolhurst

Channel Islands by George Forty

Walcheren by Andrew Rawson

Remagen Bridge by Andrew Rawson

Cassino by Ian Blackwell

Anzio by Ian Blackwell

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THE BATTLE OF THE

LYS 1918

NORTH: OBJECTIVE YPRES

CHRIS BAKER

Series Editor

Nigel Cave

First published in Great Britain in 2018 by

Pen & Sword Military

an imprint of

Pen & Sword Books Ltd

47 Church Street,

Barnsley

South Yorkshire,

S70 2AS

Copyright © Chris Baker, 2018

ISBN 978 152671 700 9

eISBN 978 152671 702 3

Mobi ISBN 978 152671 701 6

The right of Chris Baker to be identified as Author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

A CIP catalogue record for this book is

available from the British Library.

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Contents

Dedication

Introduction

Introduction by the Series Editor

List of Maps

Chapter One The Background to the Battle

Chapter Two The Battles of the Lys, 1918

Chapter Three Breakthrough at Ploegsteert, 10–11 April 1918

Chapter Four The Attack on the Messines Ridge

Chapter Five The Fight for Neuve Église

Chapter Six Bailleul Falls, 15 April 1918

Chapter Seven Wytschaete Lost, 16 April 1918

Chapter Eight Kemmelberg and the Flemish Hills

Tours Touring the Battlefield

Tour A Breakthrough at Ploegsteert

Tour B The Fight for the Messines Ridge

Tour C Neuve Église and Bailleul

Tour D Pont de Nieppe to Steenwerck Station

Tour E Kemmelberg and the Flemish Hills

Appendix I Haig’s Special Order of the Day, 12 April 1918

Appendix II Selected Citations

Appendix III The Phases of the Battles of the Lys 1918

Acknowledgements

Selective Bibliography

Dedication

This book is dedicated to the memory of a man who had no connection to the Battle of the Lys at all, but without whom I would never have developed an interest in military history. Frank Hubert Wilson, born in Birmingham in 1879, served in the Royal Warwickshire Regiment (Militia) in 1897 and the Royal Marine Light Infantry 1897-1901. He reenlisted for war service in the Royal Field Artillery (Territorial) in 1915 and served until he was discharged on medical grounds after receiving a wound in 1916. Despite this, Frank was conscripted in August 1917 and once again was discharged on medical grounds in January 1918. He was my maternal grandfather, who died before I was born; yet he led me into a thirty years’ search for his story, and in so doing opened my eyes to the Great War.

Introduction

April 1918: a most critical month for the British Armies in France and Flanders, when they fought against the third major German offensive that they had faced within a matter of weeks.

I find it curious that the month appears to attract little public and academic attention, despite the fact that the action took place within a short distance of Ypres and that the British force there was greatly endangered. The fighting was of a very large scale and accounted for British and Dominion casualties of around 82,000 dead, wounded and missing (large proportion of which were men taken prisoner in the rapid early German advance). It may be because this period of fighting goes by a variety of names. For the British, the fighting in Flanders was eventually given the official name of the Battles of the Lys. The title comes from the river that flows through the battlefield, and it is battles because the committee that agreed such things defined it as a number of phases. The French call it La Bataille de la Lys; the Portuguese have it as the Batalha de la Lys. The Germans take a wider view. They called their attack Operation Georgette, but the fighting is often referred to as the Vierte Flandernschlacht (Fourth Battle of Flanders), part of the Grosse Schlacht in Frankreich (Great Battle in France). I have even seen it called the Fourth Battle of Ypres, but I find that misleading. For ease, I call it the Battle of the Lys.

The battlefield stretches from the La Bassée Canal near Givenchylez-la-Bassée, northwards past Armentières and almost to the very gates of Ypres – a front line before the German attack of some thirty-seven kilometres. It can be considered as two distinct and different topographical regions, in which the landscape played an important part in the way that the fighting developed. It is a matter of convenience for the historian that the two regions align with the German command structure.

This volume, Objective Ypres, covers the northern region of the battlefield, which was attacked by the German Fourth Army from 10 April 1918 onwards. The approximate dividing line between Objective Ypres and the southern volume, Objective Hazebrouck, is the Armentières – Bailleul railway.

Introduction by the Series Editor

This is the second volume of Chris Baker’s books on the Battles of the Lys 1918; when read in conjunction with Phil Tomaselli’s earlier book in the series on the fighting around Givenchy, this completes Battleground Europe’s overall coverage of this strangely neglected German offensive.

Inevitably there is a certain amount of overlap between Chris’s two books, as in each case the context of the offensive has to be provided for an understanding of operations in the northern or southern sector. However, each geographical area, although both an integral part of the offensive, has a distinct thrust: in this case the importance of the Flanders Hills and the prolonging of the offensive into the latter part of April, capped by the extraordinary German achievement of taking Kemmelberg.

This northern part of the offensive is one in which I have a particular interest. My grandfather, RQMS Arthur Cave, 7th Leicesters, kept a brief diary during the war, which he typed up some years later. His division was one of those unfortunates that was engaged in three of the German offensives – on the Somme, at the Lys and on the Aisne. In the case of the Lys he describes hard fighting near and around Bedford House.

This book takes the visitor over parts of the battlefield that are well known to many: for Messines Ridge, particularly 1914 and 1917; in the Salient proper, the war seemed to be a never-ending slog, a daily endurance test, made even more miserable by large scale actions. Of all the years of the war, I suspect that it is the events in the Salient of 1918 that are the least known. This book is an important contribution in correcting this neglect.

My grandfather’s division, the 21st, was a fairly unremarkable formation. It suffered horrendous casualties in the Spring offensives, more or less losing the numerical equivalent of all its infantry in the process of stemming the German tide. Its ranks were replaced with very large numbers of young conscripts. One might have thought that it would play a minor, quiet role in the remaining months of the war, as it rebuilt and retrained. Far from it. From the latter end of August right through to the Armistice, the division was never far from a battle zone, in the process again enduring huge casualties.

What is the point of making this observation? Simply this: although the quality of the BEF’s manpower may well have been significantly degraded by the end of 1917, the fact is that these young men performed extraordinarily well in 1918, especially given the circumstances. This was the result of quality in depth: by 1918 there was a substantial reservoir of talented, capable leadership, perhaps most significantly amongst the NCOs and officers at platoon, company and battalion level.

The battles of 1918 have been described as a triumph of the British Army, which it certainly was; in my opinion it is the performance of these young conscripts and of their immediate commanders that stands out, an opinion that these books go far to substantiate.

Nigel Cave

Ratcliffe College, Spring 2018

List of Maps

The general situation on the Western Front after Operation ‘Michael’

A present-day map of the area

The objectives set for Operation ‘Georgette’

The 75 Brigade’s area at the start of the battle

The 7 Brigade’s area at the start of the battle

The rapid German progress on 10 April 1918

Posts defending the Lys at Pont de Nieppe

The German capture of Messines

Wytschaete and the northern flank

British forces withdraw through Nieppe towards Bailleul

The Allied front line and German gains on 13 April 1918

The 2nd Worcesters in Neuve Église

The Defence of Ravelsberg Ridge

157th Infanterie-Regiment attack on Ravelsberg Ridge

Bailleul falls: the Allied front line and German gains on 15 April 1918

The Fragmented British defences after the fall of Bailleul

The German gains made on 16 April 1918

The area of French deployment at Lindenhoek and La Polka

The Donegal Farm – Aircraft Farm – Lindenhoek front line

The German advance and capture of Kemmelberg

The Allied front line at the end of the Battle of the Lys

The Axes of the German offensive

The final attempt to capture the Scherpenberg

A general map of progress of the battle

Tour Maps

Tour A

Tour B

Tour E

Chapter One

The Background to the Battle

The Great War in French Flanders

The area in which the Battle of the Lys took place is in the ancient region of Flanders, spanning areas on both sides of the Franco-Belgian border that was established when Belgium became an independent state in 1830. The region had, and in many ways retains to this day, a common cultural tradition despite the influence of two national characteristics, political and economic structures.

War came to French and Belgian West Flanders in October 1914. German forces advanced across Belgium seeking to outflank the French and British Entente allies on their northern side, and encountered the allies as they too advanced with the same intention. With the remnant of the Belgian army also coming into the area having evacuated besieged Antwerp, fighting developed and took place all the way along the line from the North Sea, down past Ypres and Armentières and into the industrial coalfield area of Béthune and Lens. It was in effect one, single, climactic battle but is officially recognised as, from north to south, the Battle of the Yser, the First Battle of Ypres, and the Battles of Messines, Armentières and La Bassée. By mid-November 1914 the German gambit of attacking France with the intention of rapid victory had been defeated, and the two sides had dug in.

During December 1914 the allies went onto the offensive. In Flanders, urged by French Commander-in-Chief Joffre, the British carried out a series of small-scale, piecemeal attacks that achieved nothing but long casualty lists. I have described them in The Truce (Amberley, 2014). Sadly, they set a pattern for years to come. Much larger attacks, at Neuve Chapelle (March 1915), Aubers and Festubert (April and May 1915); diversions for the Battle of Loos (September 1915) and at Fromelles (July 1916), all came to nothing. Between these sporadic periods of fighting, the day to day grind of static trench warfare continued. In places -notoriously at Givenchy but also at Neuve Chapelle and Mauquissart -underground mine warfare added a particular form of tension and horror, as did the German use of poison gas in the second major battle around Ypres in April and May 1915. This aside, the German command in Flanders was generally content to strengthen its defences and to sit and wait while the British, Indian and Dominion forces spilled blood in tragically large quantities.

In the area south of Ypres, for two and a half years the British occupied an uncomfortable position on the lower slopes of the Wytschaete-Messines ridge, overlooked at every point by German forces that were holding higher ground. On 7 June 1917, the ridge was quickly captured after an immense artillery bombardment and the explosion of nineteen long-prepared and very large mine charges. The position to which the British Second Army advanced during this action, the Battle of Messines, remained largely unchanged for the next ten months and became the front line when the German attacked in the Battle of the Lys in April 1918. The capture of the ridge was seen as a vital preparatory step before the British launched a major offensive designed to break out of the confines of the salient around Ypres and ultimately to clear the enemy from the Belgian coast. There were many salients during the war, but the British knew of only one Salient, that of Ypres.

Commencing on 31 July 1917 and lasting until the bitter, wet November, this Third Battle of Ypres proved to be a terribly costly failure, achieving little except to wear down German resources and push the line a few kilometres further from the city. One thing it did achieve, coupled with other factors, such as the US entry into the war in April 1917, was that the Germans realised that a war conducted purely on strong defence lines (as had largely been the case of the Western Front) was no longer viable, even with operational changes, such as the use of counter-attack divisions. The huge growth in artillery, amongst other factors, meant that no line, no matter how strong, could withstand a determined offensive. Nowhere is this more clearly shown in practical terms than in the effective abandonment of constructing new, robust defence lines at the conclusion of Third Ypres. If a decisive military result was to be obtained before a skilled (as opposed to a large) American army developed on the scene, probably by mid 1919, decisive action had to be taken as soon as practicable in