The Battle of the Ypres-Comines Canal 1940: France and Flanders Campaign

By Jerry Murland

This WWII history and battlefield guide explores the significant yet lesser-known WWII combat along the Ypres-Comines Canal during the Battle of France.

Known in some accounts as the Battle of Wijtschaete, the confrontation along the Ypres-Comines Canal in 1940 is too often overlooked despite its significance. The sacrifice of the battalions on the canal was vital to the all-important retreat to Dunkirk. The four-day conflict likely saved the British Expeditionary Force from almost complete destruction.

Although there was fighting north of Ypres along the Canal Van Ieper Naar De Ijzer, the actual Battle of the Ypres-Comines Canal took place to the south. Three British brigades were pitted against three German divisions along the disused canal which runs from Comines in the south to Ypres in the north. Military historian Jerry Murland covers the order of battle of the British and German units engaged in the fighting.

With more than 150 historic and modern photographs, ten maps, visits to eight CWGC Cemeteries, plus three car tours and two walking itineraries, this volume is an essential companion for exploring the area. Visitors will no doubt wish to combine a visit to the First World War sites around Ypres with the fighting along the canal in 1940, recognizing many places that were fought over in both wars.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Open Road Integrated Media
• Release date: Feb 19, 2020
• ISBN: 9781473852587

Book preview

Chapter 1

Early History

The Province of West Flanders includes a section of the North Sea coast and is characterized by a very flat polder landscape consisting of dykes and fenland; only in the south are there some low-lying hills, with the Kemmelberg being the highest point. The Lys and Ijzer are the main rivers and the Province is the only one that borders France and the Netherlands, as well as being the only non-landlocked province in Belgium.

Ypres

Though the Flemish Ieper is the official name, the city’s French name, Ypres, is most commonly used by English visitors. The name Ieper is thought to have come from the name of a stream that flowed from its source on the slopes of the Kemmelberg towards the early settlement; the Roman invasion of the region in the first century BC resulted in their naming the town in its Latin derivation of Ypra. By the eleventh century the town was already established and by the thirteenth century had grown into the third largest Flemish town, producing fine quality cloth. In 1241 a major fire ruined much of the old city and destroyed many of the wooden buildings, which was perhaps a blessing in disguise, as by 1260 the population had grown to 40,000. The famous Cloth Hall was built in the thirteenth century and during this time cats, then the symbol of the devil and witchcraft, were thrown off the Cloth Hall, possibly in the belief that this would banish evil demons. Today this act is commemorated with a triennial Cat Parade through town, the latest taking place in May 2018.

During the Norwich Crusade, led by Henry le Despenser, Bishop of Norwich, Ypres was besieged by the English from May to August 1383 during the Hundred Years War until French relief forces arrived. After the destruction of Thérouanne in 1553 by Charles V, Ypres became the seat of the new Diocese of Ypres in 1561, and St Martin’s Church was elevated to cathedral status. However, after the Concordat of 1801 between Napoleon and Pope Pius VII, Ypres was incorporated into the diocese of Ghent and, visitors may be surprised to know, that St Martins lost its cathedral status, although it is often still referred to as such by local people. On 25 March 1678 Ypres was captured by the forces of Louis XIV of France and, being on the border of France and Spain, the town was disputed and occupied several times in the ensuing years by the two nations. The town was fortified around 1680 after Sébastien Vauban transformed the ramparts into a significant complex, with frontal fortifications and bastions; many historians hold the view that the fortifications also stifled the growth of Ypres.

The ruins of the Cloth Hall in Ypres, as photographed in 1919.

Typical of the subsequent seesaw occupation of the town by rival powers was when Ypres was handed over to the Hapsburgs in 1713 (at the end of the War of the Spanish Succession) and became part of the Austrian Netherlands. In 1782 the Hapsburg Austrian Emperor, Joseph II, ordered parts of the walls torn down and this, despite being partly repaired, contributed to the French being able to capture Ypres in the 1794 siege. At the Congress of Vienna, which formally ended the Napoleonic wars, Flanders was briefly reunited with the Netherlands in a forced merger as part of the peace settlement; but considerable unrest led to a rebellion in 1830 and in July 1831 Leopold I, the first king of the Belgians, was enthroned.

The First World War

Ypres and the surrounding area were all but destroyed in the First World War, the medieval town being evacuated of its civilian population in May 1915. Thereafter, in a vain attempt to capture the town, the magnificent buildings of Ypres were systematically destroyed by German guns until practically nothing but rubble remained. Almost half a million men of all sides died in the trenches around Ypres, known as the Salient, between 1914 and 1918 and in the 1920s the Imperial War Graves Commission – later to become the Commonwealth War Graves Commission – built 150 cemeteries and several memorials to commemorate the dead. Ypres was the scene of several of the most important battles of the First World War, many of which have left their scars on the landscape today. Amongst these were the First Battle of Ypres, fought in October and November 1914, and the Third Battle of Ypres, which began on July 1917 and culminated four months later in the capture of Passendale (better known to the British as Passchendaele).

The reconstruction of Ypres began in 1921 using money paid by Germany in reparations; and over the decades that followed much of the central area of the town was gradually restored to their former glory, including the Cloth Hall and St Martins. One of the great memorials to the dead of Flanders is the imposing Menin Gate, standing at the far end of Menenstraat, which was inaugurated by Field Marshal Plumer in 1927 and stands on the site of the former Antwerp Gate. On the panels of the Gate are carved the names of over 54,000 soldiers who have no known grave and were posted as ‘missing’ while serving in the Ypres area; for members of the British army – as opposed to those of the Dominions, it records those missing until early August 1917; the 34,000 men who are ‘missing’ after that date are commemorated on the memorial wall at the east end of Tyne Cot