By mid-October 1914, a positional front had been established practically on the entire Western Front. In connection with the capture of Antwerp, the German command had new goals - to seize the Pas-de-Calais coast to threaten Great Britain. The new German commander-in-chief, Erich von Falkenhain, believed that a breakthrough in Flanders was quite real. Victory in Flanders could have a serious impact on other sectors of the front, the German command has not yet lost faith in a decisive blow. New troops were hastily deployed to Flanders. A new 4th Army was formed from them.
The British command in the person of John French, in turn, even during the "Run to the Sea" planned a strike deep into Belgium in order to deeply cover the German armies in France. The movement of British troops led to the battle on the Fox River (October 10-15, 1914). The allied command seriously underestimated the enemy grouping. In addition, the situation was complicated by the lack of one-man command of the allies. By October 15, all the Allied troops, which were located in Flanders, were divided into three armies. The Belgian army was located on the Isère river, the French army - between Dixmude and Ypres and the British - at Ypres and on both sides of the river. Fox.
The basis of the German grouping was the 4th Army of Duke Albrecht of Württemberg. She was hastily transferred to the English Channel in early October. The army included four fresh corps (22nd, 23rd, 26th and 27th), formed from volunteers and the siege corps, freed after the capture of Antwerp. The Germans delivered the main blow at Ypres against the Anglo-French troops, the auxiliary one - on the Isère River against the Franco-Belgian troops. On October 13, the corps of Albrecht's army began to land in the western and southwestern outskirts of Brussels, from where they moved further in marching order. Following the Belgians retreating from Antwerp, the 3rd Reserve Corps covered the deployment of the 4th Army. The German cavalry, operating here and which had been greatly weakened by previous battles, was gradually withdrawn to the rear for rest and replenishment.
By the beginning of the battle in Flanders, the enemy forces were practically equal, then due to the approach of fresh formations, the Germans achieved a serious superiority in manpower. They also had the advantage of heavy artillery. It is worth noting that both sides experienced supply problems. By the end of the fighting in Flanders, the forces of the opponents turned out to be the same: the allies had 29 infantry and 12 cavalry divisions, the Germans had 30 infantry and 8 cavalry divisions.
Battle of the Ypres River. October 1914
Battle of Ysera
On October 20, 1914, the main forces of the German army launched an offensive against the Belgians and French on the front from Nieuport to Dixmude. Initially, the battles went on with varying success. It is worth saying that the Belgian army was morally broken, exhausted and lacked ammunition. Therefore, she was reinforced by French troops.
On October 23, German troops broke the enemy's defenses between Shoor and Kastelhok, breaking through the defensive line of the river. Ysere. The Germans crossed the river and established themselves on its left bank. German troops captured a large foothold from St. Georges to Oud-Stuinvekenskerk. A dangerous situation has developed for the Allies.
It became obvious that the defensive line on the Iser River had fallen. The Belgian-French troops, pushed back to the left bank of the river, tried to create a new defensive line, but due to the severe exhaustion of the Belgian army, this could not be done. The Belgian command planned to withdraw its troops to the west, but the commander of the French forces on the coastal flank of Foch persuaded the Belgian king to change his mind, promising help from France. The Belgian king Albert I refused to retreat and on October 25 the Belgians made a radical decision - to flood the low-lying valley of the Isère River with sea waters. The Belgians began to open the sluices from October 26 to 29, until, as a result of a gradual rise in water, the area up to Discmüde turned into an impenetrable swamp. A huge reservoir 12 km long, up to 5 km wide and about a meter deep was formed. Water flooded the river valley and forced the Germans to consistently clear their positions on the left bank and retreat across the river.
The inability to continue fighting due to flooding in the area between Nieuport and Dixmude led to a lull. Active hostilities continued only in Dixmud. After heavy bombing and fierce fighting, the Germans took the ruins of Diksmüde on November 10. After that, the entire section of the front on the Iser River stabilized. From that time on, active hostilities on the Ysera were stopped and the opponents transferred the main forces to other sectors of the front.
As a result, the battle on the river. Ysere ended with virtually no result. The Belgians were able to retain a small area of their country. Their "capital" was the village of Fürn, where the king's headquarters was located.
Battle of Ypres
The German army dealt the main blow at Ypres. As early as October 18, German troops launched an offensive in the area of Ypres and Armantieres. The British in the area also moved slowly forward. However, contrary to French's instructions, which demanded a faster offensive, the divisional commanders, finding the enemy in front of them, went on the defensive and equipped fairly strong positions. At the cost of great efforts, the Germans managed to push back the Allied forces somewhat and occupy a number of settlements, but they did not succeed in achieving decisive success. In these battles, the British troops were supported by the French.
On the morning of October 20, the offensive of the main forces of the German army began. Especially persistently the Germans made their way north of Ypres, in the area of the Khutulst forest. The Germans planned to cross the Izersky Canal in the Nordschoote and Bikshoote section. On October 20-21, stubborn battles were fought with the French cavalry, which was located in this direction. However, the Germans achieved only limited success in the Hutulst forest area, pushing the Allied left flank. On the right flank, south of the Ypres-Ruler railroad, the fighting went on with varying success.
On October 22, German troops on the right flank reached the Lüigem and Merkem line. On October 23, the Anglo-French troops launched a counteroffensive in the direction of Pashandel. However, the Allies did not succeed either. The German command, seeing the futility of the attacks of the 4th army, decided to go on the defensive here. In the period from October 26 to October 29, battles in the Ypres region were of a local nature and were fought to improve the conditions of the tactical disposition of troops.
The French in Ypres. October 1914
The battles at Ypres were extremely bloody. The young men who had just been called up were thrown into the battle, they were poorly trained, but burned with enthusiasm, were filled with the "German spirit". Often, recent students and high school students were mowed down with whole regiments, since they went on the attack openly, "did not bow to bullets." So, on November 11, in the battle of Langemark, German troops carried out an attack that struck the world community with its meaninglessness and disregard for human life, units recruited from young people who were not fired were thrown into the attack on British machine guns. Several parts of volunteers and students, established mutual responsibility and, so that no one flinched in battle, grappled by the hands, went on the attack with the song "Germany, Germany above all …". The attack was drowned in blood, almost everyone was killed. However, it was hard for the British, the Germans went ahead, the ranks of the defenders were thinning, they held out with their last strength.
In Germany, because of the dead young people, the battle of Ypres was called "the massacre of babies." The ranks of Adolf Hitler also took part in these battles. He was a subject of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, but did not want to fight for the "patchwork empire" of the Habsburgs. Hitler evaded conscription into the Austrian army, moved to Munich, where he volunteered for the Bavarian unit. In October, he, along with other recruits, was transferred to Flanders. In the army, Hitler got used to well, proved himself to be an exemplary soldier. He was awarded the 2nd Degree Iron Cross.
Convinced that the forces of the 4th Army were not enough to break through from Ypres, the German command formed a shock group under the command of General Fabek. It was deployed at the junction of the 4th and 6th German armies on the northern bank of the river. Fox at Verwick, Delemont. Fabek's group received the task to strike in the northwest direction. At the same time, the troops of the 4th and 6th armies were supposed to go on the offensive in order to fetter the enemy in battle and prevent him from fending off the blow of Fabek's group.
On October 30-31, German troops achieved some success in the Zaandvoorde, Holebeck and Outerne sectors, threatening a breakthrough along the canal and the capture of Ypres. In the following days, the Germans developed their offensive with their left flank and occupied Witshaete and partly Messin. Soon the Anglo-French forces under the command of Foch recovered and launched a counteroffensive. German troops exhausted their strength, and on November 2, the offensive was stopped. In addition, weather conditions played an important role in stopping hostilities. Heavy autumn rains began, the moist soil of Flanders began to turn into a continuous swamp. The troops began epidemics.
By November 10, the German command organized a final attempt to break through the Allied defenses. For this, two shock groups were formed: a group under the command of General Linsingen and a group of General Fabek (a total of five corps). German troops tried to break through the enemy defenses on the eastern and southeastern approaches to Ypres. On November 10-11, German troops launched an offensive, but in some places achieved minor successes of a local nature. The British brought up two fresh divisions and the German offensive finally drowned out.
Both sides came to the conclusion that the development of the operation in Flanders could no longer give them a decisive result and began to go over to the defensive. By November 15, hostilities along the entire front had finally subsided. In addition, the German command began to transfer the 6th Army's formations to the Eastern Front, where heavy battles were going on at that time on the left bank of the Vistula.
Results of the battle
The Battle of Flanders was the last major battle on the Western Front in 1914 and the last in a Western European theater under agile conditions. From that time on, the positional front was established everywhere.
The battle in Flanders was characterized by extreme tenacity and bloodshed. During the Battle of Ypres, 80% of the original composition of the British and Belgian troops were killed. Both sides lost more than 230 thousand people. French troops lost more than 50 thousand people in killed and wounded. The Belgians and the British lost about 58 thousand people. The losses of the German troops amounted to about 130 thousand people.
The German offensive in Flanders ended in complete failure, despite the superiority in forces at the initial stage of the operation. This was caused by errors in the operational preparation of the operation. Reserve corps of the 4th Army were concentrated on the river. Scheldt much later than the Belgian army left Antwerp to join the Allies. Therefore, the Belgians could not be cut off from the allies and defeated separately. The actions of the two German army groups were poorly coordinated, which gave the ally time to strengthen the front and pull up reserves. Large formations assembled by the German command were brought into battle in parts, replacing already exhausted parts, which did not give superiority in the direction of the main attack. Therefore, despite some local successes of the German troops, the battle ended unsuccessfully for them. The French command showed great activity in this battle, which, with the perseverance of the troops and a constant influx of reinforcements, led to success in the defense.
Flooded areas on the Isere river. October 1914
Positions of the parties by the end of 1914
Both sides began fighting in the Western European theater, hoping for a quick success, but first the French offensive war plan collapsed, and then the German one. The war dragged on and by the end of the year it finally took on a positional character. Both the Entente and the Central Powers had, in fact, to start a new type of war that Europe had not yet seen - a war to deplete all forces and resources. The army and the economy had to be rebuilt, and the population had to be mobilized.
Already in the course of the Battle of the Frontier, it became clear that the bulk of the troops of both sides were shackled by heavy fighting on a huge front, and the shock group of the German army was too weakened to deliver a decisive blow. The French were able to recover from the first setbacks, regroup their forces and give a decisive battle on the Marne River, on the outskirts of Paris. After the defeat on the Marne, which finally buried the Schlieffen-Moltke plan, a battle took place on the Aisne River, where both sides finally fizzled out, began to dig themselves into the ground and went over to positional defense from the Aisne up to the Swiss border.
Then the so-called begins. "Run to the sea", a chain of maneuvering operations, when both sides tried to cover the open coastal flank of the enemy. For a month, both armies made desperate efforts to bypass the enemy's flank, transferring more and more large formations to it. However, the battle ended in a draw, the front lengthened more and more and, as a result, the opponents buried themselves in the coast of the North Sea. The last outburst of mobile war - the battle for Flanders, also ended in a draw, both sides went on the defensive.
Belgium was almost completely captured by the Germans. Most of Flanders with Lille also remained with the Germans. France lost part of its territory. The front from the seaside Nyuport went through Ypres and Arras, turned east at Noyon (behind the Germans), then south to Soissons (behind the French). Here the front came closest to the French capital (about 70 km). Further, the front passed through Reims (behind the French), crossed into the Verdun fortified area and stretched further up to the Swiss border. Neutral Switzerland and Italy did not participate in the war. Italy in the pre-war period was an ally of Germany, but has not yet entered the war, bargaining for more favorable terms. The total length of the front was about 700 km.
In recent operations, the defense gradually became stronger than the offensive. The density of the troops buried in the ground became such that any active actions to break through the entrenched enemy became extremely difficult. To begin with, the offensive had to conduct a long preparation, concentrate powerful artillery forces, conduct serious preliminary engineering and sapper training, which increased the role of artillery (before the start of the war, the role of heavy artillery was underestimated in all armies, except for the German one), and engineering troops. The war also showed the vulnerability of even the most powerful fortresses, they could withstand only with the direct support of field troops.
The factor of weakening the combat effectiveness of the opposing armies also played an important role in the transition of defense. Well-trained, disciplined and cadre troops have already largely perished in the first bloody battles, and mass fighters began to replace them. They were less prepared, did not have the fighting qualities of a regular army. With such an army, it was easier to defend than to attack.
In total, during the 1914 campaign, the Germans on the Western Front lost more than 750 thousand people, the French about 955 thousand people, the British and Belgians - 160 thousand people.
It is also worth noting that the Russian Empire played a huge role in the fact that the Entente on the Western Front did not collapse under the onslaught of the iron German armies. It was not in vain that the West pitted Russia and Germany against them; they were the two main competitors of England and the United States, which were creating their own new world order. In this "order" the Germans and Russians were to become "two-legged weapons" without their own voice. Having entered the war, Germany and Russia began to play by someone else's rules and were doomed to defeat and death. Actually, one of the main tasks of the First World War was the elimination of the Russian and German empires, which prevented the Anglo-Saxons from establishing world domination.
