Flanders 1915

1915 Europe - reserve

Jan. 5 - While the BEF recovered from its heavy losses and built its trench system in Flanders, the French continued minor attacks in Artois, on the Aisne, in Champagne, in the Argonne. On Jan. 5, the French dug a tunnel at Courtechasse in the Argonne and exploded 600 yards of Germans trenches. French atttack was stopped by German defenses. Lt. Rommel won Iron Cross Jan. 29 for his capture of 4 French blockhouses.

Jan. 8 - Battle of Soissons on the Aisne began with Maunory attacking Hills 132 and 138, but repelled by Germans by Jan. 14 losing 12,411 troops. The Battle of Perthes continued in the Champagne with see-saw attacks and counter-attacks that had started in November.

Feb. 6 - German tunnels were discovered by British south of La Bassee Canal.

Feb. 14 - British attacked St. Eloi but failed to advance against German defenses.

Feb. 24 - British raised a new army of volunteers. Any male 12-50 years old could join. The height requirement was lowered from 5'8" to just 5' and 50,000 men would serve in "Bantam" battalions. By mid 1915, British had 350,000 of the "new Army" in Flanders. The Canadian Corps arrived in Feb. and March and were put in the northern section. Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry arrived Feb. 24, the "Princess Pats" a regiment formed by Montreal millionaire Hamilton Gault, named for the daughter of Canada's Governor, the Duke of Sonnaught, a son of Queen Victoria. Capt. Agar Adamson, the monocled old veteran of the Boer War, wrote a diary, similar to that of Willie Fraser of the Gordon Highlanders.

Feb. 26 - Germans made first use of flamethrowers at Bois de Malancourt northeast of Verdun.

Mar. 3 - The Canadian 1st Division arrived in Flanders. The Princess Pats attacked near St. Eloi against German trenches held by the Prussian Guards, crawled in mud for a mile, to within 10 yards of German trench, dug a trench, constant close fighting. The Canadians occupied St. Eloi, but the Canadian Army had been given the Ross Rifle Mark III, not the British Enfield, and would not accept British ammunition, and tended to jam frequently.

Mar. 10 - Battle of Neuve Chapelle began with British barrage and attack, but only won 1200 yards at loss of 11,652 including 4200 Indian casualties.

Mar. 14 - Germans explode mine and recaptured St. Eloi, but Mar. 15 counterattck by British 27th Division drove out the Germans.

Mar. 30 - French intelligence officers of 15th Corps learned of German gas attack planned at Ypres. On Apr. 14, French learned of gas attack from German deserter Private Jaeger, and gave them the respirator issued to German troops. French Gen. Ferry of 11th Division told his superiors, but they called it "nonsense." A British radio intercept revealed a requisition for 20,000 respirators, and a Belgian spy reported gas was soon to be used.

Apr. 3 - British mine blew up 100 yards of German trenches near Cuinchy.

Apr. 17 - British 5th Division took Hill 60 near St. Eloi after exploding mine. Hill 60 was located six miles south of Ypres, was 60 meters high, the highest point on the Messines ridge, used by Germans for artillery. Two nearby hills were the Caterpillar behind German lines and The Dump behind British lines. Major Jack Griffith, member of Parliament and millionaire engineer who had built small cable tunnels under streets of London, using men called "clay kickers" who used steel spades on feet to dig out clay while laying on a wood cross. Kitchener in Jan. 1915 approved the formation of the Mining Corps, and by 1918 there would be 60,000 in the Corps digging tunnels. The soil under Ypres was similar clay, and the clay kickers could dig a tunnel at rate of 10 ft. per day. Germans also digging tunnels, and both sides developed listening devices to locate tunnels. Griffith began his tunneling in Ypres in Feb., sinking a shaft cown 16 ft., then tunneling toward Hill 60. A bellows system provided oxygen. British encountered a German counter-tunneler, German fired a pistol, the first incident in the "War Underground." On Apr. 17 at 7 pm, British mine under Messines exploded, artillery barrage began, then bayonet charge and took Hill 60, losing only 7 including one observer who stood up during the explosion and was hit by flying debris. The British fight against counterattacks resulted in 4 Victoria Crosses.

Apr. 20 - Germans fired some test gas shells at Hill 60.

Apr. 22 - Battle of 2nd Ypres began at 5 pm with Big Bertha barrage, gas attack from 4000 chlorine cylinders, attack by German 4th Army against fresh Canadians and French Colonial and Algerian troops that turn and run. Gen. von Fabeck had categorized the Canadians with the "Indians, Moroccans and other trash, feeble adversaries who surrender in great numbers if attacked with vigor." A greenish-yellow cloud rolled across No Man's land and caught the front line troops by surprise. By the evening of Apr. 22, 50,000 Germans had moved into 4-mile gap in line caused by French forces retreating from the gas. Facing no opposition, the Germans stopped for the night. Canadians were moved in to stop the gap. At 11:30 pm, Col Russell Boyle led the 10th Battalion Canadian Light Infantry along with the Canadian Highlanders in attack on Kitchener's Woods. By morning, the 10th had lost Boyle and 613 of 816 men in the battalion. According to Boyle's replacement, Major Ormond, "the colonel got five bullets from a machine gun in his left groin - made a wonderful pattern in a radius of two and a half inches."

Apr. 23 - Corp. F. Fisher won Canada's first Victoria Cross in failed Allied counterattack south of Lizerne. On Apr. 24 the Canadian attack took Lizerne, but lost it again Apr. 25. By Apr. 26, Canadians suffered 5200 casualties

Apr. 24 - German 4th Army led by Duke Albert of Wurttemberg attacked Poperinge west of Ypres with 34 battalions against 12 Canadian battalions, starting with a gas attack. The Canadians fell back to Gravenstafel Ridge and held until British reinforcements came from the rear. By April 25, Canadians had lost half its troops, or 6037 men, and only 98 remained from the 10th Battalion. But the German attack had been stopped.

Apr. 26 - The Indian division from Lahore was destroyed in a counterattack by 15,000 British troops against German machine guns. The British pulled back the Ypres salient by three miles.

May 1 - British began using Mills grenade, shaped like a pineapple, and the Stokes mortar, invented in 1914 by Sir Wilfrid Stokes, with adjustable screw-driven elevation, fired 20-lb shell 1000 yards, shells color-coded according to distance, fired 20 rounds per minute.

May 2 - Canadian physician John McCrae witnessed the death of his friend Lt. Alexis Helmer, blown to bits by an artillery shell, collected his remains in sandbags and arranged them in a human shape under a blanket for burial, and McRae after the ceremony sat on the step of a field ambulance, took out his pad and pencil, and in 20 minutes composed the poem "In Flanders Fields" The sky was full of larks, the poppies were beginning to bloom, the crosses of fresh graves reflected the evening glow of sunset. The poem was published in the British magazine Punch Dec. 8, 1915, and became a rallying cry for the British troops. In 1919 an American woman began to give out cloth poppies on Nov. 11 that became "Poppy Day."

May 5 - Germans retook Hill 60 after massive bombardment and gas attack. "2000 British dead lay in an area the size of a large backyard garden."

May 6 - Capt. Gerald Burgoyne led his Royal Irish Rifles in night attack on Hill 60, lost most of his men, was hit in eye by bullet, sent back to England suffering from "neurasthenia" or shell shock, a condition that had grown dramatically from 2000 cases in 1914 to 20,000 in 1915, caused by long duration of battle over weeks, constant artillery explosions, conditions in trenches, witnessing fellow soldiers blown apart or killed by machine guns.

May 7 - Lusitania sunk by German submarine U-20.

May 8 - Princess Patricia regiment held line at Battle of Frezenberg.

May 9 - Allied Spring Offensive began on 8-mile front at Aubers Ridge. In Artois, Petain attacked and reached the Vimy Ridge.

May 15 - Battle of Festubert was first British night attack, won 3 miles. German reserves stopped attack by May 17 and British lost 16,648 by May 25th.

May 25 - Battle of 2nd Ypres ended when Germans took Bellewaerde Ridge and Mousetrap Farm, and Allied Spring Offensive had begun against the shoulders around the center of the Western Front. The Ypres salient was smaller, but still held by the British, and would remain relatively quiet until 1917. The Allies lost 70,000 and the Germans 40,000 in the battle from Apr. 22 to May 24.

June 15 - Lt. Geoffrey Cassels began digging tunnel from Hooge stables held by British for 150 ft. to Hooge Chateau held by Germans, but he had problems with collapsing walls in sand, moved tunnel to better clay soil but lost direction, needed bigger explosive to blow up his objective further away, used 3500 lbs of new explosive called ammonal, three times more powerful than gunpowder, along with 1500 lbs gunpowder. Mine exploded 7 pm, July 18, produced much larger explosion than at hill 60, created crater 120 ft across and 20 ft. deep. British now occupied area of Hooge Chateau. Then on July 29, Germans attacked the Hooge with flamethrowers killing 400 British and causing others to flee, and Germans reoccupied the Hooge. In July, Kitchener's New Army of 175,000 began arriving from England. On July 30, 2500 of these new soldiers attacked the Hooge.

June 16 - French 2nd attack on Vimy Ridge in Artois with 20 divisions, but failed.

June 18 - Battle of 2nd Artois ended.

July 1 - French army at 4,978,000; began to get steel helmets.

July 7 - Allied conference at Chantilly; Joffre decided to launch fall offensive in Champagne, stripped Verdun of 300 guns and other fortresses of 2300 guns to support the offensive.

July 13 - A new BEF 3rd Army relieved French from Somme to Hebuteme.

July 19 - At the Hooge, British exploded a mine, but German attack July 30 with flamethrowers took one-half mile, putting German trenches only 15 yards from British, but British on Aug. 9 retook the German gains.

Aug. 16 - Kitchener met with Joffre and urged fall offensive by all armies on wide front, due to Russian defeats since Gorlice May 1. Kitchener assured Joffre and Haig that 11 New Army divisions of 450,000 men would be in France by next month, allowing the French to shift more troops to Champagne for the offensive.

Sept. 21 - Fall offensive began in Champagne with barrage of 1300 heavy guns, followed by infantry attack Sept. 25 by 16 divisions on a 15-mile front.

Sept. 25 - Battle of Loos began in Artois after 25-day bombardment from 951 guns, followed by infantry attack on 6-mile front south of La Bassee, took the Hohensollern Redoubt and Loos Village and Hill 70. British released its first chlorine gas attack from 2400 cylinders. British stopped German counterattacks and battle ended Oct. 8.

Oct. 6 - A renewed offensive in Champagne took Tahure and the Butte at Hill 192, but stopped by German gas attack Oct. 19.

Oct. 28 - King George was seriously injured at Hesdigneul inspecting troops when he fell from his hourse and broke his pelvis.

Oct. 31 - BEF issued steel helmets.

Dec. 1 - cold rainy weather persisted along the Western Front.

Dec. 6 - Allied conference at Chantilly agreed to prepare for general offensive in summer 1916. Douglas Haig replaced John French as BEF commander on Dec. 15.

Dec. 19 - Germans released first phosgene gas that was 10 times more deadly than chlorine, at Pilkem-Wietje north of Ypres.

Dec. 20 - Falkenhayn Memo proposed battle of attrition at Verdun to bleed white the French army.

Dec. 22 - German storm troopers first used in Alsace at Hartmannsweillerkopf.

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