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History |
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Wars & Campaigns |
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►Boer
War
►First
World War
►►Western
Front
►►►Trench
Warfare: 1914-1916
►►►Allied
Offensive: 1916
►►►Allied
Offensives: 1917
►►►German
Offensive: 1918
►►►Advance
to Victory: 1918
►►Siberia
►Second
World War
►►War
Against Japan
►►North
Africa
►►Italian
Campaign
►►►Sicily
►►►Southern
Italy
►►►The
Sangro and Moro
►►►Battles
of the FSSF
►►►Cassino
►►►Liri
Valley
►►►Advance
to Florence
►►►Gothic
Line
►►►Winter
Lines
►►North-West
Europe
►►►Normandy
►►►Southern
France
►►►Channel
Ports
►►►Scheldt
►►►Nijmegen
Salient
►►►Rhineland
►►►Final
Phase
►Korean
War
►Cold
War
►Gulf
War |
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Operations |
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Battle Honours |
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Boer War
First World War
Western Front
Trench Warfare: 1914-1916
Allied Offensive: 1916
|
►Somme, 1916 |
1
Jul-18 Nov 16 |
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►Albert |
.1-13
Jul 16 |
|
►Bazentin |
.14-17
Jul 16 |
|
►Pozieres |
.23
Jul-3 Sep 16 |
|
►Guillemont |
.3-6
Sep 16 |
|
►Ginchy |
.9
Sep 16 |
|
►Flers-Courcelette |
15-22
Sep 16 |
|
►Thiepval |
26-29
Sep 16 |
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►Le Transloy |
.
1-18 Oct 16 |
Allied
Offensives: 1917
|
►Arras 1917 |
8
Apr-4 May 17 |
|
►Vimy, 1917 |
.9-14
Apr 17 |
|
►Arleux |
28-29 Apr 17 |
|
►Scarpe, 1917 |
.3-4
May17 |
|
►Hill 70 |
.15-25
Aug 17 |
|
►Messines, 1917 |
.7-14
Jun 17 |
|
►Ypres, 1917 |
..31
Jul-10 Nov 17 |
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►Pilckem |
31
Jul-2 Aug 17 |
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►Langemarck, 1917 |
.16-18
Aug 17 |
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►Menin Road |
.20-25
Sep 17 |
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►Polygon Wood |
26
Sep-3 Oct 17 |
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►Broodseinde |
.4
Oct 17 |
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►Poelcapelle |
.9
Oct 17 |
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►Passchendaele |
.12
Oct 17 |
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►Cambrai, 1917 |
20
Nov-3 Dec 17 |
German Offensive: 1918
|
►Somme, 1918 |
.21
Mar-5 Apr 18 |
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►St. Quentin |
.21-23
Mar 18 |
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►Bapaume, 1918 |
.24-25
Mar 18 |
|
►Rosieres |
.26-27
Mar 18 |
|
►Avre |
.4
Apr 18 |
|
►Lys |
.9-29
Apr 18 |
|
►Estaires |
.9-11
Apr 18 |
|
►Messines, 1918 |
.10-11
Apr 18 |
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►Bailleul |
.13-15
Apr 18 |
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►Kemmel |
.17-19
Apr 18 |
Advance to Victory: 1918
|
►Arras, 1918 |
.26
Aug-3 Sep 18 |
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►Scarpe, 1918 |
26-30 Aug 18. |
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►Drocourt-Queant |
.2-3
Sep 18 |
|
►Hindenburg Line |
.12
Sep-9 Oct 18 |
|
►Canal du Nord |
.27
Sep-2 Oct 18 |
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►St. Quentin Canal |
.29
Sep-2 Oct 18 |
|
►Epehy |
3-5
Oct 18 |
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►Cambrai, 1918 |
.8-9
Oct 18 |
|
►Valenciennes |
.1-2
Nov 18 |
|
►Sambre |
.4
Nov 18 |
|
►Pursuit to Mons |
.28 Sep-11Nov |
Second World War
War Against Japan
South-East Asia
Italian Campaign
Battle of Sicily
Southern
Italy
The Sangro and Moro
Battles of the FSSF
|
►Anzio |
22
Jan-22 May 44 |
|
►Rome |
.22
May-4 Jun 44 |
|
►Advance
|
.22
May-22 Jun 44 |
|
to the Tiber |
. |
|
►Monte Arrestino |
25
May 44 |
|
►Rocca Massima |
27
May 44 |
|
►Colle Ferro |
2
Jun 44 |
Cassino
|
►Cassino II |
11-18
May 44 |
|
►Gustav Line |
11-18
May 44 |
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►Sant' Angelo in
|
13
May 44 |
|
Teodice |
. |
|
►Pignataro |
14-15 May 44 |
Liri Valley
|
►Hitler Line |
18-24 May 44 |
|
►Melfa Crossing |
24-25 May 44 |
|
►Torrice Crossroads |
30
May 44 |
Advance to Florence
Gothic Line
|
►Gothic Line |
25 Aug-22 Sep 44 |
|
►Monteciccardo |
27-28 Aug 44 |
|
►Point 204 (Pozzo Alto) |
31 Aug 44 |
|
►Borgo Santa Maria |
1 Sep 44 |
|
►Tomba di Pesaro |
1-2 Sep 44 |
Winter Lines
|
►Rimini Line |
14-21 Sep 44 |
|
►San Martino- |
14-18 Sep 44 |
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San Lorenzo |
. |
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►San Fortunato |
18-20 Sep 44 |
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►Sant' Angelo |
11-15 Sep 44 |
|
in Salute |
. |
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►Bulgaria Village |
13-14 Sep 44 |
|
►Pisciatello |
16-19 Sep 44 |
|
►Savio Bridgehead |
20-23
Sep 44 |
|
►Monte La Pieve |
13-19
Oct 44 |
|
►Monte Spaduro |
19-24 Oct 44 |
|
►Monte San Bartolo |
11-14
Nov 44 |
|
►Lamone Crossing |
2-13
Dec 44 |
|
►Capture of Ravenna |
3-4
Dec 44 |
|
►Naviglio Canal |
12-15 Dec 44 |
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►Fosso Vecchio |
16-18 Dec 44 |
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►Fosso Munio |
19-21 Dec 44 |
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►Conventello- |
2-6 Jan 45 |
|
Comacchio |
. |
Northwest Europe
Battle of Normandy
|
►Quesnay Road |
10-11 Aug 44 |
|
►St. Lambert-sur- |
19-22 Aug 44 |
Southern France
Channel Ports
The Scheldt
Nijmegen Salient
Rhineland
|
►The
Reichswald |
8-13 Feb 45 |
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►Waal
Flats |
8-15 Feb 45 |
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►Moyland
Wood |
14-21 Feb 45 |
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►Goch-Calcar
Road |
19-21 Feb 45 |
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►The
Hochwald |
26
Feb- |
| . |
4
Mar 45 |
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►Veen |
6-10 Mar 45 |
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►Xanten |
8-9
Mar 45 |
Final Phase
|
►The
Rhine |
23
Mar-1 Apr 45 |
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►Emmerich-Hoch
|
28
Mar-1 Apr 45 |
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Elten |
. |
Korean War
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|
Domestic Missions |
|
►FLQ
Crisis |
|
International
Missions |
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►ICCS
Vietnam 1973
►MFO
Sinai 1986- |
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Peacekeeping |
|
►UNTEA |
W. N. Guinea 1963-1964 |
|
►ONUCA |
C. America
1989-1992 |
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►UNTAC |
Cambodia
1992-1993 |
|
►UNMOP |
Prevlaka
1996-2001 |
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|
Exercises |
|
Bellewaarde
|
Bellewaarde
was a Battle Honour granted for actions on the Western Front during the First World War
during the 2nd Battle of Ypres.
Background
The battles around
Ypres in April 1915 were actually known collectively as the Second
Battle of Ypres.
The Second Battle of
Ypres was the first time Germany used chemical weapons on a large
scale on the Western Front in the First World War. The Second Battle
of Ypres actually consisted of four separate battles:
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The Battle of
Gravenstafel - 22 to 23 April 1915
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The Battle of St.
Julien - 24 April to 4 May 1915
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The Battle of
Frezenberg - 8 to 13 May 1915
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The Battle of
Bellewaarde - 24 to 25 May 1915
When the "Race to the
Sea" swept through the area around Ypres, the First Battle of Ypres
in 1914 had resulted in a salient – a bulge in the line – 8,000
metres deep to the east and north of the town, where the ground rose
onto a series of low ridges. Ordinarily insignificant, in the flat
countryside, these tiny heights became of supreme importance to the
Germans, who gained the advantage of observation out over the
countryside, and into the salient, where they could see what
occurred between the Allied lines and Ypres itself. |
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|
On the 1st of April
1915, the Canadian Division (it would not be known as the "1st"
until the Second Contingent was formed and arrived overseas later in
the year) was posted to the northeast corner of the salient, and
given its first real heavy-duty combat assignment: 4,000 yards of
front to defend. To the right was the 28th Division of the British
Army, which included the newly raised Princess Patricia's Canadian
Light Infantry (at that time, a battalion under British command, it
later transferred to the 3rd Canadian Division), and to the left of
the Canadian Division the 45th Algerian Division of the French Army.
A secondary trench line,
marked on the maps, was nowhere to be found, and a third line – dubbed
the GHQ Line – was nothing more than strong points 500 yards apart
strung together in a line, with a 6-yard wide belt of barbed wire as
protection. The Germans were said to be preparing an attack; rumours of
poison gas spread after prisoners leaked the word of their preparations
– large tanks of chlorine gas had been brought up well in advance,
waiting for a favourable breeze to carry it into the Allied lines. The
Germans had already used gas on the Eastern Front, but there was a
reluctance among the Allies to believe that the Germans would use it in
the west, where the Hague Conventions of 1907 specifically forbade the
use of "poison or poisoned weapons." |
Map
published by the New York Times in 1915. The dark line shows the
Ypres Salient as it appeared more or less at the start of the 2nd
Battle of Ypres, and the shaded territory shows the major area of
fighting. The first gas attacks were launched in the area between
Steenstraate and Langemarck, garrisoned by the French 87th
(Territorial) and 45th (Algerian) Divisions. The PPCLI, in 1915 part
of the British Army, had their baptism of fire south-east of St.
Julien at Frezenberg, as part of the 28th Division. When all was
said and done, 2nd Ypres cost the Allies 70,000 men, and the Germans
35,000 – but was considered an Allied victory. The desired
breakthrough of the Allied lines never came. The British were able
to shorten their lines, though with Ypres itself closer to the
front, it was eventually shelled into rubble. The Canadians returned to do battle in 1917,
in what historians called the 3rd Battle of Ypres, or more
popularly, the Battle of Passchendaele. |
Ypres Salient on the morning of 21 April
1915
The Second Battle of Ypres had opened when 168
tons of chlorine gas were released by the Germans at 5:00p.m. on April
22nd over a four mile front, following a heavy bombardment that had
started at 4:00p.m. The gas affected the lungs and the eyes causing
respiration problems and blindness. Being denser than air it flowed
downwards, forcing French troops of the 45th and 78th Divisions to
abandon their positions en masse, leaving a 4,000 yard wide gap
in the front line. The 1st Canadian Division had been thrown into the
line in an attempt to seal the gap and saw heavy fighting from the
outset.1
Princess Patricia's Canadian Light
Infantry at 2nd Ypres
The Canadian Division was successfully
relieved at the start of May, having suffered approximately 6,000
infantry losses, though fighting in the Ypres Salient continued for
three weeks more. The only Canadian infantry unit to remain engaged was
the PPCLI, the last privately raised infantry regiment in the British
Empire, fighting with the 80th Brigade of the British 27th Division
(later in the war PPCLI was transferred to direct Canadian control, and
the 3rd Canadian Division). The Patricias had served at St. Eloi from 7
January to 23 March 1915, carrying out a local attack on 28 February
with about 100 men, destroying 30 yards of German trench for a loss of 5
dead and 9 wounded. They moved into the Ypres Salient on 9 April when
their division relieved the French 17th Division, occupying positions in
front of Polygon Wood, three miles south of the right flank of the 2nd
Canadian Brigade at Berlin Wood.
When the 2nd Battle of Ypres opened, the
Patricias suffered 80 casualties to numerous enemy shellings. As the
battle raged, General Plumer was given command of all troops in the
Ypres area, and on the night of 3-4 May, a general withdrawal to new
positions was ordered. The Patricias fell back to Bellewaarde Ridge,
half a mile northeast of Hooge, lying on the Menin Road, into incomplete
and shallow trenches. Shelling and machine-gun fire caused 122 more
casualties.
A violent bombardment along the 5th Corps
front signalled another German attack, and in fact three converging
assaults had been ordered in another attempt to reduce the Salient.
...(T)he 26th Reserve Corps to advance
from the north against the sector Mouse Trap Farm to Frezenberg; the
27th Reserve Corps to make the central and main attack westward
between Frezenberg and Bellewaarde Lake; and the 15th Corps to break
through north-westward between Bellewaarde and Zillebeke Lakes. The
27th and 28th British Divisions were thus under attack by at least
six German divisions. As a preliminary, in three gas attacks on 5
May the 15th Corps had captured Hill 60. The brunt of the main
onslaught on the 8th fell on the 28th Division's 83rd and 84th
Brigades holding Frezenberg Ridge. Two assaults were beaten back,
but the third overwhelmed the front line, and by mid-morning
Frezenberg had fallen. Before noon the Germans had penetrated nearly
a mile and were in Verlorenhoek. They advanced no farther, but by
mid-afternoon they had widened their breach of the Salient to a gap
of two miles and had begun rolling up the British line on either
flank.
In their positions on Bellewaarde
Ridge at the 27th Division's extreme left the Patricias with the
80th Brigade's other front-line battalion, the 4th King's Royal
Rifle Corps, on their right, held the southern shoulder of the gap.
The devastating fire that the enemy concentrated on the British
trenches from the Menin Road to Frezenberg obliterated whole
sections of the P.P.C.L.I. front line on the forward slope of the
ridge. Two of the unit's four machine-guns were put out of action
and casualties were so heavy that Major Hamilton Gault, who had
taken over command of the regiment on 5 May, ordered signallers,
pioneers, orderlies and batmen forward into the support trenches.
When the Germans launched their main assault at 9:00 a.m., the
Patricias' steady rifle fire drove them back on the left; but on the
right the enemy gained a footing, compelling a retirement to the
main defence line on the crest. Here the battalion, reinforced by a
company from the 4th Rifle Brigade, stood unflinchingly for the rest
of the day, enduring repeated bombardments and beating back every
German attempt to advance from the captured trenches. During the
afternoon the left flank, drawn back to face the danger from the
north, was extended by reserve battalions of the 80th and 81st
Brigades. These units linked up with counter attacking battalions of
the 85th Brigade in the centre to seal off the German encroachment.
East of Mouse Trap Farm a heroic stand by the 2nd Northumberland
Fusiliers, when the remainder of the 84th Brigade's front-line
battalions were annihilated, held firm the northern shoulder of the
gap. On the 4th Division's front west of Mouse Trap Farm British
artillery (including eight Canadian field batteries) broke up the
infantry attack which followed the early morning bombardment. When
the Patricias were relieved shortly before midnight, their total
trench strength was four officers and 150 men. The day's casualties
totalled 392. For the last few days of the Battle of Frezenberg
Ridge (which ended on 13 May) they formed a composite unit with the
4th King's Royal Rifles, which had shared their valiant stand on
Bellewaarde Ridge. On 24 May, when the Fourth Army again attacked
the 5th Corps, releasing a heavy concentration of chlorine along a
front of 4-1/2 miles (the largest scale yet attempted), the 27th
Division was in corps reserve. The Germans captured Mouse Trap Farm
and Bellewaarde Ridge, breaking through on both sides of Bellewaarde
Lake. Late on the 24th the 80th Brigade made an unsuccessful
counter-attack, the Patricias being held in brigade reserve. This
operation, named the Battle of Bellewaarde Ridge, ended the Battles
of Ypres, 1915.2
Aftermath
The PPCLI suffered 678 casualties during the
period in action with the 27th Division from 10 April to 21 May 1915.
Ypres, however, had been held, and the lines around the Salient moved
little for the next two years.
To our Belgian allies the retention
of the city and the Salient meant above all that there was still
Belgian territory untrodden by the Prussian heel; to the strategic
planners Ypres in Allied hands blocked a German advance to the
Channel ports and maintained the threat of an Allied drive towards
Lille and Brussels.3
- Battle Honours
The Battle Honour "Bellewaarde"
was awarded to the following unit for participation in these actions:
7th Canadian Brigade
Notes
-
Nicholson, Gerald W.L.
Official History of the
Canadian Army in the First World War: Canadian Expeditionary Force
1914-1919 (Queen's Printer Ottawa, ON, 1964)
p.79
-
Ibid, pp.79-80
-
Ibid, p.81
|
Princess
Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry