Battle of the Yser

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Battle of the Yser

Part of the Race to the Sea on the Western Front (World War I)

The "End of the Line": the Western Front reaches the sea near Nieuwpoort, Belgium

Date	October 16 – October 31, 1914
Location	River Yser, Belgium
Result	Franco-Belgian victory

Combatants

Belgium

France

German Empire

Commanders

Albert I of Belgium

Albrecht, Duke of Württemberg

Strength

Belgium: 4 infantry divisions, 2 reserve divisions
France: 1 infantry division, 2 Marine regiments

6 Corps (12 divisions)

Casualties

Belgium: 40,000

Race to the Sea
Albert – Arras – La Bassée – Messines – Armentières – 1st Ypres – Yser

The Battle of the Yser secured the coastline of Belgium for the allies in the "Race to the Sea" in the first three months of World War I.

Belgium had been invaded by Germany and the remnants of the Belgian Army pushed into the far south west of the country, behind a 22 miles front on the Yser Canal as the Germans tried to reach the French Channel ports of Calais and Dunkerque. Just to the south the First Battle of Ypres started soon after the Battle of Yser.

The entire Belgian Army was deployed to defend the front. The troops were exhausted and low on ammunition after two months of fighting and retreat. France reinforced the Belgians with 6,000 Marines and an infantry division.

The first skirmishes started on October 16, 1914. The town of Diksmuide was attacked but the Germans were repelled by French marines and Belgian artillery. The following day German troops (consisting of trained conscripts, reservists and untrained students) moved southwards from Bruges and Ostend in the direction of the Yser river. It became clear that the German Fourth Army Corps was to take the line from Nieuwpoort to Ypres.

Admiral Hood of the Royal Navy commanded three monitors, Severn, Humber and Mersey, which bombarded the German army in Lombardsijde from the sea the following day.

On October 18, the German offensive started. It initially overran the frontal defense positions of the Belgian, British and French armies along a line stretching from Nieuwpoort down to Arras in France. The objective was to defeat the Belgian and French armies and to deprive the Brtish of access to the harbours of Calais, Boulogne and Dunkerque. Yet four days later in the battle, the German troops still had to reach the borders of the river Yser, let alone to cross the river.

The last bridge over the Yser was blown up on October 23. Diksmuide bore the brunt of repeated German offensives and bombardments yet the town was still not taken.

The French high command planned to inundate large parts of their territory as a defensive measure and asked the Belgians to inundate part of their territory between the river Yser and the canals.

A canal links Ypres with Nieuwpoort on the sea. The area consisted of reclaimed land, which drained into the canal. Eventually, the front line was held by flooding the land between the canal and railway between Diksmuide and Nieuwpoort by opening the drainage channels to sea water. This formed a barrier between the armies.

From October 30, the Germans planned another decisive attack but, this was called off due to the flooding.

The historical importance of the Battle of the Yser was not only the fact that the Germans did not manage to defeat the Belgian Army but, also that through the horror of war, and through the experiences of ordinary foot soldiers, Flemish national consciousness started to grow in the then overwhelmingly Francophone Belgian society.