| Fifth Battle of Ypres | |||||||
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| Part of theWestern Front of theFirst World War | |||||||
 Map of the final Allied offensives on the Western Front, 1918 | |||||||
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| Strength | |||||||
| 28 divisions | 16 divisions | ||||||
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TheFifth Battle of Ypres, also called theAdvance in Flanders and theBattle of the Peaks of Flanders (French:Bataille des Crêtes de Flandres) is an informal name ofFirst World War battles in northernFrance and southernBelgium (Flanders) from late September to October 1918.[2]
After theGerman spring offensive of 1918 failed to achieve a decisive victory, Germanmorale waned and the increasing numbers ofAmerican soldiers arriving on theWestern Front gave the Allies a growing numerical advantage over the western armies of theGerman Empire. To take advantage of this,Marshal of FranceFerdinand Foch developed a strategy which became known as theGrand Offensive, in which attacks were made on the German lines over as wide a front as possible.[3] Belgian, British and French forces around theYpres Salient were to form the northern pincer of an offensive towards the Belgian city ofLiège.[4] The BritishSecond Army had followed up some minor withdrawals and had fought theaction at Outtersteene Ridge on 18 August, after which there was a lull. Allied troops in the area were well rested by late September.[5]
TheGroupe d'Armées des Flandres (GAF, Flanders Army Group,King of the Belgians) attacked at5:30 a.m. on 28 September, after a three hour artillery preparation.[6][7][8] The GAF attacked with12 Belgian divisions,10 British divisions of the Second Army and6 French divisions of theSixth Army. The British attacked on a 4.5 mi (7.2 km) front up to the Ypres–Zonnebeke road, from where the Belgian army attacked on a line north to Dixmude.[9] The Allied attacks quickly penetrated the German defences and advanced up to 6 mi (9.7 km). Much of the ground west of Passchendaele, abandoned during the withdrawal of early 1918, was recaptured.[10] Rain began to fall but by the evening the British had taken Kortewilde, Zandvoorde, Kruiseecke and Becelaere; Belgian troops had captured Zonnebeke, Poelcappelle, Schaap Baillie and Houthulst Forest.[11] On the southern flank, minor operations by three British divisions advanced to St. Yves, Messines and the ridge from Wytschaete to Hollebeke. The German front line ran from Diksmuide to Houthult, Becelare, Zandvoorde and Hollebeke.[7]
Messines, Terhand and Dadizeele fell on 29 September and by the next day, despite the captured ground becoming another slough of mud, all of the high ground around Ypres was occupied by the Allies.[12] By 1 October, the left bank of theleie (Lys) had been captured up to Comines and the Belgians were east of a line from Moorslede to Staden and Diksmuide. The advance continued until 2 October when German reinforcements arrived and the offensive outran its supplies. Due to the state of the ground,15,000 rations were delivered by parachute from80 Belgian and British aircraft.[13]
The British suffered4,695 casualties, the Belgians "nett" casualties from among2,000 killed and10,000 men ill or wounded.[14] The Allies advanced up to 18 mi (29 km), with an average advance of 6 mi (9.7 km) and capturedc. 10,000 prisoners,300 guns and600 machine-guns.[15]
The offensive was continued with theBattle of Courtrai (14–19 October).[16]
The Allied units of Army Group Flanders (King Albert I of Belgium), had the French GeneralJean Degoutte as Chief of Staff.[17]
Army Group Rupprecht of Bavaria (Crown Prince Rupprecht of Bavaria), commanding the northern German army group, held Flanders with the 4th Army, which had less than five divisions in the area.[10][7]
