The Battle of Ypres and Yser: King Albert and the Belgians Stand Firm Against the First Mass Gas Attacks of WWI
The Germans didn’t have the type of success in their WWI offensives as they would during WWII, but they still overwhelmed much of Western Europe with brute force and numbers. With all the tension between nations prior to the war, Belgium just wanted to stay out of it, openly declaring that they were a neutral nation.
This didn’t stop the Germans, however, as they decided to steamroll their way through Belgium as a way to get around the massive line of fortifications Guarding the French border. As Trench lines formed between the French and German forces, each side tried to maneuver north in order to flank the other. This was known as the Race to the Sea and the sea just happened to be near the Yser River in the extreme northwest corner of Belgium.
At the Battle of the Yser, the Allied forces fought with incredible bravery and desperation for slightly different reasons. The French wanted to preserve their flank and get a defensible position that had a chance to hold, as the Yser could be easily defended. The Belgians were fighting for the little sliver of land they had left, a few dozen square miles at most.
After fighting over bridges and crossings, the Belgians systematically destroyed bridges and eventually caused planned flooding. The Germans continued to attack until they finally realized that they could make little progress through what was quickly becoming marshland and Belgium survived.
The first Battle for the city of Ypres just south of the Yser cost 100,000 casualties in total with no real progress by the Germans. Resolved to take the city in the second battle, the Germans did the unthinkable and used toxic gas weapons in mass quantities for the first time in the war.
The defenders, French, British and Belgian, were completely unprepared and had the most basic masks, if any, for protection. Chlorine gas was the main weapon of the battle. it is toxic when inhaled as the gas creates an acid when exposed to water. Eyes burn and lungs inflame and disintegrate, causing a death that has been described as a horrible type of dry drowning. Even survivors required constant care, struggling with each painful breath.
The Germans won this battle but were denied in the race to the sea. The entire royal family had also made it safely to what would be known as the Yser Front. King Albert personally commanded his troops and the line was almost exclusively manned by Belgians. Albert’s wife, Elisabeth, served as a nurse whenever she could. The protected chunk of Belgium was an immense source of pride and propaganda for the Belgians and the allied nations, especially considering the Belgians were a small nation that was suddenly attacked despite their neutrality.
Belgium’s story also went a long way to swaying the isolationist Americans’ support to the Allies. Invading a neutral nation was already seen as despicable, but reports of horrible war crimes in occupied Belgium made Americans even more sympathetic. There were multiple instances of Belgian resistance, but the German retaliation occasionally consisted of rounding up and executing civilians.
The whole occupation was known as the Rape of Belgium, and it may well have been exaggerated to be better propaganda. Whatever the case, the Belgian stand, and German war crimes had a profound effect on Americans, who really didn’t have a side at the start of the war.