Kemmelberg

Kemmelberg 1918: Part 1 The Build-Up

by W Willems, J L Putman, & M Soenen

First, Second, and Third Battle of Ypres - Battle of the Yser, 20 October 1914 to 6 November 1917

The course of the First World War in Flanders was determined primarily by the strategic importance of the hilly landscape. After all, the witness hills (the 'West-Flemish Mountains') to the south of Ypres formed the only obstacle between the Yser and Lys plains and the polders, and finally the Channel, with Dunkirk, Calais, and Boulogne in France serving as important supply ports for the British.

After the Germans invaded Belgium on 4 August 1914, their advance - controversially referred to as 'the race to the sea' - was halted in the autumn of 1914 around Ypres and Wytschaete-Messines.

After the First Battle of Ypres (the Battle of the Yser, 20 October to 18 November 1914), the ruined town remained in the hands of the allies, the attacking troop movements came to a halt, and both sides dug in around Ypres.

The allies retreated to a frontline along the Yser and the canalised section of the Ieperlee (the Ypres-Yser Canal).

South of the Kemmelberg, this frontline made a reversed S-curve from the French border to the west of Messines and Wytschaete (the Messines ridge), turning under Ypres to head past Sint-Elooi. It headed east past Zonnebeke, and then bent towards the west between Langemark and Poelkapelle (the 'Ypres Salient'), before finally turning north over Ypres.

The Ypres salient therefore constituted a stretch of allied territory to the east of Ypres which protruded into the German occupied territory on the Western Front.

The German defences around the Messines ridge retreated to forward positions on well-defended natural heights and artificial hills such as 'Hill 60' in the vicinity of Zillebeke.

Photo public domain

The Ypres salient and Messines ridge.

French and Bavarian soldiers fought a bitter battle in November 1914 for possession of one of these forty-metre-high strategic peaks within the Wytschaete-Messines area. The Germans emerged victorious from the battle and the site was expanded with trenches to turn it into an impregnable fortress called 'Bayernwald'.

At the Ypres salient, the next four years would be a constant battle between the British and the Germans. After the Second Battle of Ypres (22 April to 15 May 2015), in which the Germans deployed massive amounts of chlorine gas for the first time, Zonnebeke, Sint-Juliaan, and Langemark also fell into German hands, and the Ypres salient became somewhat shrunken (see dotted line on the map above).

French troops gradually withdrew from the north, and the British took over the northern part of the Western Front.

After eighteen months of trench deadlock, a joint operation between British and French forces was intended to achieve a decisive victory over the Germans on the Western Front. However, this Battle of the Somme (1 July to 18 November 1916) resulted in a costly failure with huge loss of life.

To avoid a drastic reduction in their own clout, the allied commands were insistent on stopping the advance of German troops on the hills.

This was especially true where the Kemmelberg was concerned. From there one has the opportunity to be able to overlook and control the entire region, a peak which was of strategic importance both to the allies and the Germans. For the Germans the hill was the last obstacle to their overrunning of the British at Ypres and therefore giving them control of the road to the seaports.

For the British, the top of the Kemmelberg was an ideal location, with its excellent view of the front line from Messines across Wytschaete to Ypres.

Photo public domain

British reserve lookout, June 1917.

After the Second Battle of Ypres, the British converted the Kemmelberg into a fortress with several observation posts.

Also, in the western flank of the Lettenberg hill - a smaller spur which leans northwards against the Kemmelberg - a British observation post was dug out. In late 1916/early 1917, it was reinforced by the 'British Engineers and Tunnellers' who built four concrete bunkers there - the Lettenberg bunkers - with underground shelters and a brigade headquarters.

In June 1917, the allies disabled 'Bayernwald' through the use of deep mines, and other, similar German positions on natural heights along the Messines ridge were also put on hold.

At the Third Battle of Ypres (the Battle of Passchendaele, 31 July 1917 to 10 November 1917) several French divisions were fighting under British command, as well as Australians, New Zealanders, and Belgians. British artillery was able to successfully eliminate a significant part of the German army.

But even more than the Battle of the Somme, this battle is considered to have been futile. Due to this offensive, the losses on both sides were considerable. The 'In Flanders Fields Museum' estimates total losses of more than 600,000 (!),both dead and wounded, for the Battle of Passchendaele alone, which is not at all proportionate to the mere eight kilometres of terrain which was gained by the allied front, which was – incidentally – again completely lost during the Fourth Battle of Ypres in April 1918.

Continued in Part 2

REFERENCES:
Baert K - Kemmel 1918 - Hoe Ieper uit de greep van de Duitsers bleef (2008, in Dutch)

Toland J - No Man's Land - 1918, The Last Year of the Great War (2002)

Sempf A - Der Tod am Kemmel: wahre Skizzen aus der Schlacht um den Kemmel (Vieweg Leipzig, 1920, in German)

Sempf A - De dood op de Kemmel: schetsen over de slag om de Kemmelberg (Uitgeverij Westvlaamse Bergen, 1968, in Dutch)

Vansuyt M - Het Duits Lenteoffensief 1918: Georgette - Kemmelberg (2014, in Dutch)

Knab J - Falsche Glorie: das Traditionsverständnis der Bundeswehr (Ch. Links Verlag Berlin, 1995, in German)

Baker Chris - The Battle of the Lys 1918 - North: Objective Ypres - Chap 8 Kemmelberg and the Flemish Hills (2018)

Kabisch Ernst - Um Lys und Kemmel, Flandern Erster Weltkrieg WW1 (Vorhut Vlg, 1936, in German)

Pinçon L - La Onzième du 99e au Kemmel (17-25 avril 1918) (Impr L Gaubert, Montmorency (Paris), 1921, in French)

In Flanders Fields Museum, Ypres

EXTERNAL LINKS:
La bataille du Mont Kemmel, 25-29 avril 1918 (in French)
Des Foréziens dans l'enfer du Kemmel 25 avril 1918 - Histoire d'une hécatombe, Albert Cellier (in French, PDF)
Jean Giono dans l'enfer des Flandres, '...le Mont Kemmel fume comme un volcan crevé', Christian Morzewski (in French)
Capitaine Pinçon, La 11e compagnie du 99e régiment d'infanterie au Mont Kemmel (in French)
Slag om de Kemmelberg (in Dutch, PDF)