History

On 4 August 1914, the German army invaded Belgium. The Germans demanded King Albert to grant them free passage through the country, so that they could attack the French from the rear and defeat them. The king refused and the famous Schlieffen plan was launched to impose Germany’s military will by force. On 12 August 1914 at Halen (in the province of Limburg) Uhlans of the German cavalry (light cavalry armed with lances) attempted to charge a strong Belgian position with naked swords.

The German advance was now moving more slowly than the German high command had originally hoped. At several places, the Germans believed that they were shot by ’civilians’. The often incomplete uniform of the Civil Guard indeed made it hard to recognise the soldiers. A large number of civilians was executed in retaliation in Dinant, Aarschot and Louvain.

In Louvain (Leuven) 2.000 houses were also burnt to the ground, together with its fabulous university library. The fortress of Antwerp fell in October 1914. After the fall of Antwerp, the tired troops of the weakened Belgian Army withdrew behind the line of the River Yzer.

The Belgian Army halted the German attacks by flooding the Yser plain (27 - 29 October 1914). To the south, the British and the French fought with great determination to prevent a German breakthrough at Ypres. When the battle was over the Germans held the ring of high ground which overlooked the city. Both armies dug in and the famous Ypres Salient was born.

In the spring of 1915 the Germans made a new attempt to break through at Ypres. They captured Hill 60 and on 22 April 1915 they used chlorine gas for the first time in modern warfare. The result was death, panic and total surprise. The Allies were forced to withdraw for several miles, but there was no breakthrough.

In September it was the turn of the Germans to be surprised, when the British used gas in their attack at Loos.

On the 7^th of June 19 mines were detonated under the German lines, causing explosions which could be heard as far away as London (Mine battle at Messines). But theGermans had built strong concrete bunkers, defended with almost impregnable machine guns.The following “Battle of Passchendaele”was a complete disaster. In four months theBritish lost 400.000 killed, wounded and missing for the gain of just 8 kilometers of territory.

The year 1917 also saw the first use by the Germans of mustard gas or ’ieperiet.’ as an ’improvement’ on chlorine and phosgene. Mustard gas not only attacked the victim’s airways, but also caused the skin to erupt in hideously painful blisters.

In the spring of 1918, the Germans were strengthened by the arrival of fresh divisions from the Eastern Front, where the October Revolution of 1917 had led to Russia’s withdrawal from the war.

During the Battle of Merkem on 17 April 1918, the Belgian Army had to withstand a severe attack by the Germans. However the Germans were forced back to their original positions by nightfall. During the Battle of Mount Kemmel the French in particular were very hard pressed. On 25 April this strategically important hill was lost to the Germans and Ieper was almost captured.

By now, German reserves had been exhausted and the Americans were starting to arrive on the Western Front in huge numbers. In Germany itself, the home front began to disintegrate. From 28 September until the Armistice on 11 November, a series of Allied offensives pushed the Germans back to the River Scheldt.

On Saturday, 28 September 1918 the Belgian Army attacked the fortress in Houthulst Forest (Battle of Houthulst Forest). Almost every Belgian unit was involved in the attack, which was supported by the British Second Army and a number of French divisions. By the end of the first day the Belgians had succeeded in capturing the German lines on a front which was 18 kilometres wide and 6 kilometres deep.

At the beginning of November an armistice was signed in a railway carriage near the French town of Compiègne. The First World War finally came to an end at 11 o’clock on the morning of 11 November 1918.

After the war, the majority of refugees returned home, ruins were cleared away and the battlefields were cleaned up. The old houses and monuments were gradually rebuilt, one by one. The Nieuwerck - an annex to the Cloth Hall in Ieper, now used as part of the town hall - was only completed in 1967.