|
Battle Of Hill 60 (Western Front)
The Battle of Hill 60 () took place near Hill 60 south of Ypres on the Western Front, during the First World War. Hill 60 had been captured by the German 30th Division on 11 November 1914, during the First Battle of Ypres (19 October – 22 November 1914). Initial French preparations to raid the hill were continued by the British 28th Division, which took over the line in February 1915 and then by the 5th Division. The plan was expanded into an ambitious attempt to capture the hill, despite advice that Hill 60 could not be held unless the nearby Caterpillar ridge was also occupied. It was found that Hill 60 was the only place in the area not waterlogged and a French mine gallery was extended. Experienced miners from Northumberland and Wales were recruited for the digging and the British attack began on 17 April 1915. The hill was captured quickly with only seven casualties but then it was found that the salient which had been created, made occupation of the hill very costl ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Western Front (World War I)
The Western Front was one of the main theatres of war during the First World War. Following the outbreak of war in August 1914, the German Army opened the Western Front by invading Luxembourg and Belgium, then gaining military control of important industrial regions in France. The German advance was halted with the Battle of the Marne. Following the Race to the Sea, both sides dug in along a meandering line of fortified trenches, stretching from the North Sea to the Swiss frontier with France, which changed little except during early 1917 and in 1918. Between 1915 and 1917 there were several offensives along this front. The attacks employed massive artillery bombardments and massed infantry advances. Entrenchments, machine gun emplacements, barbed wire and artillery repeatedly inflicted severe casualties during attacks and counter-attacks and no significant advances were made. Among the most costly of these offensives were the Battle of Verdun, in 1916, with a combined 700,000 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Salients, Re-entrants And Pockets
A salient, also known as a bulge, is a battlefield feature that projects into enemy territory. The salient is surrounded by the enemy on multiple sides, making the troops occupying the salient vulnerable. The opponent's front line that borders a salient is referred to as a re-entrant – that is, an angle pointing inwards. A deep salient is vulnerable to being "pinched off" through the base, and this will result in a pocket in which the forces in the salient become isolated and without a supply line. On the other hand, a breakout of the forces within the salient through its tip can threaten the rear areas of the opposing forces outside it, leaving them open to an attack from behind. Implementation Salients can be formed in a number of ways. An attacker can produce a salient in the defender's line by either intentionally making a pincer movement around the military flanks of a strongpoint, which becomes the tip of the salient, or by making a broad, frontal attack which is held u ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Royal Engineer Tunnelling Companies
Royal Engineer tunnelling companies were specialist units of the Corps of Royal Engineers within the British Army, formed to dig attacking tunnels under enemy lines during the First World War. The stalemate situation in the early part of the war led to the deployment of tunnel warfare. After the first German Empire attacks on 21 December 1914, through shallow tunnels underneath no man's land and exploding ten mines under the trenches of the Indian Sirhind Brigade, the British began forming suitable units. In February 1915, eight Tunnelling Companies were created and operational in Flanders from March 1915. By mid-1916, the British Army had around 25,000 trained tunnellers, mostly volunteers taken from coal mining communities. Almost twice that number of "attached infantry" worked permanently alongside the trained miners acting as 'beasts of burden'. From the spring of 1917 the whole war became more mobile, with grand offensives at Arras, Messines and Passchendaele. There was ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hill 60, 1915a
A hill is a landform that extends above the surrounding terrain. It often has a distinct summit. Terminology The distinction between a hill and a mountain is unclear and largely subjective, but a hill is universally considered to be not as tall, or as steep as a mountain. Geographers historically regarded mountains as hills greater than above sea level, which formed the basis of the plot of the 1995 film ''The Englishman who Went up a Hill but Came down a Mountain''. In contrast, hillwalkers have tended to regard mountains as peaks above sea level. The ''Oxford English Dictionary'' also suggests a limit of and Whittow states "Some authorities regard eminences above as mountains, those below being referred to as hills." Today, a mountain is usually defined in the UK and Ireland as any summit at least high, while the official UK government's definition of a mountain is a summit of or higher. Some definitions include a topographical prominence requirement, typically or ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
4th Army (German Empire)
The 4th Army (german: 4. Armee / Armeeoberkommando 4 / A.O.K. 4) was an army level command of the German Army in World War I. It was formed on mobilization in August 1914 from the VI Army Inspection. The army was disbanded in 1919 during demobilization after the war. History At the outset of war, the 4th Army, with the 5th Army, formed the center of the German armies on the Western Front, moving through Luxembourg and Belgium in support of the great wheel of the right wing that was to pin down and defeat the French armies. The 4th Army defeated Belgian forces on the frontier, drove the French out of the Ardennes and then encountered the British Expeditionary Force in the "Race to the Sea" at the First Battle of Ypres. The 4th Army faced the British in Flanders for the rest of the war, notably defending in the Battle of Passchendaele (1917), attacking in the 1918 German spring offensive and finally being pushed back in the Hundred Days Offensive from August 1918. At the e ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
XV Corps (German Empire)
The XV Army Corps / XV AK (german: XV. Armee-Korps) was a corps level command of the German Army before and during World War I. XV Corps served on the Western Front from the start of the war with the 7th Army. It was still in existence at the end of the war in the 19th Army, ''Heeresgruppe Herzog Albrecht von Württemberg'' on the Western Front. Formation With the conclusion of the Franco-Prussian War and the annexation of Alsace-Lorraine, the XV Corps was formed in March 1871 with responsibility for the new Imperial provinces. Headquarters was established in Strasbourg with the constituent units drawn from the armies of the various states of the German Empire. The Corps initially covered the entire district of Alsace-Lorraine, but from April 1890 a new XVI Corps was formed in Lorraine and the Corps was restricted to Alsace. It was assigned to the V Army Inspectorate which became the 7th Army at the start of the First World War. Peacetime organisation The 25 pea ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
39th Division (German Empire)
The 39th Division (''39. Division'') was a unit of the Prussian/German Army. It was formed on April 1, 1899, and was headquartered in Colmar (now in France). The division was subordinated in peacetime initially to the XIV Army Corps (''XIV. Armeekorps'') and then to the XV Army Corps (''XV. Armeekorps''). The division was disbanded in 1919 during the demobilization of the German Army after World War I. Recruitment The division was a mixed unit: its Prussian elements, although designated Upper Alsatian, were mainly raised in the more densely populated Rhine Province and the Province of Westphalia, as the Alsatian German population was insufficient to support all the units stationed there. The 126th Infantry Regiment was from the Kingdom of Württemberg. The 66th Field Artillery was from the Grand Duchy of Baden. The 14th Jäger Battalion, attached on mobilization from the XIV Army Corps, was from the Grand Duchy of Mecklenburg-Schwerin. Combat chronicle The division began Wo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ypres Salient
The Ypres Salient around Ypres in Belgium was the scene of several battles and an extremely important part of the Western front during the First World War. Ypres district Ypres lies at the junction of the Ypres–Comines Canal and the Ieperlee. The city is overlooked by Kemmel Hill in the south-west and from the east by low hills running south-west to north-east with Wytschaete (Wijtschate), Hill 60 to the east of Verbrandenmolen, Hooge, Polygon Wood and Passchendaele (Passendale). The high point of the ridge is at Wytschaete, from Ypres, while at Hollebeke the ridge is distant and recedes to at Polygon Wood. Wytschaete is about above the plain; on the Ypres–Menin road at Hooge, the elevation is about and at Passchendaele. The rises are slight, apart from the vicinity of Zonnebeke, which has a From Hooge and to the east, the slope is near Hollebeke, it is heights are subtle but have the character of a saucer lip around Ypres. The main ridge has spurs sloping east an ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Comines-Warneton
Comines-Warneton (; nl, Komen-Waasten, ; pcd, Comène-Warneuton; vls, Koomn-Woastn; wa, Cômene-Varneton) is a city and municipality of Wallonia located in the province of Hainaut, Belgium. On January 1, 2006, it had a total population of 17,562. Its total area is which gives a population density of . The name "Comines" is believed to have a Celtic, or Gaulish, origin. Comines-Warneton is a municipality with language facilities for Dutch-speakers. The municipality consists of the following districts: Bas-Warneton, Comines, Houthem, Ploegsteert, and Warneton (including the hamlet of Gheer). They were all transferred in 1963 from the arrondissement of Ypres in the Dutch-speaking province of West Flanders to the newly created arrondissement of Mouscron in French-speaking Hainaut. The five municipalities (Comines, Houthem, Ploegsteert, Bas-Warneton, Warneton) were merged into a single Comines-Warneton municipality in 1977. Since then, the municipality forms an exclave of bo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hollebeke
Hollebeke is a Flemish village in the Belgian province of West Vlaanderen, now part of Ypres city. History In World War I, it was the site of allied heroism (like other neighbouring parts of Ypres, such as Klein Zillebeke) that won Khudadad Khan the first Victoria Cross ever awarded to a native Indian. In 1970 it was incorporated in Zillebeke, which in turn merged with the city of Ieper (Ypres, at five miles' distance) in 1976. Homonyms To commemorate the Canadian troops fighting at Hollebeke, in 1917 the Hollebeke Mountain (49° 23' 30" North, 114° 34' 10" West), on the continental divide at the head of Pincher Creek; southeast buttress of North Kootenay Pass. Park, bordering Alberta and British Columbia, was named after the village. Major headwaters are Oldman River and Flathead River. It also gave its name to the families Hollebeke and Van Hollebeke (''van'' is Dutch Dutch commonly refers to: * Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands * Dutch people () * Dutch lan ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Zandvoorde (Zonnebeke)
Zandvoorde ( vls, Zanvôorde) is a village in the Belgian province of West Flanders and a part (deelgemeente) of the municipality of Zonnebeke. Zandvoorde is a rural village, in the rolling landscape of the southern part of the province. History Old listings of the place date back to 1102, as ''Sanfort''. "Sant" refers to sand (in modern Dutch: ''zand''), "fort" refers to Ford (in modern Dutch: ''voorde''), a shallow crossing in a watercourse. The village was completely destroyed during World War I. Among those killed there was the German poet Ernst Stadler, drafted to the German army. Landmarks * The Parish and its church are named after Saint Bartholomew. The current church dates from 1923–1925, after the old church had been destroyed during the First World War. * The Zantvoorde British Cemetery is a Commonwealth War Graves Commission World War I military cemetery. In the village centre, there is a British war memorial, ''The Household Cavalry Monument''. Trivia * In the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Zwarteleen
Zillebeke (also known as Zellebeck) is a village in the Flemish province of West Flanders in Belgium. It is a former municipality which is now part of Ypres. History On 3 March 1914 the then municipality was granted the arms of the last Lords of Zillebeke, the Canton family, Viscounts of Winnezeele, which had in 1740 acquired the ''Ancien Régime'' estate of Zillebeke. During World War I, like other parts of Ypres, it was the site of bipartisan heroism, with Victoria Crosses being won by three soldiers in the area – John Henry Stephen Dimmer, John Franks Vallentin, and John Carmichael. The village was mentioned in the Wipers Times, the most well-known of the trench magazines that were published by soldiers fighting on the front lines of the Great War. The 1st Battalion of The Irish Guards suffered huge casualties defending the village and playing a major part in stopping the German breakthrough to the Channel Ports between 1 and 11 November 1914 as part of the First Battle o ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
