French Flanders and Artois Battlefields of WW1, France
French Flanders and Artois Battlefields of WW1, France
westfield school trip
The 1914-1918 battlefields of French Flanders are located in an area of northern France historically called the Province of Flanders and the County of Artois. Nowadays these two provinces are situated in the northernmost region of France, namely Nord-Pas-de-Calais. This region shares its northern border with Flemish Flanders in Belgium. Towns and villages in the area which feature in the battlefields of 1914-1918 are Armentières, Arras, Bailleul, Béthune, Bullecourt, Festubert, Fromelles, Hazebrouck, Loos-en-Gohelle, Monchy-le-Preux and St. Omer. The city of Lille is the administrative capital of Nord-Pas-de-Calais. During the First World War Lille was a busy centre of commerce and was occupied by the German Army for exactly four years from October 1914 to October 1918.
WW1 Fromelles - Hitlers Bunker - Stuart Curry
Looking out of Hitlers bunker only 1000 yards behind the Australian Memorial Park at Fromelles. This was part of the German Front Line Trenches system which was attacked on the 19/20th July 1916. My grandfathers brother Henry Ernest Curry was Gunner in the Australian 51st Battery, 13th Field Artillery Brigade, 5th Division. During the battle they were shelling between Cobbers and this bunker.
For more information go to my website CURRYWW1.COM
Help find the Photos and Identify WW1 Diggers from the Great War.
Also look for the page in AUTHOR/ Walking in the footsteps of my Grandfather. From Service Records finding the units they served in, looking up those unit war diaries, finding the trench map coordinates and locating those positions on the battlefields by superimpossing them over google maps. This method was invented by Stuart Curry 2007-2008
Race to the Sea | Wikipedia audio article
This is an audio version of the Wikipedia Article:
00:03:26 1 Background
00:03:35 1.1 Strategic developments
00:03:44 1.1.1 Plan XVII
00:06:09 1.1.2 Schlieffen–Moltke Plan
00:08:14 1.1.3 Battle of the Frontiers, 7 August – 13 September
00:14:10 1.1.4 The Great Retreat, 24 August – 5 September
00:18:48 1.1.5 Eastern Front
00:23:10 1.2 Tactical developments
00:23:19 1.2.1 Operations in Belgium, August–October 1914
00:28:52 1.2.2 First Battle of the Marne, 5–12 September
00:33:08 1.2.3 First Battle of the Aisne, 13–28 September
00:35:35 2 Prelude
00:35:44 2.1 German plan of attack
00:38:52 2.2 French plan of attack
00:40:35 3 Battle
00:40:44 3.1 First phase, 25 September – 4 October
00:40:56 3.1.1 Battle of Picardy, 22–26 September
00:43:18 3.1.2 Battle of Albert, 25–29 September
00:45:46 3.2 Second phase 4–15 October
00:45:56 3.2.1 First Battle of Arras, 1–4 October
00:49:01 3.3 Third phase, 15 October–November
00:49:13 3.3.1 Battle of La Bassée, 10 October – 2 November
00:52:07 3.3.2 Battle of Messines, 12 October – 2 November
00:55:00 3.3.3 Battle of Armentières, 13 October – 2 November
00:58:29 4 Aftermath
00:58:38 4.1 Analysis
01:02:44 4.2 Casualties
01:03:39 5 Subsequent operations
01:03:49 5.1 First Battle of Flanders
01:03:58 5.1.1 Battle of the Yser, 18 October – 30 November
01:06:30 5.1.2 First Battle of Ypres, 19 October – 22 November
01:09:10 6 Notes
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- Socrates
SUMMARY
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The Race to the Sea (French: Course à la mer; German: Wettlauf zum Meer, Dutch: Race naar de Zee) took place from about 17 September – 19 October 1914, after the Battle of the Frontiers (7 August – 13 September) and the German advance into France, which had been stopped at the First Battle of the Marne (5–12 September) and was followed by the First Battle of the Aisne (13–28 September), a Franco-British counter-offensive. The term describes reciprocal attempts by the Franco-British and German armies to envelop the northern flank of the opposing army through the provinces of Picardy, Artois and Flanders, rather than an attempt to advance northwards to the sea. The race ended on the North Sea coast of Belgium around 19 October, when the last open area from Dixmude to the North Sea was occupied by Belgian troops who had retreated after the Siege of Antwerp (28 September – 10 October). The outflanking attempts had resulted in a number of encounter battles but neither side was able to gain a decisive victory.After the opposing forces had reached the North Sea, both tried to conduct offensives leading to the mutually costly and indecisive Battle of the Yser from 16 October to 2 November and the First Battle of Ypres from 19 October to 22 November. After mid-November, local operations were carried out by both sides and preparations were made to take the offensive in the spring of 1915. Erich von Falkenhayn, Chief of the German General Staff (Oberste Heeresleitung OHL) since 14 September, concluded that a decisive victory could not be achieved on the Western Front and that it was equally unlikely in the east. Falkenhayn abandoned Vernichtungsstrategie (strategy of annihilation) and attempted to create the conditions for peace with one of Germany's enemies, by Ermattungsstrategie (strategy of exhaustion), to enable Germany to concentrate its resources decisively to defeat the remaining opponents.
Over the winter lull, the French army established the theoretical basis of offensive trench warfare, originating many of the methods which became standard for the rest of the war. Infiltration tactics, in which dispersed formations of infantry were followed by nettoyeurs de tranchée (trench cleaners), to capture by-passed strong points were promulgated. Artillery observation from aircraft and creeping barrages, were first used systema ...