The 2nd Battle of Ypres Remembered
The 2nd Battle of Ypres started 100 years ago on 22 April 1915. The purpose of this post is to give you a sense of the battle from material sourced on the Web plus unique maps created to show you exactly where main units were operating at the time. We have maps to cover up to 9 am 24 April. At the end of the article you see casualty totals, ammunition expenditure and personnel names of the entire 1st Canadian Infantry Division.
You can follow the outline here and take note of the Canadian Official History at the references. We have a wide range of material including the story of the brave paymaster who lead the 16th Battalion into the attack on Kitcheners Wood. Be sure also to check out the actions of Fred Fisher – Victoria Cross Winner. There are many maps to show you the general progression of the battle.
Next we have a series of maps from you with map references showing where the centre point of the units were.
The first map is late in the afternoon on the 22nd of April. This map comes from the Canadian War Museum and is enhanced using data from LINESMAN. The data is transposed onto these first four maps.
Late afternoon 22 April
7 AM 23 April
Artillery positions 8 pm 23 April
Infantry units 8 pm 23 April
Arty units 9 am 24 April
Infantry A Sitrep 24 April 1915 0900 (too many units to get in 1 picture)
Infantry B Sitrep 24 April 1915 0900
Unfortunately the next set of base maps came up at too low resolution to use and complete the mapping side of the project
However – here are casualty reinforcement figures from the 1st Cdn Infantry Div War Diary at www.collectionscanada.ca
The image will pop up on clicking it
| 1 DIV APRIL 1915 APPX 5 Total Casualties of Infantry Brigades 22 April – 29 April 1915 |
| 1 DIV INF BN STR 28 April 1915 |
| 1 DIV Reinforcements 28 Apr and 5 May 1915 |
| 1 DIV Ammo Expended 22 April – 30 April 1915 |
Ammunition used18 Pounder Shrapnel -28,870 |
18 Pounder HE – 4284 |
4.5 How Lyddite – 5163 |
4.5 How Shrapnel – 1356 |
Small Arms Ammo – 7 million roundsWho served in the First Contingent? Here they are and most were probably in action |
