Battle for Height 60 (Western Front)
Map of the battlefield
| date | April 17, 1915 to May 7, 1915 |
|---|---|
| place | Hollebeke |
| output | German victory |
| Parties to the conflict | |
|---|---|
| Commander | |
| Troop strength | |
| 5th Infantry Division | 30th Infantry Division |
| losses | |
|
approx. 3100 |
6000-10,000 |
.svg){kind=small}
The Battle of Height 60 in Flanders ( Belgium ) was a military confrontation during the First World War on the Western Front in the Wytschaete-Bogen near Ypres between German and Allied troops. The fighting in connection with the Second Battle of Flanders began in April 1915 and eventually spread to the entire area of the Wytschaete-Bogen. The skirmishes for control of Altitude 60 continued, with interruptions, until the Battle of Messines in June 1917.
The site
The terrain south of Zillebeke rises to a width of approx. Two kilometers to a ridge that extends between Zwarteleen and Zandvoorde. Roads traverse the area from northwest to southeast from Ypres to Verbrandenmoelen and Hollebeke and from Zillebeke to Zwartelen and Zandvoorde. The railway line from Ypres to Comines runs almost parallel to the Ypres-Zillebeke road and cuts through a foothill of the ridge over a length of 600 meters. The earth excavated to lay the track bed was piled up on both sides of the track to form low walls. On the ridge there were three small elevations, the highest point of the ridge was called height 60 . From here, observers had a good view of the area around Zillebeke and as far as Ypres. Therefore, the height 60 had an operationally important role for both attackers and defenders in trench warfare. As part of a flat range of hills in a semicircle east of Ypres between Zwarteleen and Zandvoorde , the ridge was conquered by the German 30th Division on November 11, 1914 during the First Battle of Flanders (October 19 to November 22, 1914) .
location
The French preparations for recapturing the ridge were taken over by the British 28th Division. This had replaced the French troops in this section of the front in February 1915, but handed it over to the British 5th Division under General Morland soon afterwards . The plan to take the altitude away was very optimistic, because no one had considered - or wanted to consider that the altitude could only be maintained if the neighboring crest (called "the Caterpillar" by the British) would also be conquered.
course
Combat operations in 1915
overview
The Allied troops obtained information about the position of the German units on the hill through aerial reconnaissance. A large-scale Allied attack from April 17th to May 7th 1915 was initially able to conquer the height 60 , but it was not possible for the British troops to hold the positions they had reached after the heavy counter-attacks of the German units. Large infantry attacks against strongly developed positions defended by machine guns , mine warfare and prolonged artillery fire as well as the first dogfights marked this phase. Both sides also accused each other of using poison gas in the fighting. German troops used gas grenades at the beginning of May and were able to regain the summit in the second attempt on May 5.
British preparations for attack
As the first British company of its kind, the Royal Engineers' Tunneling Companies dug six mines by April 10, 1915. The action had been ordered by Major-General Edward Bulfin , commander of the 28th Infantry Division and, after its replacement, the follow-up unit, the 5th Infantry Division. The two northern mines were each loaded with 2000 kilograms of explosives, the two middle mines with each 2700 kilograms of explosives and the two southern mines with 500 kilograms of gun cotton each . After it was discovered that a German counter tunnel had been approached too closely, the work was stopped. The area was monitored from the air by British airmen, who also photographed the German gun emplacements and trenches from the air. On April 16, the British artillery was in position and the infantry began to rally after dark. The 1st Squadron Royal Flying Corps (RFC) was given the task of keeping German aircraft away.
April 17th to 22nd
On April 17, 1915, the six mines were detonated at 7:05 p.m. There was a 10-second delay between the simultaneous ignition of the first two mines and the ignition of the remaining ones. The earth was thrown away vertically and horizontally up to 300 meters. There were some losses in the front attack battalion of the 13th Infantry Brigade of the 5th Infantry Division. The German trench garrison, consisting of a company from the Saxon 105th Infantry Regiment, was overwhelmed by those who resisted, stabbed with a bayonet. 20 men were taken prisoner. The British casualties were only seven men. The British began to settle down and by 12:30 a.m. had already dug two connecting trenches to the starting positions. The German artillery began to occupy the hill with strong fire, and from 4 a.m. three counter-attacks began, but they were repulsed with heavy losses for the attackers. German HE shells and gas shells came over from Zandvoorde and heavy machine gun fire from the neglected Caterpillar Hill, so the British had to retreat to their original positions. However, they were pushed back on their right flank. The German attacks lasted until around 6 p.m. on April 18, when the British were able to counterattack and regain the lost ground on their right wing. The German artillery continued to fire heavy fire on the hill, supporting the infantry attacks at 6:30 p.m. and 8:00 p.m. on April 20th. The attacks continued on April 21 and 22, but the British had to turn their attention to what was happening further north, where the French 45th Infantry Division had been badly affected by the first gas attack of the Second Battle of Flanders .
May 1st to 7th
Supported by heavy gas bombardment, Höhe 60 was recaptured by the Germans after violent attacks between May 1st and 5th.
On May 1, 1915, a first attack by the Germans failed. They had used heavy artillery and at 7:00 p.m. were discharging gas from cylinders from positions barely 100 meters from the British lines over a width of 250 meters. The gas reached the British positions so quickly that most of the British soldiers could no longer protect themselves with their makeshift gas masks. As soon as the gas reached the British trenches, the German attack forces immediately set off. At the same time, the German artillery kept the rear routes of the British under barrage in order to try to prevent reinforcements from being brought about. A small part of the British was able to hold the position, thus creating time for reinforcements who came forward despite the barrage and the gas cloud. The Germans were stopped and pushed back by hand grenade launchers. The 15th British Infantry Brigade held the hill ridge for a length of approximately 1.25 kilometers until another gas attack took place on May 5th at 8:45 am. Due to the favorable wind conditions, the gas cloud was not driven across the British lines, but pulled along them and filled them so massively that it was impossible to linger even with gas masks. Those who couldn't get to safety fell victim to the gas. German troops of the 30th Infantry Division occupied the entire British first line 15 minutes later. Reinforcements could not penetrate because of another gas attack at 11.00 a.m. against the northeastern side.
The right flank of the British defense was overwhelmed at Zwarteleen. However, enough men remained in the sector to prevent the German infantry from advancing further until a battalion, which had worked its way through the gas cloud and the barrage, arrived as reinforcements at 12 noon. Constant counterattacks pushed the German troops back and enabled the British to recapture part of the lost trenches. Another German gas attack at 7:00 p.m. had little success; the attacking infantry was repulsed by rifle fire. At 9:00 p.m. the British 13th Infantry Brigade received the order from the division commander, Major-General Morland, to retake the ridge. After a twenty-minute fire attack, the British advanced at 10 p.m., but found that the darkness, the troubled terrain and the German infantry alerted by the artillery made it impossible to advance. Only one department reached the top of the hill, but was caught in the crossfire by “Caterpillar” and Zwarteleen and had to retreat around 1:00 am. The summit could not be held as long as the "Caterpillar" was in German hands. Both sides were exhausted and buried themselves.
On the morning of May 7th, the hill was attacked by two companies of British infantry. They were accompanied by hand grenade launchers. All were killed or captured.
Aerial reconnaissance
The No. 1 Squadron of the RAF began its first flight of a permanent air patrol at 4:30 a.m. on April 17, 1915. Were used aircraft types Avro 504 and BI8 to the front between the Kemmelberg and Ypres educate. The surprise for the Germans was great and no German aircraft appeared first. The aerial reconnaissance was perfectly organized, the planes could report their observations directly to the headquarters of the 5th Division, which passed them on to the fighting troops via radio and light signals. British fighter pilots kept the German fighter planes away, the eight observation planes of the 1st Squadron were able to make out 33 German batteries, which were then fought by the British artillery and suffered losses as a result. The aerial reconnaissance continued until the end of the local fighting.
British losses
The April 7 attack cost the British only seven men in casualties. On May 1, however, the Dorset Regiment lost more than 90 men directly to gas poisoning, and a further 207 men were taken to the first aid station, where 46 died immediately afterwards and 12 a little later. The battalion deployed had only 72 survivors. The 1st Battalion of the Bedfordshire Regiment suffered similar losses. A total of 2413 British soldiers were brought to the field hospitals in the combat section, of which 227 died there. The British 13th Infantry Brigade lost 1,362 men from April 17-19, and the 15th Infantry Brigade lost 1,586 men from May 1-7. The total losses of the 5th British Infantry Division were 3,100 men.
After the fighting, the Victoria Cross was awarded to:
- Private Edward Dwyer, 1st Battalion East Surrey Regiment
- 2nd Lt. Benjamin Handley Geary, 4th Battalion East Surrey Regiment
- Lieutenant George Rowland Patrick Roupell, 1st Battalion East Surrey Regiment
- 2nd Lieutenant Geoffrey Harold Woolley, 9th Battalion London Regiment
- Private Edward Warner, 1st Battalion Bedfordshire Regiment
Combat operations in 1916
Between 1915 and October 1916, an existing French mine gallery below height 60 was expanded by experienced miners from Northumberland and Wales (175th Tunneling Company RE), as it was found that height 60 was not saturated with water. The mine passage started about 220 meters behind the British lines and passed them at a depth of 30 meters.
In April 1916, the Canadians of the 3rd Canadian Tunneling Company took over the section and finished the work. Overall, the facility now created consisted of a shared gallery ( Berlin Tunnel ) with two separate blasting chambers ( Hill 60 A and Hill 60 B ). The mine below height 60 was loaded with 33,500 kilograms in July and the branch ( Hill 60 B ) under the neighboring dome ( Caterpillar ) in October with 70,000 kilograms of explosives. All this despite the high humidity and the detonation of a German, 200-meter-long countermine, which put the British mines below at great risk.
In November 1916, the Canadians were replaced by the "1st Australian Tunneling Company", which kept the mines operational over the winter.
Combat operations in 1917
Finally, the two mines below level 60 - together with 17 other mines along the front line in the Wijtschatebogen - were detonated on June 7, 1917 at 3:10 a.m. The detonation of a total of 19 mines , loaded with a total of 450 tons of explosives, triggered the Battle of Messines .
The battlefield today
Today, parts of the former battlefield are designed as memorials and accessible to visitors. In the rouge zone , however, there are still a lot of ammunition and poison gas residues in the ground.
Cinematic reception
The use of the 1st Australian Tunneling Company at Höhe 60 is the subject of the 2010 Australian film Helden von Hill 60 ( English Beneath Hill 60 ) with Brendan Cowell in the lead role.
See also
literature
- Charles Bean: The Australian Imperial Force in France, 1917 (= Official History of Australia in the War of 1914-1918 . Volume IV ). University of Queensland in association with the Australian War Memorial, St Lucia, Queensland 1941, ISBN 0-7022-1710-7 ( awm.gov.au ( Memento of October 21, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) [PDF; accessed on March 23 2014]).
- Mark Osborne Humphries, John Maker: Germany's Western Front . tape 2: 1915 . Wilfrid Laurier University Press, Waterloo, ON 2010, ISBN 978-1-55458-259-4 ( muse.jhu.edu - German: The World War 1914 to 1918. The military operations on land . Berlin.).
- James Edward Edmonds: Military Operations France and Belgium, 1914: Antwerp, La Bassée, Armentières, Messines and Ypres, October – November 1914 (= History of the Great War Based on Official Documents by Direction of the Historical Section of the Committee of Imperial Defense . band II ). 1st ed. Macmillan, London 1925, OCLC 220044986 .
- JE Edmonds, GC Wynne: Military Operations France and Belgium, 1915: Winter 1914–1915: Battle of Neuve Chapelle: Battles of Ypres . Ed .: IWM and Battery Press 1995 (= History of the Great War Based on Official Documents by Direction of the Historical Section of the Committee of Imperial Defense . Volume I ). Macmillan, London 1927, ISBN 0-89839-218-7 .
- James Edward Edmonds: Military Operations France and Belgium 1917: June 7th - November 10th. Messines and Third Ypres (Passchendaele) . Ed .: IWM & Battery Press 1991 (= History of the Great War Based on Official Documents by Direction of the Historical Section of the Committee of Imperial Defense . Volume II ). HMSO , London 1948, ISBN 0-89839-166-0 .
- LF Ellis: The War in France and Flanders 1939–1940 . Ed .: N & M Press 2004 (= History of the Second World War: United Kingdom Military Series: Official Campaign History ). HMSO, London 1953, ISBN 1-84574-056-4 .
- S. Fuller: 1st Bedfordshires. Part one; Mons to the Somme . Fighting High, Hitchin 2011, ISBN 0-9562696-5-6 .
- HA Jones: The War in the Air, Being the Story of the Part Played in the Great War by the Royal Air Force . Ed .: N & M Press 2002. Volume II . Clarendon Press, London 1928, ISBN 1-84342-413-4 .
- AH Hussey, DS Inman: The Fifth Division in the Great War . Nisbet & Co., London 1921 ( archive.org ).
- I. Passingham: Pillars of Fire. The Battle of Messines Ridge, June 1917 . Sutton Publishing, Stroud 1998, ISBN 0-7509-1704-0 .
- O. Schwink: Ypres, 1914, an Official Account Published by Order of the German General Staff . Constable and Co, London 1919, OCLC 3288637 ( archive.org [English] and archive.org [German] - German: The battle of the Yser and Ypres in autumn 1914. Oldenburg 1918. Translated by GC Wynne, English translation of the German Output).
- G. Sheffield, D. Todman: Command and Control on the Western Front. The British Army's Experience 1914-1918 . Spellmount, Staplehurst 2004, ISBN 1-86227-083-X .
- Tonie Holt, Valmai Holt: Major & Mrs Holt's Battlefield Guide to the Ypres Salient & Passchendaele. Pen & Sword Books Ltd, Barnsley 2014, ISBN 978-0-85052-551-9 .
- J. Sheldon: The German Army on the Western Front 1915 . Pen and Sword, Barnsley 2012, ISBN 978-1-84884-466-7 .
Web links
- A. Jennings: World War One Battlefields: Flanders: Hill 60 (map and photographs) . Retrieved September 9, 2013.
Footnotes
- ↑ Edmonds Wynne 1927 p. 170.
- ↑ Fuller 2011 pp. 128-130.
- ^ Fuller 2011 pp. 132-138.
- ↑ Edmonds Wynne 1927 pp. 289, 306.
- ↑ Major & Mrs. Holt's Battlefield Guide to the Ypres Salient & Passchendaele. Pp. 116-119 and 247-248.
- ↑ Edmonds 1948 p. 60.
- ↑ Bean 1933 pp. 949-959.
- ↑ Heroes of Hill 60 on IMDB
Coordinates: 50 ° 49 '17 " N , 2 ° 55' 54" E