THE BELGIAN ODYSSEY: YPRES– THE FIRST TOXIC GAS ATTACK IN HISTORY -
THE BELGIAN ODYSSEY: YPRES– THE FIRST TOXIC GAS ATTACK IN HISTORY -
Author(s): Aurel IACOBESCUSubject(s): Military history, Studies in violence and power, Pre-WW I & WW I (1900 -1919), Peace and Conflict Studies
Published by: Centrul tehnic-editorial al armatei
Keywords: First Word War; Schlieffen Plan; frontier battles; toxic gas; Menin Gate Memorial;
Summary/Abstract: The diplomatic illusions of the old Europe were shattered when the troop trains started rolling in August 1914. The military illusions of the general staff had expired in the bloody trenches of Gallipoli and Neuve-Chapelle. The combatants realised that Europe’s Great War was a conflict far beyond the confines of any previous experience. The stage was set for the mass battles of 1916, the waging of Total War. The armies of many nations fought in the Salient, but Ypres has become particularly linked with the Commonwealth forces who served here continuously from October 1914 to the end of the First World War. By the time the last shells fell on Ypres in October 1918, the Salient had claimed 185,000 Commonwealth lives. More than 100,000 of these men have no known grave.
Journal: Romanian Military Thinking
- Issue Year: 2016
- Issue No: 4
- Page Range: 88-96
- Page Count: 9
- Language: English
