Battle of the Lys | |||||||
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Part of the Invasion of Belgium of World War II | |||||||
Final defensive positions of the Allies along the Lys River | |||||||
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Belligerents | |||||||
Belgium France [2] United Kingdom [2] | Germany | ||||||
Commanders and leaders | |||||||
Leopold III (POW) Oscar Michiels (POW) Georges Blanchard Alan Brooke | Fedor von Bock Georg von Küchler | ||||||
Strength | |||||||
500,000 [3] | 12 divisions [4] | ||||||
Casualties and losses | |||||||
40,000+ casualties | Unknown 320–400+ captured |
The Battle of the Lys (French : Bataille de la Lys, Dutch : Leieslag) was a major battle between Belgian and German forces during the German invasion of Belgium of 1940 and the final major battle fought by Belgian troops before their surrender on 28 May. The battle was the bloodiest of the 18 Days' Campaign. The battle was named after the Leie (French: Lys), the river at which the battlefield occurred.
On 24 May, a heavy German attack forced Allied troops to fall back at Kortrijk over the Lys to the 1st and 3rd Belgian divisions. The Belgians had been persuaded to abandon the Scheldt and withdraw to relieve British troops for an Allied counter-offensive, but that strategically did little to alleviate the situation at the front. [5] With the Allied line facing four German divisions, the 9th and 10th Belgian Divisions rushed in to reinforce the position. The Belgian II Army Corps launched a counter-attack and captured 200 German soldiers. [6] Belgian artillery opened up effectively on the Germans, but Allied lines were subject to numerous bombing raids and strafing runs, with negligible air support of their own. A German division from Menen moved up to Ypres, threatening to cut the Belgian Army off from the British. The Belgians' 2nd Cavalry Brigade and 6th Infantry Division came in to support the area and managed to hold off the Germans. [6]
On 25 May, the British, realizing that further counteroffensives were no longer possible, began to withdraw to the port of Dunkirk. All hopes of saving the Belgian Army were lost. It became clear from this point on that all the Belgians could do was buy enough time for the Allies to evacuate. [6] The British spared a brigade and a machine gun battalion, their only reserves, to assist in the delay. At 06:30, the 12th Royal Lancers, an armoured car regiment, was dispatched to the north of the Lys to cover the left flank of the British 2nd Army Corps and reestablish contact with the Belgians in the area. The regiment reported that the Belgians were retreating in the face of superior forces, and they themselves sporadically engaged the Germans. [7] In an order to his troops that day, King Leopold III informed the Army, "Whatever may happen, I shall share your fate". [6] Low morale prompted sections of the Belgian 5th and 17th regiments to surrender the bridgehead at Meigem without a fight. That was in direct contradiction of their officer's orders, which were ignored. In one instance, fed-up soldiers shot their superiors. [8] The elite Chasseurs Ardennais were deployed to the small village of Vinkt. Here the 1st Division successfully repulsed numerous attacks by Germany's 56th Infantry Division. Lieutenant Colonel George Davy, head of the British Military Mission to the Belgian Army Headquarters, was informed that the Belgians would be unable to extend their front any further. Starting that night, 2,000 wagons were lined up side by side along the rail line from Roeselare to Ypres to act as an improvised anti-tank barrier.
By 26 May the Allied position was becoming desperate. The Belgians were struggling to hold Izegem, Nevele, and Ronsele. The Chasseurs Ardennais held their ground against the 56th division, which was subsequently replaced by the 225th Infantry Division. [8] The German 256th Infantry Division managed to cross over the canal at Balgerhoeck and attack Eeklo. [9] The Belgian Lanciers Regiment abandoned Passchendaele and Zonnebeke, and British engineers blew up the Menin Gate bridge. [3] Fresh German units threatened to split the Belgian and British lines, but their attack was blunted by a Belgian infantry division and a cavalry division. An additional infantry division maintained the integrity of the defensive line. [10] All of Belgium's reserves were deployed, and auxiliary troops began arming themselves with 75mm guns from training centers to form the rear. [9] The Belgian Command began resorting to flooding the canals to contain the Germans. [6] At midday the Belgian Army informed the French head of the mission to the Army Headquarters, General Pierre Champon that "the Army has nearly reached the limits of its endurance". [8] At 18:00, French General Georges Blanchard arrived to inform Leopold that the British were withdrawing further to the rear on the Lille-Ypres line. [6] Lord Gort ordered Major General Harold Franklyn to man the dry Comines-Ypres Canal with the 5th Infantry Division to cover the withdrawal towards Dunkirk. [11] That evening, Leopold began making plans to relocate his headquarters to Middelkerke.
The Belgian Army began to collapse on 27 May. The railways were out of service, the roads were clogged with 1.5 million refugees (in addition to the 800,000 people already living in the area), ammunition and food were running low and no fresh troops were available. The Belgians began destroying their artillery as they exhausted their munitions and retreated. By 11:00, the line had been breached north of Maldegem, in the centre near Ursel and to the right near Thielt and Roeselare. Bruges was the only major Belgian city not yet taken by the Germans. At 16:00, the Chasseurs Ardennais were forced to abandon Vinkt, which left the Germans in control. [8] They had lost 39 men while managing to kill 170 Germans. [3] In the subsequent Vinkt massacre, 86 civilians in the village were killed by vengeful German troops. However, a counterattack by the 4th Carabiners Cyclists at Knesselaere yielded 120 [3] –200 [12] German prisoners.
Around the same time, the Belgian Command came to accept: [6]
"(1) From the national point of view, the Belgian Army had carried out its task; it had resisted to the limit of its capacity; its units were unable to continue the fight. There could be no retreat to the Yser; it would do more to destroy the units than the fighting in progress; it would increase the congestion of the Allied forces to the highest pitch;
(2) from the international point of view, the dispatch of an envoy to ask for terms for the cessation of hostilities would have the advantage of allowing the Allies the night of the 27th–28th and part of the morning of the 28th, an interval that, if the fighting were continued, could be gained only at the cost of the complete destruction of the Army".
The Belgian army's chief of staff, Lieutenant General Oscar Michiels, recommended that a representative be sent to the Germans to negotiate a ceasefire. [13] At 17:00, Leopold decided to send the army's deputy chief of staff, Major General Olivier Derousseaux, to the headquarters of the German 18th Army. Two French Army divisions were withdrawn via truck towards Dunkirk while Belgian flags and battle standards were hidden for safekeeping. A final order of retreat was issued from the Belgian Army headquarters at 20:00. [14] General Derousseaux returned at 22:00 hours with the reply: "The Führer demands that arms be laid down unconditionally". [6] King Leopold was disappointed by the demand but acknowledged that there were no options for the Belgian Army. At 23:00, with the full support of his staff, he accepted the demand and agreed to a ceasefire at 04:00.
The Belgians laid down their arms at 04:00 on 28 May. Fighting continued at the Roeselare-Ypres line until 06:00, when the troops stationed there finally received the order to capitulate. Leopold made one final proclamation to his men: [6]
"Plunged unexpectedly into a war of unparalleled violence, you have fought courageously to defend your homeland step by step. Exhausted by an uninterrupted struggle against an enemy very much superior in numbers and material, we have been forced to surrender. History will relate that the Army did its duty to the full. Our Honour is safe. This violent fighting, these sleepless nights, cannot have been in vain. I enjoin you not to be disheartened, but to bear yourselves with dignity. Let your attitude and your discipline continue to win you the esteem of the foreigner. I shall not leave you in our misfortune, and I shall watch over your future and that of your families. Tomorrow we will set to work with the firm intention of raising our country from its ruins."
In spite of the Belgians' attempts to delay the Germans for as long as possible, the surrender angered the Allies, whose armies' north-western flank was now vulnerable to German attack. French civilians became increasingly hostile to Belgians in their midst. [15]
The battle was one of the bloodiest of the Belgian campaign. Of Belgium's 80,000 casualties from the invasion, 40,000 occurred between 25 and 27 May. [3]
On 30 May, General Michiels gave a speech to all the senior Belgian officers to thank them for their service. [13]
Leopold's decision to remain with his army and surrender was seen as traitorous by Hubert Pierlot and the Belgian government in exile. After the war, public suspicion of his loyalties would lead to the Royal Question. In the end, Leopold abdicated the throne in favor of his son.
In the Albertpark, in the centre of Kortrijk, the Battle of the Lys is commemorated every year near the city's Monument of the Lys. [1]
The Battle of Dunkirk was fought around the French port of Dunkirk (Dunkerque) during the Second World War, between the Allies and Nazi Germany. As the Allies were losing the Battle of France on the Western Front, the Battle of Dunkirk was the defence and evacuation of British and other Allied forces to Britain from 26 May to 4 June 1940.
The Dunkirk evacuation, codenamed Operation Dynamo and also known as the Miracle of Dunkirk, or just Dunkirk, was the evacuation of more than 338,000 Allied soldiers during the Second World War from the beaches and harbour of Dunkirk, in the north of France, between 26 May and 4 June 1940. The operation commenced after large numbers of Belgian, British, and French troops were cut off and surrounded by German troops during the six-week Battle of France.
The First Battle of Ypres was a battle of the First World War, fought on the Western Front around Ypres, in West Flanders, Belgium. The battle was part of the First Battle of Flanders, in which German, French, Belgian armies and the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) fought from Arras in France to Nieuwpoort (Nieuport) on the Belgian coast, from 10 October to mid-November. The battles at Ypres began at the end of the Race to the Sea, reciprocal attempts by the German and Franco-British armies to advance past the northern flank of their opponents. North of Ypres, the fighting continued in the Battle of the Yser (16–31 October), between the German 4th Army, the Belgian army and French marines.
The Battle of the Yser was a battle of the First World War that took place in October 1914 between the towns of Nieuwpoort and Diksmuide, along a 35 km (22 mi) stretch of the Yser River and the Yperlee Canal, in Belgium. The front line was held by a large Belgian force, which halted the German advance in a costly defensive battle.
The Battle of the Lys, also known as the Fourth Battle of Ypres, was fought from 7 to 29 April 1918 and was part of the German spring offensive in Flanders during the First World War. It was originally planned by General Erich Ludendorff as Operation George but was reduced to Operation Georgette, with the objective of capturing Ypres, forcing the British forces back to the Channel ports and out of the war. In planning, execution and effects, Georgette was similar to Operation Michael, earlier in the Spring Offensive.
The Vinkt massacre was a war crime committed by German soldiers in the villages of Vinkt and Meighem in East Flanders on 26–28 May 1940 during the Battle of the Lys. Between 86 and 140 civilians were deliberately killed by Wehrmacht troops from the 377th Infantry Regiment of the 225th Infantry Division, supposedly in retaliation for the Belgian Army's resistance in the village.
The Bataillon de Chasseurs Ardennais is an infantry formation in the Land Component of the Belgian Armed Forces. Originally formed in 1933 to ensure the defense of Belgium's Luxembourg Province including the natural region of the Ardennes and particularly noted for its role during the German invasion of 1940, the unit currently serves as a mechanized infantry formation and forms part of the Motorized Brigade.
The siege of Lille or Lille pocket took place during the Battle of France in the Second World War. The siege of the French IV Corps and V Corps of the First Army was conducted by four German infantry divisions supported by three panzer divisions.
The British Expeditionary Force (BEF) was the contingent of the British Army sent to France in 1939 after Britain and France declared war on Nazi Germany on 3 September, beginning the Second World War. The BEF existed from 2 September 1939 when the BEF GHQ was formed until 31 May 1940, when GHQ closed down and its troops reverted to the command of Home Forces. During the 1930s, the British government had planned to deter war by abolishing the Ten Year Rule and rearming from the very low level of readiness of the early 1930s. The bulk of the extra money went to the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force but plans were made to re-equip a small number of Army and Territorial Army divisions for service overseas.
The invasion of Belgium or Belgian campaign, often referred to within Belgium as the 18 Days' Campaign, formed part of the larger Battle of France, an offensive campaign by Germany during the Second World War. It took place over 18 days in May 1940 and ended with the German occupation of Belgium following the surrender of the Belgian Army.
The Battle of La Bassée was fought by German and Franco-British forces in northern France in October 1914, during reciprocal attempts by the contending armies to envelop the northern flank of their opponent, which has been called the Race to the Sea. The 6th Army took Lille before a British force could secure the town and the 4th Army attacked the exposed British flank further north at Ypres. The British were driven back and the German army occupied La Bassée and Neuve Chapelle. Around 15 October, the British recaptured Givenchy-lès-la-Bassée but failed to recover La Bassée.
The Battle of Armentières was fought by German and Franco-British forces in northern France in October 1914, during reciprocal attempts by the armies to envelop the northern flank of their opponent, which has been called the Race to the Sea. Troops of the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) moved north from the Aisne front in early October and then joined in a general advance with French troops further south, pushing German cavalry and Jäger back towards Lille until 19 October. German infantry reinforcements of the 6th Army arrived in the area during October.
The Battle of Boulogne in 1940 was the defence of the port of Boulogne-sur-Mer by French, British and Belgian troops in the Battle of France during the Second World War. The battle was fought at the same time as the Siege of Calais, just before Operation Dynamo, the evacuation of the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) from Dunkirk. After the Franco-British counter-attack at the Battle of Arras on 21 May, German units were held ready to resist a resumption of the attack on 22 May. General der Panzertruppe (Lieutenant-General) Heinz Guderian, the commander of XIX Corps, protested that he wanted to rush north up the Channel coast to capture Boulogne, Calais and Dunkirk. An attack by part of XIX Corps was not ordered until 12:40 p.m. on 22 May, by which time the Allied troops at Boulogne had been reinforced from England by most of the 20th Guards Brigade.
The Battle of the Ypres–Comines Canal was a battle of the Second World War fought between the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) and German Army Group B during the BEF's retreat to Dunkirk in 1940. Part of the Battle of Belgium and the much larger Battle of France, it started in the afternoon of 26 May and reached its maximum intensity on 27 and 28 May. Locally it is referred to as the Battle of the Canal and it is sometimes incorrectly referred to as the Battle of Wytschaete. Its official British Army name, which is borne on the battle honours of a number of regiments, is that given here.
The siege of Ypres saw a Republican French army commanded by Jean-Charles Pichegru invest the fortress of Ypres and its 7,000-man garrison composed of Habsburg Austrians under Paul von Salis and Hessians led by Heinrich von Borcke and Georg von Lengerke. French troops under Joseph Souham fended off three relief attempts by the corps of François Sébastien Charles Joseph de Croix, Count of Clerfayt. Meanwhile, the French besiegers led by Jean Victor Marie Moreau compelled the Coalition defenders to surrender the city. The fighting occurred during the War of the First Coalition, part of the Wars of the French Revolution. In 1794 Ypres was part of the Austrian Netherlands, but today it is a municipality in Belgium, located about 120 kilometres (75 mi) west of Brussels.
The 4th Infantry Division(4de Infanterie Divisie) was an infantry division of the Belgian Army that existed until the Battle of Belgium during the Second World War.
The 225th Infantry Division was an infantry division of the German Heer during World War II.
The 9th Infantry Division was an Infantry Division of the Belgian Army that fought in the Battle of Belgium during the Second World War.
The 15th Infantry Division(15de Infanterie Divisie) was an infantry division of the Belgian Army that fought in the Battle of Belgium against the Wehrmacht during the Second World War.
Operation David was the codename for the deployment of the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) into Belgium at the start of the Battle of Belgium during the Second World War. On the same day as the German invasion of neutral Belgium, 10 May 1940, the BEF moved forward from their prepared defences on the Franco-Belgian border to take up a new position deep inside Belgium, conforming to plans made by the French high command. Forming a defensive line with French and Belgian forces on either side, the BEF were able to contain attacks by German infantry divisions, but were unaware that this was a diversion; the main thrust by highly mobile German armoured divisions was further south. To avoid complete encirclement, the BEF and their allies were forced into a series of fighting retreats and ended up back at their initial border positions by 24 May. However, the German spearhead had reached the coast behind them, cutting them off from their supply chain and leading to the Dunkirk evacuation of the BEF in the following days.