On 4 August 1914 the German armies invaded neutral Belgium.
In the summer months after that most of Belgium was overran by Germany.
However, here...
King Albert I of Belgium stood fast against the German onslaught.
In this video you are gonna learn about the Yser Front of WW1.
Keep watching.
Good to have you back on the channel.
If you're new: my name is Stefan; I'm a Dutch history teacher and I create videos about
history for you.
Preferably I do that on location, like right now: I'm here near the Yser in Belgium and
here on this place the Belgian Army led by King Albert I stood fast against the Germans.
If you find this interesting please consider subscribing and don't forget to hit the notification
bell. Let's start!
On 4 August German troops crossed the German-Belgian border.
The German Schlieffen Plan was put into action and it was all about speed.
The Germans marched on Liège, which was surrended by heavy fortresses.
With their siege howitzers Big Bertha these fortresses were pulverized.
Next was Namur which was soon taken by the same tactics.
The French that wanted to help the Belgians in their defence were halted at the Battle
of Charleroi and the British were stopped at the Battle of Mons after which they retreated.
The Belgians retreated further to Antwerp.
Towards the end of September the Germans laid siege to Antwerp.
The city would hold out for less than two weeks.
That month the so-called Race to the Sea commenced.
The goal was not to reach the sea as soon as possible, the goal of the Germans and the
British & the French was to outflank the other party.
It led to several severe clashes at Ypres and the Yser.
The Belgians that arrived from Antwerpen were basically a broken army. However, King Albert I managed to recover his army.
Their six divisions had been reduced in strength to 60,000 men and they had to guard ten miles
of flat and featureless terrain.
King Albert I was determined to defend his homeland, or basically what was left of it.
“King Albert rallied the Belgian troops.
He was a competent soldier and a young man of considerable courage.
He was also motivated: Foch had sternly warned him that if he failed to hold this last sliver
of Belgium, he could not expect to retain his throne after the war.
His Majesty positioned noncommissioned officers behind his line with orders to shoot any man
who tried to retreat.”
Here on the Yser the Belgians laid out plans on what to
do if the lines were broken.
Plans were laid out to inundate the surrounding countryside.
The German shellfire was murderous and soon one third of the Belgian soldiers were put out of action.
And then on 27 October 1914 King Albert I played his last trump card.
He opened up the sluices.
In some places dynamite was used.
The advancing Germans they thinking a victory was in sight, and they noticed too the water levels were rising.
But they didn't know it was sea water and they weren't aware of the plans of King Albert I.
Soon they were wading through high water and they had to pull back.
Behind me you see see the Trench of Death (a.k.a. De Dodengang).
It is here where thousands of Belgian soldiers died in their fight against the Germans between
October 1914 till September 1918.
The Trench of Death was an advanced post in the defense system and formed a bulge towards
the German positions.
German forces crossed the Yser at Tervate on the night of 21 to 22 October 1914.
Until 1915, the Belgian positions around the death tunnel were no deeper than half a meter.
They were then deepened and reinforced with a signal post, machine gun nests and a narrow
gauge railway for the supply of ammunition and soldiers.
To prevent the Germans from taking the positions, there was an extension that had to stop the
advance, 'de Ruitersschans'.
The Belgian and German trenches were only a few meters apart, raids sometimes took place.
As a protection against this, the 'mouse trap' has been constructed at the end of the Trench
of Death.
Barbed wire, clamping irons and a bunker with embrasures kept the Germans away for good.
During the war King Albert I remained close to the front.
He refused to let his Belgian Army fight in the Allied offensives during the war.
In a conversation with his minister in December 1916 he said the following:
"I maintain that as long as I am here I will oppose everything which spills the blood of
our soldiers uselessly on bloody and repetitive exercises that are doomed to failure.
I do not hesitate to say that [...] I find this thinking dangerous, leading to a war
of excess dangerous and risking the sacrifice of thousands of men without gain..."
As a result of Albert's action the Belgians and the Germans were seperated by a five-mile-wide,
shoulder-deep lake between Nieuwpoort and Diksmuide.
Because of the flooding the hygienic situation deteriorated and led to the death of 14,000
people.
On the flipside: not doing this would've probably led to the Germans breaking through.
On 28 September 1918 King Albert I led his Belgian troops on the advance.
And the Germans were pushed back.
He started the liberation of his country and on 11 November 1918 the First World War came to an end.
If you like to learn how WW1 started, click here. And if you like to know how it actually ended, click right here.
I wanna thank you for watching and best wishes from the Yser, in Flandres, in Belgium.