battlestimeline.docVIP

Name: ________________________ Class:__________ Ypres 1915. In the first week of April 1915 the Canadian troops were moved from their quiet sector (section) to a bulge in the Allied line in front of the City of Ypres.? On the Canadian right were two British divisions, and on their left a French division, the 45th Algerian. Here on April 22 the Germans sought to break the stalemate (no one winning) by introducing a new weapon, poison gas. Following an intensive artillery bombardment, they released 160 tons of chlorine gas into a light northeast wind. As thick clouds of yellow-green chlorine drifted over their trenches the French defences crumbled, and the troops, unprotected, their lungs burning, died or broke and fled (ran away), leaving a gaping four-mile hole in the Allied line. German troops pressed forward threatening to sweep behind the Canadian trenches and put fifty thousand Canadian and British troops in peril. Fortunately the Germans had planned only a limited offensive and, without enough reserves, and were unable to exploit the gap the gas created. After advancing only two miles they stopped and dug in. All through the night the Canadian troops fought to close the gap. In addition they mounted a counter attack to drive the enemy out of Kitcheners Wood, an oak plantation near St. Julien. In the morning two more disastrous attacks were made against enemy positions. Little ground was gained and casualties were extremely heavy, but these attacks bought some precious time to close the flank. The grimmer battle of St. Julien lay ahead. On April 24 the Germans attacked in an attempt to destroy the section once and for all. Another violent bombardment was followed by another gas attack in the same pattern as before. This time the target was the Canadian line. Here through terrible fighting, withered with shrapnel and machine-gun fire, hampered by rifles which jammed, violently ill and gasping for air through mud-soaked handkerchiefs, they held on until reinfo