The Second Battle of Ypres

The Second Battle of Ypres began on 22 April 1915 when the German Fourth Army attacked the northern and eastern faces of the Ypres Salient. It was the first large-scale use of chlorine gas on the Western Front. The gas struck the French 45th (Algerian) and 87th (Territorial) Divisions north of the 1st Canadian Division, causing severe disorganisation and opening a gap several miles wide.

The 1st Canadian Division fought to keep that gap from being exploited and to protect the approaches to Ypres. As Allied reserves became dangerously scarce, the 3rd (Lahore) Division of the Indian Army was rushed north from rest. The Lahore troops moved through Boeschepe and Ouderdom toward Wieltje after exhausting forced marches, entering a battlefield already filled with shellfire, gas casualties and retreating wounded.

The Canadian and Indian forces generally did not make the same battalion-level assault together. Their cooperation was operational: Canadians contained the initial breakthrough, and the Lahore Division was then committed to counter-attack the new German positions.

A particularly direct connection occurred on 27 April, when Canadian artillery supported the renewed French and Lahore Division attack.

The first chlorine cloud broke much of the French front and exposed the Canadian left. Canadian troops rapidly shifted positions and counter-attacked. The 10th and 16th Battalions made the night attack at Kitchener's Wood, while the rest of the division fought to construct a new defensive line around Gravenstafel and St. Julien.

On 24 April chlorine was released directly against the Canadians, falling most heavily on the 8th and 15th Battalions at the junction of the 2nd and 3rd Brigades. The division was forced back but prevented the Germans from turning the rupture into a decisive breakthrough.

The Lahore Division was warned to move on 23 April. It undertook long marches over steep, slippery pavé roads and reached the Ypres area already exhausted. From Mont des Cats the troops could see the bombardment around Ypres. During the final approach to Wieltje they passed wounded men moving to the rear, including soldiers blinded and coughing from gas. The 40th Pathans suffered about 23 casualties from a single shell before the main assault even began.

By late morning the Lahore Division deployed between the Ypres–Langemarck road and Wieltje. The Ferozepore Brigade formed the left assault formation, the Jullundur Brigade the right, and the Sirhind Brigade remained in reserve. The German trenches were roughly 1,500 yards away beyond Hill Top Ridge.

After a short and inadequate bombardment the attack began shortly after 2 p.m. The first part of the advance was partly screened by Hill Top Ridge, but once the infantry crossed the crest it had to descend in full view of German machine guns and artillery, cross a small stream, then climb an exposed slope toward the German line. Reconnaissance was poor, the exact trench position uncertain, and the artillery too light to destroy the defences.

The 40th Pathans, 47th Sikhs, 57th Wilde's Rifles, 129th Baluchis, Connaught Rangers and 1st Manchesters suffered devastating losses. The 47th Sikhs lost 348 of the 444 men committed — about 78 per cent. Across the two assault brigades, losses approached 2,000 in the day's fighting. The Germans later released more chlorine, intensifying the confusion and forcing much of the attacking force back.

Some troops remained dangerously far forward. Major Deacon's Connaught Rangers held an exposed position near the German line. Jemadar Mir Dast, attached to the 57th Wilde's Rifles, rallied scattered and gassed survivors after the officers around him had been killed or wounded, held them until withdrawal was ordered, and repeatedly helped carry wounded British and Indian officers to safety.

The Sirhind Brigade moved forward to relieve exhausted troops, while the 3rd Sappers and Miners and 34th Sikh Pioneers helped consolidate communications and the line.

The 1/1st and 1/4th Gurkha Rifles led the renewed Sirhind Brigade attack, supported by the 4th King's (Liverpool), 1st Highland Light Infantry and 15th Ludhiana Sikhs, with the Ferozepore remnants attacking on the right. Canadian artillery supported the French and Indian advance on 27 April. The attack again ran into machine-gun fire, artillery and intact barbed wire. Elements of the 4th King's advanced to within roughly 200 yards of the German position, but the wire and defensive fire made further progress impossible.

Further attacks were reduced or cancelled. The Jullundur and Ferozepore Brigades withdrew during the night of 29–30 April. On 1 May the Sirhind Brigade made one final attempt, but the Germans remained entrenched and the French were unable to make the required progress on the left. The brigade was ordered to collect the wounded, bury the dead and withdraw. The Lahore Division had lost 3,889 men from 24 April to 1 May — about 30 per cent of the force deployed.

After the front was shortened, the German attack shifted to the new British positions. On 8 May six German divisions attacked the British 27th and 28th Divisions. Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry held the exposed left flank of the 27th Division near Bellewaarde Ridge. Its machine-gun positions were badly hit, and every available man — including signallers, batmen and orderlies — was used in the defence. The PPCLI suffered almost 400 casualties that day; when finally relieved, it was reduced to four officers and about 150 men.

Figures vary by source because historians use slightly different date ranges and accounting systems. Canadian and Lahore Division figures are subsets of the British Empire and Allied totals and should not be added to them again.

Germany gained substantial ground and forced the Allies to compress the Ypres Salient, but the German Fourth Army did not capture Ypres or destroy the Allied position. The offensive demonstrated that poison gas could rupture an unprepared line, but it also showed that a breakthrough still required reserves, artillery and coordination to exploit the opening. By the end of the battle the Allies held a smaller and more exposed salient around Ypres.

Second Ypres was the 1st Canadian Division's first major battle. Its resistance at Gravenstafel and St. Julien prevented the gas-created gap from becoming a strategic collapse. The division suffered about 6,000 casualties in only a few days. The actions of Fisher, Hall, Bellew and Scrimger produced four Victoria Crosses and helped establish a Canadian reputation for determination under extreme conditions. The later PPCLI defence at Frezenberg reinforced that reputation at enormous cost.

For the Lahore Division, Second Ypres was an important operational contribution to the Allied defence of the salient. The division was rushed forward at a critical moment, helped contain the German advance, maintained pressure on the new German positions, and then helped consolidate and stabilise the Allied front. Its soldiers did this despite inadequate reconnaissance and artillery preparation, terrain dominated by German machine guns, poison gas, and intact wire.

The division did not achieve its immediate tactical objective of taking the German positions on Mauser Ridge, but its attacks and subsequent consolidation work contributed to preventing a wider German breakthrough and keeping Ypres in Allied hands. The cost was severe: 3,889 casualties, roughly 30 per cent of the troops deployed, while the 47th Sikhs alone lost about 78 per cent of the men committed on 26 April.

The battle also produced some of the clearest examples of comradeship inside the Indian Army: Mir Dast carried both British and Indian officers to safety; Sikh soldiers rescued wounded comrades under fire; Indian pioneers restored communications; and British battalions embedded within the Lahore brigades suffered alongside their Indian counterparts.