GERMAN ATTACK ON YPRES FAILS

On Monday, April 29, the German 4th army under General von Arnim, having gained possession of Mount Kemmel, a dominating position, began a general assault on the British hill positions on the Kemmel front, southwest of Ypres.  The intention was to capture Ypres forthwith, by the overwhelming power of numbers, and the day’s fighting was a crucial test of the holding power of the Allies in the Ypres salient.  The result of the attack was a stunning defeat for the enemy, who was repulsed all along the line and suffered frightful losses.

In the words of a French general, “It was a great day for the Allies!” The repulse of the German attack was a real defeat, for it upset all the confident calculations of the enemy, who from the height of Mount Kemmel had seen, first Ypres, and then channel ports, within his grasp.  It brought disappointment and disillusion to his troops, who had been urged on to their disastrous massed attacks by flamboyant promises of success.  The effect was seen in a renewal of German peace propaganda, which all the Allies had learned by this time to disregard as unworthy of the slightest serious attention.

“Extraordinary nervousness and depression prevail in Germany, owing to the losses in the western offensive,” said Reuter’s correspondent at Amsterdam on April 29, quoting a German military writer, Capt. von Salzmann, who said:  “Our losses have been enormous.  The offensive in the west has arrived at a deadlock.  The enemy is much stronger than our supreme command assumed.  The region before Ypres is a great lake, and therefore impassable.  The whole country between our Amiens front and Paris is mined and will be blown up should we attempt to pass.”

The preliminary bombardment southwest of Ypres April 29 started in the early morning and took in the ten-mile front from Meteren, west of Bailleul, to Voormezeele, two miles south of Ypres.  Infantry attacks in this area followed with great fury, and sanguinary fighting continued all day.  The Germans at the outset advanced with fixed bayonets, but they came under such an intense machine-gun fire that most of them were never able to employ the steel.  The French at Locre and the British at Voormezeele repulsed every attack, thrusting the enemy back whenever he gained a footing in advanced positions, and firmly holding every point around Ypres at the end of the day.

General von Arnim’s losses were particularly staggering at Locre, where he used battalion after battalion in a vain attempt to hold the village, a key to Mount Rouge.  The previous German capture of Mount Kemmel did the enemy little good, for the Allied artillery kept the crest of the hill so smothered with shell fire that it was impossible for the Huns to occupy it in force.

The attack, which was the fourth great battle of Ypres, was the biggest effort the Germans had made in the Flanders offensive, the enemy employing thirty fresh battalions of reserves, in addition to the large number of divisions in position at the beginning of the battle.  The net result was a tremendous setback for the Germans, who paid an awful price.  Next morning the battlefield in front of the defenders’ positions was covered with the bodies of gray-uniformed men.