German postcard map of the Western Front in Flanders, looking south and including Lille, Arras, Calais, and Ostend. In the Battle of the Yser in October, 1914, the Belgian Army held the territory south of the Yser Canal, visible between Nieuport, Dixmude, and Ypres (Ypern). Further north is Passchendaele, which British forces took at great cost in 1917.

Der Kanal

Straße von Calais



The English Channel and the Strait of Calais



Reverse:

Panorama des westlichen Kriegsschauplatzes 1914/15 Von Arras bis Ostende.

Die Panorama-Postkartenreihe umfaßt mit ihren 9 Abschnitten Nr. 400 bis 408 den gesamten westlichen Kriegsschauplatz von der Schweizer Grenze bis zur Nordseeküste.



Panorama of the western theater of operations 1914/15 from Arras to Ostend. The panoramic postcard series includes nine sections, with their No. 400-408 the entire western battlefield from the Swiss border to the North Sea coast.



Nr. 408

Wenau-Postkarte Patentamtl. gesch.

Other views: Larger, Larger, Back

Lille, France, was a major manufacturing center and fortress city on the Deûle River near the Belgian border.

In the 1914 Race to the Sea, General Ferdinand Foch attempted to convince British commander Sir John French to hold Lille. The British failed and the city was lost on October 8, 1914.

German authorities seized about 25,000 civilians in April, 1916 from the occupied French cities of Lille, Roubaix, and Tourcoing. Mothers with children under 14 were spared. Girls under 20 were seized if accompanied by a family member. Men were put to work in agriculture, road repair, trench digging, and munitions manufacturing. Women labored as cooks and laundresses for soldiers, and as servants for officers. The order by General von Graevenitz authorizing the deportations claimed they provided a means to provision the population of the occupied territories, which had become 'more and more difficult' because of the 'attitude of England', presumably as evidenced by its blockade of Germany.

On October 8, 1918, British armies, marching from the south, turned the region of Lille as the Flanders Group of Armies closed on the city from the north. German forces evacuated Lille in their retreat of October 17 to 23, 1918.

Lille, France is a city in France.

Statistics for Lille (1)

Type	Statistic
Population	205,602