A map of the Belgian battlefield from Bruges to Ostend and the Belgian coast to Blankenburg. German forces took Ostend on October 17, 1914. Bruges was an important German submarine base with canals connecting it to the North Sea ports of Ostend and Zeebrugge, ports the British attacked the night of April 22–23, 1918 in an attempt to block the canals. Zeebrugge is just off the map to the right.

Belgischer Kriegsschauplatz

Ostende, Blankenberghe u. Brügge

Belgian battlefield

Ostend, Bruges and Blankenberghe

Reverse:

Belgische Küste

Verzweiflungskämpfe der Verbündeten. Siegreiches Vordringen der Deutschen. 17 October Ostende eingenommen.

(Belgian coast

Desperate struggles of the allies. Victorious advance of the Germans. 17 October Ostend taken.)

Kunstverlag Eug. Felle, Isny, Wttbg. (Art publisher Eug. Furs, Isny, ​​Wittenburg??.)

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Thursday, October 17, 1918

"I learned of the evacuation of Ostend by the enemy, and the landing there of the 9th Squadron, before the entry of our troops. Earlier in the morning, Jacquet and Marcel de Crombrugghe de Looringhe, in their two-seater Spad, in the course of a look round at a low height at daybreak, noticed that our troops were no longer in touch with the enemy. Where had the Germans gone?

Proceeding in a series of progressive curves that carried them farther afield, they advanced eastward toward Bruges—and still they saw no sign of the Germans. . . .

Then the entire 9th Squadron, strengthened by Commandant Jaumotte and perhaps one or two others, set out for Ostend, and landed on the sands. . . . At the same moment, a motor launch of the British Navy entered Ostend harbour with the Belgian King and Queen on board, alone but for a few of their personal entourage. None of our troops were there as yet, and the enthusiasm was immense in the town."

Quotation Context

Excerpt from the memoir of Willy Coppens, Belgium's greatest ace of the war, writing of the evacuation of Ostend by the Germans and their retreat eastward. The events described took place on October 17, 1918, three days after Coppens was seriously wounded by an incendiary bullet in his left shin. He heard the news in his hospital bed. Coppens, the war's greatest observation balloon buster, downed two balloons on the 14th in support of the offensive by the Belgian Army Group, under the command of Albert, King of the Belgians.

Source

Flying in Flanders by Willy Coppens, page 234, publisher: Ace Books, publication date: 1971

Tags

1918-10-17, 1918, October, Willy Coppens, Coppens, Albert, Ostend-Bruges-Blankenburg map