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

Sunday, November 22, 1914

"The Allied armies had shared in a battle which had lasted for more than a month, and their close coöperation had brought about a victory. It was not possible that blood shed in common under such circumstances could fail to cement the friendship of the three nations. That alone constituted a big asset in the balance sheet of the coalition.

The Germans had compensated themselves for their defeat by redoubling in violence the bombardment of Ypres. On November 22nd, they took St. Peter's Cathedral and the Cloth Hall as targets for their incendiary shells. These magnificent monuments soon became a mere pile of lamentable ruins."

Quotation Context

Excerpt from the memoirs of General (later Marshall) Ferdinand Foch. The French, British, and Belgians had defeated the Germans in the Battle of Flanders, first in the Battle of the Yser, then in the Battle of Ypres. With the end of the battles, trench lines extended from the Swiss border to the North Sea, and the Western Front had stabilized. German forces extended a record of wanton destruction that, by mid-November, 1914, included the Library and University of Louvain and Rheims Cathedral, by destroying the 13th century Cloth Hall of Ypres, one of the largest medieval commecial buildings.

Source

The Memoirs of Marshal Foch, translated by Col. T. Bentley Mott by Ferdinand Foch, page 178, copyright © 1931 by Doubleday, Doran & Company, Inc., publisher: Doubleday, Doran & Co., publication date: 1931

Tags

Ypres Cloth Hall, Ypres, Cloth Hall, 1914, November, 1914-11-22, Battle of Flanders