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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.
The battlefield near Verdun, the Meuse River (Maas), and the Argonne Forest, viewed from the German line looking southwest. During the 1916 Seige of Verdun, the road and a light rail line from Bar-le-Duc were the sole source of supply for the besieged city.
Map of the Allied offensives of 1918, from July 18 and the Second Battle of the Marne to the Armistice on November 11. From The Memoirs of Marshall Foch by Marshall Foch.
Mark V tanks: One with a smokescreen and semaphore, the second moving up in the Battle of Amiens. In the latter, note the German prisoners on the left carrying a casualty to the rear on a stretcher. From The Tank Corps by Major Clough Williams-Ellis & A. Williams-Ellis.
Postcard celebrating the independence of Czechoslovakia from Austria-Hungary, proclaimed in its capital Prague on October 28, 1918. The lion, a symbol of Bohemia dating to the 12th or 13th century, became part of the coat of arms of, and a symbol for, Czechoslovakia. The lion holds in its mouth remnants of a Habsburg banner, while looking at part of the Prague skyline.
"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." ((1), more)
"On October 18, the American artillery backed up the infantry by dumping thousands of canisters of phosgene gas onto the German positions, but to no appreciable effect, and the Germans replied in kind. Meanwhile, the 310th, supported by some companies of the 309th, continued its attacks into the Bois des Loges. The Doughboys started out about 1:00 A.M., moving carefully through the woods under brilliant moonlight and eventually reaching positions near its northern edge with light casualties. At daybreak, however, the Germans got wise to what had happened and laid an artillery barrage on the woods before launching a counterattack. Vicious fighting continued all day as some American companies clung to the woods' northern edge, while parties of German infantry and machine gunners moved down gullies on both flanks. After terrible losses, particularly in officers, the regiment withdrew to its original positions in the southern Bois des Loges." ((2), more)
"(1) The Flanders Group of Armies will march in the general direction of Brussels . . .(2) The British armies (Fifth, Third, First, Fourth) will advance . . . to throw the enemy back upon the almost impenetrable massif of the Ardennes . . . (3) The French armies (First, Tenth, Fifth, Fourth) and the American First Army will operate south of the above-mentioned lineTheir rôles will be as follows:For the French First Army, to support the attack of the British armies by marching towards La Capelle, Chimay, Givet . . .For the French Fifth and Sixth Armies and the American First Army, to reach the region Mézières, Sedan, and the Meuse . . ." ((3), more)
"On the 18th and 19th [October, 1918] the infantry managed to make good progress, and at 2 p.m. on the 20th we made another attack, still on the line of the Selle, north of Le Cateau.Only four tanks of the 11th Battalion were employed. The enemy's resistance was serious, for he had been able to erect strong wire entanglements along the greater part of the line. This time, there being no available fords, the Tanks, successfully crossed the river by means of an under-water sleeper bridge, which the Sappers had secretly constructed at night, the enemy being quite unaware of its existence until, to their dismay, they saw the Tanks crossing over it.There was severe fighting round Neuvilly, Solesmes, and Haspres, but we gained all our objectives on the high ground east of the Selle, all the four Tanks successfully reaching their final goal." ((4), more)
"In Paris, the Czechoslovak National Council, which had by now organized a provisional government headed by Masaryk, published on October 21, the declaration of independence composed in Washington by the Professor with the assistance of American friends. 'Our nation,' it was explained, 'elected the Hapsburgs to the throne of Bohemia of its own free will, and by the same right deposes them.' . . .. . . the Arbeiter Zeitung . . . finished by lashing out violently against Czech and Hungarian authorities for imposing an embargo on food shipments. On October 21, Austro-german politicians of all parties set up a provisional national assembly, which proclaimed a new Austrian state to embrace the German language areas of the former empire—the predominantly German-speaking districts of Bohemia among them." ((5), more)
(1) 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.
Flying in Flanders by Willy Coppens, page 234, publisher: Ace Books, publication date: 1971
(2) On October 18, 1918, American forces continued struggling in the Meuse-Argonne Offensive.
To Conquer Hell: The Meuse-Argonne, 1918 by Edward G. Lengel, page 378, copyright © 2008 by Edward G. Lengel, publisher: Henry Holt and Company, LLC, publication date: 2008
(3) Excerpts from the October 19, 1918 order of Allied Commander-in-Chief Ferdinand Foch covering the Allied armies from the Channel coast to Verdun. The Flanders Group of Armies was 'marching' in pursuit of the Germans who were retreating to a shorter, more defensible line. Foch specified that the Flanders Group, which was led by Albert, King of the Belgians, and included the Belgian Army, coordinate with the left flank of the British while on their right flank the British would be supported by the French First Army. As the Germans retreated along the front, they fiercely held their left flank, where the Fifth and Sixth French and First American armies struggled to advance. The American Second Army and remaining French armies held the line from Verdun south to Switzerland.
The Memoirs of Marshal Foch, translated by Col. T. Bentley Mott by Ferdinand Foch, pp. 431–432, copyright © 1931 by Doubleday, Doran & Company, Inc., publisher: Doubleday, Doran & Co., publication date: 1931
(4) Through October, 1918, the Allied advance continued as the Germans were driven back or retreated to establish a shorter, more defensible line. The Selle River was one barrier behind which they hoped to make a stand. The Battle of the Selle began on October 17, in thick fog and with the river in full flood, and continued through the 25th.
The Tank Corps by Clough Williams-Ellis & A. Williams-Ellis, page 264, publisher: The Offices of "Country Life," Ltd. and George Newnes, Ltd., publication date: 1919
(5) Number 10 of President Woodrow Wilson's Fourteen Points called for 'Assuring the freest opportunity of autonomous development to the peoples of Austria-Hungary.' (Quoted in King's Complete History of the World War, page 371.) The peoples of the Empire were breaking it apart. The Arbeiter Zeitung article referenced was from October 20 and was one of many pieces from a 'Vienna press [that] teemed with stories of impending starvation, unless provisions from outside were somehow obtained,' (May, p. 793). Expected and desperately needed food supplies from defeated Romania and newly-independent Ukraine had not materialized, and Hungary had withheld food from Austria for months.
The Passing of the Hapsburg Monarchy, 1914-1918 2 Volumes by Arthur James May, pp. 774 and 793–794, copyright © 1966 by the Trustees of the University of Pennsylvania, publisher: University of Pennsylvania Press, publication date: 1966
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