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, February 11, 1917

". . . a minor operation to be carried out on the Flemish coast with twenty English, three or four French divisions and the Belgian Army with the co-operation of the French and British fleets. For this last operation the combined forces will be entrusted to Field-Marshal Sir Douglas Haig. The note quotes in this connexion the example of the Salonika Army.

This point has made a bad impression on us. It is a humiliation for the Belgian Army Command. It also exposes us to very great sacrifices.

The recapture of the coast serves the interests of England rather than those of Belgium. . . ."

Quotation Context

Excerpt from the entry for February 11, 1917 from the diary of Albert, King of the Belgians. A note he had received from the French Mission had proposed action of the Belgian Army after the success of a Franco-British offensive then being planned, and the 'minor operation' Albert summarizes to be executed in the event the offensive did not 'give the hoped-for results.' Albert struggled to keep the Belgian Army independent of French and British control, avoiding the model on the Salonica Front, where an Allied Army of French, British, Serbian, Russian, and Italian troops was under overall French command. British Commander Douglas Haig chafed at the lead role of the French, but would be free to launch his own disaster in the same region later in the year.

Source

The War Diaries of Albert I King of the Belgians by Albert I, page 155, copyright © 1954, publisher: William Kimber

Tags

1917-02-11, 1917, February, Haig, Douglas Haig, Passchendaele