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King Albert of Belgium decorates Willy Coppens, Belgium's Ace of Aces. Coppens describes this June 30, 1918 ceremony, in which he was awarded the Ordre de la Couronne in his memoir Flying in Flanders.
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.
England's Distress: Postcard map of England and Ireland with the restricted zone Germany proclaimed around the islands, showing the ships destroyed by submarine in the 12 months beginning February 1, 1917.
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.
"At 5 A.M., it was too dark to leave the ground. The sky was overcast and a damp mist lay across Flanders. Our aeroplanes were brought out, but were almost invisible in the half-light. At 5:30 A.M., the preliminary artillery bombardment opened with terrible intensity in the east, where a red glow now heralded the day.I thought of Alfred Mouton's remark, and said to Kervyn de Meerendré, who was standing by my side: 'Is this what they call the end of the War?' Never had the guns fired so fiercely in our sector.At 5:35 A.M., Gusto de Mévius came from the office and handed me a telephoned appeal from our artillery asking for the Thourout balloon to be destroyed. The observer in this balloon, it appeared, was directing the enemy's batteries on to our own, and seriously interfering with our preparation." ((1), more)
"On October 15th the Franco-American armies between the Oise and the Argonne, headed towards Mézières, had come into contact with a strong German position (Hunding Stellung and Brunehilde Stellung) established along the general line La Fère—Crécy-sur-Serre—Sissone—Château-Porcien—Vouziers—Grandpré.North of the Oise, the British armies, marching on Mons and Avesnes, reached that same day the front Wassigny—Le Câteau—Solesmes—Douai. They had thus, from the south, turned the region of Lille, which was likewise threatened from the north by the Flanders Group of Armies between the Lys and the sea.. . . the Flanders Group of Armies continued uninterruptedly its movement towards Thourout, Courtrai, and Menin, gaining ground rapidly. On the 14th, it got possession of Hooglede, Roules, and Moorseele, on the 15th it marched beyond Cortemarck, reached the gates of Courtrai, and entered Menin and Werwicq." ((2), more)
"Wilson's second note arrive[d] in Berlin in the early morning of 16 October. It was far firmer in tone than the first note, denouncing the 'illegal and inhuman' practices of the armed forces of Germany, calling for an end to submarine warfare, of destruction of property in Flanders and France, and for further changes in the government. This reply greatly strengthened the hand of those who were calling for a levée en masse, and Ludendorff began to think of moving all the troops in the east to the western front and of a 'fight to the bitter end', ideas which moderate politicians like Solf thought were 'extremely dangerous'." ((3), more)
"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." ((4), 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." ((5), more)
(1) Excerpt from the memoir of Willy Coppens describing the morning of October 14, 1918 on which the Belgian Army Group, under the command of Albert, King of the Belgians, resumed the offensive in Flanders. The day before, Coppens met Alfred Mouton, another Belgian pilot who had told Coppens he was lucky as the war would 'be over in a day or two and you will have come through unscratched.' After downing an observation balloon over Praet-Bosch at 6:00 AM, his thirty-sixth victory, Coppens was seriously wounded by an incendiary bullet through his left shin in the course of downing a second balloon over Thourout. He made it back to the Belgian lines and began a months-long convalescence that included multiple surgeries, the loss of his leg, and life threatening infections.
Flying in Flanders by Willy Coppens, page 227, publisher: Ace Books, publication date: 1971
(2) Allied Commander-in-Chef Ferdinand Foch writing of the advances of October 15, 1918 along the Western Front. The Franco-American Meuse-Argonne Offensive advanced slowly. The Flanders Group of Armies included the Belgian Army and French and British units. On the 14th, Belgian airmen were the first to see the German forces retreating eastward across Belgium.
The Memoirs of Marshal Foch, translated by Col. T. Bentley Mott by Ferdinand Foch, pp. 428–429, copyright © 1931 by Doubleday, Doran & Company, Inc., publisher: Doubleday, Doran & Co., publication date: 1931
(3) In late September and early October, 1918, both Germany and Austria-Hungary exchanged notes requesting peace negotiations with Woodrow Wilson who responded to Germany's first note on October 9 indicating a willingness to negotiate. German commander Erich Ludendorff had suffered nervous collapses after the Allied victories of the Second Battle of the Marne and the Battle of Amiens, and, hoping to preserve the army, had demanded the Government begin peace negotiations immediately. By mid-October he was arguing Germany could fight on into 1919. Germany's submarine warfare campaign had brought the United States into the war in 1917. Driven back by repeated Allied attacks, the Germans also retreated to consolidate their positions, often destroying villages and towns in their wake.
The Silent Dictatorship by Martin Kitchen, page 261, copyright © 1976 by Martin Kitchen, publisher: Croom Helm, publication date: 1976
(4) 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
(5) 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
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