The Ypres Salient is the area around Ypres in Belgium which was the scene of some of the biggest battles in World War I. In military terms, a salient is a battlefield feature that projects into enemy territory.
Full Answer
What is Ypres Salient in WW1?
Ypres Salient. The Ypres Salient is the area around Ypres in Belgium which was the scene of some of the biggest battles in World War I. In military terms, a salient is a battlefield feature that projects into enemy territory.
What is Ypres famous for?
The medieval town of Ypres (nowadays called by its Flemish name Ieper) was located at the centre of the 1914-1918 battlefields of the Ypres Salient. Ypres was razed to the ground during four years of fighting. Read an overview of the history of the town, how it was affected by the war and some of the notable sights to be seen.
What were the major battles in the Ypres Salient?
Within the first few months of the outbreak of the Great War the Ypres Salient witnessed the first of several major battles to occur there before the war ended on 11 November 1918. The major battles comprised: Third Battle of Ypres (Battle of Passchendaele), (31 July - 10 November 1917)
Where is Ypres Belgium?
The Ypres Salient around Ypres in Belgium was the scene of several battles and an extremely important part of the Western front during the First World War . Ypres lies at the junction of the Ypres–Comines Canal and the Ieperlee.
What is meant by the Ypres Salient?
Battles of Ypres Salient A salient in military terms is a battlefield feature that projects into an opponent's territory and is surrounded on three sides, making the occupying troops vulnerable.
What does salient mean in ww1?
A salient, also known as a bulge, is a battlefield feature that projects into enemy territory. The salient is surrounded by the enemy on multiple sides, making the troops occupying the salient vulnerable.
Why was the Battle of Ypres described as a salient?
Ypres and the First World War The Ypres salient was the focus of Germany's only Western Front offensive in 1915. Their attack on the salient included the first large scale use of chlorine gas - an act that changed the face of the First World War battlefield.
When was the Battle of Ypres Salient?
Battles of the Ypres Salient First Battle of Ypres, (19 October - 22 November 1914) Second Battle of Ypres (Battle Study), (22 April - 25 May 1915) Battle of Messines, (7 - 14 June 1917)
What is a salient in history?
: something (such as a promontory) that projects outward or upward from its surroundings especially : an outwardly projecting part of a fortification, trench system, or line of defense.
Where is the salient?
While similar to a peninsula in shape, a salient is most often not surrounded by water on three sides. Instead, it has a land border on at least two sides and extends from the larger geographical body of the administrative unit.
How do you pronounce Ypres Salient?
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Why is it called Passchendaele?
For them, Passchendaele, like Stalingrad or Sangin in later wars, took on a symbolic significance far greater than its strategic value. The result was that too many brave men like the character in Siegfried Sassoon's poem, 'died in hell—They called it Passchendaele'.
Why was Ypres important to Canada?
Fighting with great resilience against incredible odds, the Canadians suffered great losses, and the horrific events at the Second Battle of Ypres inspired what became Canada's best known war poem.
Why is Ypres important?
Firstly on the strategic significance of the small Belgian city of Ypres during the First World War. The fighting in the area, which became known as the Ypres Salient, was continuous. In 1914 the series of battles known as the 1st Battle of Ypres ended the 'Race to the Sea' and saw the start of trench warfare.
Is Ypres in France or Belgium?
Ypres, (French), Flemish Ieper, municipality, West Flanders province (province), western Belgium. It lies along the Yperlee (Ieperlee) River, south of Ostend. Ypres became a major cloth-weaving city in the Middle Ages, and together with Brugge and Ghent it virtually controlled Flanders in the 13th century.
Was Ypres damaged in ww2?
Conflict had revolved in and around the Flemish city of Ypres for centuries. During the Great War it was laid-waste by four years of bombardments and this once 'medieval gem' was reduced to rubble.
What is the synonym of salient?
Some common synonyms of salient are conspicuous, noticeable, outstanding, prominent, remarkable, and striking. While all these words mean "attracting notice or attention," salient applies to something of significance that merits the attention given it.
What are salient features?
The salient facts about something or qualities of something are the most important things about them: She began to summarize the salient features/points of the proposal. The article presented the salient facts of the dispute clearly and concisely.
How do you use salient in a sentence?
How to use Salient in a sentenceOnly salient points can be indicated. ... It may be well to point out here the salient features in Bonaparte's conduct towards the states of northern Italy. ... The salient event of Bela's reign was the terrible Tatar invasion which reduced three-quarters of Hungary to ashes.More items...
Is Saliently a word?
adj. 1. Noteworthy; important: the salient points of the argument. 2.
What is the name of the town in the Ypres Salient?
Ypres - Ieper. The medieval town of Ypres (nowadays called by its Flemish name Ieper) was located at the centre of the 1914-1918 battlefields of the Ypres Salient. Ypres was razed to the ground during four years of fighting.
When did the Battle of Ypres occur?
The major battles comprised: First Battle of Ypres, (19 October - 22 November 1914) Second Battle of Ypres (Battle Study), (22 April - 25 May 1915) ...
Where is the German bunker in Ypres?
German bunker near the village of Zandvoorde south-east of Ypres. There are numerous sites to visit in the Ypres Salient where remains of the fighting can be seen. These include trenches, mine craters and concrete bunkers.
Where is the sounding of last post?
Sounding of Last Post is a daily Act of Remembrance that takes place every evening at 20.00 hours at the Menin Gate Memorial to the Missing in Ypres/Ieper.
What is salient in the army?
A salient is simply a bulge in the line that gives the defenders the advantage of being able to fire on those in the salient from three sides. In the case of Ypres, the Germans had the additional advantage that most of their trenches were on the high ground overlooking the wet lowlands held by the British. Military historians agree that no discernible strategic or tactical reasons existed for holding the area. The rational course would have been to abandon the salient to the Germans and pull back a few kilometres to more defensible ground. Yet the British High Command could never bring itself to abandon the Ypres Salient. Its persistence was perhaps a function of the fact that the defence of Belgian neutrality had been a major reason for Britain entering the war, and Ypres was the last corner of Belgium not in German hands. By 1916, thousands of soldiers had already died defending the salient and tens of thousands more would pay the price by 1918. Many of these men would be from the 49th.
What is salient in football?
A salient is simply a bulge in the line that gives the defenders the advantage of being able to fire on those in the salient from three sides.
What are salient examples?
Examples of salient in a Sentence. Adjective Then there were those who doubted the need for radio in the first place, since the telegraph was already ubiquitous. Marconi's salient achievement was to realize that radio waves could be transmitted across vast distances, an incalculable step forward in mass communications.
What does "salire" mean in Latin?
Those senses aren't too much of a jump from the word's parent, the Latin verb salire, which means "to leap.". Salire has leaped into many English words; it's also an ancestor of somersault and sally, as well as Salientia, the name for an order of amphibians that includes frogs, toads, and other notable jumpers.
What was the second phase of the Third Ypres?
But the second phase of Third Ypres in 1917, sometimes known simply as Passchendaele, is particularly seared into the national consciousness. The British planned an offensive with the specific aims of breaking through to the Belgian coast to prevent the use of ports by German submarines and, simultaneously, relieving pressure on the French, whose troops had mutinied in April. A precursor to the main assault was the decision to clear German forces from high ground on the Messines Ridge south of Ypres, by exploding 21 massive mines that had been covertly laid deep beneath the German positions. The mines went up in the early hours of 8 th June. The blast could be heard in the south of England and the results were predictably horrendous – it is estimated that 10,000 Germans perished in the carnage. Bewildered survivors surrendered in droves and, by 17 th June, the objectives on the Messines Ridge had largely been achieved. Two mines did not explode – one is still there, buried under the Belgian countryside.
What happened to Ypres in 1914?
The invaders were pushed back and in October, at the northern end of the line, the two sides came to face with each other around Ypres. Here, the tiny British Expeditionary Force found itself, sandwiched between the Belgians entrenched to the north and, to the south and as far as the Swiss frontier, the French. The Germans, quite sensibly, took up defensive positions on the very slightly higher ground surrounding the town on three sides, creating a bulge in the line, or salient. The area in and around the Salient was fought over by hundreds of thousands of men for the next four years, but Ypres itself always remained in British hands and, mostly, the Germans retained the high ground. The entire Salient was an extremely dangerous place throughout that time, but on four occasions the fighting reached such intensity that each instance has been designated as a separate Battle of Ypres: the First from 19 October – 22 November 1914; the Second from 22 April – 25 May 1915; the Third from 7 June – 10 November 1917; the Fourth from 7 – 29 April 1918. At the end of it all, very little was left of Ypres: because so few buildings were left standing, and certainly little over waist height, it was said that someone on horseback on one side of town could see clear through to the other. Throughout the Salient, communities that had existed for hundreds of years had simply disappeared; obliterated, they were merely names on maps. The land was a desolate muddy lunar landscape, pockmarked with craters, the splintered remains of trees showing where woods had once grown, tumbled walls marking where people had once lived.
Where are the museums in Ypres?
There are, of course, museums – many of them. One of the largest is in Ypres itself, the impressive and thought-provoking In Flanders Field Museum inside the beautifully rebuilt Cloth Hall. There are smaller, more informal, museums adjacent to preserved trenches, such as at Sanctuary Wood and Hooge Crater – part of an elegant country estate before the war. If you’re minded to, these are the most obvious parts of the battleground to walk on; the reality, though, is that the battlefield is all around you.
When was the first poison gas used in Ypres?
Ypres witnessed so much brutality. In April 1915 came the first mass use of poison (chlorine) gas, by the Germans against British, Canadian and French positions. (The British used gas for the first time that September, against German positions to the south, at the Battle of Loos.)
Is Ypres a British town?
So that’s a bit about Ypres, known as Wipers to the British Tommy. It is not in Britain, but Churchill said of it – “A more sacred place for the British race does not exist in the world”.
