As the November storms passed and frost and icy winds heralded to the mild climate of Flanders the approach of winter, the unbroken defensive lines of both sides were being slowly strengthened. The effect of artillery fire compelled them to make cover in good trenches and behind thick breast-works. As the armament in use became more and more powerful, artificial shelter, where the surface water allowed it, had to be made deeper and deeper in the earth. At first passive defence was little understood by the German troops, as instruction in the offensive had dominated all other in their peace-training, and in the short period available after they were called up the volunteers had only been trained in the principles of attack. Their sense of superiority over their opponents did not let them rest content with merely holding positions. The high sense of duty in each individual was of assistance, and the methods of defensive warfare were quickly learnt. The continuous bad weather in the autumn and winter in this water-logged country caused great suffering; and the troops sent off to Russia to fight under the great victor of Tannenburg were much envied. The despatch of men eastward showed those left behind that any hope of a final decision at Ypres had disappeared.

The first battle of Ypres was a German victory,[116] for it marked the failure of the enemy’s intention to fall on the rear of our Western Armies, to free the rich districts of Northern France and the whole of Belgium (thus preventing us from making use of their valuable resources), and to use the Ypres area as a base for the Belgian, French and British advance on the Rhine. The Belgian coast was now firmly in our possession, and offered a good starting-place for naval operations against England. But we had not succeeded in making the decisive break-through, and the dream of ending the campaign in the west in our favour during 1914 had to be consigned to its grave. It is only natural that the German General Staff found it difficult thoroughly to realise this unpleasant fact, and only did so with reluctance; but endeavour has been made in this account to bring out the main reasons which led to this result of the battle. Nevertheless, great things had been accomplished. The Army of Duke Albert of WÜrtemburg, by its advance and determined attack, had prevented the big offensive planned by the enemy; the Fourth and Sixth Armies together had forced a superior opponent into the defensive, and, in spite of his having called in the sea to his assistance, had driven him back continually, until positions had been reached which enabled German troops to be spared to carry out an offensive on the Eastern Front. As during the battle of the Marne, so now the spectre of a Russian invasion appeared threateningly before the German Nation, and the whole country knew what it would mean if it should materialise. Our forces on the Eastern Front were far too weak, and even the genius of a Hindenburg could not decisively defeat the masses of the Grand Duke Nicolas without reinforcements. Thus it came about that we had to lie and wait in front of the gates of Ypres, while all the available men from Flanders were hurried across to Poland, to help Hindenburg pave the way to victory.

There was never peace on the Ypres front. The belt of steel with which we had invested the town by our operations in October and November 1914, was a source of constant annoyance to the British, whilst our position on the Belgian coast seemed to our cousins across the Channel like an apparition whose shadow lay over the British Isles and especially menaced the traffic-routes between England and France. The British therefore continually tried their utmost to free themselves of this menace and their pressure produced counter measures. Thus in December 1914 heavy fighting again occurred, especially near the sea at Nieuport, and also at Bixschoote and Zwarteleen. On Christmas Eve the French vainly attacked Bixschoote: their hope of catching the Germans dreaming heavily on that evening was of no avail. When spring lifted the mist that hung over Flanders, a German offensive took place during April and May that forced the northern part of the Ypres salient back to within three miles of the town.[117] After this the positions only altered very slightly. In March 1916 the British blew up our front trench positions at St. Eloi by five colossal mines, but were unable to hold on to the ground thus destroyed. In 1917 the death-agony of Ypres was renewed, and for months war raged over the plains of Flanders; the fighting was as furious as in October and November 1914. The young soldiers of those days have now become veterans, who know war and do not fear it even in its most terrible forms. The enemy are those same British against whom Crown Prince Rupert of Bavaria, in exhorting the troops to battle in 1914, once said: ‘Therefore when you are fighting this particular enemy retaliate for his deceit and for having occasioned all this great sacrifice; show him that the Germans are not so easy to wipe out of the world’s history as he imagines, show it by redoubling the strength behind your blows. In front of you is the opponent who is the greatest obstacle to peace. On! at him!’

He spoke as a prophet. Hate of the British who were so jealous of us, who brought on the war for the sake of their money-bags and spread the conflagration all over the world, who at first hoped that it would be but necessary to pour out their silver bullets to annihilate Germany: all this steeled the hearts of our warriors in Flanders, whose creed was the justice of the German cause. And the British efforts to wrest Flanders away from us again were stifled in mud and in blood. The fighting in 1917 was perhaps more severe than that of those stormy autumn days of 1914, but the objective for us was ever the same: to keep the enemy far, far from our homes. In this we succeeded in 1917 as in 1914.

Flanders! The word is heard by every one in the German Fatherland with a silent shudder, but also with just and intense pride. It was there that the British were made to realise that German heroism was not to be vanquished, not even by the use of the war material which the whole world had been manufacturing for years. When we read that up to the 14th November 1914, 40 divisions had been put into the battle round Ypres by the Western Allies, whilst only 25 German divisions were opposed to them,[118] and that in the course of the Flanders battle of 1917, 99 British and French divisions struggled in vain against a greatly inferior German force, it says much for our troops. But far from all. For the enemy’s superiority in material, in guns, trench-mortars, machine-guns, aeroplanes, etc., was two, three, and even fourfold. Who can doubt but that a nation whose sons know how to fight like this, must win? Let us only hold the hope that the seeds of blood sown in Flanders will bring forth rich and splendid fruit for the German Fatherland. This indeed would be the highest reward that could be bestowed on those of us who fought there.