FLANDIN 



BAITUh Qt- 



FLANDERS 



English Miles 



Railways 



Territory recovered t 

 Allies Sep.toNov.19 



FLANDRIN 



Flanders. Map of East and West Flanders indicating the area recovered from 

 the Germans during the great battles of Sept.- Nov., 1918 



On Sept. 29 the attack was 

 continued with the utmost de- 

 termination. That day the Bel- 

 gians took Dixmude and Pas- 

 schendaele, and reached the high 

 road from Roulers to Menin, while 

 the British cleared Ploegsteert 

 Wood, recovered Messines, and 

 reached Warneton and Dadizeele. 

 On Oct. 1 the British were close 

 up to Wervicq, and had crossed 

 the Menin-Roulers road near Le- 

 deghem, while the Belgians and 

 French had cleared Moorslede and 

 Staden. It was then necessary to 

 suspend the advance in order to 

 bring up the heavy artillery and 

 repair the roads. The German 

 front had been penetrated to a 

 depth of over 8 m., and all the 

 German main defensive lines on 

 the Flanders front had fallen. The 

 capture of 10,000 prisoners and 

 200 guns, half of them taken by the 

 British 2nd army, afforded prac- 

 tical proof of the importance of the 

 victory. The Germans at once 

 began preparations for the evacua- 

 tion of the Flanders coast, which 

 had so long been a menace to 

 London as the base of their cruel 

 air attacks, and which they had 

 at one time decided to annex 

 permanently. 



Between Oct. 1 and 14 another 

 British corps, the 10th, was 

 brought up and the Allied com- 

 munications were reorganized. The 

 Germans had utilised the respite to 

 lay wire, construct machine-gun 

 positions, and bring up what 

 reserves they possessed. At 5.35 

 a.m. of Oct. 14 the second phase of 

 the battle opened along bhe whole ' 

 front from Comines to Dixmude. 

 The Belgians reached the out- 

 skirts of Tseghem, and the French 



enveloped Roulers. The British 

 carried Gheluwe, and fought their 

 way into the outskirts of Menin. On 

 the next two days further important 

 gains were made. Thourout and 

 Cortemarck were captured, and the 

 British at several points secured 

 bridge-heads over the Lys. The 

 sound of heavy explosions in the 

 German lines and along the Flan- 

 ders coast told that von Armin 

 was destroying his dumps and 

 blowing up his heavy guns. 



The Belgians directed their ad- 

 vance northwards to clear the 

 Germans out of the coast,and, if pos- 

 sible, to get on the line of their re- 

 treat ; but von Armin was too quick. 

 On Oct. 17 the last Germans quitted 

 Ostend, almost exactly four years 

 from the date on which they had 

 entered it, and that same day the 

 British entered Courtrai. On Oct. 

 18 the Belgian advance compelled 

 the Germans to abandon Zeebrugge, 

 and this naval base, with the city of 

 Bruges, was occupied by the Allies 

 on Oct. 19. To the S. the Germans 

 were also compelled to retreat to 

 avoid envelopment, and on Oct. 18 

 they had abandoned the industrial 

 centres of Tourcoing and Roubaix. 

 On the 20th the Belgians reached 

 the Dutch frontier. 



The Germans were now in slow 

 retreat along this whole section of 

 the front ; they were steadily 

 pressed, and, by the date of the 

 armistice (Nov. 11), the Allies had 

 reached a line which ran from the 

 Dutch frontier south of Temeuzen 

 to Ghent, and thence along the 

 Schelde past Ath, to a point near 

 St. Ghislain where they linked up 

 with Haig's main group of British 

 armies. In the second battle of 

 Flanders the British captured 6,000 



-.prisoners and 210 guns, and the 

 French and Belgian captures were 

 about as large. The trials of the 

 Allied troops were' severe ; they 

 had to march and fight in most 

 difficult country with deplorable 

 communications which rendered 

 the supply of food and ammunition 

 exceedingly difficult. Mines with 

 delay-action fuses were left by the 

 Germans at all cross-roads, and at 

 many points on the railways, as 

 they retreated, and these ex- 

 ploded, sometimes weeks after 

 their retirement. Foch, who visited 

 the 5th British army (Bird wood), 

 which took part in the Allied 

 advance on the front south of the 

 2nd army, gave the British troops 

 just praise for the magnificent 

 character of their work. " Your 

 soldiers," he said, " marched when 

 they were exhausted, and they 

 fought, and fought admirably, 

 when they were worn out. It is 

 with such indomitable will that the 

 war has been won." 



Flandin, EUGENE NAPOLEON 

 (1809-76). French painter. Born 

 in Naples, Aug. 15, 1809, he studied 

 in Italy, and under Horace Vernet 

 in Paris, and travelled widely in 

 the East. He painted many land- 

 scapes, notably of Venice, Athens, 

 Algiers, and Constantinople, and 

 wrote valuable accounts of his 

 travels and archaeological dis- 

 coveries. He was awarded the 

 Legion of Honour in 1 842, and died 

 Feb. 15, 1876. 



Flandrin, JEAN HIPPOLYTE 

 (1809-64). French painter. Born 

 at Lyons, March 23, 1809, son of a 

 miniature painter, he studied there, 

 and at Paris under Ingres (q.v. ). 

 Obtaining the Grand Prix in 1832, 

 he went to Rome, whence he re- 

 turned in 1838 to Paris, and was 

 employed in the mural decoration 

 of S. Severin, 1841, S. Vincent-de- 

 Paul, 1850, and other churches at 

 Paris and elsewhere. Later he took 

 to portrait-painting, among his 

 best works in this genre being the 

 full-length portrait of Napoleon 

 III, at Versailles. He died of 

 smallpox at Rome, March 21, 1864. 



Flandrin, JEAN PAUL (1811- 

 1902). French painter. A brother 

 of J. H. Flandrin, he was born at 

 Lyons, May 8, 1811, and studied 

 under Ingres. He was a prolific 

 artist, his best work being of land- 

 scapes. Among the most note- 

 worthy are his Solitude in the 

 Sabine Mountains, 1852, in the 

 Luxembourg, Paris ; The Rhone, 

 1857 ; Meadow near Mantua, 1874 ; 

 and Diggers at Work, 1884. He 

 was awarded the Legion of Honour 

 in 1856, and died in 1902. His 

 eldest brother Auguste (1804-43) 

 worked under Ingres, and was a 

 teacher of painting at Lyons. 



