Gas attacks at Wulverghem

Gas attacks at Wulverghem
Part of Local operations December 1915 – June 1916 Western Front, World War I
Wulverghem
Date 30 April 1916 and 17 June 1916 Location Messines in West Flanders, Belgium 50°46′N 02°49′E / 50.767°N 2.817°E / 50.767; 2.817Coordinates: 50°46′N 02°49′E / 50.767°N 2.817°E / 50.767; 2.817 Result British victory
Belligerents
Germany	British Empire
Commanders and leaders
Erich von Falkenhayn	Douglas Haig
Strength
part of 2 regiments	part of 2 divisions
Casualties and losses
unknown	30 April: 562 gas casualties 89 fatal 17 June: 562 gas casualties 95 fatal
Wulverghem Wulverghem in West Flanders, Belgium

The Gas attacks at Wulverghem in the municipality of Heuvelland were two German cloud gas attacks during World War I on British troops near Ypres in the Belgian province of West Flanders. The first gas discharge was on 30 April 1916 and on 17 June was followed by another. The gas attacks at Wulverghem were part of the sporadic fighting, which took place between battles in the Ypres Salient on the Western Front. The British Second Army held the ground from Messines Ridge north to Steenstraat. British divisions opposite the German XXIII Reserve Corps, had received warnings of a gas attack in the ten days beforehand. From 21–23 April, British artillery-fire exploded several gas cylinders in the German lines around Spanbroekmolen, which released greenish-yellow clouds of gas. A gas alert was given on 25 April, when the wind began to blow from the north-east and routine work was suspended; on 29 April, two German soldiers deserted and warned that an attack was imminent. Just after midnight on 30 April, the German attack began and a gas cloud moved on the wind through no man's land, into the British defences and then south-west towards Bailleul.

The gas used by the German troops at Wulverghem was a mixture of chlorine and phosgene, which had been used against British troops on 19 December 1915 in the First German phosgene attack on British troops at Wieltje, north-east of Ypres. This and earlier gas attacks, beginning at the Second Battle of Ypres (21 April – 25 May 1915), had given the British time to replace improvised gas masks, with effective mass-produced masks and other anti-gas equipment and to establish anti-gas procedures. Helmets impregnated with chemicals to neutralise chlorine had been issued in several variants, each more effective than the last. By April 1916, British troops had PH helmets and some specialist troops like machine-gunners, were equipped with box respirators. The first German gas attack at Wulverghem on 30 April, caused the defenders 562 gas casualties and 89 gas fatalities but German raiding parties intended to find and destroy mine entrances, were repulsed with small-arms and artillery fire. A second attempt by the Germans on 17 June, caused about the same number of gas casualties and the British easily repulsed German patrols.