Operation Hush

Operation Hush
Part of World War I
The Yser front in 1917
Date June–October 1917 Location Nieupoort, Belgian coast 51°07′N 02°45′E / 51.117°N 2.750°E / 51.117; 2.750Coordinates: 51°07′N 02°45′E / 51.117°N 2.750°E / 51.117; 2.750 Result Cancelled
Belligerents
United Kingdom	German Empire
Commanders and leaders
Douglas Haig Henry Rawlinson Sir Reginald Bacon John Philip Du Cane	General Friedrich Bertram Sixt von Armin Admiral Ludwig von Schröder
Strength
5 divisions	3 marine divisions, 1 army division

Operation Hush was a British plan to make amphibious landings on the Belgian coast in 1917 during World War I, supported by an attack from Nieuport and the Yser bridgehead, which were a legacy of the Battle of the Yser (1914). Several plans were considered in 1915 and 1916, then shelved due to operations elsewhere. Operation Hush was intended to begin when the main offensive at Ypres had advanced to Roulers and Thourout, linked by advances by the French and Belgian armies in between. Operation Strandfest was a German spoiling attack, conducted on 10 July by Marinekorps-Flandern, in anticipation of an Allied coastal operation.

The Germans used mustard gas for the first time, supported by a mass of heavy artillery, which captured part of the bridgehead over the Yser and annihilated two British battalions. After several postponements, Operation Hush was cancelled on 14 October 1917, as the advance during the Third Battle of Ypres did not meet the objectives required to begin the attack. In April 1918, the Dover Patrol raided Zeebrugge, to sink block ships in the canal entrance to trap U-Boats, which closed the canal for a short time. From September–October 1918, the Belgian coast was occupied by the Allies, in the Fifth Battle of Ypres.

The German occupation of the Belgian coast in 1914 caused the Admiralty swiftly to advocate their removal. On 26 October 1914 the First Lord, Winston Churchill wrote to Sir John French, commander of the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) "We must have him off the Belgian coast." Churchill offered naval fire support for an army operation and French adopted the idea for the main effort of 1915; the army would advance between Dixmude and the sea while the navy provided bombardments and a surprise landing near Zeebrugge. Eventually the plan was cancelled by the British government in favour of the Gallipoli Campaign. In early 1916 the idea of a coastal attack was revived and talks began between Sir Douglas Haig the new BEF commander-in-chief and Rear Admiral Reginald Bacon, commander of the Dover Patrol. Haig appointed Lieutenant-General Aylmer Hunter-Weston, who had commanded the 29th Division and then VIII Corps at Gallipoli, to work with Bacon on the plan. An offensive from Ypres and the landing operation in support of it, superseded an offensive on the coast. Bacon proposed to land 9,000 men from six monitors and 100 trawlers in Ostend harbour, with decoys towards Zeebrugge and Middelkirke as a coastal assault began from Nieuport.

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