The Battle of Messines was fought in October 1914 between the armies of the German empire and British empire and France as part of what came to be called the Race to the Sea, reciprocal attempts by the German and Entente armies to attack beyond the northern flank of their opponent. The attempts to turn the opponent's northern flank led to several meeting engagements until the North Sea left neither side with a flank to aim at. The battle was fought between the river Douve and the Comines–Ypres canal.
Background
Strategic developments
From the belligerents had made reciprocal attempts to turn the northern flank of their opponent. Joseph Joffre, the head of (Chief of the General Staff) ordered the French Second Army to move to the north of the 6th Army, by transferring by rail from eastern France from Erich von Falkenhayn, Chief of (the German General Staff) ordered the German 6th Army to move from the German–French border to the northern flank on 17 September. By the next day French attacks north of the Aisne, led to Falkenhayn to order the 6th Army to repulse French forces and secure the flank.
On 24 September, the French advance met a German attack rather than an open flank and by 29 September, having been reinforced to eight corps, the Second Army was still being opposed by German forces near Lille, rather than advancing around an open German northern (right) flank. The 6th Army had also found that on arrival in the north, it was forced to oppose the French, rather than advance around their northern (left) flank and that the secondary objective of protecting the northern flank of the German armies in France had become the main task.
Tactical developments
By 6 October the French needed British reinforcements to withstand German attacks around Lille. The British Expeditionary Force (BEF) had begun to move from the Aisne to Flanders on 5 October and reinforcements from England assembled on the left flank of the Tenth Army, which had been formed from the units on the left (northern) flank of the Second Army on 4 October. The Allies and the Germans attempted to take more ground after the "open" northern flank had disappeared, Franco-British attacks towards Lille in October, being followed up by attempts to advance between the BEF and the Belgian army by a new French Eighth Army. The moves of the German 7th Army and then the 6th Army from Alsace and Lorraine had been intended to secure German lines of communication through Belgium, where the Belgian army had sortied several times during the period between the Franco-British Great Retreat and the First Battle of the Marne. In August British marines had landed at Dunkirk and in October a new German 4th Army was assembled from the III Reserve Corps, the siege artillery used against Antwerp and four of the new reserve corps training in Germany.
Prelude
Flanders terrain
The North-west of France and the south-west Belgium were known as Flanders. West of a line between Arras and Calais in the north-west, lay chalk downlands, covered with soil sufficient for arable farming. East of the line, the land declines in a series of spurs into the Flanders plain, bounded by canals linking Douai, Béthune, St. Omer and Calais. To the south-east, canals ran between Lens, Lille, Roubaix and Courtrai, the Lys river from Courtrai to Ghent and to the north-west lay the sea. The plain was almost flat, apart from a line of low hills from Cassel, east to Mont des Cats, Mont Noir, Mont Rouge, Scherpenberg and Mont Kemmel. From Kemmel, a low ridge lay to the north-east, declining in elevation past Ypres, through Wytschaete, Gheluvelt and Passchendaele, curving north and then north-west to Diksmuide, where it merged with the plain. A coastal strip about wide was near sea level and fringed by sand dunes. Inland the ground was mainly meadow, cut by canals, dykes, drainage ditches and roads built up on causeways. The Lys, Yser and upper Scheldt had been canalised and between them the water level underground was close to the surface, rose further in the autumn and filled any dip, the sides of which then collapsed. The ground surface quickly turned to a consistency of cream cheese and on the coast troops were confined to roads, except during frosts.