Ypres east of the town. The first gas attack occurred against Canadian, British, and French soldiers, including both metropolitan French soldiers as well as Senegalese and Algerian tirailleurs (light infantry) from French Africa. The gas used was chlorine. Mustard gas, also called Yperite from the name of this town, was also used for the first time near Ypres, in the autumn of 1917. Of the battles, the largest, best-known, and most costly in human suffering was the Third Battle of Ypres (31 July to 6 November 1917, also known as the Battle of Passchendaele), in which the British, Canadian, ANZAC, and
Mines in the Battle of Messines (1917) Mines in the Battle of Messines (1917) The mines in the Battle of Messines comprised a series of underground explosive charges, secretly planted by British tunnelling units beneath the German 4th Army lines near the village of Mesen ("Messines" in French, historically used in English) in Belgian West Flanders during the First World War. The mines were detonated at the start of the Battle of Messines , creating craters. The joint explosion of the mines at Messines ranks among the largest non-nuclear explosions of all time. The evening before the attack, General Sir Charles Harington, Chief of Staff of the