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
German Army (German Empire) German Army (German Empire) The Imperial German Army () was the name given to the combined land and air forces of the German Empire (excluding the ' maritime aviation formations of the Imperial German Navy). The term ' is also used for the modern German Army, the land component of the ". The German Army was formed after the unification of Germany under Prussian leadership in 1871 and dissolved in 1919, after the defeat of the German Empire in World War I. The states that made up the German Empire contributed their armies; within the German Confederation, formed after the