The Yser Front – The Belgian Front During the First World War

Learn about the Yser Front (1914 – 1918) in Belgium during the First World War. Belgian King Albert I led the defence of his country during the German invasion of Belgium (1914). At the Yser, near Diksmuide, his troops were ordered to stand fast against the German attack. By inundating the land Albert I created a water barrier between him and the Central Powers. The Battle of Yser (1914) resulted in a stalemate for years to come. Recorded near the Trench of Death (Dodengang) near Diksmuide, Flandres, Belgium.
History Hustle presents: The Yser Front – The Belgian Front During the First World War.

SOURCES
– A World Undone. The Story of the Great War 1914 to 1918 (G.J. Meyer).
– The First World War (John Keegan).
– The Belgian Soldier (Pierre Lierneux).

IMAGES

MUSIC
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License

SOUNDS

[HistoryHustle]

WHY WW1 BROKE OUT:
GERMAN INVASION OF BELGIUM (1914):
BELGIUM ARMY 1914:

[tng]

Thanks for the video. Thanks for letting everyone knows the heroic effort of the Belgian king which is not known to many. For years I had been wondering how the Entente power managed to defend this small part of Belgian territory throughout WW1 and I now know.

[InsolentViolet]

King Albert I of Belgium - what a legend!I greatly admire the man for leading the very courageous defence of his small but very brave country. He is one of my favourite historical figures. Looking forward to more videos filmed in Belgium🇧🇪

[rtwfreak]

Nice that you are showing something about this almost forgotten part of WW1. In Belgium they luckily do not forget this battle.
You should also check out the Belgian series called "In Vlaamse Velden" (In Flemish Fields). It's about this period in Belgium and the first battles, but also the Yser Front are shown.

[erikcastro]

For king and for country, we are flooding the river
Our stand at Yser will be, the end of the race to the sea
The last piece of Belgium is free, we're keeping a sliver
A cog in the war machine, October of 1914
For king and for country, we are flooding the river
Our stand at Yser will be, the end of the race to the sea
We're free!
For king and for country we are flooding the river
No more of our country lost, the line will be held at all cost!

[sensibleshinchan]

Belgiums work is often overlooked in ww1

[gibraltersteamboatco]

Excellent video, great details. Thanks Bz.
Few years back I read an article about the Korps der Congolese Vrijwilligers in the battle of Tervate.

[laszlokaestner]

I know this part of the world well having traveled through it many times. It really is flat and featureless, an absolute nightmare to defend.

[davidbarr]

I learnt about WW1 in History class at school which included a brief study of Belgium's efforts. Thank you for making clear the sacrifices that were made by and heroism of the Belgian forces during the long occupation of most of Belgium by the Germans. "Lest we forget".

[robertm.]

Another awesome video as always!
Mad respect for the Belgian King and his men who did all they could to hold onto their last stretch of nation until the end.

[alexamerling]

"For king and for country we are flooding the river, our stand at Yser will be the end of the race to the sea. The last piece of Belgium's free, we're keeping a sliver, a cog in the war machine, October of 1914."

[crazysandz]

The background foto at 2:26 is a photo that the belgians had Made on the wat from Sint-Truiden to Tienen (Tienen is also my city where I was Born and where I live)

[kencoleman]

Thanks for another enlightening video. The wind noise on your microphone added the sense of battle noise in the background. Nice touch.

[misterivanhoe]

Mijn grootvader was erbij, van '14 tot '19 (bezetting Rijnland). Verloor wel twee broers in '18. In WO II zat hij nog in het verzet, toen al de vijftig naderde. De brieven uit Wo 1 en het ooggetuigenverslag van de dood van één van de broers hebben we nog...

[logya]

Hi, nice channel and nice vid . I am french and i am living in Douai witch is on the map you showed in the vid so it's really interesting for me to learn about all those things . Thanks . ; )

[coling]

Being a Briton i will of course have to pronounce Yser as WHY-ser. thankyou. Another great video about lesser known aspect of a campaign that seemed to be like a blitzkreig in summer 1914... after German victory in 1871 they must have fought the 1914 war would be just as rapidly ended.

[XHollisWood]

Stefan thank you for sharing your knowledge with us, you’re always a refreshing look into history’s forgotten battles ❤️

[Artur_M.]

I knew a little about this topic but it's certainly interesting to learn some more details. For example, it was surprising to hear about the ways Ferdinand Foch was "motivating" King Albert.

BTW fun fact about Foch; he technically was a marshal of three nations: France (since 1918), the UK (since 1919) and Poland (since 1923).

[jscatt]

Stefan, thanks for another fantastic on location video!

[whyjnot]

Found you commenting on a video from TIK earlier today. Going against the grain of what I usually do (in the context of random people commenting on youtube), I decided to see what the channel was like. Scanning the videos, it seems like this might lead to a bunch of new starting points for further learning. Going to check a couple more videos now, if I like them, as I did this, there will be one more sub.

Also, one of my goals as of late has been to increase the number of historians I listen to, who are from outside of the US or UK/commonwealth. The only real hindrance to this is that aside from English, the only other language I am fluent in is vulgarity >_>. Granted, Frisian aside, Dutch is about as close as you can get to English in terms of language. But each new place, a new vantage point, something I never really understood back when "history" was that standard western civ that is ubiquitous. Only really starting to appreciate it when I first started to take in world history (that didn't shy away from or try to take away from the achievements of any one time or place that

Taking a breath and a step back in order to look at things in a wider scope.... that is a concept which applies to so many things.

caveat: That said, the parts of history which interest me the most, would not be out of place in a western civ course. For the most part anyways.