The Battle of Langemarck (1914) was fought near Ypres during October and November 1914. In the novel’s historical notes, it anchors Langemarck in the First World War’s early fighting and is carefully distinguished from the later events that made the place a site of chemical warfare and renewed battle.

Fighting near Ypres

The note identifies heavy fighting at Langemarck during October and November 1914. It does not specify the course or outcome of the 1914 fighting; its emphasis is on locating the battle in the wider chronology of the war.

Langemarck after 1914

Langemarck’s wartime history continued beyond the 1914 battle. In April 1915, the Germans first used poison gas there, and Langemarck fell to them after that attack. The Allies used gas at Loos five months later. These events belong to the following year, not to the Battle of Langemarck (1914).

Recapture in 1917

The note records that British forces recaptured Langemarck on 16 August 1917, after the Third Battle of Ypres. This later change of control completes the brief chronology: fighting in 1914, the first gas attack and German capture in 1915, and British recapture in 1917. Keeping these episodes distinct prevents the battle’s name from collapsing several separate wartime events into one.