With the failure of the German offensive against France at the Battle of the Marne, and the allied counter-offensive, the so-called ' race to the sea ' began, a movement towards the North Sea coast as each army attempted to out-flank the other by moving progressively north and west.
http://firstworldwar.com/battles/ypres1st.htm
It was planned to break through the strongly fortified and in-depth German defences enclosing the Ypres salient, a protruding bulge in the British front line, with the intention of sweeping through to the German submarine bases on the Belgian coast.
https://www.awm.gov.au/military-event/E104/
In eight weeks of fighting Australian forces incurred 38,000 casualties. The combined total of British and Dominion casualties has been estimated at 310,000 (estimated German losses were slightly lower) and no breakthrough was achieved. The costly offensives, ending with the capture of Passchendaele village, merely widened the Ypres salient by a few kilometres.
https://www.awm.gov.au/military-event/E104/
In the First battle of Ypres the German Army recorded over 134,000 casualties. The BEF reported over 7,900 soldiers killed, about 29,000 wounded and over 17,800 missing. The loss of 21,500 soldiers to the Belgian Army was steep. The First Battle of Ypres and the Battle of the Yser marked the end of the Race to the Sea. The trench line firmly drawn, the battles of the Western Front proved costly to both sides, in terms of the lives lost.
http://www.mapsofworld.com/world-war-i/first-battle-of-ypres.html
The battle began with a nine-day German offensive that was only halted with the arrival of French reinforcements and the deliberate flooding of the Belgian front. Belgian troops opened the sluice gates of the dykes holding back the sea from the low countries.
http://firstworldwar.com/battles/ypres1st.htm
Ypres, Belgium – Western Front. By early October 1914, the German troops occupied Antwerp, Belgium and the Allied troops held Nieuport, near Ypres in the North Sea. The British Expeditionary Force (BEF) under the command of Field Marshal Sir John French, reinforced the French-Belgian troops at Ypres.
http://www.mapsofworld.com/world-war-i/first-battle-of-ypres.html
The battle comprised of a series of limited and costly offensives, often undertaken in the most difficult of waterlogged conditions-a consequence of frequent periods of rain and the destruction of the Flanders' lowlands drainage systems by intense artillery bombardment.
https://www.awm.gov.au/military-event/E104/
With the German defences too strong, the attack was called off on 18 September. Stalemate had set in. By October the Allies had reached the North Sea at Niuwpoort in Belgium. German forces forced the Belgian army out of Antwerp, ultimately ending up in Ypres.
http://firstworldwar.com/battles/ypres1st.htm
The second phase of the battle saw a counter-offensive launched by General Foch on 20 October, ultimately without success. It was ended on 28 October. Next, von Falkenhayn renewed his offensive on 29 October, attacking most heavily in the south and east-once again without decisive success.
http://firstworldwar.com/battles/ypres1st.htm
Between two and three o'clock on Saturday, the 31st, was the most critical hour in the whole battle. The 1st Division had fallen back from Gheluvelt to a line resting on the junction of the Frezenberg road with the Ypres-Menin highway.
http://firstworldwar.com/battles/ypres1st.htm
how many german casualties at battle of ypres
There are over 134,000 German casualties at the Battle of Ypres.