The First Battle of Ypres, also called the First Battle of Flanders (), was a First World War battle fought for the strategic town of Ypres in western Belgium in October and November 1914. The German and Western Allied attempts to secure the town from enemy occupation included a series of further battles in and around the West Flanders Belgian municipality. The battle completed the entrenchments of the "race to the sea" and inaugurated the static western front. Mobile operations would not resume until 1918.