[2] The village was the scene of the first poison gas attacks by the Imperial German Army in the Western Front (see trench map), marking the beginning of the Second Battle of Ypres in April 1915.

During the First Battle of Ypres (1914) in World War I, poorly trained and inexperienced German infantrymen suffered severe casualties when they made a futile frontal attack on allied positions near Langemark and were checked by experienced French Poilus and British Tommies.

Contrary to popular belief, only fifteen percent of the German soldiers involved in the Battle of Langemark were schoolboys or students.

This comrades' grave contains 24,917 servicemen, including the World War I flying ace Werner Voss.

In September 2008, last British Army World War I combat veteran Harry Patch visited the Langemark cemetery and laid a memorial wreath on the grave of an Imperial German Army soldier who was killed in action on 16 August 1917; the day Private Patch's Division had attacked and taken the village of Langemarck during the Battle of Passchendaele.