.
_____________________
Passchendaele, which is officially called the third battle of Ypres, is remembered among the battles of World War I not only for its cost of lives and health, but also for the conditions under which those casualties occurred.
In 1917, the area of Flanders to the east of Ypres had great strategic importance because a German occupied ridge running from the East to the South of the area dominated it. This was the only high ground in a flat, featureless plain, and if the British could break out of the Ypres salient and take it, they could turn north and drive the Germans from the Belgian coast and capture the ports of Ostend and Zeebrugge from the enemy. The German position in Belgium would be outflanked and their industrial heartland in the Ruhr would be under threat. This would mean a major victory for the British in the horrible, destructive and unwanted war. U-boats operating out of Zeebrugge had great success and the Admirality (British Naval Command) was increasingly worried about what would happen in the English Channel if the Belgium ports were not closed to the German Navy. Pressure had been put on Field Marshal Haig (an important, yet rather old-fashioned British general in the war) to make an attack in Flanders. Haig's plan was to strike out of Ypres to the North and East and, with the troops landing on the coast of Belgium at Nieuport near by, he would capture the high ground at Passchendaele, which was the key to the whole area. This would allow the cavalry to be released in the open country and sweep all before them to the coast.
General Haig had been trained as a cavalryman, and firmly believed that cavalry had a place in modern war. He was a very stubborn and unimaginative man who completely disregarded the effects of barbed wire, machine guns, shells and fire from aircraft on the very vulnerable horses. An attack in Flanders would also hold down the German reserves and relieve the pressure on the French, who needed time to recover from the bloody destruction at Verdun that had caused the French army to mutiny. There were three main factors that prevented Haig's plans from being successful: these were the battlefield itself, the weather and the German defenses.
The Ypres occupied a low-lying, gently rising pastureland which had been converted over the years by an elaborate drainage system, that had originally been a marsh. The water table was near the surface of the land, even at the height of summer, and this reclaimed land was extremely vulnerable to shellfire that would destroy the drainage system and allow the land to flood. There was no layer of gravel and therefor any flooding would rapidly turn the whole battlefield into a mud bath once the shelling started. The Steenbeeck was one of a number of little streams that along with the mud were to achieve great importance in creating problems for the British, after shelling and rain transformed them into an impenetrable barrier across the axis of the attack.
Although Haig had been warned about this problem, he hoped that the breakthrough would be so swift that the land would not have time to bog. He seemed to be an incurable optimist who was quite incapable of learning from the recent experiences on the Somme, perhaps he was too old-fashioned to learn any ruled about modern warfare.
Flanders was notorious for wet weather that usually started in the late autumn. The plan was for the attack to start in July, after the successful but limited Battle of Messines in June. It was known that July and August were the most unpredictable months of the year and heavy thunderstorms were possible at any time. September was the best month as it was dry every one out of four years (unfortunately 1917 was one of those wet years!) October was usually the wettest month of the year and often marked the beginning of winter.
The weather forecast broadcasted before the battle on July 31st stated that "the weather is likely to improve generally but slowly". Although the average rainfall for the beginning of August was only 8mm of rain, in fact 76mm fell over the next 4 days! Whatever else he was; be it an excellent fighter or scholar, Haig was not a lucky General.
The Germans were well aware of the strategic importance of Flanders, and that was why that was the most heavily fortified part of their line. British security was very poor and the Germans knew all about the coming battle and had prepared their countermeasures well in advance. It was no coincidence that four days before the battle was due to begin they had carried out a tactical retreat from their front line back to the Passchendaele ridge. This left a zone of real and potential marshland in the low-lying land between their new front line and the British.
Their new positions, the Hindenburg line, was a defense three lines deep, the third being beyond the range of the British guns. Between these lines were barbed wire, scattered concrete pillboxes and machine gun nests. The barbed wire funneled the attackers into killing zones swept by machine guns and carefully targeted by the artillery so that the attackers could be annihilated by a crippling concentration of shells.
The Canadians were the ones who began the assault on Passchendaele itself. They gained the ruined outskirts of the village during a violent rainstorm; they staunchly held on for five days, even when they were waist deep in mud from the storm and exposed to the German shelling. On November 4th, when reinforcements arrived, four-fifths of the attackers were dead. There were 16,000 casualties. General Hubert Gough and the British Fifth Army carried out the opening attack of the Battle of Passchendaele with General Herbert Plumer and the Second Army on the left. After a ten-day bombardment, with 3,000 guns firing 4.25 million shells, the British offensive started at Ypres at 3:50 am on July 31st. The German fourth Army held off the main British advance and restricted the British' too small gains to the left of the line. Attacks continued from the allies despite the fact that the heavy rain turned the battlefield into a mud bath. As well, British fire had destroyed the drainage system in the area, making the situation even worse. The heavy mud created huge problems with the infantry, and made the use of the newly invented tanks impossible. Eventually Haig was forced to call off the attacks and the fighting did not begin again until September.
When attacks occurred on September 26th and October 4th, it enabled the British to take possession of the ridge east of Ypres. Though the heavy rain returned, the General ordered more attacks towards Passchendaele ridge. Besides the awful mud, the soldiers also had to endure mustard gas attacks from the Germans. Three more attacks took place in October and on November 6th. Finally the village of Passchendaele was taken the British and Canadian infantry. The cost of lives in this battle was a horrifying number of approximately 310,00 casualties.
For 76 years, the name of Passchendaele has been recognized with all that is loathsome in war. It certainly represents the futility and stupidity of warfare. But surely Passchendaele must also epitomize the extraordinary bravery of the fighting soldiers: who attempted what was quite obviously impossible but by a superhuman effort achieved success. Many Canadians received the Victoria Cross award for their bravery (the Victoria Cross is the highest medal for bravery that can be awarded to a person.). One such person was 19 year old Private Holmes of the 4th Canadian Mounted Rifles, 2nd Central Ontario Regiment, Canadian Expeditionary Force. He received the award for single-handedly running forward into the enemy fire and threw two bombs, killing and wounding the crews of two enemy machine guns. He then grabbed another bomb and threw it into the entrance of the pillbox causing the 19 occupants to surrender. Even though the sheer losses of this battle, and the horror it brought, if it showed anything, it was that when we Canadians stand together, we will triumph over any odds.
_____________________
1. "Ypres." Microsoft Encarta 96 Encyclopedia. CD-ROM. 1996 Ed.
2. "Haig." Microsoft Encarta 96 Encyclopedia. CD-ROM. 1996 Ed.
3. Miller, Geoffry. "The Battle of 3rd Ypres (Passchendaele)" http://209.36.93.3/jholford/battleofYpres%2.htm
4. Chapman, Mike. "Victoria Cross by Location of Deed, Passchendaele" http://www.chapter-one.com/vc/location/l_passch.html
5. "Article 008, Passchendaele" http://www.schoolnet.ca/collections/turner/ar_passchendaele.html
6. Quigley, Hugh. "Passchendaele and the Somme". Methuen, 1928 http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/FWWpasschendaele.htm
7. Haig. "Sir Douglas Haig". http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/FWWhaig.htm
A School Link Article. Courtesy of Andrew Thomas, Adeline Koh, Yin Hy, Jasime Gavigan, and Tali Weissberger Dr. G.W. Williams Secondary School, 02/03/99.
