Visiting the Somme & Ypres Battlefields Made Easy by Gareth Hughes

Author:Gareth Hughes
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Bisac Code 1: HIS027090; Bic Code 1: HBWN; HISTORY / Military / World War I
ISBN: 9781473841000
Publisher: Pen and Sword
Published: 2014-09-10T16:00:00+00:00

Third Ypres/Passchendaele 31 July – 10 November 1917

Unfortunately, Plumer would not be given, nor was it ever the intention to give him, the opportunity to follow up this initial success. Haig wanted to strengthen and prepare before making the main assault, to break out of the Salient to the east. He also placed the thrusting cavalryman, Sir Hubert Gough, in charge of this next part of the campaign; favouring his “breakthrough” potential over the “bite and hold” tactics of Plumer.

What this meant was that, as men and resources flooded the area in preparation for the attack, the German Army had six weeks to observe the movements and build up of the British.

Proceeding a ten-day artillery bombardment of the German positions (3,000 guns firing 4.25 million shells), troops left their trenches on 31 July. Though the first day went quite well, what followed was the imagery that many associate with the whole of the war. Flanders experienced the heaviest rainfall it had had for seventy years. The heavy shelling destroyed the complex and delicate drainage system of ditches and streams so that the whole vista became one long, continuous stretch of glutinous mud. This would be just as much an enemy to the advancing soldiers as any weaponry they faced. The soil in and around Ypres is largely made up of blue clay, which means that drainage is poor at the best of times. You do not need to dig deep to come across water. When you visit the trench systems at Sanctuary Wood you will likely see this for yourself.

Through the rain and mud, the offensive gained little success in early August and dragged on through the rest of the month before Haig called a temporary halt to operations, due to the appalling conditions. Plumer was then drafted back in to take on the next stage of the offensive. Making optimal use of a very dry September and staged “bite-and-hold” 3 tactics, Plumer enjoyed success at the Menin Road Ridge, Polygon Wood and Broodseinde. Then the appalling weather returned.

The final phase of the battle saw a month long campaign by Gough’s Army and the French culminating, finally, in the capture of Passchendaele by Canadian forces on 6 November. This final stage of fighting had been horrific. The capture of the high ground on which the village stood gave Haig an excuse to call an end to the battle.

Casualty figures for this battle are disputed. If we take a middle estimate then both sides suffered around 300,000 casualties.4 These are, clearly, brutal numbers. Historians continue to argue passionately about the necessity and legacy of this particular engagement. British Prime Minister Lloyd-George was famously scathing of Haig’s conduct of this campaign in his memoirs but, of course, this was very much a part of the defence of his own legacy. The campaign had succeeded in removing the pressure from the French Army and it had inflicted a scale of casualties on the Germans with which they simply could not continue.5 With the

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