Battle of Passchendaele - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Quoted from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Passchendaele:

Battle of Passchendaele - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Battle of Passchendaele also known as the Third Battle of Ypres,[Note 1] Third Flanders Battle (German: Dritte Flandernschlacht) and Second Battle of Flanders (French: 2ème Bataille des Flandres) was one of the major battles of the First World War. The battle consisted of a series of operations starting in June 1917 and finally dissipating in November 1917 in which Entente troops under British command attacked the Imperial German Army.[Note 2] The battle was fought for control of the village of Passchendaele near the town of Ypres in West Flanders, Belgium. The objective of the offensive was to achieve a breakthrough between the River Lys and the North Sea in the hopes of outflanking the German Fourth Army’s defensive system from the north. The British believed the manoeuvre would cripple the German U-boat campaign by depriving Germany of the use of the Belgian ports. Germany inflicted increasingly heavy losses on British shipping following its resumption of unrestricted submarine warfare in February 1917 and the British mistakenly believed the Germans were using Belgian ports for U-boat operations. The offensive also served the dual purpose of diverting German attention away from the French in the Aisne, who were suffering from widespread mutiny.

The British launched several massive attacks, heavily supported by artillery and aircraft. The British never managed to make a decisive breakthrough against well-entrenched German lines. The battle consisted of a series of 'Bite and Hold' attacks to capture critical terrain and wear down the German army, lasting until the Canadian Corps took Passchendaele on 6 November 1917, ending the battle. Although inflicting irreplaceable casualties on the Germans, the Allies had captured a mere 5 miles (8 km) of new territory at a cost of 140,000 combat deaths, a ratio of roughly 2 inches (5 cm) gained per dead soldier. The Germans recaptured their lost ground, without resistance, 5 months later during the Battle of the Lys.[2]

Passchendaele has become synonymous with the misery of grinding attrition warfare fought in thick mud. Most of the battle took place on reclaimed marshland, swampy even without rain. 1917 had an unusually cold and wet summer, and heavy artillery bombardment destroyed the surface of the land. Though there were dry periods, mud was nevertheless a constant feature of the landscape; newly-developed tanks bogged down in mud, and soldiers often drowned in it. The battle is a subject of fierce debate among historians, particularly in Britain. The volume of the British Official History of the War which covered Passchendaele was the last to be published, and there is evidence it was biased to reflect well on Field Marshal Douglas Haig and badly on General Hubert Gough, the commander of the Fifth Army.[3] The heavy casualties suffered by the British Army in return for slender territorial gains have led many historians to follow the example of David Lloyd George, the Prime Minister of the time, and use it as an example of senseless waste and poor generalship. There is also a revisionist school of thought which seeks to emphasise the achievements of the British Army in the battle, in inflicting great damage on the German Army, relieving pressure on the distressed French, and developing offensive tactics capable of dealing with German defensive positions, which were significant in winning the war in 1918.[4][5]

Casualty figures for the battle are still a matter of some controversy. Some accounts suggest that the Allies suffered significantly heavier losses than the Germans, while others offer more even figures. However, no-one disputes that hundreds of thousands of soldiers on both sides were killed or crippled.[6] The last surviving veteran of the battle, Private Harry Patch died 25 July 2009.[7]