Current Information:

Age-33

63, Parkfield Road, South Harrow

Bedford House Cemetery, Belgium

Third Battle of Ypres

This was a campaign fought between July and November 1917 and is often referred to as the Battle of Passchendaele, a village to the north-east of Ypres which was finally captured in November. It was an attempt by the British to break out of the Ypres salient and capture the higher ground to the south and the east from which the enemy had been able to dominate the salient. It began well but two important factors weighed against them. First was the weather. The summer of 1917 turned out to be one of the the wettest on record and soon the battlefield was reduced to a morass of mud which made progress very difficult, if not impossible in places. The second was the defensive arrangements of concrete blockhouses and machine gun posts providing inter-locking fire that the Germans had constructed and which were extremely difficult and costly to counter. For 4 months this epic struggle continued by the end of which the salient had been greatly expanded in size but the vital break out had not been achieved.

The Battle of the Menin Road Ridge. 20th-25th September, 1917

After the disappointing opening battles of the last day of July and the middle of August, when very little had been gained but at great cost in casualties, a new approach was adopted for the next offensive against the Gheluvelt plateau which began on 20th September and became known as the Battle of the Menin Road. The task was handed over to General Plumer, commander of the Second Army, a more cautious leader who, rather than try to drive as deep as possible into the German line, was an advocate of 'bite and hold' tactics with limited advances of no more than 1,500 yards, based on overwhelming firepower and exhaustive preparation. These new tactics, which were significantly aided by a period of warm, dry weather, worked well and September and early October saw a decisive phase of Third Ypres in which the British gained the upper hand. At the same time that Plumer’s Second Army were hammering away at the German defences on the Gheluvelt plateau, Fifth Army also attacked in the northern part of the Ypres salient and they too made gains.

On 20th September, 1917, the attack on the Gheluvelt plateau was spearheaded by two Australian divisions, the 1st and the 2nd, who attacked astride the Menin road. With an intensity of artillery fire power, almost double of that of 31st July, they smashed into the German lines following a barrage that was the biggest and best yet seen with five belts of fire, including one by machine-guns and each 200 yards in depth.  The foremost Germans were demoralised by this onslaught and easily overrun. On the left, 2nd Australian Division attacked with at 5.40am with 7 Brigade and 5 Brigade. 20th Battalion led the assault of 5 Brigade and soon made it to their first objective despite meeting some resistance from a line of old concrete artillery shelters on their left. While consolidating their new positions they came under fire from two pillboxes 200 yards away which were immediately dealt with thus allowing 18th Battalion to move on to the second objective which included Iron Cross House and Anzac House. After that 17th and 28th Battalions easily captured the third objective. There were of course casualties for the Australian units and one of whom was Albert Howard of 17th Battalion.