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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 Langemarck

This took place between 16th-18th August, 1917 and was the second general attack of 3rd Ypres. Although it did not rain during the two days of the battle itself there had been plenty of it in the preceding days and in many places the battlefield was a quagmire. On the left of the attack in the north-west of the Ypres salient there was considerable success,  especially for the French Army which attacked on the left of the British, but the attack on the Gheluvelt Plateau, due east of Ypres, met determined German resistance and the early gains were soon reversed.

On 16th August, 56th Division attacked at 4.45am on the right of the battle front, with 169 and 167 Brigades. They also had a brigade from 18th Division attached to form a southern defensive flank. 168 Brigade were in reserve. The objective of the division was the western half of Polygon Wood and the 12th London battalion, put at the disposal of 169 Brigade became involved in this. At 11am, with the operation not going well, 12th London were ordered up to Half Way House and at 7.30pm they moved up into support trenches astride the Menin Road between Chateau Wood and Clapham Junction. This coincided with a strong enemy counter attack and the last platoons to arrive here got hit by a lightning artillery barrage which caused many casualties. Shortly after a German counter attack drove both brigades of 56th Division back to their starting line. Nothing had been gained but many lives had been lost, including that of Alfred Eden of 12th London.