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Voormezeele Enclosures1&2, Belgium Voormezeele Enclosures1&2, Belgium
First Name: William Anthony Last Name: MITCHISON
Date of Death: 20/09/1917 Lived/Born In: Belgravia
Rank: Lieutenant Unit: Royal Engineers 19th Division Signal Company
Memorial Site:

Current Information:

Age-24

10, Eaton Gate, Belgravia

Voormezeele Enclosures1&2, 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.

During the First World War each infantry division included a Royal Engineers Signals Company of over 150 men, whose main duties were laying, operating and repairing telegraph communications wire. They were also used to carry messages and to handle and despatch official and private mail. The signallers were also used in forward positions to assist the artillery and provide information on their enemy targets. In these, often isolated, positions they were vulnerable to enemy fire, and many of them became casualties.

At 5.40am on 20th September, 1917, 19th Division attacked from the southern end of the Ypres salient between Groenenburg Farm and the Comines canal towards the village of Zandvoorde. One of the many casualties suffered by the division on this day was William Mitchison of the 19th Division Signals Company but as yet there is no further information concerning his death.

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