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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 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.

On 31st July, 1917, after an opening barrage by 3,000 guns, 16 divisions attacked along the length of the salient. Those divisions in the centre of the line moved due east to the Steenbeek, a small stream, crossing the line of attack some 1,000 yards off. This was the final objective of 39th Division, whose first objective was Kitchener’s Wood, or rather what was left of Kitchener’s Wood after 3 years of concentrated artillery bombardment.  16th Sherwood Foresters and 17th King’s Royal Rifle Corps led the attack by 117 Brigade and, mainly thanks to the barrage which largely destroyed the enemy front line, this was soon taken. Moving on to Canadian Farm this too fell to the men of 17th King’s Royal Rifle Corps as did the Red Line just beyond it. At this stage the men consolidated their position whilst the other battalions passed through to take Kitchener’s Wood and then move on to the Steenbeck. In the afternoon some of 17th King’s Royal Rifle Corps were sent forward in support of 16th Rifle Brigade who had reached the Steenbeck.  Of the 70 casualties suffered by the battalion 20 were killed. One of these was Robert Parsons.