Current Information:

Age-25

39, Malabar Street, Millwall

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 four 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.

After their involvement in the opening day of this battle, the 10th Essex battalion of 53 Brigade, 18th Division, were relieved and moved back to MicMac Camp. On 10th August they moved back into the front line near Stirling Castle, where they remained, under persistent shell fire, until relieved on 14th August. Frank Powell was killed on 12th August.