Current Information:

Enlisted-London

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 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.

Battle of Pilckem Ridge (31st July-2nd August)

This was the opening attack of Third Ypres and began at 3.50am on 31st July when British and French troops launched their offensive to break out of the Ypres salient. The day had mixed results. To the north the Pilckem Ridge was captured but there was less success further south along the Gheluvelt Ridge, where a combination of stiff German resistance and low cloud, which hindered observation, meant that only the first objectives were captured. Further attempts to push on were stopped in their tracks by specialist German counter attack divisions and resulted in a 70% casualty rate among the British troops. Then in the afternoon, the rain came and under the weight of shells falling on it, the battlefield soon became a quagmire. Over the next two days, suffering the most appalling conditions in the mud and the rain, the troops had to fight off numerous German counter attacks.

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.  The battalion remained  here in awful conditions and under all sorts of fire until relieved on 5th August. Among the casualties sustained by 17th King’s Royal Rifle Corps in this action was William Le Masurier who was killed on 4th August. a day during which the weather was very bad and the trenches, especially Canopus Trench, were heavily shelled.