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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 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.

The British first used tanks in September 1916 during the Battle of the Somme after which they became a feature of the Western Front and had an important role to play in much of the action of the final two years of the war. However, the early tanks had many shortcomings not least of which were the hellish conditions that the tank crews had to contend with. The noise made by the engine and the heat and exhaust fumes coming from it were almost overwhelming. There was no form of suspension and the crew were subjected to violent movements as it traversed shell torn land. Communication was practically impossible and they were slow, barely able to keep up with the infantry. They offered protection from machine-gun and rifle bullets but were vulnerable to shell fire and their speed, or lack of it made them sitting targets. Lastly they were mechanically unreliable and often broke down. Nevertheless, on the plus side they often supported the infantry very effectively with their machine-guns and six-pounder artillery pieces. They could be directed on to specific targets such as machine-gun nests and their ability to take trenches and barbed wire in their stride made it easier to break through the enemy lines. They were also used in mopping up operations after an infantry attack and they were able to deliver much needed supplies, especially ammunition to the front.

Over 200 tanks from the Tank Corps, divided into 3 Brigades, were available at the start of the Third Battle of Ypres but their usefulness waned as the weather deteriorated and ground conditions worsened. On the first few days of fighting, they trundled forward in support of the infantry but a number of them were destroyed by enemy artillery  fire and they suffered many casualties, 40 of whom were killed. One of these was Robert Handley on 2nd August serving with G Battalion.