Current Information:

Age-29

92, Lucien Road, Tooting

117, Tynemouth Road, Mitcham

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.

After their involvement in the opening stages of Third Ypres, the 8th East Kent (Buffs) battalion of 17 Brigade, 24th Division were relieved on 2nd August and moved back to a camp at Dickebusch. On 7th August they moved back into the front line in the southern part of the salient with battalion HQ at Canada Tunnels. On 10th August a raiding party of 47 from B Company attempted to capture Lower Star Post.  At 4.35am a covering artillery barrage opened up and although three minutes later, as planned, most of the guns lifted, one battery unfortunately continued firing for a further minute causing 12 casualties and disorganisation.  Nevertheless the men of 8th Buffs advanced but the enemy were waiting and the officer in charge and nearly all the NCOs were wounded. The 15 or so men still remaining charged but could make no headway in the face of the stick bombs used by the Germans and were left with no option but to return to their own lines. The battalion suffered 30 casualties in this failed attack, one of whom was Percy Powell.