THE WESTERN FRONT
THE THIRD BATTLE OF YPRES: 31st JULY – 6th NOVEMBER 1917
INCLUDING THE BATTLES OF MESSINES RIDGE AND PASSCHENDAELE
As we have seen, in the Second Battle of Ypres, fought over April and May of 1915 – a German offensive, using gas for the first time on the Western Front – made some serious inroads into the Ypres Salient. However, the city itself, though ruthlessly bombarded, remained in Allied hands.
The Third Battle, beginning on the 31st July, 1917, was not another German attempt to capture Ypres, but a prolonged and powerful British offensive aimed at breaking through the German hold on the western flank of the Salient and virtually putting the enemy to flight. It was the master plan of General Sir Douglas Haig. He saw the need for this assault on three counts. Firstly he considered that the serious mutiny within the French Army in the previous month, during the Nivelle Campaign, required an immediate show of force in order to confirm the Allies’ commitment to the war. Secondly, there was growing concern about the loss of commercial shipping following Germany’s decision, taken in February, to resume unrestricted submarine warfare against merchant shipping in international waters. The Naval Board was rightly concerned about the unsustainable losses this might incur, and favoured a campaign which aimed to destroy the German submarine bases dotted along the north coast of Belgium. Thirdly – and doubtless the overiding motivation as far as Haig was concerned – was the conviction on his part that the German army was not only seriously short of manpower, but, more to the point, was losing the will to fight. This could and should be the knock-
Thexcampaign was preceded by the Battle of Messines, a diversionary action launched in the second week of June. Situated directly south of Ypres at a distance of about six miles, Messines was a ridge that – like Hill 60 – had a commanding view over the city and it’s approaches. After extensive preparations – involving the digging of 8,000 metres of tunnel – 19 underground mines were planted along its entire length, a total of 600 tons of explosive. Then on the 7th June, following a bombardment by 2,300 guns and 300 heavy mortars, the mines were detonated. The sound it made, the largest man-
The Third Battle of Ypres opened on July 31st. After a 3,000 gun bombardment, the infantry, supported by tanks, did take Bixschoote, Pilckem Ridge and St. Julien on the left flank, but it soon became clear that the Germans had greatly improved their defences and were fully determined to fight to hold on to them. Two further attacks in August were halted by heavy artillery fire and German counter-
Inxan attempt to improve the Allied performance, new tactics were introduced in September. These introduced a series of short, sharp attacks (known as “bite and hold”), with artillery backing and air support. Launched every six days in late September and early October, these tactics did result in the successful taking of land along the Menin Road; a victory at Polygon Wood; and the capture of Broodsiende. However, with continuing rain, the battle ground was becoming a quagmire, slowing down movement and clogging up equipment. Casualtiesxwere heavy in these encounters, but they were seriously eclipsed later that month when Haig, confident that a break through would be achieved “at any moment”, planned an attack on Passchendaele Ridge. He chose his Australian and New Zealand troops for this task, and the suffering and loses they endured have come to epitomise the horrors of modern warfare. They were mown (“scythed”) down in their thousands as they crossed open ground, a terrain covered with thick mud and water-
nced little more than 100 yards. It was not until November, this time with the support of Canadian troops (who had just taken high ground north of Lens), that the devastated village of Passchendaele and its strategically important Ridge were finally captured. This brought an end to the Third Battle of Ypres, an offensive which cost the Allies (British, Colonial and Commonwealth forces plus a French contingent) 250,000 casualties, and the Germans upward of 200,000.
Acknowledgements
Messines: cai.cam.ac.uk, Gonville & Caius, University of Cambridge Map: military-
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The Third Battle of Ypres, and especially the struggle to take Passchendaele, was one of the most vicious and controversial offensives of the First World War, along with the Battle of the Somme and the long, bitter struggle centred around Verdun. It is doubtless to his credit that Haig, Commander in Chief of the British Expeditionary Force, was determined to break through the German lines, put an end to trench warfare, and seize the ultimate victory, but the practicality of that plan must be called into question, as must his persistence in battling on when his objective was clearly out of reach. In fact, he considered that his campaign was a success, based on the capture of Paschendaele. In so doing he had certainly reduced the strength of the German forces by some indeterminable measure, but that was only part of his objective. There was certainly no breakthrough – allowing the use of cavalry to clench victory – and certainly no destruction of the German submarine bases along the Belgian coast, seen as a strategic necessity.
But strategy and tactics aside, what alarmed the politicians, the general public, and even some members of his own staff (unprepared to speak up), was the ever mounting cost in human life as this offensive continued. It seemed to many that he had not learned the lessons of the Battle of the Somme, his master plan only the previous year. Many saw this battle as m
ud, madness and mayhem, an enormous bloodbath for a piece of ground which, unbelievably, was simply given up the following year in the face of a looming German attack! The British prime minister Lloyd George, referring to the battle in 1938, saw it as “one of the greatest disasters of the war ..... a senseless campaign”. And for many at the time and long afterwards it gave credence to the phrase, “Lions led by Donkeys”. During this particular battle, 61 “lions” were awarded Britain’s Victoria Cross, a significant reminder, if one were needed, of the ferocity and the length of the offensive.
In contrast, as we shall see, during the Third Battle of Verdun, fought in September 1918, the French General Philippe Pétain, promising not to throw away the lives of his men on long, costly offensives, was prepared to wait for the assistance of fresh American troops – who had begun to arrive on the Western Front in June 1917. A continuous routine of bloody battles was replaced by limited and controlled attacks, followed by a constructive period of consolidation. Haig, it could be argued, should have taken that course twelve months earlier. That said, he was a go-
Incidentally, thexEnglish war poet Siegfried Sassoon, who served on the Western Front and was awarded the Military Cross for bravery, later became disillusioned with the war, and grew increasingly bitter about the horrors of the trenches and the futility and barbarity of the conflict. He wrote a number of powerful war poems, including one about Passchendaele. It is given below, together with a poignant piece of verse entitled The Dug Out. ......
…… Hedd Wyn – thexbardic name for the Welsh language poet Ellis Evans – was killed on the first day of Passchendaele. Some months after his death, his poem Yr Arwr, The Hero, won the 1917 Eisteddford Bardic Chair, the highest honour bestowed on a Welsh language poet. During the ceremony a black cloth was draped over the chair. ……
…… Andxit was at this time (15th October), that the alleged spy, Mata Hari, was executed. Dutch born Margaretha Geetruida Zelle worked as dancer in Paris, where she adopted the Malayan stage name of Mata Hari (“Eye of the Day”). Early in 1917, she was accused of being a double agent in the pay of military and government officials on both sides, and she was eventually shot by the French on a charge of selling allied secrets to the Germans. As an exotic dancer she attracted wide public interest, and it has been 
suggested that the French used her trial as a means of diverting attention away from the abysmal failure of the Nivelle campaign. ……
…… ThexYpres (Menin Gate) Memorial bears the names of 54,000 officers and men whose graves are unknown. It was the gate through which hundreds of thousands of British, Commonwealth and Colonial forces passed on their way to the battlefields. Unveiled in July 1927, it was designed by the architect Sir Reginald Blomfield, with sculptures by Sir William Reid-
It was during the Third Battle of Ypres that the French launched their Second Battle of Verdun. Following the disastrous defeat of the Nivelle Offensive and the mutinies that went with it, there was some concerns about the loyalty of the frontline troops, but they were totally unfounded. The reforms introduced by Pétain doubtless assisted in this respect but, more significantly, the French at Verdun were fighting in the aftermath of success not failure. In the opening battle for Verdun, the Germans had captured a number of commanding positions overlooking the town but, despite heavy casualties, they had been halted in their tracks. Indeed, towards the end of the year, French counter attacks had recaptured the strongholds of Douaumont and Vaux. Verdun, the very symbol of French resistance and defiance, had been saved. The time had now come for the French to go on the offensive.
MEMORIAL TABLET
Squire nagged and bullied till I went to fight,
(Under Lord Derby’s Scheme). I died in hell—
(They called it Passchendaele). My wound was slight, And I was hobbling back; and then a shell
Burst slick upon the duck-
Into the bottomless mud, and lost the light.
At sermon-
He gives my gilded name a thoughtful stare:
For, though low down upon the list, I’m there;
‘In proud and glorious memory’… that’s my due.
Two bleeding years I fought in France, for Squire:
I suffered anguish that he’s never guessed.
Once I came home on leave: and then went west… What greater glory could a man desire?
THE DUG-
Why do you lie with your legs ungainly huddled,
And one arm bent across your sullen cold
Exhausted face? It hurts my heart to watch you,
Deep-
And you wonder why I shake you by the shoulder;
Drowsy, you mumble and sigh and turn your head.
You are too young to fall asleep for ever;
And when you sleep you remind me of the dead
