Passchendaele 1917

The battle took place in the Ypres Salient area of the Western Front, in and around the Belgian town of Passchendaele. From July until early October 1917, British and Australian soldiers had attempted to capture the German occupied Belgian coast. By early October, however, only minimal advances had been made and the Allied troops were near exhaustion. In the fall of 1917, Canada’s army, after their great success at Vimy Ridge that April, was sent north to Belgium.
The Canadian Corps was tasked with relieving the exhausted II Anzac Corps, continuing the advance started with the First Battle of Passchendaele and ultimately capturing the town of Passchendaele itself.
Ypres was a very difficult place to fight. It was a region largely made up of flat, low land that was kept dry only with a series of dykes and drainage ditches. Three years of heavy fighting had destroyed the drainage systems. The ground, churned up by millions of artillery shells, turned to sticky mud when wet. In 1917, the autumn rains came early and turned the battlefield into a sea of mud, the battlefield was transformed into a quagmire that made movement and life in general extremely difficult. The mud was to become one of the defining features of the battle for soldiers on both sides. Stories of men and horses getting stuck in the mud and slowly sinking away, never to be seen again, where not uncommon.



On October 26, the Canadian offensive began. Success was made possible due to acts of great individual heroism to get past spots of heavy enemy resistance. Advancing through the mud and enemy fire was slow and there were heavy losses. Despite the adversity, the Canadians reached the outskirts of Passchendaele by the end of a second attack on October 30 during a driving rainstorm.
On November 6, the Canadians and British launched the assault to capture the ruined village of Passchendaele itself. In heavy fighting, the attack went according to plan. The task of actually capturing the village fell to the “City of Winnipeg” 27th Battalion and they took it that day. After weathering fierce enemy counterattacks, the last phase of the battle saw the Canadians attack on November 10 and clear the Germans from the eastern edge of Passchendaele Ridge. Canadian soldiers succeeded in the face of almost unbelievable challenges.
The Second Battle of Passchendaele cost the Canadian Corps 15 654 casualties with over 4 000 dead, in 16 days of fighting. Nine Victoria Crosses, the highest military decoration for valour awarded to British and forces, were awarded to Canadians for actions during the battle.



Today several different nations' war cemeteries are found in Passchendaele. The Tyne Cot Cemetery (the largest Commonwealth cemetery in the world), the New British Cemetery, the Canadian Memorial, and the New Zealand Forces Memorial.