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Subject: A bit of history: 31 July 1918; The Battle of Passchendaele begins.
tjkhan    7/31/2006 5:12:34 PM
Also know as the Third Battle of Ypres. From firstworldwar.com: From Battles: The Third Battle of Ypres, 1917 Whereas the first and second battles of Ypres were launched by the Germans in 1914 and 1915 respectively, Third Ypres was intended as Sir Douglas Haig’s Allied forces breakthrough in Flanders in 1917. Haig had long mulled the idea of launching a major offensive in Flanders. It was his preferred choice for 1916, although in the event the Battle of the Somme took precedence that summer. Meticulously planned, Third Ypres was launched on 31 July 1917 and continued until the fall of Passchendaele village on 6 November. The offensive resulted in gains for the Allies but was by no means the breakthrough Haig intended, and such gains as were made came at great cost in human terms. Today commonly referred to simply as ‘Passchendaele’, the tactics employed at the Third Battle of Ypres are as controversial as those executed at the Battle of the Somme a little over a year earlier, and was the final great battle of attrition of the war. Once the French Nivelle Offensive had ended in disastrous failure in May, with mutiny spreading throughout the French army, Haig determined to press ahead with plans for a major British offensive in late summer. The ostensible aim of the campaign was to be the destruction of German submarine bases on the Belgian coast, following a warning issued by British Admiral Jellicoe that the current level of shipping losses would prevent the British from sustaining the war into 1918, thus requiring clearance of the bases on the Belgian coast. Haig, whilst recognising the urgency of this requirement, was at least as interested in finally breaking the will of the German army, which he believed was near to collapse – a faulty view that he similarly held at the height of the Somme offensive a year earlier. British Prime Minister David Lloyd George was opposed to the Passchendaele offensive, and later came out highly critical of Haig’s strategy and tactics in his published memoirs, but in the absence of a credible alternative to Haig he felt obliged to sanction Haig’s plans. He was however encouraged by arguably the greatest local success of the war earlier that summer, on 7 June, at Messines Ridge, when the Battle of Messines resulted in the complete capture of the Messines-Wytschaete ridge under General Plumer. The capture of the ridge was a necessary precursor to an offensive aimed at capturing Passchendaele ridge. Plumer advocated continuing the attack immediately into Passchendaele ridge, arguing that the morale of the German troops was, for the present at least, broken, and that this combined with a shortage of forces would virtually guarantee Allied capture of the ridge. Haig however disagreed, choosing not to bring forward his plans from the end of July. With the patent instability of Russian forces in the field, and the possibility of a Russian withdrawal from the war, action certainly appeared to be mandated in the summer of 1917. Were the Russians to leave the war it would enable Germany to draft its Eastern forces into the battle on the Western Front, dramatically increasing German reserve strength. The Third Battle of Ypres was opened by Sir Hubert Gough’s Fifth Army, with 1 Corps of Sir Herbert Plumer’s Second Army joining on its right and a corps of the French First Amy led by Anthoine to its left: a total of twelve divisions. As was the norm for any major Allied offensive, on 18 July a heavy preliminary artillery bombardment was effected for the ten days prior to the launch of the attack at 03:50 on 31 July. The bombardment made use of 3,000 guns which expended four and a quarter million shells. Given such an onslaught the German Fourth Army, led by Arnim, fully expected an imminent offensive: the element of surprise was entirely absent. Thus when the attack was launched across an 18 kilometre front, Fourth Army was in place to hold off the main British advance around the Menin Road, and restricted the Allies to fairly small gains to the left of the line around Pilckem Ridge. Similarly the French were halted further north by the German Fifth Army under Gallwitz. British attempts to renew the offensive over the course of the next few days were severely hampered by the onset of heavy rains, the heaviest in 30 years, which churned the Flanders lowland soil into a thick muddy swamp. Tanks found themselves immobile, stuck fast in the mud. Similarly the infantry found their mobility severely limited. Ironically the very force of the preliminary bombardment had itself destroyed drainage systems, exacerbating the problem. In addition, the artillery shells that had rained down in the days prior to the attack’s launch had peppered the very ground that needed to be traversed by the advancing Allied forces. As a consequence no renewed major offensive could be contemplated until 16 August, when the Battle of Langemarck saw fou
 
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tjkhan    RE:A bit of history: 31 July 1918; The Battle of Passchendaele begins.   7/31/2006 5:15:41 PM
Sorry, before anyone picks me up, the date is wrong in the heading, it sahould be 31 July 1917. I should also acknowledge that there is some argument about whether the Battle Passchendaele should be said to start with the offensive beginning on 31 July, or whether it should be limited to those later battles commencing in October 1917.
 
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