WINNER : TRAVEL/YPRES/IEPER JUN 09/SOME YPRES SALIENT WWI CEMETERIES & BATTLEFIELDS GALLERY





The Battle of Passchendaele was one of the major battles of World War I. The battle was for control of this small village, seen on the left of the horizon in this image, five miles north-east of Ypres. It is the name, along with the Somme, which has come to symbolise WWI.
The main battle started on 31st July 1917, and carried on until November 10th 1917.
The final phase, the advance on Passchendaele, took place in October and November, the aim being to take the strategically important high ground of the Passchendaele ridge. A battle on 12th October failed to take the village, and the next battle lasted from 26th October until 10th November. The battle consisted of a series of attacks to capture parts of the important terrain and to wear down the German army, lasting until the Canadian Corps took Passchendaele in November 1917.
Passchendaele has become synonymous with the misery of fighting in thick mud. Most of the battle took place on reclaimed marshland, swampy even without rain. 1917 had an unusually cold and wet summer, and heavy artillery bombardment destroyed the surface of the land. Mud was a constant feature of the landscape. The newly-developed tanks, and the heavy guns became bogged down and disappeared in the mud..... many soldiers and the horses pulling the artillery drowned in it. The battle claimed a staggering 2,000 plus lives a day, and a total of around quarter of a million Allied soldiers.
Just south of the village is the large cemetery and Memorial to the Missing at Tyne Cot