THE BATTLE OF PASSCHENDAELE IN NUMBERS

THE Battle of Passchendaele left hundreds of thousands of men dead and wounded, but was not the decisive breakthrough the British had hoped for, as soldiers were hampered by unseasonal wet weather and stiff German resistance.

The battlefield in Belgium was turned into a hellish quagmire of mud and shell craters as the fighting went on during the summer and autumn of 1917.

Here are some of the numbers associated with the battle: 30 The weather in Flanders during the offensive was the worst in the region for 30 years, reducing much of it to a quagmire. 325,000Allied Estimated casualties, including many Australian, New Zealand and Canadian soldiers. The Germans lost between 260,000 and 400,000. 4.25the million shells fired at German lines from 3,000 big guns in the two weeks before the battle started – alerting them to an imminent attack. 103 days that the battle lasted, between July 31 and November 10, 1917. 1,200 British casualties per 100 metres gained in the first opening three-day campaign of fighting. 127mmrain amount of

(five inches) that fell on Passchendaele in August 1917. The average for the UK in August 2016, by comparison, was 85.5mm (3.4 inches). 1.7 Distance in miles (2.7km) the British advanced between July 31 and August 2, 1917 – the equivalent of Downing Street to St Paul’s Cathedral in central London. 32,000suffered Casualties they during that period.