PASSCHENDAELE
The Passchendaele offensive was launched on July 31, 1917. The British strategy in Flanders was to drive the Germans away from Channel ports and to eliminate German U-boat bases on the coast. Heavy rain and shellfire reduced the battlefield to a vast bog. The fight was not going well for the British troops. Passchendaele ridge was still held by German troops.
When the Canadian Corps – about 100,000 strong – arrived in Flanders in mid- October to relieve Australian and New Zealand troops, they were shocked by the terrible battlefield conditions. General Sir Arthur Currie ordered construction of new roads, improvement of gun pits, and the repair and extension of light railways. Horses and mules transported hundreds of thousands of shells to the front to prepare for the artillery barrage that would prepare for the infantry’s attack. The Germans, holding the high ground atop Passchendaele ridge fired continuously on these efforts, killing or wounding hundreds.
General Currie launched an attack on October 26. He instructed his artillery to fire directly upon the enemy artillery - a practice that by unwritten agreement was not done previously in war. Despite the 2,238 Canadians killed or wounded, the battle was considered a success because it helped the Allies advance to the strategic higher ground. At Passchendaele there were 500,000 casualties, divided almost evenly between British and German troops.
It took 10 years to restore the ravaged battleground to fertile farmland, and some fields even today are fit only for cattle, too dangerous for agricultural machinery because of tunnels below the earth.