The conditions British Troops faced in Flanders and Passchendaele.
British Troops in FlandersThe British Troops in Flanders have had to contend with almost incredible difficulties, owing to the autumn and winter rains, which have converted the ground into a morass of bogs and swamps. The photograph shows a domestic scene behind the lines. Some of the men are washing in the floods, while others are shaving and dressing before the day's work begins.S1Reverse:CS 684. Wt. 7685 - 74m. - 12/17/C. & S. E2202
"A lull set in; even the big guns quieted down. Haig was in despair as the Germans collected themselves. Air reconnaissance dropped to zero. The officers at tank headquarters, those brash and peppery young men, issued a typically sharp memorandum: 'From a tank point of view the Third Battle of Ypres may be considered dead. . . . From an infantry point of view the Third Battle of Ypres may be considered comatose. It can only be continued at colossal loss and little gain. . . .' Fogs blanketed the salient sporadically for the rest of the week, and the rain varied between drizzles and near cloudbursts."
The commander of British forces in France, General Douglas Haig launched the Third Battle of Ypres on July 31, 1917. French and British forces to the north, on the Allied left, achieved their first day objectives, advancing as much as a mile. Some British forces on the right matched them. But the divisions at the center of the line were blocked far short of their goals. Gentle rain that began at midnight had turned to drenching downpours by dawn on August 1, making it impossible for tanks, troops, horses, or guns to move further.
In Flanders Fields, the 1917 Campaign by Leon Wolff, page 152, copyright © 1958 by Leon Wolff, publisher: The Viking Press, publication date: 1958
1917-08-03, 1917, August, Flanders, Battle of Passchendaele, Passchendaele, Third Ypres, Third Battle of Ypres, Battle of Passchendaele (Third Battle of Ypres)
