Nova Scotia/Nunavut Command of The Royal Canadian Legion www.ns.legion.ca 15 The Battle of Passchendaele is a vivid symbol of the mud, madness and the senseless slaughter of the First World War. The commander of the British armies in Europe, General Douglas Haig, decided Britain must begin a new offensive. Haig wanted to attack German forces in the Ypres salient — a long-held bulge in the Allied front lines in the Flanders region of Belgium. The salient had been an active battlefield since 1914. Haig believed if the British could break through the German lines there they could also liberate the occupied ports on the English Channel coast, just north of Ypres, which served as submarine bases for German U-boats. British Prime Minister David Lloyd George was skeptical of the scheme. Britain only had a small superiority in forces over the enemy. Even if German lines could be broken at Ypres, the Channel ports might not be captured, and the offensive wouldn't end the war, in any case. The only certainty was heavy loss of life. Despite these fears, Haig's plan was approved. The Third Battle of Ypres, as it became known, would begin in July. The Canadian Corps, Canada's 100,000-man assault force was initially spared involvement in Haig's 1917 campaign. The Corps, fresh from its April victory at Vimy Ridge, was instead assigned the task of attacking Germans occupying the French city of Lens in the hopes that this would draw German resources away from the main battle in the Ypres salient. In mid-July, as the Canadians prepared to attack Lens, British artillery began a two-week bombardment of a series of scarcely visible ridges rising gently around the salient — including the Passchendaele ridge and the remains of its ruined town — on which the Germans waited. Previous fighting since 1914 had already turned the area into a barren plain, devoid of trees or vegetation, pockmarked by shell craters. The Battle of Passchendaele October – November 1917 (continued on page 17)
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