Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

1st Passchendaele  - 12 October 1917

The name Passchendaele is synonomous with the Third Battle of Ypres and it has tended to subsume the fact that until late October 1917, Third Ypres had been a reasonably successful series of battles. 

Passchendaele was the culminating point of the campaign, as the village had occupied the highest ground to the east of Ypres, until it was obliterated by shellfire.  The fact that it was so costly and conducted in appalling conditions tended to characterise the campaign.  It entailed two separate battles.

1st Passchendaele

Australian, New Zealand and British troops were involved in the first and unsuccessful attempt to seize the Passchendaele Ridge from the defending Germans, on 12 October 1917.

It had begun raining on the 3rd of October and conditions deteriorated rapidly.

The area behind II Anzac Corps, near the Steenbeek and its tributaries, was called "a porridge of mud". Duck-board tracks were extended to 1.6km short of the front line, beyond which was a taped row of stakes illuminated at night.  However these were gradually lost to passing traffic.

Attempts to extend the 'corduroy roads' behind the two Anzac Corps, proved impossible after the rain began on 3 October.  The road subsided into the mud or was simply washed away. The field guns of II Anzac Corps was not able to be moved forward as planned.  Platforms were improvised to keep them out of the mud but the failure to move left them 6,000 m (about the range of an 18 pounder) from the morning objective, and out of range of the German field artillery beyond Passchendaele. 

The 3rd Australian Division's attempts to struggle forward to their objective, with little artillery protection because the guns were not able to be brought forward effectively, through the waterlogged ground, represented the last major Australian infantry participation in the Third Battle of Ypres.

Compiled by Steve Larkins 2016 updated 2024
 
Sources:
 
The Official History of Australia in the War of 1914-18 Vol IV The AIF in France 1917,  BEAN, C.E.W Angus & Robertson Ltd ,Sydney, 6th Edition 1938,