The 3rd Ypres or Passchendaele campaign, controversial in 1917 and remaining so ever since, began with the attack at Pilckem Ridge. The cautious step-by-step approach by Haig over the 3 & 1/2 month campaign did result in territorial gains but came at a high cost of some 450,000 British and Dominion casualties, comparable to the Somme 1916 offensive, and was nowhere near achieving the initially held objective of driving the German Army from the channel coast. Although preferable to the limited, narrow front, wearing down assaults on the Somme of the previous year, the approach did have one major defect in that the attacks never went deep enough to disrupt the mass of the enemy’s artillery enabling it to retire and fight again. Despite the early successes, once the weather broke and turned the battlefield into an impassable quagmire, any thought of a decisive breakthrough had gone. Passchendaele will forever be remembered as a campaign of ‘wretchedness in the Flanders mud’.
Author: 22ndaif
29th Jul 1917: 22nd Bn reaches Campagne in northern France
In the early hours the 22nd Battalion reached the village of Arques near St. Omer. A further march of two miles brought it to the village of Campagne around which the Battalion found home in scattered billets for the next six weeks where training continued. It was near this spot that the Battalion had billeted on its arrival from Egypt and Renescure and Roquetoire was accessible for those that deemed to venture out after long daily route marches. Paris leave also became more general. Maj-Gen Paton took over command of the 6th Brigade.
24th Jul 1917: 22nd Bn starts journey north to Belgium
After a month in Divisional Reserve at Beaulencourt, the Battalion struck camp at 5am and at 7am marched out for Aveluy, passing through Le Sars and Pozieres, exactly a year on from the fighting. The two memorials erected to the AIF 1st and 2nd Divisions (photograph right) were passed and, where every spot revoked reminiscence, the journey north and to Belgium began. The arrival at Aveluy and the Ancre afforded the opportunity of a swim and relief from the hot summer sun. While at Aveluy Maj-Gen Gellibrand was transferred to England to command the AIF Depots.
22nd Jul 1917: No.2 ACCS bombed – four nurses awarded Military Medal
Australian No.2 Casualty Clearing Station at Trois Arbres near Armentieres was attacked by German aircraft. Nurses ran to the tents shattered by bombs to rescue patients, either carrying them to safety or placing tables over patient’s beds in an effort to protect them. For their actions during the attack Alice Ross-King (photograph right), Dorothy Cawood, Mary Jane Derrer, and Clare Deacon, were awarded the Military Medal.
15th Jul 1917: The great bombardment at Ypres begins
The great bombardment at Ypres began, with the British guns one to every six yards of front, more than at Arras earlier in the year and almost twice as many that the 4th Army had on the Somme a year previous. For the arriving Australian artillery they would endure conditions much more severe than on the Somme, where due to German air parity and being positioned on the plains overlooked by the German spotters, the positions in the rear including the gun batteries were targeted much more heavily causing many casualties at such a rate that it was feared reinforcements would have to be raised on a scale similar to the infantry.
10th Jul 1917: Australian tunnelers captured and made POW
In 1917 the northern most part of the Western Front ran along the small Yser river until it entered the sea at Nieuwpoort. Previously held by the French the sector was passed over to the British 4th Army in preparation of a coastal attack (Operation Hush) to support the latter stages of the forthcoming Ypres offensive. To assist in the attack it was deemed preferable to undermine a German strongpoint and for this task the 2nd Australian Tunneling Company was chosen on account of its experience in tunneling in soft sandy conditions. Tunneling was progressing well but the Germans knowing that this was a weak point for them in the defence of the expected Ypres offensive decided to mount a limited offensive. A bombardment of the British lines caused damage to the shallow mine shafts and once the German 3rd and 10th Marine Divisions attacked at dusk, many of the Australian miners found themselves, as they dug and broke through into the open, behind the enemy. Of 50 tunnelers beyond the river only four managed to escape back to their lines, the majority being captured. In all the Germans took 1,284 prisoners and suffered themselves 700 casualties, mostly of light wounds.
2nd Jul 1917: Maj-Gen Holmes mortally wounded by shell
While escorting Premier of New South Wales, William Holman, to survey the Messines battlefield, Major-General William Holmes, Commanding Officer of the AIF 4th Division was mortally wounded by a shell. Maj-Gen. Holmes was the most senior Australian officer to be killed on the Western Front.
29th Jun 1917: Australian French depots move to Le Havre
The first Australian depots in France were established in March 1916 at Etaples, but this was inconvenient both in time and increased risk of submarine attack. Etaples camp was not a pleasant place and with tough training regimes soldiers were said to be pleased to return to their units on the front! The line of transport from Southampton to Etaples crossed that of the Canadians whose English depots were near Folkestone and their French depots at Le Havre, consequently in June 1917 the depots of the two dominions changed place, with the Australians moving to the much nicer location of Harfleur outside of Le Havre (map source: Bean Official History Vol III, P.178)
28th Jun 1917: 3rd ATC destroy 3 German shafts at Hill 70, Arras
Following the earlier offensive at Arras, British High Command was becoming increasingly concerned over German tunneling activity and that charges were being placed under the British position of Hill 70. Supported by infantry of the 11th Essex and 2nd Durham Light Infantry three parties of tunnelers from the 3rd Australian Tunneling Company raided the German lines, located and successfully destroyed the three shafts. During the determined German counter-attacks Major Coulter, Commanding Officer of the 3rd ATC, and Sapper Griffin were killed, so too 2nd Lieut. FB Wearne of the 11th Essex who was posthumously awarded the Victoria Cross.
25th Jun 1917: First US troops arrive in France
The first 14,000 U.S. infantry troops landed in France at the port of Saint Nazaire. The landing site had been kept secret because of the menace of German submarines. The “Doughboys,” as the British referred to the green American troops, were at this stage untrained, ill-equipped, and far from ready for the difficulties of fighting along the Western Front.
Following the Twenty-Second 