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Age-28

Born-Stepney

Third Battle of Ypres

This was a campaign fought between July and November 1917 and is often referred to as the Battle of Passchendaele, a village to the north-east of Ypres which was finally captured in November. It was an attempt by the British to break out of the Ypres salient and capture the higher ground to the south and the east, from which the enemy had been able to dominate the salient. It began well but two important factors weighed against them. First was the weather. The summer of 1917 turned out to be one of the the wettest on record and soon the battlefield was reduced to a morass of mud which made progress very difficult, if not impossible in places. The second was the defensive arrangements of concrete blockhouses and machine gun posts providing inter-locking fire that the Germans had constructed and which were extremely difficult and costly to counter. For four months this epic struggle continued by the end of which the salient had been greatly expanded in size but the vital break out had not been achieved.

On 27th August the 2nd Scots Guards of 3rd Guards Brigade, Guards Division moved into the front line near Bleuet Farm and remained here until relieved on 31st August. The line here consisted of a series of posts across the Broenbeek stream and during these four days they pushed the posts further forward in preparation for the next phase of the battle. William Loader was killed on 31st August but there are no details in the battalion diary concerning his death.