Current Information:

Age-19

117, Victoria Road, New Barnet

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 4 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 19th August, 1917, after the Battle of Langemarck, 47th (London) Division began their relief of 8th Division in the front line facing Hanebeek Wood and , on 21st August, after three days in reserve at Railway Wood near Hooge, 19th London of 141 Brigade moved into the front line, south of the Ypres-Roulers railway. On the following day, 22nd August, at 4.45am, D Company co-operated with an attack made by 15th Division on their left. Although the attack managed to advance the line about 150 yards further forward it cost the lives of many men and 19th London alone suffered 60 casualties. As they advanced the enemy machine-guns in concrete blockhouses opened up and it was these that accounted for the majority of the casualties. Frank Conisbee was one of those from 19th London who lost their lives in this operation.