Current Information:

Age-42

48, Malpas Road, Brockley

Track X Cemetery, Belgium

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.

After the initial battle of Third Ypres, 48th Division moved forward to relieve 39th Division in part of the new front line in the Ypres salient. On 5th August, 1917, the 4th Royal Berkshire battalion of 145 Brigade, moved into reserve positions near Hill Top Farm. After the recent heavy rain the ground was in as terrible state made worse by the shell fire which kept up night and day and it is likely that it was this that caused the death of Arthur Spice.