Current Information:

Age-32

60, Eaton Place, Eaton Square, Belgravia

Voormezeele Enclosures1&2, 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 their involvement in the opening stages of Third Ypres, the 16th Rifle Brigade battalion of 117 Brigade, 39th Division moved back to Caestre for a period of reorganisation and training. This came to an end on 13th August when the battalion moved forward to Ridge Wood and then on the 15th August into the reserve trenches in the Hollebeke sector, in the southern part of the salient. Two days later they moved into the front line at Battle Wood until 20th August. During these five days, the second phase of Third Ypres, the Battle of Langemarck, was taking place around the northern sector of the salient and although 39th Division were not directly involved, 16th Rifle Brigade sustained some casualties from the increased artillery action. One of these was William Banbury who was killed on 17th August.