Current Information:

Enlisted-Southwark

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, 47th Division began their relief of 8th Division having recently arrived at Ypres after a period of training and during the night of 24/25th August the 24th London battalion of 142 Brigade moved into the front line to the west and north of Westhoek where they remained in awful conditions of mud and rain and shell fire until relieved on 28th August. Although the records show that William Keeble was killed on 29th August, it is more likely that this happened on the previous day but was recorded incorrectly.