Current Information:

Enlisted-Kensington

Dozinghem Military Cemetery, Belgium

The 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 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.

After their involvement in the fighting on the opening day of Third Ypres, the 13th Welsh battalion of 114 Brigade, 38th Division, moved back to a camp for rest and reorganisation. On the 16th August they moved back to the canal bank where they provided carrying parties and working parties and then on the 18th  August they moved into reserve positions, with their HQ in Candle Trench before they took over the frontline on the 21st August where they remained until relieved on 23rd August. On the following day Henry Hayward died from wounds and it is likely that he was wounded during this period in the front line.