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Born-Mile End

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 at the beginning of Third Ypres on 31st July, 1917, during which they suffered many casualties, 38th Division were relieved and the 16th Welsh battalion of 115 Brigade moved back to St Sixte for rest and reorganisation. They remained there until 19th August on which date they entrained for Elverdinghe and then marched to the Canal Bank at Ypres. On 22nd August they moved forward to reserve positions near Pilckem and then at 1.55pm on 27th August, as part of a wider operation, they attacked Eagle Trench. Their progress was greatly hindered by the mud and they lost the barrage straight away after which they were hit by machine-gun fire from Pheasant farm and forced back to their starting line. One of their casualties in this unsuccessful attack was Frederick Prince.