First Name: | Cecil William | Last Name: | BOND | |
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Date of Death: | 02/08/1917 | Lived/Born In: | Golders Green | |
Rank: | Captain | Unit: | Royal Army Medical Corps 97th Field Ambulance | |
Memorial Site: | Menin Gate, Ypres | |||
Current Information:Age-37 Born-Milverton, Somerset Melvin Hall, Golders Green
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. Battle of Pilckem Ridge (31st July-2nd August) This was the opening attack of Third Ypres and began at 3.50am on 31st July when British and French troops launched their offensive to break out of the Ypres salient. The day had mixed results. To the north the Pilckem Ridge was captured but there was less success further south along the Gheluvelt Ridge, where a combination of stiff German resistance and low cloud which hindered observation meant that only the first objectives were captured. Further attempts to push on were stopped in their tracks by specialist German counter attack divisions and resulted in a 70% casualty rate among the British troops. Then in the afternoon, the rain came and under the weight of shells falling on it, the battlefield soon became a quagmire. Over the next two days, suffering the most appalling conditions in the mud and the rain, the troops had to fight off numerous German counter attacks. Cecil Bond, who was killed on 2nd August, was serving with the 97th Field Ambulance, part of 30th Division, which during this operation attacked across the Gheluvelt plateau and cleared Sanctuary Wood. |
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