Current Information:

Age-28

Born-Walthamstow

Divisional Collecting Post Cemetery, 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 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.

The British first used tanks in September 1916 during the Battle of the Somme after which they became a feature of the Western Front and had an important role to play in much of the action of the final two years of the war. However, the early tanks had many shortcomings not least of which were the hellish conditions that the tank crews had to contend with. The noise made by the engine and the heat and exhaust fumes coming from it were almost overwhelming. There was no form of suspension and the crew were subjected to violent movements as it traversed shell torn land. Communication was practically impossible and they were slow, barely able to keep up with the infantry. They offered protection from machine-gun and rifle bullets but were vulnerable to shell fire and their speed, or lack of it made them sitting targets. Lastly they were mechanically unreliable and often broke down. Nevertheless, on the plus side they often supported the infantry very effectively with their machine-guns and six-pounder artillery pieces. They could be directed on to specific targets such as machine-gun nests and their ability to take trenches and barbed wire in their stride made it easier to break through the enemy lines. They were also used in mopping up operations after an infantry attack and they were able to deliver much needed supplies, especially ammunition to the front.

Over 200 tanks from the Tank Corps, divided into 3 Brigades, were available at the start of Third Ypres but their usefulness waned as the weather deteriorated and ground conditions worsened. Albert Barratt who served with D Battalion of the Tank Corps died from wounds on 21st September but it is not known on what day nor in what circumstances he was wounded.