Current Information:

Age-29

45, Culross Road, Tottenham

Minty Farm 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 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.

18th Division had come into the line near Poelcapelle on 10th October, 1917, and had taken part in the First Battle of Passchendaele two days later. This had not been a success. 54 Brigade had been in reserve then but on 16th October they moved into the front line and 11th Royal Fusiliers occupied Cane Trench, remaining there until relieved on 18th October when they moved back to Canal Dugouts. On 22nd October, 53 Brigade, who had relieved 54 Brigade launched a successful attack from these positions and captured the Brewery east of Poelcapelle as well as the other enemy strongholds of Noble’s Farm, Meunier House and Tracas Farm. 11th Royal Fusiliers then moved up to these new positions and held them for two days in the face of considerable German resistance. They were subjected to constant artillery fire and as there had been little time to consolidate, they were also vulnerable to snipers. By the time they were relieved on 24th October they had suffered nearly 100 casualties. One of these was Arthur Plumb who was killed on 24th October.