Current Information:

Age-27

55, Clarence Gardens, Regents Park

Bedford House Cemetery, Ypres

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.

56th Division arrived at Ypres during the first week of August, 1917, to take part in the next offensive due to be launched in the middle of the month. 3rd London of 167 Brigade left Chateau Segard at 6pm on 12th August and relieved 75 Brigade in front line. Because of the nature of the ground after all the rain and the pitch blackness of the night, the relief was a difficult one and lasted well into the next day. At dawn on the 14th August the enemy put down a heavy artillery barrage on the right front of 3rd London, and then rushed two of the battalion’s posts, causing a number of casualties. The shelling was kept up throughout the rest of the day but that evening, after they had re-established their front line on the right, they were relieved and, with the exception of A Company who had to wait another 24 hours for their relief, moved back to Halfway House for a rest. It was a short rest however because on the following day, 15th August, they moved up to their assembly trenches for a renewal of the offensive on the following day, the Battle of Langemarck. From 12th-15th August, 3rd London had to contend with German shell fire, often heavy, and as a reult they sustained a number of casualties. One of these was James Abrams who was killed on 14th August.