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SDGW-LAURENCE

Born-Chiswick

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 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.

At 1.55pm on 27th August, 1917, 48th Division attacked from out of the northern part of the Ypres salient to the south of the village of Langemarck. The attack was made by 144 and 145 Brigades with 143 Brigade in support. The 6th Royal Warwickshire battalion moved into position astride the St Julien-Winnipeg road and joined in the action when the attack began but the heavy rain in the preceding days had turned the ground to thick mud and in the face of machine-gun and sniper fire from concrete emplacements, their advance proved impossible. The battalion suffered over 150 casualties in their vain attempt to move forward one of whom was Ernest Lawrence.