Battle of Passchendaele
The British front line and the German defences in the area east of Ypres, mid-1917
British 18-pounder battery taking up new positions near Boesinghe, 31 July
German prisoners and British wounded cross the Yser Canal near Boesinghe, 31 July 1917. (Q5726)
Royal Field Artillery gunners hauling an 18-pounder field gun out of the mud near Zillebeke, 9 August 1917
Careful investigation of records of more than eighty years showed that in Flanders the weather broke early each August with the regularity of the Indian monsoon: once the Autumn rains set in difficulties would be greatly enhanced....Unfortunately, there now set in the wettest August for thirty years.
...there is no reason to suggest that the weather broke early in the month with any regularity.
...during the summers preceding the Flanders campaign August days were more often dry than wet.
On the left bank, close to the Meuse, one division had failed ... and yet both here and in Flanders everything possible had been done to avoid failure ... The French army was once more capable of the offensive. It had quickly overcome its depression.
Derelict tank used as the roof of a dug out, Zillebeke, 20 September 1917 (Q6416)
Australian infantry with small box respirator gas masks, Ypres, September 1917
British soldiers moving forward during the Battle of Broodseinde. Photo by Ernest Brooks.
Terrain through which the Canadian Corps advanced at Passchendaele, in late 1917
Terrain at Passchendaele near where the Canadian Corps advanced, spring 2015