Third Battle of Ypres

Overview

The Third Battle of Ypres, also known as the Battle of Passchendaele, was a campaign of the First World War, fought by the Allies against the German Empire. The battle took place on the Western Front, from July to November 1917, for control of the ridges south and east of the Belgian city of Ypres in West Flanders, as part of a strategy decided by the Entente at conferences in November 1916 and May 1917. Passchendaele lies on the last ridge east of Ypres, 5 mi (8 km) from Roulers, a junction of the Bruges-(Brugge)-to-Kortrijk railway. The station at Roulers was on the main supply route of the German 4th Army. Once Passchendaele Ridge had been captured, the Allied advance was to continue to a line from Thourout to Couckelaere (Koekelare).

Overview adapted from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.

Significance

The Third Battle of Ypres, fought from July to November 1917, was a major Allied campaign on the Western Front aimed at seizing the ridges south and east of Ypres in Belgian West Flanders. The strategic objective centered on Passchendaele Ridge, positioned approximately 5 miles from Roulers, a key junction on the Bruges-to-Kortrijk railway that served as a principal supply route for the German 4th Army. Capturing that ridge was designed as a first step toward a broader advance to the Thourout-Couckelaere line, threatening the German logistical network in Flanders. The campaign resulted in casualties on a scale that measured the limits of attritional offensive warfare: British Empire losses reached between 240,000 and 448,000, and German losses between 217,000 and 400,000. The battle became closely associated with the name Passchendaele, and the scale of those losses relative to the ground gained fixed the campaign as a central reference point in assessments of Allied generalship and the human cost of the Western Front in 1917.

Forces & casualties

Commanders (8)