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6. Passchendaele and Canada's Hundred Days
From Canadian History Portal - HCO
| D. Canadians and World War I →→ 1. Prelude to War → 2. Mobilization → 3. Mud and Blood → 4. Air and Sea War → 5. Vimy Ridge → 6. Passchendaele and Canada's Hundred Days → 7. Home Front and Peace →→ E. Maturing Culture and Identity |
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Contents |
- "...I died in Hell
- (they called it Passchendaele) my wound was slight
- and I was hobbling back; and then a shell
- burst slick upon the duckboards; so I fell
- into the bottomless mud, and lost the light"
- Siegfried Sassoon
Passchendaele, or The Third Battle of Ypres
In the spring of 1917, British Admiral Jellico informed the War Cabinet that shipping losses due to U-boat activity were so bad that the British might not be able to wage war into 1918. He said it was vital that the German bases at Ostend and Zeebrugge be put out of action. This idea appealed to Field Marshal Sir Douglas Haig who believed that if the British could break out of the Ypres Salient, his cavalry could sweep the enemy from the field. Haig's plan was to strike out of Ypres to the North and East in conjunction with a seaborne landing on the coast of Belgium at Nieuport.
Haig had been trained as a cavalryman, and he firmly believed that cavalry had a place in modern war. A stubborn, unimaginative leader, he disregarded the effects of barbed wire, machine guns and shelling on horses. But he knew an attack in Flanders would hold down the German reserves and relieve the pressure on the French allies, who needed time to recover from the bloody shambles of Verdun that had caused several mutinies in their army.
On July 31, 1917, Haig launched his disastrous drive in Flanders, first sending Australia and New Zealand (Anzac) troops to capture Passchendaele. The Germans, well aware of the strategic importance of Flanders, had made this the most heavily fortified part of their line. British security was poor and the Germans knew all about Haig's planning and had taken countermeasures well in advance. Four days before the battle was due to begin, they had retreated from their front line back to the Passchendaele Ridge.
Passchendaele Ridge was the only high ground in a flat, featureless pasture. The low lying area between Ypres and Passchendaele was reclaimed marshland, and had once been beneath the North Sea. Constant shelling had destroyed the drainage ditches. Once the August rains came, the area was transformed into an unbelievable quagmire of mud and muck.
The Germans had moved back to these secure positions, called the Hindenburg line The third line was beyond the range of the British guns. Between these lines was a maze of barbed wire, scattered concrete pillboxes and machine gun nests. The barbed wire funneled the attackers into killing zones swept by machine guns and artillery. German artillery was also better than the British. It had a longer range, was more accurate and their shells were more likely to explode.
The Germans had also perfected the technique of counterattacking as soon as they were driven out of their positions. They held fresh troops in reserve, and sent them in to assault their exhausted enemy then occupying the unfamiliar German trenches. They also had a new secret weapon - mustard gas delivered by shellfire. This was a liquid that caused blistering of the skin if touched. The effect on the eyes was disastrous. If inhaled in the air, it could cause oedema or bleeding in the lungs. No antidote was found. After the Germans first used it in a barrage on July 26, one man in six out of Haig's force became a casualty. They also used "sneezing gas", which made the British gunners sneeze and lacrimate so much that they could not wear their gas masks. When they took them off they succumbed to the mustard gas.
After a delay of two weeks, Haig ordered the third Battle of Ypres to begin on July 31. Universally known as Passchendaele, it was a series of smaller battles and engagements to take Passchendaele village and its ridge. The first attacks were slowed by heavy rains, that meant that the promised tank support could not be used. After a month of useless fighting Haig decided to call a halt.
In the meantime, Haig ordered the Canadian Corps to take Hill 70, northeast of Vimy, a strategic position on the northern approach to the city of Lens. Currie and his team once again laid out a meticulous plan of attack. From Aug. 15 to 25, despite just under 6,000 casualties, the Canadians successfully took the Hill as well as resisting fierce subsequent German attempts to counterattack.
Back at Passchendaele, the British tried small-scale, limited advances under the cover of a creeping barrage, and Australian and New Zealand troops got as far as Broodseinde Ridge by Oct. 4, from where they could at last see the German rear lines. But on Oct. 5 it began to rain, and when when the Anzacs attacked towards Passchendaele on Oct. 9, the rain had become an all-out gale. The Anzacs failed to cut the enemy wire, and the Germans brought up reinforcements, forcing them to retreat to their starting line. On Oct. 12, Haig ordered another attack. It only resulted in a further 7,000 casualties. The exhausted Anzacs were at last withdrawn.
The name of Passchendaele has come to symbolize all that is loathsome in war. In three months of fighting, almost a million shells and grenades were fired, and over half a million soldiers were killed or wounded. The British lost 300,000 men, of whom 36,500 were Australian. Many had been blown to bits or had fallen off the duckboards into the glutinous mud, sinking deeper to their deaths as they struggled; 90,000 British or Australian bodies were never identified, 42,000 bodies were never recovered from the mud. The Germans suffered equally, taking over 250,000 casualties. Haig's preliminary 2 weeks bombardment was so severe that one German division actually deserted its front.
Currie Refuses to Move
"If anybody can do it, the Canadians can."
Lord Byng of Vimy, on fighting ability of Canadian troops
Haig was still obsessed with capturing Passchendaele, and turned to Lieutenant-General Arthur Currie and the Canadians to take over the battle. For the first time in World War One, Canadian troops were now completely under the command of one of their own, largely because of the artillery skill of the Canadians and the crucial role they had played at Vimy Ridge. As Andrew MacNaughton later wrote, "The officer corps was remarkably coherent and caring. We were a close knit organization. We served with people that we knew - there was a personal acquaintance and a personal friendship; we had a feeling of personal responsibility for the men's well being."
Arthur Currie was one of the few generals under Haig's command who still kept his common sense. He inspected the muddy battlefield and protested that the operation was impossible without heavy cost - he estimated 16,000 Canadian casualties. But Haig would hear none of it, and he was overruled.
Currie then argued that he was not yet ready, and refused to move until the weather had eased and adequate supplies were available. And so he and his staff officers began two weeks of careful and painstaking preparations for the assault. Once again, they were meticulous in their planning and drilling. They built light rail tracks, plank roads and wooden gun platforms, and stockpiled supplies. MacNaughton's physicists also experimented with new radio wireless sets they had developed. They were now able to tell the troops in the field exactly when the bombardment was about to begin, so they could quickly take cover. Radio broadcasting was the invention of another Canadian, Reginald Fessenden.
On October 26, Currie ordered his troops forward to test the German defences. 20,000 Canadians under heavy fire made the first of several advances, inching their way from shell-crater to shell-crater, wading across an 8 km morass of sticky mud. Then on October 30, with two British divisions, the Canadians began their assault, and reached the ruined outskirts of the village in a heavy rainstorm and gale. For five days they held on grimly, often waist-deep in mud and exposed to a hail of jagged shrapnel from German shellfire. Many died, including a prominent Montrealer serving with the Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry, Talbot Papineau. The grandson of Louis-Joseph Papineau, Major Papineau was killed by a direct hit from a German shell.
The Canadian Calvary in Flanders Fields
"By now the entire company (42nd Battalion) did not muster much more than the strength of a platoon. We sat around after being roused for a late breakfast, unshaved, not speaking, no one so much as asking about mail....Captain Arthur was kind to us. He stood and gazed at our pitiful ranks, gazed without speaking, and I saw in his eyes things of which no man speaks - the things that words would kill. We had little drill, but rested and slept and had good food until finally we were more like human beings. But every man who had endured Passchendaele would never be the same again, was more or less a stranger to himself."
Will Bird, Ghosts Have Warm Hands
On November 5, 1917, Field Marshall Haig issued Operation Order 159, directing the 2nd Canadian Division to capture the village of Passchendaele. This assault, known as Attack 8, was unusual in that the Canadian Corps alone formed the offensive. The 27th Battalion (from Winnipeg) moved up on the right, the 31st Battalion (from Alberta) took the centre, and the 28th Battalion (from Saskatchewan) the left.
Just before dawn at six a.m. on 6th November, 1917 the final assault began under a cold, dull but unusually rainless sky. The flashes from thousands of cannons and guns spewed their murderous fire onto the German defenders sheltering in their trenches and fortified positions. MacNaughton's men successfully used their wireless radio sets in real combat conditions for the first time. Using radio, the Canadian gunners were able to cut the time span between artillery fire and infantry movement from eight minutes to an astounding two minutes. The Germans had no time to get out of their bunkers and into position to meet the leapfrogging Canadian infantry, before they were hit by another barrage.
The quick creeping barrage worked perfectly. By 7.15 a.m., in spite of heavy casualties inflicted by the grimly determined enemy, Canadian soldiers had crossed the final 500 yards, overran the German trenches, captured the village, and took hundreds of exhausted prisoners.
Once again, Canadians stood victorious on the heights. The victors of Vimy Ridge had done it again. But it was a costly victory. Currie's estimate of 16, 000 casualties proved frighteningly accurate. Saskatchewan's 28th Battalion suffered huge losses, operating in mud up to the knees and in some places up to the waist. Some soldiers who could not move forward in the mud were caught between the Canadian artillery barrage and the actions of the heavy German rear guard. Twelve officers and 178 infantrymen were killed. The next morning Corporal H.C. Baker remarked, "My impression was that we had won the ridge but lost the battalion. The casualty total of the 2nd Canadian Division that day was 2,238 men, of which 734 were killed or died from their wounds.
Passchendaele had become a Canadian Calvary. Between October 26 and November 7, 1917, the Canadian Corps suffered some 16,000 casualties in taking the village - 12,000 wounded, 3,000 dead, and 1,000 missing. A British commander, upon touring the aftermath of the battle site, groaned, "Good God! Did we really send soldiers to fight in that?"
Nine Victoria Crosses, the Empire's highest military decoration, were awarded to Canadians Colin Fraser Barron, Thomas William Holmes, Cecil John Kinross, Hugh McKenzie, George Harry Mullin, Christopher Patrick John O'Kelly, George Randolph Pearkes, James Peter Robertson and Robert Shankland. Their sacrifice was all for the gain of a mere seven kilometres of land, which the Germans soon got back.
Weeks after Passchendaele and the ridge had been taken, the British Expeditionary Force abandoned the area as it was useless to them in terms of the original plan. The attack from the sea at Nieuport had been abandoned, and there was no hope of breaking through to the German occupied Channel ports. The U-boats were eventually blockaded by simply sinking hulks of ships across the harbour entrance at Ostend and Zeebrugge.
On Nov. 10, Passchendaele and the Battle of Third Ypres officially ended, and on Nov. 20, the Flanders Campaign, having "served its purpose", was closed down.
Nov. 20 is a significant date in the history of warfare for another reason. On that day the Canadian Cavalry Brigade and the Newfoundland Regiment fought with Julian Byng's British 3rd Army in what was to be the first effective tank attack in history, the taking of the important French town of Cambrai.
Cambrai & the New Art of Tank Warfare
This first major battle to involve tanks was planned by Colonel John Fuller, chief of staff to the Tank Corps. Cambrai marked both the decline of cavalry as an important military asset and the beginning of large scale tank warfare. Building up to the battle, the British High Command secretly transferred 376 tanks to the front. Cambrai was chosen as an ideal site for tanks as it had solid ground, and was not a morass of mud like Passchendaele. The goal of the battle was to break through the German's Hindenburg Line, a barrier of three layers of trenches supplied by a light railway and defended by guns fortified in concrete pill boxes.
At dawn on November 21, 1917, in a surprise attack, Byng sent a huge strike force of 476 tanks, with six infantry and two cavalry divisions under General Elles along a 10 km front against the German line between the Canal du Nord and the St Quentin Canal. Without the usual preliminary shelling by the artillery to prepare for the attack, the Germans had no warning of the coming attack. The barbed wire and trenches of the first systems of the Hindenburg Line were quickly crossed; and by nightfall the Allies had gained over 6 km, and reached the open countryside beyond, but still facing the German second and third lines of defence.
Progress towards Cambrai continued over the next few days, but these initial gains could not be exploited because the success was so unexpected. The British lacked a reserve of tanks and troops, and on Nov. 30, 29 German divisions launched a counter-offensive. By the end of the battle the British had another 43,000 casualties, and the German forces had regained almost all the ground it lost at the start of the Cambrai Offensive. Haig considered the offensive a failure, and tanks had bogged down in the thick mud at Passchendaele, but it was apparent that motorized warfare was here to stay.
Soon after the battle the Newfoundland Regiment was granted the title 'Royal' - the only regiment so honoured actually during the war.
Amiens, Arras, & Canada's Hundred Days
At Cambrai, the crushing of the Hindenburg Line by tanks was devastating to German willpower, and it was only a matter of time before they surrendered. But from March until June 1918, the German High Command tried to mount a final massive offensive, break the Allied front and drive a wedge between the British and French forces.
Their chances for success were enhanced with the addition of nearly 600 000 troops freed up from the Eastern Front in the aftermath of the Russian Revolution. Time was of the essence for the Germans. Victory had to be swift, before massive numbers of fresh American troops arrived at the Western Front.
The Germans moved swiftly that March, driving the Allies back almost 50 kilometres to the Marne, within 68 kilometres of Paris. Exhausted Allied troops reeled and retreated, but the front did not collapse and the expected gap did not appear. The Allies regrouped and counter-attacked. The addition of over half a million American troops now proved to be decisive. So too did the role played once again by Canadian forces in the north, who kept the Germans busy. The desperate German gamble would fail.
For the Canadian Corps in northern France and Flanders, August 8 to November 11, 1918 would become known as Canada's Hundred Days. On Aug. 8, they launched a major counter-offensive at Amiens, flanked by French and Australian troops, and led by tanks. On the first day of the Battle of Amiens, Currie's Canadian troops quickly broke through the German lines, capturing over 5 000 German prisoners and taking back more than a dozen kilometres of land. The German High Command were badly shaken, and General Erich Ludendorff called it "The Black Day of the German Army." The victory was not achieved without significant Canadians losses - over 9 000 casualties. No less than 10 Victoria Crosses were won by Canadians at Amiens.
August 8th at Amiens was the beginning of the end of the war. On the following memorable day, Canadian troops advanced another thirteen kilometers into German-held territory. Speed and alacrity now replaced the attrition of the trenches, as the Canadian Corps took the lead in the successful march to Mons.
First, the Canadians were shifted back to Arras and given the task of cracking the Hindenburg Line, a series of massive fortifications that were Germany's main line of defence. From August 26 until September 2, that is exactly what they did in a series of hard, brutal engagements. Finally, on September 2, they reached and crossed the heavily-fortified line of the Canal du Nord with the help of 15 British tanks. Again, a heavy price was exacted - more than 11 000 deaths. Especially significant from a Canadian perspective was the gallant fighting of the 'Vandoos' from Quebec, who courageously fought on although every single one of their officers had been killed or wounded.
The Canadians kept up the drive, fighting their way through Valenciennes and Mont Houy and reached historic Mons on November 11, 1918, the day the Armistice ending the War took effect. Mons was where it had all begun. Its capture marked the end of a four-year-long journey.
The Guns Fall Silent at Mons
During Canada's Hundred Days, the four Canadian divisions had fought magnificently, defeating 47 crack German divisions which consisted fully one-quarter of the entire German army. In that period, the 105,000 Canadians advanced 130 kilometres and liberated more than 200 towns and cities. They captured 31,537 prisoners, 623 guns, 2,842 machine-guns and 336 mortars. Canadian battle casualties totalled 45,830. The German losses were staggering and the end of the war was now just a question of time.
Arthur Currie's Canadian troops took part in the final battle of the war, chasing the last Germans out of Mons in Belgium on November 10th. With the other Allies storming onto their borders and rebellions threatening to break out all over the country, Germany asked for an armistice to end 'the war to end all wars'. It was mutually decided to choose a symbolic time for the official surrender - the eleventh hour, on the eleventh day, of the eleventh month, 1918. At 5:00 am that day, in a railway car at in the forest of Compiègne, France, French Field Marshal Foch and the members of the German Armistice Commission signed a formal surrender to end World War I, to take effect at 11 am.
Later that fateful morning, Private George Price of Saskatchewan's 28th Battalion was shot by sniper fire. He died at 10:58 a.m., two minutes before the armistice was to stop all fighting and end the war. He is regarded as the last casualty of all Allied armies of the First World War.
Armistice Day had finally come. The guns, after more than four horrendous and bloody years of fighting, fell silent.
Over 750,000 Canadians served in the four years of the Great War; 424,589 went overseas; 60,661 were killed. In all, over 10 million people died in the war, including 6 million civilians. In 1931, November 11 was renamed Remembrance Day and declared a legal holiday.
|
"In Flanders Fields the poppies blow |
We are the Dead. |
Take up our quarrel with the foe: |
Dr. John McCrae, 1872-1918, In Flanders Fields; published in Punch Dec. 8, 1915
| Passchendaele - Gallery | Stories and Texts | Web Links | Student Activities | Student Projects |
| D. Canadians and World War I →→ 1. Prelude to War → 2. Mobilization → 3. Mud and Blood → 4. Air and Sea War → 5. Vimy Ridge → 6. Passchendaele and Canada's Hundred Days → 7. Home Front and Peace →→ E. Maturing Culture and Identity |
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