Battle of Broodseinde

Battle of Broodseinde
Part of the Battle of Passchendaele (World War I)
German artillery piece captured by the Australian 45th Battalion
Date 4 October 1917 Location Broodseinde, Flanders 50°51′07.26″N 2°53′26.49″E / 50.8520167°N 2.8906917°E / 50.8520167; 2.8906917Coordinates: 50°51′07.26″N 2°53′26.49″E / 50.8520167°N 2.8906917°E / 50.8520167; 2.8906917 Result British victory
Belligerents
British Empire Australia New Zealand  United Kingdom	German Empire
Commanders and leaders
Douglas Haig Herbert Plumer Hubert Gough	Erich Ludendorff Crown Prince Rupprecht Sixt von Armin
Strength
12 divisions	10 divisions
Casualties and losses
20,000 Australian: 6,423 New Zealand: 1,853	35,000: 1–10 October, including 5,000 prisoners, 4 October

 British Empire

The Battle of Broodseinde was fought on 4 October 1917 near Ypres in Flanders, at the east end of the Gheluvelt plateau, by the British Second and Fifth armies and the German 4th Army. The battle was the most successful Allied attack of the Battle of Passchendaele. Using "bite-and-hold" tactics, with objectives limited to what could be held against German counter-attacks, the British devastated the German defence, which prompted a crisis among the German commanders and caused a severe loss of morale in the German 4th Army. Preparations were made by the Germans for local withdrawals and planning began for a greater withdrawal, which would entail the loss for the Germans of the Belgian coast, one of the strategic aims of the British offensive.

After the period of unsettled but drier weather in September, heavy rain began again on 4 October and affected the remainder of the campaign, working more to the advantage of the German defenders, who were being pushed back on to far less damaged ground. The British had to move their artillery forward into the area devastated by shellfire and soaked by the return of heavy rain, restricting the routes on which guns and ammunition could be moved, which presented German artillery with easier targets. In the next British attack on 9 October, after several days of rain, the German defence achieved a costly success, holding the approaches to Passchendaele village, which was the most tactically vital ground.

The Battle of Broodseinde was the third of the British elaborated form of "bite and hold" attacks in the Passchendaele campaign, (Third Battle of Ypres) conducted by the Second Army (General Herbert Plumer) after the reorganisation caused by the costly but successful defence of the Gheluvelt Plateau by the German 4th Army. The unseasonal heavy rains in August had hampered British attempts to advance more than German attempts to maintain their positions. The plateau ran along the southern edge of the Ypres Salient and formed an obstacle to further eastward attacks, obstructing the Allied advance out of the salient. The battle followed the Battle of Menin Road on 20 September and the Battle of Polygon Wood on 26 September, which had captured much the plateau and inflicted many casualties on the German defenders. There had been at least 24 German counter-attacks since the Battle of Menin Road and more after the Battle of Polygon Wood, particularly on 30 September and 1 October, when larger German organised counter-attacks (Gegenangriffe) were made and had been costly failures.

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