Battle of Poelcappelle

Battle of Poelcappelle
Part of the Battle of Passchendaele in the First World War
Street corner in Poelcappelle
Date 9 October 1917 Location Poelcappelle, Flanders 50°55′19″N 2°57′47″E / 50.922°N 2.963°E / 50.922; 2.963Coordinates: 50°55′19″N 2°57′47″E / 50.922°N 2.963°E / 50.922; 2.963 Result Inconclusive
Belligerents
British Empire  Australia  United Kingdom  France	German Empire
Commanders and leaders
Herbert Plumer Hubert Gough François Anthoine	Erich Ludendorff Crown Prince Rupprecht Sixt von Armin
Strength
10+ Divisions	7 divisions, plus 6 divisions in reserve
Casualties and losses
9 October: Second Army: I Anzac Corps: 1,253 II Anzac Corps: c. 5,700 Fifth Army: c. 4,500	1–10 October: 35,000 including 13,000 missing

 British Empire

The Battle of Poelcappelle was fought in Flanders on 9 October 1917 by the British and German armies, during the First World War and marked the end of the string of highly successful British attacks in late September and early October 1917, during the Third Battle of Ypres. Only the supporting attack in the north achieved a substantial advance. On the main front the German defences withstood the limited amount of artillery fire managed by the British after the attack of 4 October. The ground along the main ridges had been severely damaged by shelling and rapidly deteriorated in the rains, which began again on 3 October, turning some areas into a swamp.

Dreadful ground conditions had more effect on the British, who needed to move large amounts of artillery and ammunition to support the next attack. The battle was a defensive success for the German army, although costly to both sides. The weather and ground conditions put severe strain on all the infantry involved and led to many wounded being stranded on the battlefield. Early misleading information and delays in communication led Plumer and Haig to plan the next attack on 12 October (First Battle of Passchendaele) under the impression that a substantial advance had taken place at Passchendaele ridge, when most of the captured ground had been lost to German counter-attacks.

The attack being prepared by the British Third Army at Cambrai for late November, the troubles in the French Army stemming from the Nivelle Offensive in April and the forthcoming French attack (the Battle of La Malmaison) on the Aisne, made it important that the British kept the initiative in Flanders, whence large numbers of German divisions had been drawn from the French front. At Verdun on 20 August, the French had achieved a substantial success. There was no German counter-stroke or counter-offensive as the local Eingreif divisions had been sent to Flanders. By October 1917, many German divisions on the rest of the Western Front had been engaged in Flanders, some more than once; maintaining pressure in Flanders also constrained German operations on the Russian and Italian fronts. After the Battle of Broodseinde on 4 October, the first of the Black Days of the German Army, Field Marshal Sir Douglas Haig, Commander-in-Chief (C-in-C) of the British Expeditionary Force (BEF), believed that the German forces opposite Ypres were close to collapse, due to the large number of Germans taken prisoner and encouraging intelligence gleaned from the battlefield.

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Wikipedia