First Battle of Passchendaele

First Battle of Passchendaele
Part of the Third Battle of Ypres of the First World War
The morning after the First Battle of Passchendaele
Date 12 October 1917 Location Passendale, Belgium Coordinates: 50°54′1″N 3°1′16″E / 50.90028°N 3.02111°E / 50.90028; 3.02111 Result German victory
Belligerents
British Empire  Australia  New Zealand  United Kingdom France	German Empire
Commanders and leaders
Douglas Haig Herbert Plumer Hubert Gough François Anthoine	Erich Ludendorff Crown Prince Rupprecht Sixt von Armin
Strength
5 British 3 Australian 1 New Zealand divisions	Unknown
Casualties and losses
13,000	11–20 October: 12,000
German casualties are taken from Der Weltkrieg (volume XIII, 1942) which used figures calculated in ten-day periods.

 British Empire

The First Battle of Passchendaele took place on 12 October 1917, in the Ypres Salient of the Western Front, west of Passchendaele village. The attack was part of the Third Battle of Ypres in the First World War. The British had planned to capture the ridges south and east of the city of Ypres as part of a strategy decided by the Allies at conferences in November 1916 and May 1917. Passchendaele lay on the last ridge east of Ypres, 5 miles (8.0 km) from a railway junction at Roulers, which was an important part of the German 4th Army supply system. After a dry spell in September, rains began on 3 October and by the Battle of Poelcappelle on 9 October, much of the British field artillery opposite Passchendaele was out of action due to the effects of rain, mud and German artillery-fire. The remaining guns were either left in old positions and fired at the limit of their range or were operated from any flat ground near wooden roadways or from platforms, many of which were unstable, when it was found impossible to move them forward to new positions before the attack began.

During the battle, misleading information and delays in communication left Herbert Plumer and Douglas Haig under the impression that a substantial advance had taken place towards Passchendaele ridge. The attackers had managed to advance towards the village but most of the captured ground had been lost to German counter-attacks during the afternoon. The attacks by the Fifth Army further north from Poelcappelle to the French First Army boundary to close in on Houthoulst Forest succeeded but at the end of 9 October the front line near Passchendaele hardly changed. Instead of an advance of 1,500 yards (1,400 m) to complete the capture of Passchendaele, the British attack on 12 October began 2,000–2,500 yards (1,800–2,300 m) from the village. The real position of the front line was discovered by air reconnaissance but the information arrived too late, to make more than minor changes to the plan.

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