The Battle of Passchendaele, also known as the Third Battle of Ypres, was a war between the Allies and Germany from July 31 1917 to November 6 1917. The Allied powers in this battle included France, Great Britain and Canada. The purpose of this battle was to get Germany’s attention off of France, to avoid a collapse of the western front in Belgium, undertaken by Britain. At the same time of helping France, this battle would gain the ridges South and East of Ypres for the allies. This battle was fought at Passchendaele, a town along the Western Front, 5 miles from Ypres. The location of this battle, chosen by Sir Douglas Haig, a British field marshall. This was a horrible location because of the fact that it was marshy and low lying, surrounded by hills with trees, which made a battlefield with poor drainage and hills where German artillery could watch the battlefield …show more content…
3000 guns were used to fire 4.25 million bullets and many bombs were set off, this was a mistake because it made the battlefield harder to fight on, and it informed the Germans that an attack was coming, giving them time to prepare. As Britain’s second army seized Messines ridge led by General Sir Herbert Plumer, which signaled that Britain could engage at Passchendaele allowed Germany to prepare themselves even more. This is because 6 weeks passed between the win at Messines and the beginning of the Battle of Passchendaele.Since the Germans found out about the battle coming soon, they prepared. Germany’s Field Marshal Bavarian Crown Prince Rupprecht devised a defense strategy where concrete pillboxes that protected against bombardment were placed in front of the german line. These pillboxes were protected by machine gunners so that the British could not approach the Germans, allowing them to concentrate on other
The Battle of Fromelles was a British Military operation to stop the strong Germany 6th division from travelling south to where the British had a strong 4th division . The plan was a feint to send the British 61st division and the Australian 5th division to try weaken the German army.
Lieutenant-General Sir Arthur Curries was not pleased at the prospect of going to Passchendaele. Currie, like many Canadian soldiers, had grim memories of the Ypres salient, and grim memories to he Ypres salient, and admitted that his “experience in the salient in 1915 and in 1916 were such that I never wanted to see the place again.” Unfortunately, on 3 October, Currie was warned that the Corps might be sent north, to take part in the offensive in Flanders. Currie could make no sense of Passchendaele, and he was furious. “Passchendaele!” he raged in front of his staff. “What’s the good of it? Let the Germans have it--keep it--rot in it! Rot in the mud! There’s a mistake somewhere. it must be a mistake! It isn’t worth a drop of blood.” Although Currie was not at all happy that the Canadians had been told to take Passchendaele. One of Currie’s first moves was to assign intelligence officers to the various headquarters with which the Canadian Corps would be associated: Second Army, II Anzac Corps, which was responsible for the sector the Canadians would be taking over, and its front-line divisions, the New Zealand and 3rd Australian. These officers, and the general staff were to acquire
The battle of Passchendaele is important to Canada’s identity because it symbolizes the sacrifice Canada had to make, the legacy that Canada made and because it represents the Canadian valor. Canadians have made huge accomplishments through the battle of Passchendaele-It brought peace since the battle played a significant role in bringing World War I to an end and because achieving such great accomplishments came at a price. The success of the war was possible because of the sacrifice Canada had to make and because of the individual acts of heroism. Canadian soldiers had to endure exhausting months in trenches in terrible conditions, live in fear of possible surprise attacks from nearby enemies, develop trench’s feet, which is a nasty disease.
The battle of the Somme, intended to end the war that year, had ambitious objectives, it was significant for failing to achieve almost all of these. One of these was Beaumont Hamel, a fortified village behind the German lines. The Battle plan called for the village to be taken on the first day. The fact that the village was not taken until the very end of the battle on the 13th of November, illustrates how much the plan failed. Demonstrating the level to which the plan failed Private Anthony Stacey reports that this was a death trap for our boys as the enemy just set the sights of their machine guns on the gaps in the barbed wire and fired . Another objective, Serre, was not taken at all. In fact, the British staff were so unaware of modern weapons, that they had cavalry ready to attack after the infantry broke through. This is significant as it shows how inexperienced the British army was when it came to trench warfare. Had the staff understood the trench tactics better, they would not have
At the end, the British had lost 192 soldiers; the Americans lost 12 killed and 41 wounded. A group of Americans came across a storage of rum in the British camp and became so drunk they could not be brought back into the battle; so, the intoxicated Americans left the field of battle and marched back to the base camp at Waxhaw.
Canadian Corps, a 100,00-man assault force was ordered to the Passchendaele front, east of Ypres, in mid-December 1917. The British attempted to drive the Germans out of Northern France at Flanders and North Ypres. Their goal was to take out German Ports and sink their ships their subs and U-Boats. As the troops failed to push the Germans back through fields covered with heavy mud and water filled shell craters, the
The battle of Passchendaele was on July 31st November 1917 in Passendale Belgium. The was fought by the Allies against the German Empire. Canada’s role was to; ordered to the
The Second Battle of Ypres was the first time a former colonial force defeated a European power on European soil. It was the most gruesome battle fought in World War I because of the chemical warfare and Germany’s use of advanced technology. After a torturous month of fighting the German army, however, the Canadian soldiers emerged victorious.
On 15 January, Porter continued to be in position to provide their most massive bombardment yet in preparation for the attack. At noon, 1600 sailors and 400 marines executed the ground assault along the beach about a mile and a half north of the fort. By 1500 the marines’ new position was now unable to effectively provide cover for the ensuing assault and failed to keep the Confederate riflemen off the fort’s parapet. As 1500 passed, the sailors quickly became restless for the army’s attack signal. Not waiting for visual confirmation of the army’s attack as directed, 1600 sailors ran across the open beach, and the naval attack very quickly became a rout. The sailors with only their pistols and cutlasses were no match for the Confederate riflemen, canister, and grape. After only 20 minutes the assault was repulsed, with the men retreating in droves, leaving over three hundred dead or wounded sailors and marines. Many of the wounded were left to drown in the rising tide. This was not the outcome Admiral Porter’s had envisioned.
The Germans at Dieppe were informed ahead of time by German U-boats and French double agents. Allies weren’t aware what had occurred, and made their way into Dieppe. Allies thought the element of surprise would work and catch the enemy off-guard, but it was the opposite. As soon as the allies beached, they were slaughtered. Loss of life was unimaginable.
The Battle of The Bulge, also known as the Ardennes Offensive, was the largest battle fought by the U.S. Army and started December 19, 1944 and was the last major offensive the axis army launched(C-1). More than 200,000 German troops and nearly 1,000 tanks launched off to reverse the ebb in Hitler's fortune(A-1). The death toll was insanely high and every step you took there was a body sure enough within 10 feet of you. But the attack was a surprise to the allies with several ignored warnings that the Germans were going to strike. But some of the generals distrusted the plan and did not think that it could work, advising Hitler not to attack now and to wait, but Hitler, Hitler didn't care about what anyone thought, he thought one thing and that was victory as soon as possible. So the Germans advanced with an attempt to split the allied armies in the northwest by
Over the course of the history of man there have be many great military units. The Egyptian Medjay, Thebes of Theban, the Immortals of Persia, and even the Ninjas of Japan were some of the best fighting men of their time. These units were created for one purpose; to win at all cost. King Charles II of England also created his own special unit. “Formed in the reign of King Charles II on October 28, 1664 as the Duke of York and Albany’s Maritime Regiment of Foot (or Admiral’s Regiment), the name Marines first appeared in the records in 1672” (Museum, RM, and Charles Stadden). This unit is now called the Royal Marines. On June 14th 1775 the Continental Congress created the Continental Army of the thirteen colonies in order to fight the British in the upcoming Revolutionary war. The Army was just an Army, it was not a special unit. Continental Congress needed something more, something Amphibious. In response, Continental Congress created the Marine Corps. The birth of the Marine Corps played a key role in American history prior to 1877 due to their perfection in tactics, and grit.
Up to this point the Canadians were not regarded as fighting soldiers and were thus given the assignment of occupying this relatively quite sector of the front. The importance of Ypres would soon be realized when on April 22, 1915 the German line used the first poisonous gas attack in war against the Canadians and Algerians troops to gain access to the important roads that intersected in Ypres. The Algerian troops fled leaving a gap of six kilometers along the trench system. Now the German side had the ability to take control of the area. Somehow the gap was filled with the Canadians who even managed to counterattack, a strategy that came as a complete surprise to the Germans. John McCrae’s post was near a particularly dangerous section of the road. The Germans had it covered with artillery fire for seventeen days of battle. McCrae would later
The Battle of Kasserine Pass proved to be a shock both to American military forces in the field. The defeat of the Allied forces in the battle put doubt into the minds of many all of whom assumed the righteous democracies of the western Allies could not be defeated in the field by the armies of Fascism. The defeat suffered by the Allies had nothing to do with right versus wrong, but was very much a product of a number of operational shortcomings on the part of the Allies. Poor logistics, failures on the part of American leadership, lack of unity of effort on the part of the Allies, the lack of combat experience, and inferior equipment all combined to contribute to the failure
The second battle took place on the 12th of October 1917, there had been heavy rain which made the conditions difficult to fight in. They did not succeed in destroying the German barbed wire. New Zealand prime minister at the time, William Massey, stated this at a meeting of the Imperial War Cabinet in London, June 1918; “I was told last night by a reliable man— a man I knew years before he joined the army — that the New Zealanders (he was one of them) were asked to do the impossible. He said they were sent to Passchendaele, to a swampy locality where it was almost impossible to walk and where they found themselves up against particularly strong wire entanglements which it was impossible for them to cut. They were, he said, simply shot down