Wednesday 1 November 2017

In Flanders Fields – Part 14: The Canadian Corps Takes Passchendaele Ridge

By Joe Corrigan

If the Battle of Vimy Ridge was Canada’s “birth of a nation” then Passchendaele was truly the young country’s baptism of fire. Following the Canadian Corps successful diversionary attack at the Battle of Hill 70 which took place from August 15 to 25, 1917, Field Marshall Sir Douglas Haig found his offensive at the Third Battle of Ypres had bogged in the rain soaked fields of Belgium. The massive artillery barrage that supported the initial British attacks had destroyed the region’s already fragile drainage system just in time for the heavy fall rains. What resulted was one of the grimmest and most deadly battlefields of a war that was already know for massive numbers of casualties in futile offensives.

Currie and Haig
By this time in the war, the troops from the British Empire’s Dominions, initially looked down upon, had established a reputation as elite shock troops capable of great feats of arms. As such, when none of the offensive’s initial campaign objectives had been taken by October of 1917, Haig called upon the Australians, New Zealanders and Canadians to reinvigorate the allied push. One look at the battlefield told Canadian Corps commander, Lieutenant General Arthur Currie, that the task his men were being assigned, the taking of Passchendaele Ridge, would only be achieved at a high cost in casualties. Currie estimated that taking what was left of the now virtually non-existent village of Passchendaele, would incur 16,000 casualties; a 60% increase over what the taking of Vimy Ridge had cost. And for what? Vimy Ridge had been a strategic objective giving the allies an important stretch of high ground and driving the German back several kilometers. It had proven to be the high point of the entire Arras offensive back in the spring. Taking Passchendaele seemed nothing but folly. A pyrrhic battle over impossible ground for an objective whose only significance was to save the British high command from embarrassment.

Currie used his stature as the commander of a national, albeit small, army to push back when Haig insisted the Canadian Corps join the battle. He refused to serve under British Fifth Army Commander General Sir Hubert Gough and persuaded Haig to assign the Canadian Corps to Sir Hebert Plummer’s Second Army. Currie continued to press his objections to the point where he noted “I carried my protest to the extreme limit … which I believe would have resulted in my being sent home had I been other than the Canadian Corps commander.” This was something Currie did not wish to risk. He was still haunted by his financial indiscretions from his days as a regimental commander in British Columbia which would no doubt come to a head if he was relieved of his command. He was also one of the allies’ finest strategic commanders and to give command to someone else at this point would only result in more losses for the Canadian Corps. Forced to take on the challenge, Currie refused to be rushed. He undertook his typical studied analysis of the situation and made a number of plans to overcome the obstacles presented by the battlefield his troops would be forced to fight in.

Machine gun crew in the mud
The ground was virtually impassable. Nothing but mud and pools of standing water dotted with barbed wire and scores of concrete bunkers the Germans had constructed over the years as they had held the ridge since early in the war. The men would be challenged to make any headway in the muddy conditions weighed down by their heavy equipment and to stumble into the water meant death by drowning. A large number of soldiers who fought in the Battle of Passchendaele were listed as missing in action and have no known graves. Tanks, which were becoming more reliable at this point in the war and which would evolve into a war winning weapon, were useless in these conditions. Artillery could not be moved forward to support the infantry as it advanced and the mud caused havoc with the operation of rifles and machine guns.   

Duck boards
Prior to the assault, the cannons and howitzers were set on firm wooden platforms to ensure their effectiveness. Corduroy roads were constructed by the Corps engineers and pioneers with timber provided by saw mills set up behind the lines. These “duck boards” made it possible for the infantry to move forward over the muddy terrain. Tramways were built to move ammunition and supplies forward efficiently to support the assaults and canvas breach covers were provided to the soldiers and machine gunners to ensure their weapons weren’t compromised by the ever present mud.

The assaults began on October 26th with 2,500 casualties over a three day period before Currie called off the effort short of the initial objective. Following resupply, the assault was renewed on October 30th with the troops advancing about 1,000 yards at a cost of 2,300 additional casualties. The final push took place on November 6, 1917 in an advance so rapid, German artillery shells mainly landed behind the advancing Canadians. In three hours the ridge was in Canadian hands. Haig’s long sought after objective was firmly in allied possession. Except for some fierce fighting to repulse a German counter-attack on November 10th, the Battle of Passchendaele was over

The Third Battle of Ypres was over, Field Marshall Haig had achieved the objectives that looked so attainable in August and Currie’s prediction of 16,000 Canadian casualties spent in the taking of a worthless objective came to pass. Prime Minister Sir Robert Borden told British Prime Minister Lloyd George that “if there is ever a repetition of Passchendaele, not a Canadian soldier will leave the shore of Canada so long as the Canadian people entrust the Government of my country to my hands.” Indeed the battles of 1917 (Vimy Ridge, Hill 70 and Passchendaele) cost the young Dominion 35,000 casualties and served to precipitate the conscription crisis that caused a rift between English and French Canada that lasted for decades.

Passchendaele Monument


Much of the information for this blog was drawn from J.L. Granatstein’s major work “Canada’s Army – Waging War and Keeping the Peace” from the University of Toronto Press, 2002.   

Painting of the taking of Passchendaele Ridge


Some interesting YouTube videos you might like to look up include the following:      
The Great War – October 12, 1917 - https://youtu.be/X6VsOR0sWAA
The Great War – October 19, 1917 – https://youtu.be/5L68JCPsMxU
The Great War – October 26, 1917 - https://youtu.be/t61qBlEa6Us

On Wednesday, November 8th from 10 am to 2 pm, Canada's military history will come to life at Lansdowne Place through a partnership between Lang Pioneer Village Museum, the Norwood District High School “Red Coats” (NDHS) historical drill team and the East Northumberland Secondary School (ENSS) drill team. Please visit langpioneervillage.ca for details.


Joe Corrigan has been Museum Manager at Lang Pioneer Village since February of 2003. He has been a lifelong student of history. His specific areas of interest are Canadian and world political, military and sports history with a particular focus on biographical works. Joe has been interpreting Sir John A. Macdonald at the Museum's Historic Dominion Day event since 2007.