The Third Battle of Ypres: Passchendaele
Passchendaele has become a word used to mean something beyond its geography. When people say "Passchendaele" they usually mean the mud, the futility, the casualties without apparent purpose. The name carries a weight that other battle names from the First World War do not.
Understanding what actually happened there, not as a symbol but as a military operation over four and a half months, on specific ground, for specific objectives, changes how you see the landscape when you visit.
Why the battle was fought
The Third Battle of Ypres opened on 31 July 1917. Field Marshal Haig's intention was to break through the German lines east of Ypres, capture the Passchendaele ridge, and advance towards the Belgian coast to neutralise the German submarine bases at Ostend and Zeebrugge.
That strategic objective was ambitious. The tactical situation was difficult. The ground east of Ypres had been churned by three years of artillery. The drainage system, the network of dykes and drainage channels that kept the low-lying Flemish land dry, had been destroyed by shellfire. Rain in late July and August 1917 was heavier than normal.
When the artillery destroyed the drainage and the rain came, the ground became what the soldiers described: not mud in an ordinary sense, but a liquid landscape of water-filled craters, collapsed trench walls, and ground that offered no firm footing anywhere. Men drowned in shell holes. Wounded men sank and could not be recovered.
The fighting continued.
The phases of the battle
The Third Battle of Ypres is not a single engagement. It is a sequence of separate operations fought over four and a half months:
31 July — Battle of Pilckem Ridge. The opening attack. Initial gains were made but the conditions deteriorated rapidly. Rain on 31 July turned the ground into the conditions that defined the battle.
16-18 August — Battle of Langemarck. Limited gains at significant cost. The Langemarck German Cemetery, 5km north of Ypres, marks this part of the battlefield.
20-25 September — Battle of the Menin Road. A change of method: shorter advances with stronger artillery support, targeting limited objectives before consolidating. General Plumer's "bite and hold" approach produced more reliable results than the earlier attempts at broad advances.
26 September — Battle of Polygon Wood. The Australians took Polygon Wood. One of the most efficiently executed operations of the campaign.
4 October — Battle of Broodseinde. Australian and New Zealand forces took the high ground that is now Tyne Cot Cemetery. The ridge was within reach.
12 October — First Battle of Passchendaele. The conditions had deteriorated again after rain. New Zealand forces suffered particularly heavy casualties attacking objectives that had not been adequately prepared.
26 October — 10 November — Second Battle of Passchendaele. Canadian Corps under General Currie took Passchendaele village on 6 November 1917. Haig halted the offensive on 10 November.
What was gained
The Passchendaele ridge was captured. The village itself, or what remained of it, essentially rubble, was in Allied hands by November 1917.
The advance from the start line to Passchendaele was approximately 8km. The total Allied casualties for the Third Battle of Ypres are estimated at 244,000 British and Commonwealth, and approximately 217,000 German. The figures are disputed and the methodology for counting casualties in this period was inconsistent.
The ridge was abandoned in April 1918 during the German Spring Offensive. All the ground taken at Passchendaele was given up without a fight. It was retaken in September 1918.
What the landscape shows now
The ground east of Ypres today is flat farmland. The craters were filled. The trenches were ploughed. The mud dried.
But the landscape still carries evidence of what happened:
Tyne Cot Cemetery sits on the ridge captured at Broodseinde on 4 October 1917. From the cemetery, looking west, you can see the ground the Allied forces attacked across, the distance from the Menin Gate to Tyne Cot, roughly 10km, is the ground covered in four and a half months of fighting.
Polygon Wood to the south marks the Australian advance of 26 September. The butte still gives the view that made this ground worth fighting for.
The village of Passchendaele (now Passendale) exists as a modern village. Nothing of the 1917 fighting is visible in the village itself. But standing at the church, on the highest point of the ridge, and looking west towards Ypres makes the strategic logic of the entire campaign visible. The spire of the Cloth Hall in Ypres is visible on clear days.
Practical information
Dates: 31 July to 10 November 1917
Key sites to visit:
- Tyne Cot Cemetery: the largest Commonwealth war cemetery in the world, on the ground captured at Broodseinde
- Polygon Wood: the Australian battle of 26 September, with the Buttes New British Cemetery
- Langemarck German Cemetery: the German perspective on the Langemarck phase
- Passendale village: the final objective, 10km from Ypres
Frequently asked questions
Why is it called Passchendaele? Passchendaele (now Passendale) is the village on the ridge that was the final objective of the Third Battle of Ypres. The battle is formally called the Third Battle of Ypres, but "Passchendaele" became the common name because the village was the visible, identifiable objective after four months of fighting.
Why was the ground so muddy at Passchendaele? The Flemish plain east of Ypres is low-lying land that relies on a drainage system of dykes and channels. Three years of artillery fire had destroyed that drainage system. Heavy rain in August 1917, heavier than normal for the period, turned the already-disrupted ground into the conditions the soldiers described. The mud was a consequence of drainage failure combined with rainfall, not simply poor conditions.
What were the Allied casualties at Passchendaele? Estimates vary by methodology and what phases of the battle are included. The commonly cited figure for total British and Commonwealth casualties is approximately 244,000 over the four and a half months of the campaign.
Was Passchendaele captured? Yes. Passchendaele village was taken by the Canadian Corps on 6 November 1917. The offensive was halted on 10 November. The ridge was abandoned in April 1918 during the German Spring Offensive and retaken in September 1918.
Where can I see the Passchendaele battlefield today? Tyne Cot Cemetery sits on the ridge taken during the campaign. Polygon Wood marks the Australian battle of 26 September. The village of Passendale (the modern spelling) is the former Passchendaele. Standing at the church there and looking west towards Ypres gives the clearest sense of the ground covered during the campaign.
Passchendaele and the Third Battle of Ypres are covered on the Full-Day Flanders Fields tour and Custom Tours.
Written by Niels Declercq, private WW1 battlefield guide based in Bruges.
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