PASSCHENDAELE REFLECTIONS
The Battles of Menin Road and Polygon Wood, September 1917
The background
The commander of the British Expeditionary Force, Field Marshal Sir Douglas Haig, had long planned an offensive in Flanders but circumstances forced him to fight on the Somme in 1916 and early 1917. However, by the middle of 1917 he was able to put his plans into effect and launch an offensive around Ypres, where fighting in 1914 and 1915 had left a British salient jutting into the German lines.
The ultimate object of the 1917 offensive, which was to become known as the Third Battle of Ypres, was to break into the German position and occupy the Belgian coast. This would result in overrunning a number of important German positions and disrupting their communications, as well occupying the submarine bases on the Belgian coast that allowed U-boats to move directly into the North Sea and Atlantic and cause havoc to Allied sea communications. The battle was preceded by the taking Messines Ridge, which overlooked the intended battlefield. Australian troops were prominent in this notable success.
For the AIF the battle can be divided into three phases. The first lasted from July to September. The battles in this period were fought by British infantry divisions under General Gough. Their artillery was reinforced by that of the AIF divisions, who took heavy casualties. Bedevilled by rain the advance was limited and casualties heavy.
The second phase comprised three battles: Menin Road (20 September), Polygon Wood (26 September) and Broodseinde (4 October). These battles were well planned but limited victories, carried out in relatively dry weather. They were commanded by General Sir Herbert Plumer of 2nd Army.
The third phase featured the operations to take the high ground around Poelcapelle and Passchendaele. Despite the wet weather experience of August (and previous campaigns) the attacks were persisted with in appalling weather and petered out in the mud after small gains and appalling casualties.
The position in which the five sets of remains at Westhoek were found, when collated with information from official Australian records and a study of the medical arrangements, indicates that they were killed in either of the battles of Menin Road or Polygon Wood and were most likely from units on the left of the Australian advances.
Bite and hold tactics
After Gough’s offensive had been forced to halt by the weather, General Plumer’s 4th Army, which included I Anzac Corps, was given the task of continuing the offensive to take the Gheluvelt Plateau. Plumer was an advocate of ‘bite and hold’ tactics. A short advance by the infantry onto enemy positions behind a heavy artillery barrage was to be followed by consolidation on the position under cover of a deep artillery barrage that would prevent or destroy the customary German counter attacks that had bedevilled many successful assaults previously.
After a short break to bring up the heavy artillery support the process would be repeated. The disadvantage was that the tactic did not allow for exploitation of the successful attack into a penetration of the enemy’s rear areas. But it was the only tactic with any chance of success given the battlefield conditions at the time and had been proven at Messines
The Battle of Menin Road
The Australian attack was part of a greater British operation with British units on the left and right of the AIF. Plumer planned that the infantry would advance about 1500 metres eastwards from the Westhoek Ridge behind a creeping barrage after heavy artillery preparation of the battlefield. There was a gun for every five yards of front. When the infantry reached its objectives the artillery was to fire a barrage 700 – 1000 yards deep to protect the troops from German counter attack as they dug in to consolidate their gains.
Construction and transport worked hard to build the roads, tracks and railways necessary to build up and maintain the high levels of artillery and stores support essential for the maintenance of the advance and its consolidation after its objectives had been reached.
The first Australian attack commenced at dawn on 20 September, westward from Ypres towards the Gheluvelt Plateau along the axis of the Menin Road. The attack was carried out by the 1st and 2nd Divisions on the right and left respectively. Moving in bounds to allow the artillery to do its work and with fresh troops brought through, the attackers took the Nonne Bosch Wood, Glencorse Wood and entered the west of Polygon Wood. The massive artillery preparation and the constant rain of shells of the creeping barrage ahead of the troops saw them take their objectives by the evening.
Nevertheless it had not been easy for the infantry. The German defences were based on a number of tough concrete-walled pillboxes, many of which were able to resist the artillery barrage. Determined German soldiers had to be winkled out of these by a series of small infantry actions where the Australians used combined arms tactics with Lewis guns, bombers, rifle grenades and riflemen. Australian casualties were around 5000. The German losses were much the same but where the Australians were elated with their success, German morale was shaken.
Immediately after the battle fresh troops of the 4th and 5th Divisions quickly replaced the assault troops 1st and 2nd Divisions. The fresh men consolidated the position and prepared for the next attack. But in the intervals between the attacks the German artillery still keenly sought out targets behind the front and caused many losses.
The Battle of Polygon Wood
The Battle of Polygon Wood commenced on 26 September. The 4th Division attacked on the left, the 5th on the right. As at Menin Road the Australian attack was part of general assault by the BEF. The Australians were to take the remainder of the wood and areas to the north. The wood was a former Belgian Army training area dominated by a fortified mound in the west. The mound had previously been a rifle butt and was now known as the Butte.
Again construction and transport troops slaved to build the infrastructure and bring forward the materiel essential to the advance.
The attack was initially disrupted by a German attack in the south on the 25th but this was shattered by artillery fire and enfilading fire by the 15th Australian Brigade and 33rd British Division.
At 5.50am on the 26th the Australians advanced behind the ‘most perfect barrage that had ever protected Australian troops’. Objectives in the north were quickly taken while in the south the Australians took not only their own objectives but some of those of the British X Corps, operating on their right flank. The Butte was seized by the 14th Brigade. The heavy German counter attacks were then shattered by artillery and machine gun fire.
On 4 October, in Polygon Wood, just beneath the Butte position, the five Australians who died in the assaults that led to its capture are to be re-interred.