PASSCHENDAELE ANNIVERSARY SUPPLEMENT, NAVY NEWS, OCTOBER 2007 iii
Supreme Headq
uarters, October 27
Western Theatre of W
ar
Großes Hauptquar
tier, Oktober 27.

Westlicher Kriegssch
auplatz:
Army Group Cro
wn Prince Rupprec
ht
Heeresgruppe Kronprinz Rupprecht
Yesterday Frenc
h and English troops attac
ked in
the centre of the Flanders front using fresh f
orces to
Franzosen und Engländer setzten gestern tagsüber
force a decisiv
e battle.
auf dem Kampff
eld in der Mitte der fl
andrischen Th
e success w
as ours
; the
Front von neuem starke Kräfte ein,
um die enemy divisions bled to dea
th in vain in
Schlachtentscheidung zu suchen
.
our defensive zone.
Der Erfolg b
lieb unser; vergeb
lich haben die
Heavy artiller
y fire fell on the battlef
ield before
feindlichen Divisi
onen sich in unserer
Abwehrzone
the enemy attac
ked;
Increased ar
verblutet.
tillery effect was on the combat area,
before the enem
y walked to the attac
Gesteigerte Ar
tilleriewirkung lag auf dem
k; stormtroops
swarmed forward behind the advancing wall of
Kampfgelände,
ehe der Feind zum
Angriff schritt;

fire...
hinter der sich vorw
ärtsschiebenden Feuerw
alze
After particularl
y bitter fighting w
est of
brachen seine St
urmtruppen vor.
Passchendaele whic
h raged to and fro, the enem
y
Nach hin- und herwogenden Kämpfen,
die had to be content with a f
ew lines of craters in front
westlich von Passchendaele besonders erbitter
t of his jump-off positions...
waren, mußte sich der Feind mit wenigen
Some fighting continued into the night; the hea
vy
Trichterlinien vor seiner
Ausgangsstellung
fire only lessened tem
porarily.
Troops from ev
begnügen.
ery corner of the R
eich have
played a g
Teilkämpfe dauer
ten bis in die Nacht;
das starke
en
lorious role in a da
ded in our f
y of battle whic
avour
h
!
Feuer ließ nur vorübergehend nach. – Luden
dorff, First Gen
eral Quarterm
aster
Truppen aus allen
Teilen des Reiches h
aben
ruhmvollen Anteil an dem für uns günst
igen
Ausgang des Schlachttages!
at ● Druid D1 – a British Female Mk IV tank – knocked out near Poelcapelle; the wrecked
ORDER OF THE D
tank could still be found in the same position 12 months later
AY
in
– Ludendorff
, der Erste Generalquar
tiermeister
Please conv
h,
men could receive replacements, food, distinguish small shells from the
ey to all rank
s engag
ed in toda
m
es
ammunition – “the artery upon which heavy caliber, schwere Brocken – ‘big
y very g
y’s operations
reat appreciation of their g
allant ef
ny
the life of a sustained action could dumplings’ – or Koffer – bags. His
It was still raining as whistles By nightfall it was obvious to all
forts.
or
depend”. nose knew the smell of chlorine, the
sounded along the line at 5.45 – long that the attack had miscarried They ha
In the final days before the assault, smell of powder, the smell of corpses.
before dawn. (the Canadians had failed to take
could h
ve my sincere sym
re,
keeping these arteries open was He knew every weapon. The mortar.
For two days the British guns had Passchendaele), but the fighting was
dition
ave h
pathy, as
no tr
oops
con
as
the vital task of the Royal Naval The field guns and heavy artillery.
pummelled the German lines; the far from over: the Hoods and Hawkes
s of mud
ad to f
ace w
orse
o
,”
Division. The flamethrower. The machine-gun.
craters their shells left now filled held the line throughout the night and
wing to the sudden do
than they had to f
ace
wnfall of rain this mor
ning.
It was a relentless, often fruitless And, above all, the rifle and hand-
with water. through most of the twenty-seventh.
in
task, as one officer in Hawke Battalion grenade. Yet living and fighting in the
“Between them,” wrote the Naval No man was more conspicuous
No troops could ha
ve done more than our men did toda
as
recalled. Flanders mud, hauling guns, bringing
Division’s chronicler Douglas Jerrold, that Saturday than Surg Lt William
y.
e-
“Day after day we would find the up ammunition, water, rations,
“a path had to be picked over ground McCracken. The Hood’s surgeon had
n’t
track which the previous day’s work through the mire had exhausted him.
only less impassable.” spent the first day of battle tending to
– HUBER
T GOUGH,
gh
had left firm and ready to receive Sickness was rife – as many as one in
But pick over the ground the Royal wounded in a forward first-aid post,
GOC FIFTH
ARMY
,
the planks ploughed up with shells, four men was suffering some form of
Naval Division did. On the left of close to the ruins of a farm, peppered
OCTOBER 26 1917
d,
strewn with broken limbers, dead or illness, especially diarrhoea, in some
its front, the Royal Marines Light by enemy shelling all day long.
w
foundered mules, and all the litter and divisions.
Infantry struck, on the right the sailors When October 27 began, British
of
debris of the hours of darkness.” “There are no surprises any more
of the Anson battalion. wounded still littered the battlefield. in up to his waist – and endured. He
continue the battle “for several weeks
n’s
Each morning at Ypres began with for him,” wrote Werner Beumelburg,
Through the swirling rain, through McCracken led two platoons of is a true hero. There can be no greater
yet”.
its
ritual killing: putting an end to the the official German historian of the
the clouds of mud and dirt kicked stretcher-bearers through the mud heroism than this.”
But if the battle was to go on “for
misery of the wounded and drowning Flandernschlacht.
up by shells impacting, through the towards the front line.
several weeks yet” it could not go
horses – sometimes as many as a “Not once does death unnerve him.
smoke of rifle and machine-gun The party in khaki trudging through Not every man in the Royal Naval
on as it was, warned Arthur Asquith.
ok
dozen had to be put down. He’s far too close to it for that.”
fire, the makeshift red banners of A the mire soon drew the attention of Division was a sailor or Royal Marine.
Each time the British Army attacked
rd
It was, wrote Capt Frank Hurley,
Company, 2nd Royal Marines Light the German gunners, who directed Of the three brigades which comprised
in the same old way... and was beaten
at
the official Australian photographer,
PASSCHENDAELE
Infantry, bobbed and weaved over the artillery and machine-gun fire at the the 63rd Division, one – 190th Brigade
back in the same old way.
ot
“a wicked, agonising sight. Here and
battlefield. surgeon. McCracken was undaunted. – consisted entirely of soldiers.
Tommy always attacked at dawn.
there lay dead, half-buried in the mud,
The men rallied to them, exactly as He fixed the Red Cross to his walking To date they had been saved from
He was always given an objective
CANADIAN MISGIVINGS
us,
horses and broken wagons, all cogently
Capt Peter Ligertwood had intended. stick, raised it aloft and continued the Flanders battle, but Douglas Haig
impossible to attain in the Flanders
nd
telling some tragedy and horror, but
But Ligertwood himself was his advance. The German guns fell decreed they could be saved no longer.
mud.
‘TAKE MY WORD FOR IT’
,”
one is immune to all these and passes
wounded, struck three times by enemy silent and for the rest of the morning On the penultimate day of October
Asquith suggested a new tactic.
on
by as unperturbed as though they were
fire. Still he struggled to lead his William McCracken and his medics 1917, the weary khaki figures of
Small groups of well-trained, lightly-
just pieces of rock.”
The first battle for Passchendaele had
company forward until a fourth wound cared for the fallen well within range Second and Fifth Armies swarmed
equipped troops should take out
ended a dismal failure. With the year
rs
left him prone in the mud. of enemy rifles. forward over the mud once more. The
individual enemy strong points one-
fading, with winter approaching, Haig
ed YPRES APOCALYPSE
The ground was raked by machine- McCracken, wrote Arthur Asquith objective was identical to the one four
by-one, instead of sending a battalion
was determined to take the village and
by
gun and rifle fire, but Peter Ligertwood admiringly, showed “contempt of days before: Passchendaele and the
across the mud to simply be cut-down
the ridge it sat upon.
raised himself up once more. danger”. His deeds that day served “to ridge it gave its name to.
by a wall of fire.
FLANDERNSCHLACHT The Australians had failed. Perhaps
er,
He could go no further, but raised inspire all who have come in contact And like four days before, the battle
Asquith’s superiors agreed. The
Canadians might fare better. Perhaps
rs
his arm and pointed. “There’s your with him to emulate his splendid of October 30 was a failure.
new tactic of ‘nibbling’ was put into
After nightfall on October 14, German they might, but their commander
le
objective, lads. Get it!” example”. Asquith recommended Pte Alfred Burrage and his comrades
practice during the first nights of
Lieutenant General Sir Arthur Currie
he
cavalry officer Rudolf Binding stared With that he sank back into the mire the surgeon for the Victoria Cross.
in the Artists Rifles, one of the Army
November.
across the battlefield. The gods were doubted it. as the red banners moved forward The commander of the Hoods was
battalions in 190th Brigade, moved
One-by-one, the German pillboxes
by
angry. A storm raged in the autumn sky, Currie was an imposing figure with over the Ypres mud and across the also recommended for Britain’s
across the mud initially “as if we were
around Wallemolen were picked
rs
a wild yet mesmerizing thunderstorm. a bluntness proportionate to his size. Paddebeek. It was, wrote Douglas highest military decoration. Neither
on the parade ground”. The attack
off. At nightfall on the first day of
re
“The beasts of the Apocalypse seemed Seizing Passchendaele would cost his Jerrold, “one of the finest exploits” recommendation succeeded.
quickly began to falter as the riflemen
November, one S/Lt Arthur Perry led
rs
to be at grips, lashing at one another corps 16,000 men, he predicted. Haig that fateful day.
stumbled towards the Paddebeek – no
around 50 men over the battlefield to
with hot and cold talons, with icy overruled his objections, telling the But success on the left flank, and
‘GREAT IMPORTANCE’
longer a brook, just an infernal bog.
neutralise a German strongpoint.
he
and glowing breath, with limbs of Canadian general and his staff: “Some success on the right, where the Ansons
“Shrapnel was bursting not much
“In the darkness,” wrote Douglas
ng
different shapes and sizes.” day I hope to be able to tell you why had pushed forward and seized a
more than face high, and the liquid
Jerrold, “there was no danger from the
Binding had been here in Flanders this must be done, but in the meantime strongpoint, counted for naught; the
‘A DAY OF HONOUR’
mud from ground shells was going
enemy machine-guns – the situation
or
three years before when the German I ask you to take my word for it.” Germans in the centre of the RND’s
up in the clouds and coming down in
was far too obscure for either side to
er
Army sought victory. Now he had The Canadians could not attack front stood firm.
NO GREATER HEROISM
rain,” wrote Burrage.
risk firing without a target.”
es’
returned. The landscape was changed. Passchendaele on their own. On the “From countless pill-boxes and
The wounded gathered in small
The sailors surrounded the pillbox,
ar
So too the ordinary soldier, the left wing of their assault, a British
redoubts, bullets rained like hail on The men of the Royal Naval Division
clusters, pitching their rifles in the
tossed in grenades and took nine
bs,
landser – the German equivalent of division would support the push: the
our dauntless men,” wrote 30-year-old advanced no more than 500 yards
mire as a signal to the stretcher-
Germans prisoner, as well as leaving
ve
the redoubtable Tommy. 63rd Royal Naval Division.
Surg Lt Geoffrey Sparrow. along a front less than a mile long
bearers. There was soon, Burrage
several enemy dead behind.
ny
On the surface, the men were still The sailors were charged with
By 8am, it was clear the attack – ground, Douglas Haig told them,
recalled, “a forest of rifles” on the
“This simple and almost bloodless
determined, still hopeful of victory, advancing from the ruins of
was going nowhere. Not only was it “of great importance”. Fifth Army
battlefield “until they were uprooted
operation” gained the Hawkes nearly
nt
still “doing his job in defending his Wallemolen over 1,200 yards of
going nowhere, but Arthur Asquith commander Hubert Gough assured
by shell bursts or knocked down by
200 yards – ground the Royal Naval
th
country”. They enjoyed the dubious boggy terrain which sloped gently
had little idea where his comrades the sailors “no troops could have done
bullets like so many skittles.”
Division had twice tried to cross in
x,
pleasures of Ostend and Bruges, upwards, crossed by a flooded beck,
were on the battlefield. But rather than more”, but privately the general had
Sheltering in a shell-hole, the
daylight in vain.
he
drinking bad beer, smoking cigars and Paddebeek. On top of the high ground
send runners across the Flanders clay,
grave misgivings about the battle and
private looked across No Man’s
The Germans were not, of course,
listening to scratchy gramophones. on the division’s right stood Tournant
Asquith set out himself to find the rest
above all the terrain it was being
Land to the German lines. Figures
going to permit the sailors to simply
ng
But scratch beneath the surface Farm, no longer a farm but the ruins of
of his scattered division.
waged over.
in feldgrau were leaping out of their
pick-off their Flanders fortifications
to
and three years of war had taken their one turned into a German stronghold.
There are times in battle when the
“Men of the strongest physique
trenches and heading for the rear.
willy-nilly. On November 3 they
toll “inwardly and outwardly”. The Enemy pillboxes studded the land,
actions of an individual weigh more
could hardly move forward,” he later
There was nothing the Artists Rifles
struck back against one stronghold
ost
Pickelhaube, the spiked helmet, had mostly centred on the remnants of
than the actions of the multitude.
admitted. “Stumbling forward as best
could do. The mud forbade progress.
seized two nights before.
n,”
been replaced by the more practical farm buildings.
This was one such moment. Arthur
they could, their rifles soon became
It even forbade their rifles firing.
At the heart of the defence of the
Stahlhelm or ‘coal scuttle’ helmet. The After dark on Wednesday October
Asquith moved over the battlefield
so caked and clogged with mud as to
The British barrage was countered
nameless pillbox was, for want of a
re
soldier’s uniform was weather-beaten, 24, the men of the Royal Naval
in full view of the enemy for a good
be useless.”
by the German barrage. The hellish
better word, a naval ‘character’.
ed
worn, faded, crudely patched up. Division began to relieve the Scots
two hours, from crater to crater, with
Gough, a cavalry man elevated
symphony reached its climax that
Leading Seaman James Sherry
lf-
In his haversack hanging from his of 9th Division. “There was no front
shells crashing down and machine-
far beyond his competence thanks to
could fight. He could fight Johnny
afternoon. It was more than Alfred
sy
belt was a piece of bacon, a slice of to speak of,” recalled Richard Tobin,
gun bullets slapping into the mud.
Haig’s patronage, wanted the battle
Turk, as he had demonstrated in
ed
bread, ersatz – substitute – honey or “just a series of posts scraped in the
He covered the Royal Naval
Burrage could stand. He crouched in
called off – at least until the autumn
Gallipoli. He could fight Fritz too; he
lard, perhaps a postcard from home, mud. A machine-gun crew here, a few
Division’s line “from end to end”,
his foxhole crying: “Oh Christ, make
frost hardened the ground. His master
earned the Military Medal for leading
a
ammunition and a pencil. His canteen riflemen there.”
ensured the sailors finally linked up
it stop! Oh Jesus, make it stop! It must
disagreed.
a raid in Gavrelle, near Arras, in May.
nd
was filled with barley coffee or There was no hope of receiving
with the Canadians and prevented
stop because I can’t bear it any more.
Unfortunately, James Sherry could
dy
brambleleaf tea – Germany had long food or ammunition by day in these
the confusion among the sailors and
I can’t bear it!”
A few hundred yards from the sailor-
also drink. A lot. He had been disrated
ed
since been starved of the real foods outposts – the German gunners would
marines “getting out of hand”.
For all its bravery and dash, the
for drunkenness behind the lines in
To clerk Thomas MacMillan
soldiers, across the Schlamm (mud) of 190th Brigade achieved almost nothing
1916. On the eve of the Flanders
D’s
– mixed with ‘division’s hooch’, a simply send a storm of steel raining
rather evil liquor. Besides his rifle,
watching the battle from headquarters,
Flanders, the men of 164 Infanterie on October 30, save for providing
attack his penchant for a tipple ended
down.
Arthur Asquith had “saved the
Regiment were counting their dead. Death with his grim harvest; in some
with a brawl with a Belgian inn owner
go the soldier’s constant companion
“When shells started dropping, you
was his gasmask, slung over
situation”.
The Flandernschlacht had cost the units the casualty rate reached 50 per
– another disrating and a
ran to the right or left to get some
Behind the trenches, Australian
regiment nearly 1,800 officers and cent. Only the Canadians felt some
sentence of one year’s
his shoulder, and a packet of cover,” Tobin remembered. “If
troops moved up to the front line in
men. And yet they felt unbowed, degree of success that night. They
hard labour was
cigarettes. you were on the duckboards, you
trucks and buses. Neither spared the
unbeaten. To one Hauptmann had forced their way on to the ridge
imposed. With the
After four years of war he couldn’t run anywhere. You just
men from the elements. “Soaked
(Captain) Heines, October 26 had and were barely 300 yards from what
Steadies about
knew all the sights, sounds, had to face it and go on.”
and weary men heartily cursed
been “a day of honour”. was left of Passchendaele.
to go into battle,
smells of a modern Thursday was a fine, bright
the weather, the war and even
Heines had followed the To Douglas Haig it had
Sherry could not
battlefield. autumn day. The forecast for
their existence,” observed
battle from the regimental all been “most successful”.
be spared, and
His ears could hear the Friday, the twenty-sixth,
photographer Capt Frank
headquarters. Passchendaele “and
on November 3
shells being fired, hear looked promising. But in
Hurley. “The misery of it all
“I take my hat off to the high ground round
he and a small
them howling through the the small hours of October
is too terrible and appalling
the simple musketier, it” would soon be in
air, hear them crashing into 26, the Flanders skies
for words.”
who held out in the mud Allied hands. In fact, he marina Continued on
the Flanders mud. He could opened once more. and rain – sometimes sunk told London, he planned to page iv
Passchendaele copy.indd 3 20/9/07 10:34:11
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