Passchendaele, Battle of

Passchendaele, Battle of (31 July–10 Nov. 1917d) The third Battle of Ypres, named after a village which became the furthest point of advance in this Allied offensive during World War I. Despite the disastrous casualties suffered at the Somme, General Haig continued to believe that frontal assaults in superior numbers must succeed if sufficient troops were thrown at the enemy. Hence, he planned to seize the Passchendaele ridge and then sweep into Belgium. Constant shelling and torrential rain reduced Flanders to a sea of mud, which made advance all but impossible. The ruined village of Passchendaele itself was only reached after several attacks on 9 November. By then, it was too late to continue the offensive further. For a most marginal territorial gain, the Allies had suffered some 300,000 casualties and had been exposed, for the first time, to the German use of mustard gas. Passchendaele itself was surrendered in the retreat before Ludendorff's final offensive five months later. In Canadian and British popular memory, the battle became one of the major symbols of the futility and human cost of the war.