PASSCHENDAELE 1917<\/b><\/p>\n
On 31st<\/sup> July 1917, Field Marshal Haig launched the offensive which became known as the 3rd<\/sup> Battle of Ypres, or, more notoriously, as the Battle of Passchendaele.\u00a0 The 38th<\/sup> (Welsh) Division, including the 1st<\/sup> and 2nd<\/sup> Gwents, was ordered to attack and hold Pilkem Ridge and Iron Cross Ridge north of Ypres.\u00a0 In spite of facing heavy resistance from elite German Guards, the division took its objectives.\u00a0 The Gwents found themselves having to storm well-established machine-gun posts and pillboxes.\u00a0 The following day they faced a heavy bombardment and counter-attack but held their lines.\u00a0 The price was again very high, with the two battalions suffering 550 casualties, a price that became all the harder to bear as it became apparent that the offensive was following the familiar pattern of becoming bogged-down in the face of heavy German reinforcements.\u00a0 As the battle wore on, the Gwents\u2019 casualties mounted.\u00a0 200 more were sustained in an attack on Langemark in August and another 50 in a major raid on German dug-outs in the final days of the battle in November.<\/p>\n No sooner had 3rd<\/sup> Ypres ended than another offensive had begun.\u00a0\u00a0 On 20th<\/sup> November the British army launched an attack at Cambrai,\u00a0 using tanks en masse for the first time. Initially they met with\u00a0 great success and much land was taken.\u00a0 At the northern end of the battlefield, however, the Germans were still in possession of high land around Bourlon Wood. On 23rd<\/sup> November, the the \u201cbantams\u201d of the 3rd<\/sup> Gwents (12th<\/sup> South Wales Borderers), along with the 19th<\/sup> Royal Welsh Fusiliers and 17th<\/sup> Welsh, were ordered to dislodge the Germans. In three days of heavy fighting, including bayonet charges within the wood itself, ground was won, lost and won again. The Welsh troops were finally successful in taking the wood and the village beyond it.\u00a0 Once again, a heavy price had been paid. 133 officers men from the 3rd<\/sup> Gwents were dead or missing, with a further 255 wounded. Cambrai ultimately failed to bring the breakthrough it had promised, but this was certainly no fault of the 3rd<\/sup> Gwents.\u00a0 A veteran of Bourlon Wood, Sergeant William Parkes, was to live to be the last survivor of the South Wales Borderers.\u00a0 He died in the USA in 2002 at the age of 106.<\/p>\n The 2nd<\/sup> South Wales Borderers had followed the tanks in the initial assault and were amongst the units holding the newly-won positions when, on 30th<\/sup> November, the Germans launched a strong counter-attack.\u00a0 The battalion contributed significantly to the defence of the line, but by the time it was relieved on 2nd<\/sup> December, it had been reduced to just four officers and 73 men.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" PASSCHENDAELE 1917 On 31st July 1917, Field Marshal Haig launched the offensive which became known as the 3rd Battle of Ypres, or, more notoriously, as the Battle of Passchendaele.\u00a0 The 38th (Welsh) Division, including the 1st and 2nd Gwents, was … Continue reading