Battle of Broodseinde (Battle of Passchendaele (also known as the Third Battle of Ypres))

“The battlefield of Ypres! It is a dreadful place, hideously bare of all comfort, with no beautiful, or decent, or pleasant thing anywhere to be seen. It is a field of agony and death. No place on earth has been so desecrated by slaughter, no place, save Calvary, so consecrated by sacrifice.”

“Two attacks were planned for the New Zealand Division. The first, which was to be undertaken by the 1st and 4th Brigades had the Gravenstafel-Abraham Heights section of the Broodseinde Ridge as its objective. Success in this operation would clear the way for the final assault on the Belle Vue Spur and Passchendaele, which was to be undertaken in part by the 2nd and 3rd Brigades.”

“Zero hour was at 6 a.m.—ten minutes before the time fixed by the enemy for their counter-attack, and about a quarter of an hour before dawn. Suddenly the sky was red with leaping flame, and the air was full of the rushing of innumerable shells. ”

“They pass the swamp and the German barrage—with loss. They encounter the first opposition, and see comrades killed and wounded. Rage enters in—a cold, silent, terrible rage. Men stalk on up the torn hillside, conscious of danger, but disdainful of it. They feel their strength is that of ten, and that their advance is inevitable and resistless—and it is so.”

“The battle was won. It had been a clean sweeping success, and the enemy were for the time being  utterly broken, so much so that if fresh troops had been immediately pushed to the front they would probably have had little difficulty in taking Belle Vue Spur. As it was, consolidation was commenced and the position made secure. The enemy artillery were active, but they were unable to concentrate men for an effective counter-attack. Next day there was more heavy shelling, and the men suffered considerable discomfort in the newly dug and muddy trenches.” [Excerpts From: O. E. Burton. “The Auckland Regiment.”]