The long planned main British offensive for 1917, of which Messines was a preliminary step, began on 31 July with Passchendaele as its initial objective. It was planned to break through the strongly fortified German defences enclosing the Ypres salient using the Fifth Army.
After some early limited progress the offensive quickly bogged down both literally and figuratively. Haig then looked to the Second Army, under the command of General Plumer, to capture Passchendaele. The New Zealand Division was then part of the Second Army. Plumer began his attack on 20 September using similar tactics as the ones he used at Messines.
The New Zealand Division made its first attack on 4 October, which was successful in achieving its objectives, but it was then followed by a further attack on 12 October that ended in failure and is frequently referred to as the “blackest day in New Zealand military history”.
On 6 November 1917 the Canadians finally succeeded in capturing the ruins of Passchendale. However, Passchendaele itself lay only 5 miles beyond the starting point of the offensive, it had taken just over three months to capture and had resulted in over 320,000 allied casualties. The 1917 British offensive remains controversial to this day both in its limited gains and tactics.
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