Thursday, October 7, 2010
Battle of Passchendaele
Taken place between the months of July and November of 1917, one of the greatest and most major battles of the World War I took place. The Battle of Passchendaele wa fought between the German(central powers) and the British, Canadians, French, Australlia, India and amound others(allied). The major allied commander, Sir Douglas Haig, who caused tens of thousands of deaths for the allied soldiers, led the allies into battle. The plan of the attack was to use their brand new tanks to plow through the Germans to get to the German U-Boat pens. The terrential downpours that continued for weeks on end halted Allied movement. The purpose of this battle was on the way to the coast where the German U-Boats were stored for re-fueling and docking, the British were to have a great battle. Haig was convinced that after the major battles of Verdun and Somme, that the Germans were near exhaustion. They believed an attack would give the allied powers a tactical victory. In fact it caused many casulties for the Allied powers and this battle was an utter fail. This whole plan failed because the Allies never were able to make it to the coast.
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It all comes down to this major idea of "attrition". On both sides, they believed that the only way to end the stalemate was by wearing down the enemy untill they could no longer fight. A common theme that arises though is both sides seem to under-estimate the capabilities of their enemies. As seen at the battle of Verdun, the Germans were almost positive that they would be able to capture the French fort with little problems when in reality the French put up heavy resistance and prevented this from happening. Also, at the battle of Ypres(Passchendaele), British commander Sir Douglas Haig thought that after a week of heavy shelling of the German trenches his second line of troops would be able to walk across no mans land. Obviously he was unsuccessful in doing this and the British ended up suffering from heavy losses. Not only has this become a war of attrition, but it has also developed this theme of 'under-estimation'.
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