Passchendaele or the Third Battle of Ypres was fought by the British and their allies against German forces. The battle took place on the Western Front, between July and November 1917, for control of the ridges south and east of the Belgian city of Ypres in West Flanders, as part of a strategy decided by the Allies at conferences in November 1916 and May 1917. Passchendaele lay on the last ridge east of Ypres, five miles from a railway junction at Roeselare, which was a vital part of the supply system of the German Fourth Army. The resistance of the German Fourth Army, unusually wet weather, the onset of winter and the diversion of British and French resources to Italy, allowed the Germans to avoid a general withdrawal. The campaign ended in November when the Canadian Corps captured Passchendaele.
Passchendaele became infamous not only for the scale of casualties, there were 325,000 Allied and 260,000 German casualties , but also for the mud.
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