Passchendaele Remembered
Downham Market will hold a small service to remember the fallen at Passchendaele on:
Saturday 16th September 2017 at 10:45am on the Town Square.
MEMORIAL TABLET
Squired nagged and bullied till I went to fight,
(Under Lord Derby's Scheme). I died in hell -
(They called it Passchendaele). My wound was slight,
And as I hobbled back; and then a shell
Burst slick upon the duck-boards: so I fell
Into the bottomless mud, and lost the light.
At sermon-time, while Squire is in his pew,
He gives my gilded name a thoughtful stare;
For, though low down upon the list, I'm there;
'In proud and glorious memory'...that's my due.
Two bleeding years I fought in France, for Squire:
I suffered anguish that he's never guessed.
Once I came home on leave: and then went west....
What greater glory could a man desire?
-Siegfried Sassoon Oct. 1918, 1st pub. Picture Show 1919
Passchendale, a name synonymous with the horror of industrialised warfare, life and death in trenches of liquid mud. A battle that saw over half a million casualties between July and November 1917 on all sides.
The Third Battle of Ypres, to give the battle its official name, was an offensive by mainly British and Commonwealth forces for control of the ridge lines to the South and East of Ypres in West Flanders. Like the Battle of the Somme the year before the advance would be across open plains, thus stealth and concealment was not possible. Allied commanders applied the previously used strategy of artillery bombardment commencing in July 1917 with two weeks of bombardment firing over 4.5 million shells before the infantry offensive commenced on the 31st July. A few days after the first advances the battlefield was subject to the heaviest rain in over 30 years turning its already churned clay soil and broken drainage ditches into a quagmire. This clay quagmire immobilised tanks, clogged rifles eventually getting so deep that horses and men simply drowned where they dropped, as Siegfried Sassoon wrote in Memorial Tablet.
Stalemate reigned until advances in late September-early October gained control over the Eastern Ridge. It wasn't until 10th November 1917 after what little remained of the village of Passchendaele was captured by British and Canadian units that the offensive was suspended and claimed to be a success.
Into this battle members of the 8th and 1st Norfolk's of the 18th (Eastern) Battalion, and members of the community of Downham Market were to be found. Thus, in this the 100th anniversary of Passchendaele, Downham Market Joint Remembrance Committee will commemorate those that fell from Downham Market and elsewhere with a small service of remembrance on the Town Hall Square on 16 September 2017 at 10:45
Among the Downham Market's fallen of the Great War the following most likely fell at Passchendaele. For more details of the Downham Boys of World War I visit here
For further information on the role of the Norfolk Regiments at The Third Battle of Ypres, the Eastern Daily Press recently published the following articles in July 17:
The Norfolks' bloody ordeal in the hell of Passchendaele
Now Norfolk's costly victory at Passchendaele was thrown away for nothing
Many sources exist (with occasionally differing details) on the offensive itself, including from the Museum of Passchendaele in Zonnebeke, Belgium.
Update: The Royal British Legion has released a 360° view to explore the Tyne Cot memorial that remembers the 34,887 lost from the night of 15-16 August 1917 through to 11 November 1918 who have no known grave, including those that fell at the Third Battle of Ypres
Saturday 16th September 2017 at 10:45am on the Town Square.
MEMORIAL TABLET
Squired nagged and bullied till I went to fight,
(Under Lord Derby's Scheme). I died in hell -
(They called it Passchendaele). My wound was slight,
And as I hobbled back; and then a shell
Burst slick upon the duck-boards: so I fell
Into the bottomless mud, and lost the light.
At sermon-time, while Squire is in his pew,
He gives my gilded name a thoughtful stare;
For, though low down upon the list, I'm there;
'In proud and glorious memory'...that's my due.
Two bleeding years I fought in France, for Squire:
I suffered anguish that he's never guessed.
Once I came home on leave: and then went west....
What greater glory could a man desire?
-Siegfried Sassoon Oct. 1918, 1st pub. Picture Show 1919
Passchendale, a name synonymous with the horror of industrialised warfare, life and death in trenches of liquid mud. A battle that saw over half a million casualties between July and November 1917 on all sides.
The Third Battle of Ypres, to give the battle its official name, was an offensive by mainly British and Commonwealth forces for control of the ridge lines to the South and East of Ypres in West Flanders. Like the Battle of the Somme the year before the advance would be across open plains, thus stealth and concealment was not possible. Allied commanders applied the previously used strategy of artillery bombardment commencing in July 1917 with two weeks of bombardment firing over 4.5 million shells before the infantry offensive commenced on the 31st July. A few days after the first advances the battlefield was subject to the heaviest rain in over 30 years turning its already churned clay soil and broken drainage ditches into a quagmire. This clay quagmire immobilised tanks, clogged rifles eventually getting so deep that horses and men simply drowned where they dropped, as Siegfried Sassoon wrote in Memorial Tablet.
 |
| View from British front line trench in Poelcapelle (Poelkapelle), held by 8th Battalion Norfolk Regiment, showing the effect on the German trenches of the British bombardment, 13th September 1917. © IWM (Q 3025) |
Stalemate reigned until advances in late September-early October gained control over the Eastern Ridge. It wasn't until 10th November 1917 after what little remained of the village of Passchendaele was captured by British and Canadian units that the offensive was suspended and claimed to be a success.
Into this battle members of the 8th and 1st Norfolk's of the 18th (Eastern) Battalion, and members of the community of Downham Market were to be found. Thus, in this the 100th anniversary of Passchendaele, Downham Market Joint Remembrance Committee will commemorate those that fell from Downham Market and elsewhere with a small service of remembrance on the Town Hall Square on 16 September 2017 at 10:45
Among the Downham Market's fallen of the Great War the following most likely fell at Passchendaele. For more details of the Downham Boys of World War I visit here
- Thomas Culling of 2nd Battalion London Regiment
- John Hawes, L/Corp 3rd Coldstream Guards
- Ernst Hewing, 18th London Irish Rifles
- Horace Algernon Pack, Suffolk Regiment, 7th Northamptonshire Regiment
- William Ernest Rumbelow, Hampshire Regiment
- Allan John Stocking, Norfolk Regiment and 10th Battalion Essex Regiment (Missing presumed killed)
- Horace Elijah Way, Norfolk Regiment, later 246th Company Machine Gun Corps
For further information on the role of the Norfolk Regiments at The Third Battle of Ypres, the Eastern Daily Press recently published the following articles in July 17:
The Norfolks' bloody ordeal in the hell of Passchendaele
Now Norfolk's costly victory at Passchendaele was thrown away for nothing
Many sources exist (with occasionally differing details) on the offensive itself, including from the Museum of Passchendaele in Zonnebeke, Belgium.
Update: The Royal British Legion has released a 360° view to explore the Tyne Cot memorial that remembers the 34,887 lost from the night of 15-16 August 1917 through to 11 November 1918 who have no known grave, including those that fell at the Third Battle of Ypres
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