FACTBOX-Britain's queen visits site of Passchendaele
11 Jul 2007 21:36:46 GMT Source: Reuters
July 11 - Britain's Queen Elizabeth will visit Belgium on Thursday to mark the 90th anniversary of the start of the World War One battle of Passchendaele. Here are some facts about the major British offensive in Flanders. * The third battle of Ypres was the last great battle of attrition on the Western Front. It was also known as Passchendaele, after the final objective gained in the campaign. * The campaign, which began in July 1917, was hit by heavy rain and turned the Flanders lowlands into a mud-churned swamp rendering tanks immobile and virtually paralysed the infantry. * The battle was finally ended in appalling weather and with demoralised and tired troops after Passchendaele village was seized by British and Canadian infantry in November 1917. * Around 310,000 Allied soldiers and around 260,000 German soldiers were killed or wounded during the battles. * Field Marshal Sir Douglas Haig, who commanded the British Expeditionary Force from December 1915, came under intense criticism both in 1917, and since, for persisting with the offensive after it became clear that a breakthrough was unlikely. Sources: Reuters/ The Macmillan Dictionary of The First World War/Penguin Dictionary of 20th Century History/www.firstworldwar.com.
