Identification papers are collected from a dead British soldier, Ch?teau Wood, October 1917. The Battle of Passchendaele was a campaign of WWI, fought by the British and their allies against the German Empire. 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. 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. In his memoirs (1938) Lloyd George, British Prime Minister during WWI, wrote, "Passchendaele was indeed one of the greatest disasters of the war ... No soldier of any intelligence now defends this senseless campaign ..."
