JULY 31, 2017 will mark the 100th anniversary of the Battle of Passchendaele which opened on July 31, 1917.

Both Dorset, Hampshire and Wiltshire supplied a significant number of soldiers into this catastrophically dreadful battle which would result in 275,000 casualties for the British and Empire forces.

Almost all of the British Empire’s forces had elements close to Bournemouth. The Indian Army Hospital (now Bournemouth Town Hall) and at Milford on Sea, the Australian Army in Weymouth, the New Zealand Army at Bournemouth and Brockenhurst plus the Dorset Regt, Hampshire Regt, Wiltshire Regt, Machine Gun Corp and Tank Corp (founded July 1917) and both at Lulworth, Royal Engineers (Christchurch) and Royal Navy.

So great was the opening barrage of this battle that the Chancellor of the Exchequer and Treasury had to approve a special allowance of £22 million (1917 figures) to supply the 3,000 British guns including 999 Super Heavy guns with the 10 days of shells required for the opening barrage.

By comparison a Royal Navy battleship built and fitted out cost £2 million at this date.

Bournemouth (in Hampshire) was a shell producing town, holiday town and major convalescence centre for soldiers in 1917 with many hospitals and Holton Heath on the north west edge of Poole Harbour employed 4,000 local staff to produce the high explosive cordite for the Royal Navy’s big guns.

On July 13, 2017 Parliament had a special commemorative debate to remember Passchendaele, the Third Battle of Ypres.

The battle resulted in a terrible loss for Britain and the Empire of the flower of a generation and far too many men who have no known grave were lost to the mud.

When the Menin Gate, Ypres was constructed, following the First World War the panels could only accommodate 55,000 British and Commonwealth servicemen lost in this battle with no known grave.

A further 35,000 were placed nearby on the Memorial Wall at Tyne Cot Cemetery, the largest of all British military cemeteries with 12,000 graves, 8,300 of which are unknown soldiers.

The total number of British and Commonwealth soldiers with no known grave in this one battle touched 90,000.

Thirty one Victoria Crosses were awarded during this terrible battle, 11 of whom have no known grave. This group included Lt Dennis Hewitt VC Hampshire Regt (Bournemouth’s County Regt) who aged 19 years, was awarded the battle’s first VC on the 31st July 1917 and has no known grave.

The Battle of Passchendaele is an important event in Bournemouth and Poole’s history and the histories of Dorset, Hampshire and Wiltshire.

ROBERT WILSON

Ravine Road, Bournemouth

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