Capture of Wurst Farm
The Capture of Wurst Farm was an attack by the British 58th Division against the German 36th Division on 20 September 1917, near Ypres, Belgium, during the Battle of the Menin Road Ridge, part of the Third Battle of Ypres. Wurst Farm was at the lower end of Gravenstafel Ridge and several British attacks in the area since 31 July had been repulsed by the Germans. The British began a bombardment on 31 August and the shelling became intense from 13 September, to "soften" the German defences, except in the area of the Fifth Army, where the slow bombardment continued until before zero hour, when a surprise hurricane bombardment was to be fired.
XVIII Corps of the Fifth Army was to advance onto the Gravenstafel Spur, an area held by the German 36th Division since 8 September. The 58th Division was to conduct the attack, between the 55th Infantry Division on the right flank and the 51st Division on the left. The 58th Division objective was ahead, among German strongpoints on Wurst Farm Ridge, at the west end of Gravenstafel Spur.
The right-hand brigade made a decoy attack and the left-hand brigade attacked from the left flank, concealed by mist. The feint captured Winnipeg crossroads as the main attack by three battalions one behind the other, advanced from Vancouver Farm, Keerselaere and took Hubner Farm. The two following battalions leap-frogged the leading battalion and turned right, half-way up the spur to reach Wurst Farm, keeping well up to the creeping barrage. The British took and fifty machine-guns, then established outposts to the left, overlooking the Stroombeek valley.
Late in the afternoon, a counter-attack by the 234th Division to recover the Wilhelmstellung on the XVIII Corps front was routed, with up to 50 percent casualties in some battalions. The 58th Division ascribed their success to excellent training, a good creeping barrage and smoke shell, which had thickened the mist and blinded the German defenders; gas shell barrages on the German reinforcement routes had depressed German morale. On 26 September, the 58th Division advanced further up the ridge.
Background
The German 4th Army operation order for the defensive battle at Ypres had been issued on 27 June. From mid-1917, the area east of Ypres was defended by six German fortified positions, the front line, Albrechtstellung, Wilhelmstellung, Flandern I Stellung, Flandern II Stellung and Flandern III Stellung.Between the German positions lay the villages of Zonnebeke and Passchendaele. The German defences had been arranged as a forward zone, main battle zone and rearward battle zone. The front position, forward zone and much of the Albrechtstellung had fallen since the Battle of Pilckem Ridge. The Wilhelmstellung, behind the Albrechtstellung, marked the rear of the main battle zone, which contained most of the field artillery supporting the front divisions but had become the front zone after the British advances. The rearward zone, between the Wilhelmstellung and Flandern I Stellung, contained the support and reserve assembly areas for Eingreif divisions, specially trained to manoeuvre into battle zones, counter-attack Allied penetrations and recapture lost ground.The German defence scheme was based on a rigid defence of the front system and forward zone supported by counter-attacks from the Eingreif divisions. Local withdrawals according to the concept of elastic defence had been rejected by Loßberg, the 4th Army Chief of Staff, who believed that they would disorganise the troops moving forward to counter-attack. Front line troops were not expected to cling to shelters, which were mantraps but evacuate them as soon as the battle began, move forward and to the flanks to avoid British fire and then counter-attack. A small number of machine-gun nests and permanent garrisons were kept separate from the counter-attack organisation, to provide a framework for defence in depth once an attack had been repulsed. German infantry equipment had been improved by the issue of thirty-six MG08/15 machine-guns per regiment, which gave German units more capacity for fire and manoeuvre.
In September 1917, the Wilhelmstellung section along Wurst Farm Ridge, the lower western slope of Gravenstafel Ridge, was still in German hands, despite the British attacks in July and August. At the top of the spur looking down on the valley of the Lekkerboterbeek, were Vancouver Farm and the Triangle Farm redoubt between Vancouver and St Julien. Farther back towards Gravenstafel was the Tirpitz Redoubt and north-east of Winnipeg was the Wurst Farm fortification; north of the farm the ground dipped towards the Stroombeek. From 8 September, the Wilhelmstellung on this part of the front had been held by the 36th Division of the 4th Army, with Infantry Regiment 175, IR 128 and Grenadier Regiment 5 occupying frontages opposite XVIII Corps, with a battalion each in the outpost zone, one in support and one in reserve behind Flandern I Stellung.
British preparations
The British intended to overcome the German defence by making a shallower penetration, then fighting the principal battle against the German Eingreifdivisionen. New infantry formations were devised to counter the German irregular pillbox zones and the impossibility of maintaining lines and waves of infantry on ground full of flooded shell-craters. Waves were replaced by a thin line of skirmishers leading small columns. The rifle, rather than hand-grenades, was made the primary infantry weapon and Stokes mortar fire was added to creeping barrages. "Draw net" barrages, where field guns began a barrage behind the German front line then crept towards it, were fired several times before the attack began. More infantry was provided for the later stages of the advance, to defeat German counter-attacks after advancing no more than, before digging-in. When the Germans counter-attacked, they would find the British organised in depth, protected by artillery and aircraft, rather than the small and disorganised groups of British infantry encountered in earlier battles and suffer many casualties to little effect.Prelude
Raids
The Fifth Army made several minor attacks in September, most of which failed and the attacks were stopped, except for smaller local operations by divisions. On 1 September, the 58th Division took Spot Farm and two battalions conducted raids on 8 September. A pillbox close to the British front line, which blocked the route to Wurst Farm, was damaged and a bunker in a fortified shell-hole was attacked and found to be connected to other shell-holes and a pillbox, before the raiders retired. On 14 September, a battalion attacked Winnipeg and in the evening a German counter-attack took ground towards Springfield.Plan of attack
The ground around the Langemarck–Zonnebeke road was unfavourable for an attack, despite the drier weather of September, being low-lying, swampy with the approaches and broken up by three weeks of bombardment, which slowed movement. The attack on the Wurst Farm strongpoints, was part of the Battle of the Menin Road Ridge, which on the 58th Division front, was intended to capture the Wilhelmstellung and vicinity, at the west end of Gravenstafel Ridge, by an advance of about. Attacks in July and August had failed and given the poor state of the ground, it was decided to make a Chinese attack. A frontal attack by the 173rd Brigade would be simulated on the right flank, while an outflanking move was made by the 174th Brigade from the left of the divisional front, attacking south-eastwards up the spur.Battle
20 September
Before the main attack, the 58th Trench Mortar Battery fired twenty bombs at a pillbox and had ten hits, which demoralised the occupants. On the right flank, C Company of the 2nd/4th Battalion, the London Regiment, 173rd Brigade performed the Chinese attack to divert German attention and captured Winnipeg crossroads in the process. On the left flank, the 174th Brigade attacked with three battalions following each other on a battalion front. Triangle Farm was reached first and the garrison killed or captured, then Vancouver Farm was taken with its neighbouring pill-boxes were reduced. The strongpoints beyond Vancouver Farm and Keerselaere were captured quickly, Hubner Farm, on the edge of the spur, fell after being surrounded and seventy prisoners were taken by the 2/8th Post Office Rifles. The 2/5th London Rifle Brigade and the 2/6th Rifle Brigade in support and reserve, leap-frogged through the Post Office Rifles and turned half-right up the spur. At the summit, the two battalions advanced on Von Tirpitz redoubt and Wurst Farm from behind, keeping close behind the creeping barrage.The German defenders fought with determination but the redoubts were surrounded and stormed. Platoons and sections had all been given geographical objectives, such as pillboxes and emplacements and as these were outflanked and captured, were taken prisoner. Small parties then moved across the Stroombeek valley northwards to the left flank of the division and swept the valley with machine-gun fire from outposts, protecting the right flank of the 51st Highland Division around Quebec and Delta Farms; the 173rd Brigade then advanced to the summit of the ridge. Two tanks supported the attack by the 58th Division, E.17 and E.3 of E battalion of the 1st Tank Brigade. The 55th Division on the right flank and a party of the 58th Division attacked the Germans at the Schuler Galleries on the divisional boundary but the tanks bogged and the infantry were pinned down by machine-gun fire; the galleries were eventually captured by the 55th Division, later in the day.
At about a large force of German infantry from the 234th Division advanced down the main ridge beyond the line now occupied by the 55th, 58th and 51st divisions. Just before the 58th Division commenced firing with machine-guns and Lewis guns at, which inflicted casualties and forced the numerous small German columns to deploy into line. When the estimated infantry were at, British rifle-fire began and when the survivors were from the foremost divisional strongpoint, a British artillery barrage fell on them with an effect "beyond description and the enemy stampeded". After dark German patrols trickled forward and occupied an outpost position.