Capture of Wurst Farm

Capture of Wurst Farm
Part of The Battle of Passchendaele, Western Front, First World War
Gravenstafel Ridge–Wurst Farm area, September 1917
Date 20 September 1917 Location Ypres, Belgium 50°55′N 02°55′E / 50.917°N 2.917°E / 50.917; 2.917 Result British victory
Belligerents
United Kingdom	German Empire
Commanders and leaders
Ivor Maxse Hew Dalrymple Fanshawe	Erich Ludendorff
Strength
58th (2/1st London) Division	36th Division
Casualties and losses
20–25 September: 1,236 26 September: 499	20 September: up to 50 per cent 301 prisoners

The Capture of Wurst Farm was an attack by the British 58th (2/1st London) 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 (Battle of Passchendaele). 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 desultory 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 (General Hubert Gough), where the slow bombardment continued until 24 hours before zero hour, when a surprise hurricane bombardment was to be fired.

XVIII Corps (Lieutenant-General Ivor Maxse) of the Fifth Army was to advance onto the Gravenstafel Spur, an area held by the German 36th Division since 8 September. The 58th (2/1st London) Division (Major-General Hew Fanshawe) was to conduct the attack, between the 55th (West Lancashire) Division on the right flank and the 51st (Highland) Division on the left. The 58th (2/1st London) Division objective was 1,000 yd (910 m) 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 301 prisoners 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 per cent casualties in some battalions. The 58th (2/1st London) 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 (2/1st London) Division advanced further up the ridge.