Third Battle Of Ypres Research Paper

The Third Battle of Ypres, also known as the Passchendaele campaign, ranks as one of the most controversial offensives undertaken during the war. With the failure of the Nivelle offensive in April and the resulting French Army Mutiny on May 3, Field Marshal Sir Douglas Haig convinced a reluctant British War Cabinet, which still remembered the appalling losses from the Somme campaign of 1916, that an offensive was necessary to divert German attention from the French and prevent a collapse on the Western Front.

From a strategic level, Haig's offensive was based on flawed reasoning in almost every respect. By the time Third Ypres opened on July 31, French Field Marshal Henri Philippe Pétain had succeeded in restoring morale and order to the