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Battle of the Menin Road Ridge 1917

Battle of the Menin Road Ridge: Vickers machine gun in the Battle of Passchendaele - September 1917
Image: Ernest Brooks, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Recorded location from Wikidata; battle sites are often approximate.

Key facts

Date20 September 1917 – 26 September 1917Wikidata
Year1917Wikidata P580 (start time)
EraWorld War I era (1914–1918)derived from year
LocationBelgiumNatural Earth (modern borders)
ContinentEuropeNatural Earth
War / conflictThird Battle of YpresWikidata P361
ParticipantsUnited Kingdom of Great Britain and IrelandWikidata P710
Coordinates50.9003, 3.0167Wikidata P625

About the battle

The Battle of the Menin Road Ridge, sometimes called "Battle of the Menin Road", was the third British general attack of the Third Battle of Ypres in the First World War. The battle took place from 20 to 25 September 1917, in the Ypres Salient in Belgium on the Western Front. During the pause in British and French general attacks from late August to 20 September, the British changed some infantry tactics, adopting the leap-frog method of advance.

Waves of infantry stopped once they reached their objective and consolidated the ground, while supporting waves passed through the objective to attack the next one and the earlier waves became the tactical reserve. General adoption of the method was made possible when more artillery was brought into the salient, by increasing the number of aircraft involved in close air support and by the Royal Flying Corps giving the tasks of air defence, contact-patrol, counter-attack patrol, artillery observation and ground-attack to particular aircraft.

In early September, optimism increased among German commanders that the Flanders offensive had been defeated and several divisions and air units were transferred elsewhere.

Text adapted from the Wikipedia article Battle of the Menin Road Ridge (revision 1380642847), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Changes: excerpted from the article lead section; shortened by selecting paragraphs and trimming at a sentence boundary; formatting and citations removed. No text added.

Location

50.9003, 3.0167 · Belgium

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Nearby battles

Other battles of the Third Battle of Ypres

All 13 battles of the Third Battle of Ypres →

Browse more: battles in Belgium · Europe · World War I era battles

Further reading