Night action of 1/2 December 1917 1917
Recorded location from Wikidata; battle sites are often approximate.
Key facts
| Date | 2 December 1917 | Wikidata |
|---|---|---|
| Year | 1917 | Wikidata P585 (point in time) |
| Era | World War I era (1914–1918) | derived from year |
| Location | Belgium | Natural Earth (modern borders) |
| Continent | Europe | Natural Earth |
| War / conflict | Third Battle of Ypres | Wikidata P361 |
| Coordinates | 50.9000, 3.0167 | Wikidata P625 |
About the battle
The Night action of 1/2 December 1917 during the First World War, was a local operation on the Western Front, in Belgium at the Ypres Salient. The action was a British Fourth Army (re-named from the Second Army on 8 November) attack on the German 4th Army. The Third Battle of Ypres (31 July – 10 November) proper had ended officially on 20 November but the attack was intended to capture the heads of valleys leading eastwards from the ridge, to gain observation over German positions.
On 18 November the VIII Corps on the right and II Corps on the left (northern) side of the Passchendaele Salient, took over from the Canadian Corps. The area was subjected to constant German artillery bombardment and its vulnerability to attack led to a suggestion by Brigadier Cecil Aspinall that the British should either retire to the west side of the Gheluvelt Plateau or advance to broaden the salient towards Westroosebeke (now Westrozebeke). Expanding the salient would make the troops in it less vulnerable to German artillery-fire and provide a better jumping off line for a resumption of the offensive in the spring of 1918.
The British attacked towards Westroozebeke on the night of 1/2 December, dispensing with a preliminary bombardment as a ruse, the artillery remaining silent until eight minutes after the infantry…
Text adapted from the Wikipedia article Night action of 1/2 December 1917 (revision 1380320999), 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.
Nearby battles
- Battle of the Menin Road Ridge 1917 · 0 km
- Second Battle of Passchendaele 1917 · 0 km
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Other battles of the Third Battle of Ypres
- Action of 22 August 1917 1917
- Action on the Polderhoek Spur 1917
- Battle of Broodseinde 1917
- Battle of Langemarck (1917) 1917
- Battle of Pilckem Ridge 1917
- Battle of Poelcappelle 1917
- Battle of Polygon Wood 1917
- Battle of the Menin Road Ridge 1917
- Capture of Westhoek 1917
- Capture of Wurst Farm 1917
All 13 battles of the Third Battle of Ypres →
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