The Sharp End

The Sharp End - Part One

Then British commander Sir Douglas Haig came up with the plan he claimed would “turn the tide of the war” and chose Ypres as the place to carry it out.

Strategically located along the roads leading to the English Channel ports in Flanders, the city of Ypres had been the site of two previous attempts by the German army to reach the sea earlier in the war. Both times the combined British and Belgian forces had managed to throw back the massive German assaults, though casualties had been atrocious on both sides. A long stalemate settled in by mid–1915 and for the last two years the two armies stared at each other from their respective trenches until Haig came along with his brilliant plan. The Third Battle of Ypres had begun four months earlier, in mid–July.

The initial assault was preceded by a several–day–long barrage of artillery fire, which only served to warn the Germans that a major attack was imminent. As a result the first phase of the assault, the attack on Pilcken Ridge, produced high numbers of casualties despite ultimately being successful. In phase two, the attacks on the Menin Road Ridge and Polygon Wood also succeeded, but again only at great loss. As a result, three regiments of the American Expeditionary Force’s (AEF) 81st Division were brought in to support this third, and hopefully, final phase of the assault, which was how Burke and his men found themselves marching through the mud alongside the men of the 3rd Canadian Division two days earlier. Burke’s unit was matched with 5th Canadian Mounted Rifles under Major George Pearkes earlier that morning and ordered to take two key German positions south of the village of Passchendaele, locally known as Source Farm and Crest Farm. The combined Canadian–American force had done so, though it was touch and go for awhile as the Germans fought hard to maintain their hold. Pearkes was injured in the initial assault, but had managed to keep his unit together and take the ground, despite his injury.

Burke’s unit was then sent forward to reconnoiter the German positions closer to the village of Passchendaele. They were preparing to return to their own lines when the Germans launched a counterattack in the midst of a rain–squall, driving a wedge deep into the Allied position and forcing a general retreat to the secondary line of defense.

Cut off by the Germans’ unexpected, yet successful drive forward, Lt. Burke and his five man team were trapped on the wrong side of the lines as a result.

At first he wasn’t too concerned. The cottage they were holed up in on the outskirts of Passchendaele provided shelter from the elements; a situation the men were actually pretty damned thankful about. It had been raining off and on for days and the chance to get out of the mud put a momentary smile on their lips despite their situation. There was even a working fireplace, but Burke forbade his men from using it for fear of the smoke giving away their position. Still, being out of the muck was an improvement and the few morsels of food they were able to scrounge from the depths of the kitchen cabinets raised the men’s spirits a bit and kept their outlook positive. He’d been convinced that the set–back was a temporary one and the Allies would soon throw the Germans back to their original positions, if not all the way into the village.

As the day grew longer, however, it became clear that the Allied counterattack he was hoping for wasn’t going to happen. Burke and his men were left out on the sharp end with no one to rely on but themselves.

So what else is new?

Burke thought.

“It’s clear,” he called to the men in the next room and soon all of them were gathered in the kitchen, watching as Sergeant Moore quickly searched the bodies, taking care to avoid the puddle of blood that was pooling beneath them. He didn’t find anything of interest.

“Now what, sir?” Private O’Leary asked. His usually ruddy face was looking a bit green at the sight of the blood that was slowly dripping down the wall where it had splashed moments before.