page_title: Action of 22 August 1917
section_title: Battle of Langemarck
hierarchical_section_title: Action of 22 August 1917 / Background / Battle of Langemarck
caption_attribution_description: English: The British front line and the German defences in the area east of Ypres, mid-1917, with the active Albrecht Stellung, Wilhelm Stellung, Flandern I Stellung, Flandern II Stellung and Flandern III Stellung
context_page_description: The Action of 22 August 1917, took place in the First World War, in the Ypres Salient on the Western Front during the Third Battle of Ypres. The engagement was fought by the Fifth Army of the British Expeditionary Force and the German 4th Army. During the Battle of Langemarck, the British had advanced north of the village but had been defeated further south and failed to capture the Wilhelmstellung, the third German defensive position. At a conference with the Fifth Army corps commanders on 17 August, Gough arranged for local attacks to gain jumping-off positions for another general attack on 25 August. At the Action of the Cockcroft on 19 August, XVIII Corps and the 1st Tank Brigade had captured five fortified farms and strongpoints for a fraction of the casualties of a conventional attack.
  The attack on 22 August was much bigger effort, which advanced the British front line up to 600 yd in places, on a 2 mi front but failed to reach the more distant objectives. On 24 August, a German Gegenangriff recaptured Inverness Copse on the Gheluvelt Plateau and a more ambitious British attack due on 25 August was cancelled.
context_section_description: At the Battle of Langemarck, (16–18 August), XVIII Corps (Lieutenant-General Ivor Maxse) had attacked at 4:45 a.m. with a brigade each from the 48th (South Midland) Division and the 11th (Northern) Division, supported by eight tanks. The tanks were ordered to keep off the roads but the approach to the front line was so boggy that the tanks were cancelled and sent back. The 48th (South Midland) Division attacked with one brigade and after a long fight managed to capture the last house at the north end of St Julien, taking forty prisoners and a machine-gun. The advance resumed and as the first wave went over a rise 200 yd (180 m) east of the Steenbeek, it was caught in cross fire from Hillock Farm and Maison du Hibou 200 yd (180 m) beyond. Border House and the gun pits either side of the north-east bearing St Julien–Winnipeg road were captured but attempts to press on were bloodily repulsed and parties that reached Springfield Farm disappeared.
  
   
  The 48th (South Midland) Division consolidated on a line from the village to the gun pits, Jew Hill and Border House. At 9:00 a.m., German troops massed around Triangle Farm and made an abortive counter-attack at 10:00 a.m. Another counter-attack after dark was repulsed at the gun pits and at 9:30 p.m., a counter-attack from Triangle Farm was repulsed. The Germans in Maison du Hibou and Triangle Farm, opposite the 48th (South Midland) Division, caught the troops on the right of the 34th Brigade, 11th (Northern) Division in enfilade as it was fired on from pillboxes to the front. The British captured Haanixbeer Farm and the cemetery but lost the barrage and were unable to capture the Cockcroft and Bülow Farm. On the left, the brigade dug in 100 yd (91 m) north-east of Langemarck, opposite the White House and Pheasant Farm and on the right facing Maison du Hibou and Triangle Farm to the east. With observation from higher ground, German artillery-fire inflicted many casualties on the British troops holding the new line beyond Langemarck.
caption: British front line on 31 July (blue) and German defensive lines east of Ypres (red), mid-1917
exif: {}