page_title: Night action of 1/2 December 1917
section_title: German preparations
hierarchical_section_title: Night action of 1/2 December 1917 / Prelude / German preparations
caption_attribution_description: English: Scale 1:10000; German Trenches corrected to 8-11-17. Title of base sheet: Passchendaele Station. Parts of Sheets 20 &amp; 28. Apart from the German defences (in red), the most notable features of the map are the blue shaded areas. These mark the extensive wet and waterlogged areas facing the front. Exacerbated by poor weather and the devastation of the ground by the intense artillery bombardment, the conditions had continually hampered the advance. Such, in fact, was the fluid and incomprehensible nature of the terrain that the strong blue line marking the front is only an approximation. Map showing waterlogged areas on the western approaches to Passchendaele village, 1917.
context_page_description: 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 attack on the German 4th Army. The Third Battle of Ypres 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 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. 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.
context_section_description: After the First Battle of Passchendaele on 12 October, a new corps headquarters, Gruppe Staden took over the divisions between Gruppe Ypern to the south and Gruppe Dicksmuide further north, with its southern boundary from Vindictive Crossroads north-eastwards to Oostnieuwkerke, west of Westroosebeke. After the British attack on 10 November, both sides kept up continuous bombardments and night bombing by aircraft; the British flyers even attacked front line positions on moonlit nights. From November, the neighbouring divisions of Gruppe Staden and Gruppe Ypern held the area from Passchendaele village to a rise topped by Vat Cottage. The Gruppe Staden division occupied two positions known to the British as Southern Redoubt and Northern Redoubt, linked by Venison Trench, which was about 550 yd (500 m) long. From 11 November, the 199th Reserve Division held the Gruppe Staden area until relieved the night of 16/17 November by the 4th Division, returning on the night of 21/22 November until the night of 30 November/1 December. In the Gruppe Ypern area, the 44th Reserve Division was in the line until 14 November and was relieved by the 25th Division until 20 November, then the division had another spell until 26 November, when the 25th Division took over again.
  Sector B (Abschnitt B) of the neighbouring Gruppe Staden division, lay on drier ground to the west of the Northern Redoubt; east of the Passchendaele–Westroosebeke road, the occupants of a pillbox, called Teall Cottage by the British, had a commanding view over the ground to the north of Venison Trench; beyond this were the outworks of Westroosebeke. The topography of the area enabled the Germans to avoid obvious entrenchments and hold the front with shell-crater positions and fortified localities. Höhenrücken (High Ridge, Hill 52 to the British) was about 200 yd (180 m) west of Teall Cottage, higher than the rest of the vicinity and was the main defensive work of Abschnitt B, with observation of the British lines north of Vindictive Crossroads. Farmhouses known to the British as Volt, Void, Vocation, Virile and Vox farms, Veal and Vat cottages, had been fortified and pillboxes built between them.
  In November, the German commanders became cautiously optimistic that the Flandernschlacht (Flanders Offensive) was over, although the British artillery still caused many casualties. On 20 November, the HQ of Gruppe Wijtschate issued a memo to all commanders, complaining that the lack of saluting by junior officers was setting a bad example to the men. To foster offensive spirit, many patrols were conducted and on one occasion, troops of Infantry Regiment 116 reached Passchendaele church. On 26 November, when the 25th Division relieved the 44th Reserve Division to the north and east of Passchendaele, the men found that the conditions were even worse, the weather being much colder. In early December, there was little shelter and most of the infantry had to exist in the open, with no protection from the elements. A great effort was made to supply "Siegfried Shelters" for four to six men, made from eight to ten sheets of corrugated iron over steel pillars, the sheets bent into an arc and bolted to a wooden floor. In the front line, shelters were buried under a metre of earth, close to the remains of hedgerows, buildings and bushes, which was found to be excellent camouflage against British reconnaissance aircraft.
caption: Map showing waterlogged areas around Passchendaele in November 1917
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