1917
battle of messines
7–14 June
The offensive at Messines forced the Germans to move reserves to Flanders from the Arras and Aisne fronts, which relieved pressure on the French. The tactical objective of the attack at Messines was to capture the German defences on the ridge, which ran from Ploegsteert (Plugstreet) Wood in the south, through Messines and Wytschaete to Mt. Sorrel, to deprive the German 4th Army of the high ground south of Ypres. The ridge commanded the British defences and back areas further north, from which the British intended to conduct the Northern Operation, an advance to Passchendaele Ridge and then capture the Belgian coast up to the Dutch frontier.
battle of passchendaele
31 July – 10 November
fought by the Allies against the German Empire The battle took place on the Western Front, from July to November 1917, for control of the ridges south and east of the Belgian city of Ypres in West Flanders, as part of a strategy decided by the Allies at conferences in November 1916 and May 1917. Passchendaele lay on the last ridge east of Ypres, 5 miles (8.0 km) from a railway junction at Roulers, which was vital to the supply system of the German 4th Army. The next stage of the Allied plan was an advance to Thourout–Couckelaere, to close the German-controlled railway running through Roulers and Thourout.
battle of cambrai
20 November – 7 December
a British attack followed by the biggest German counter-stroke against the BEF since 1914, in the First World War. Cambrai, in the département of Nord-Pas-de-Calais, was an important supply point for the German Siegfriedstellung (known to the British as the Hindenburg Line) and capture of the town and the nearby Bourlon Ridge would threaten the rear of the German line to the north. Major General Henry Tudor, Commander, Royal Artillery (CRA) of the 9th (Scottish) Division, advocated the use of new artillery-infantry techniques on his sector of the front.
caporetto offensive
Austro-Hungarian forces, reinforced by German units, were able to break into the Italian front line and rout the Italian forcesopposing them. The battle was a demonstration of the effectiveness of the use of stormtroopers and the infiltration tacticsdeveloped in part by Oskar von Hutier. The use of poison gas by the Germans also played a key role in the collapse of the Italian Second Army