The aim of the Allied commander in this part of the Western Front, Field Marshal Haig, was to break out of the Ypres salient and recapture key Belgian ports and a railway junction vital to the German Army. After unusually heavy and persistent rains, the battlefield turned into a horrific sea of mud and water-filled shell holes, which reduced the advance to just a few miles.
The trench warfare of the Western Front during the First World War (1914-18) involved soldiers living and dying in an awful mix of mud, filth, and barbed wire. Trench systems became more sophisticated in layout as the conflict dragged on but remained rudimentary holes in the ground as entire armies attempted to shelter from artillery, gas, machine-gun, and infantry attacks.
