Our Brussels field trip

1
Our Brussels field trip

• Passchendaele

2
Passchendaele

• The modern-day town of Passendaele is located in
  the west of Belgium, under municipality of
  Zonnebeke, which is town that we visited.

3
World War I

• The battles of Ypres were very important during
  the course of WWI
• Key position because it lay in the path of the
  Schlieffen Plan.
• Ypres salient was one of the most bloody fronts
  of the war.
• Of all the battles of Ypres the third one, known
  also as the battle of Passchendaele, was the most
  important.

4
Battle of Paschendaele

• Known as the third battle of Ypres, it was one of
  the most important battle of the war.
• The plan was to punch a hole in the german lines
  and capture enemy submarine bases on the Belgian
  coast.
• The allies changed their tactics in respect to
  the beggining of the war, preferring to make
  small, successive gains immune to counter
  offensive.
• This brought the new idea of the platoon, a small
  independant force able to take enemy bunkers
  without support.

5
Our experience

• The class was organised into two platoons of the
  ANZAC expeditionary army.
• We were all equipped with most of the equipment
  of a typical, allied, WWI soldier.
• We re-enacted the assault on three heavily
  fortified German bunkers.