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The Battle of Polygon Wood took place during the second phase of the Battle of Passchendaele in World War I. The battle was fought near Ypres, Belgium, in an area named the Polygon Wood after the layout of the area. However, much of the woodland had been under intense shelling during the Battle of Passchendaele, and the area changed hands several times beforethis battle.
British General Herbert Plumer replaced the ambitious general assaults that had previously been employed with a series of small attacks with limited objectives, which he named his "Bite and hold" plan. These attacks involved a preemptive artillery bombardment followed by a frontal attack near the Polygon Wood. The attacks were led by lines of skirmishers, followed by small infantry groups. Plumer's plan was to outflank the German divisions rather than execute a main frontal assault. Each advance would stop after it had moved forward 1000–1500 yards. Preparations were then made to fending off any German counterattack. The Allied forces succeeded in securing the wooded area after heavy fighting.
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The name Polygon Wood (German-Polygonwald, or French-Bois de Polygone) was derived from the shape of a plantation forest that lay along the axis of the Australian advance on 26 September 1917. Shelling had reduced the wood to little more than stumps and broken timber. The wood was sometimes known as Racecourse Wood, as there was a track within it.[2] Before the Great War, Polygon Wood was used by the Belgian Army and within it stands a large mound, known as the Butte, which was used as a rifle range before the war. There was also a small airfield near the area.[3]
The area where the Battle of Passchendaele had taken place was shelled by both sides, therefore, roads had to be built for mass artillery transport.[4] Building supply routes for Plumer's 'bite and hold' tactics was a necessity, because the heavier equipment tended to become bogged down in the churned up mud from the intense shelling. All war material had to be brought forward by wagons along roads and tracks dangerously exposed to heavy shelling from both sides.[5] Allied involvement in the Polygon Wood battle were the Fourth and Fifth Australian divisions, which as well as the infantry included artillery, engineers, medical personnel and those involved in supply and transport. Along with the two Australian divisions there were five British divisions.[6]
Australian medical details established Regimental Aid Posts close to the line to which the badly wounded could be brought quickly from the battlefield for attention before being carried back by field ambulance stretcher–bearers to horse–drawn and motor ambulance collecting points along the Menin Road.[1] The artillery pieces consisted of the following: 205 pieces of heavy artillery, one gun for every nine meters of front. In addition, there would be an array of lighter 18–pound guns of the field artillery brigades. Assembled forward of the artillery were the heavy Vickers machine guns of the machine gun companies. A number of these would provide emergency barrages if the attacking infantry needed defense against a sudden German counter–attack.[4] Planes of the Australian Royal Flying Corps would fly over the infantry as a ‘contact patrol’. These planes were distinguished by black streamers on the rear edge of their left wings and were to call for signals from the ground by sounding a klaxon horn or dropping lights. The infantry would respond with red flares and, the position being noted, the pilot would report back to the Australian Division Headquarters.[7]
The German forces covered a large earthen mound known as the "Butte". The German defenders had commanding views over the surrounding countryside and they fortified the mound with machine gun emplacements and barbed wire structures. Polygon Wood formed part of the German "Wilhelm Line" defense system. Dugouts and foxholes were constructed within it.[5] The attack was scheduled to begin on September 26, but the plan was almost derailed by a German attack on the British X Corps to the south of I Anzac Corps.[4] A day earlier, Australian troops of the 15th Brigade, preparing for their attack, took part in fending off the Germans; however, their advance the next day began with uncertainty as to the security of their flank.[1]
The main assault would be supported (on the right) by 33rd Division (British) and (on the left) with simultaneous attacks by Australian Fifth Division's 3rd and 59th Battalions towards Zonnebeke and Hill 40. The intention was to build on the gains made during the Battle of Menin Road. The infantry attacked at 5:50 a.m. on a nearly five mile front under a large protective artillery bombardment. Smoke and dust mixed with heavy ground mist made visibility poor, but the leading contingents quickly overran dazed defenders in the forward zones.[8]
The infantry’s main obstacles on the battlefield were the dozens of German concrete pill–boxes which protected the enemy machine gunners. They had to arrive at the pill–boxes just as the barrage lifted from them and the occupants were still dazed by explosions. At some pill–boxes there was resistance but many German soldiers surrendered when they found themselves so rapidly surrounded.[7] The Butte itself was soon rushed and was found to be full of German dugouts. To the south of the Australian divisions, the 15th British Brigade, which after its efforts the previous day had been reinforced by two battalions from the 8th, secured not only its own objectives but those allocated to the neighboring 98th British Brigade.[9]
The Germans launched several counter-attacks but these were thwarted by the heavy defensive artillery barrages used to protect the infantry consolidating on their objectives; this was a feature of the Plumer battles. Despite difficulties at the southern and northern extremities of the wider fighting line, by mid-morning most objectives had been gained. Clear weather after midday assisted observation of the expected German counter-attacks which were repulsed by precise British barrages and concentrated rifle and machine-gun fire, causing heavy German casualties.[2]
The 4th Division's battalions captured all their objectives – woods, blockhouses and trenches – and suffered 1,717 casualties. The even more heavily engaged 5th Division suffered 5,471 dead and wounded in the period 26–28 September. Polygon Wood today, though smaller than in 1917, is still large. The remains of three German pillboxes captured by the Australians lie deep among the trees but few trench lines remain.[5]
The Butte is still prominent and mounted on top of it is the AIF 5th Division memorial, the usual obelisk. It faces the Butte's military cemetery at the other end of which is a New Zealand memorial to the missing of the sector, the Buttes New British Cemetery (New Zealand) Memorial.[1]