The Battle of Passchendaele was one of the most signficant battles of WWI and it involved British, ANZAC and Canadian troops against the germans. The reason for this battle was to gain control of the village of Passchendaele near the town of Ypres, in West Flanders. The line of strategy was to create vulnerability in the German lines, continue to the Belgian coast and capture the German submarine bases on the coastline. If they won won, it would have been a defining battle, opening the space up significantly on the front.
The campaign for Passchendaele began on 31 July 1917 and continued through to 6 November 1917, when the Canadian Corps gained control of Passchendaele. Though the battle was long and intense, hard mentally and physically. Because of the preparatory bombing from the British ripped up the countryside, the battlefield was swampy, muddy from the heavy rain fall. It is still unknown how many soldier drowned.
When the battle was over he combined allied casualties reached almost a quarter of a million men, with around the same figure lost by the Germans. Up to 95,000 British or Australian men remained unidentified, while another 42,000 bodies were never recovered.