On 26th September the battalion went into attack to capture all enemy positions on Hill 37 (part of the Battle of Polygon Wood, a phase in the
3rd Battle of Ypres or Passchendaele).
They provided support at the battle of Mametz Wood on the Somme in July 1916, and at Pilkem Ridge during the
3rd Battle of Ypres in 1917.
As a result of the horrendous casualties suffered, and no doubt by the Commander in Chief's unflattering remarks, the 38th (Welsh) Division did not see further action until the
3rd Battle of Ypres, known as the battle of Passchendale, on July 31, 1917.
Private Jimmy Edmonds died as a teenager in 1916 in Northern France on the battlefield and Private Thomas Henry Watts, of the Gloucestershire Regiment, died in the
3rd Battle of Ypres in October, 1917, aged 19.
The 90-year-old document refers to James McPartland, a South Bank man killed during the
3rd Battle of Ypres in 1917.
The
3rd Battle of Ypres had been raging for two months and the ground was full of water-logged shell holes, which had to be negotiated over duckboards.
But on July 31, 1917, in the
3rd battle of Ypres, or the battle of Passchendaele, Hedd Wyn was marching in column through Langemark towards the British line, with many comrades of the 38th Welsh division of Royal Welch Fusiliers.
