Editing Battle of Passchendaele (section)

===December===

====Night action of 1/2 December 1917====

{{main|Night action of 1/2 December 1917}}

On 18 November the VIII Corps on the right and II Corps on the left (northern) side of the Passchendaele Salient took over from the Canadian Corps. The area was subjected to constant German artillery bombardments and its vulnerability to attack led to a suggestion by Brigadier C. F. Aspinall, that either the British should retire to the west side of the Gheluvelt Plateau or advance to broaden the salient towards Westroosebeke. Expanding the salient would make the troops in it less vulnerable to German artillery-fire and provide a better jumping off line for a resumption of the offensive in the spring of 1918. The British attacked towards Westroozebeke on the night of 1/2 December but the plan to mislead the Germans by not bombarding the German defences until eight minutes after the infantry began their advance came undone. The noise of the British assembly and the difficulty of moving across muddy and waterlogged ground had also alerted the Germans. In the moonlight, the Germans had seen the British troops when they were still {{cvt|200|yd}} away. Some ground was captured and about {{nowrap|150 prisoners}} were taken but the attack on the redoubts failed and observation over the heads of the valleys on the east and north sides of the ridge was not achieved.{{sfn|LoCicero|2011|pp=155–338}}

====Action on the Polderhoek Spur====

{{main|Action on the Polderhoek Spur}}

The attack on the Polderhoek Spur on 3 December 1917, was a local operation by the British [[Fourth Army (United Kingdom)|Fourth Army]] (renamed from the Second Army on 8 November). Two battalions of the [[2nd Infantry Brigade (New Zealand)|2nd New Zealand Brigade]] of the [[New Zealand Division]] attacked the low ridge, from which German observers could view the area from Cameron Covert to the north and the Menin road to the south-west. A New Zealand advance of {{cvt|600|yd}} on a {{cvt|400|yd}} front, would shield the area north of the Reutelbeek stream from German observers on the Gheluvelt spur. Heavy artillery bombarded the ruins of Polderhoek Château and the pillboxes in the grounds to mislead the defenders and the attack was made in daylight as a ruse to surprise the Germans, who would be under cover sheltering from the routine bombardments. Smoke and gas bombardments on the Gheluvelt and Becelaere spurs on the flanks and the infantry attack began at the same time as the "routine" bombardment. The ruse failed, some British artillery-fire dropped short on the New Zealanders and the Germans engaged the attackers with small-arms fire from Polderhoek Spur and Gheluvelt ridge. A strong west wind ruined the smoke screens and the British artillery failed to suppress the German machine-guns. New Zealand machine-gunners repulsed a counter-attack but the New Zealand infantry were {{cvt|150|yd}} short of the first objective; another attempt after dark was cancelled because of the full moon and the arrival of German reinforcements.{{sfn|Stewart|2014|pp=304–314}}