Editing Battle of Passchendaele (section)

====1915====

Large British offensive operations in Flanders were not possible in 1915, due to a lack of resources.{{sfn|Doughty|2005|p=137}} The Germans conducted their own Flanders offensive at the [[Second Battle of Ypres]] (22 April – 15 May 1915), making the Ypres [[Salients, re-entrants and pockets|salient]] more costly to defend.{{sfn|Edmonds|1993|p=1}} [[Sir Douglas Haig]] succeeded [[John French, 1st Earl of Ypres|Sir John French]] as Commander-in-Chief of the BEF on 19 December.{{sfn|Terraine|1977|pp=12–13}} A week after his appointment, Haig met Rear-Admiral [[Reginald Bacon]], who emphasised the importance of obtaining control of the Belgian coast, to end the threat posed by [[Flanders U-boat flotillas|German U-boats]].{{sfn|Edmonds|1993|p=2}}{{efn|Page 2 of the Official History gives Bacon's rank as Vice-Admiral. His Oxford Dictionary of National Biography article states that he was promoted to this rank late in 1916 and that he was knighted (KCVO) in 1916.}} Haig was sceptical of a coastal operation, believing that a landing from the sea would be far more difficult than anticipated and that an advance along the coast would require so much preparation, that the Germans would have ample warning. Haig preferred an advance from Ypres, to bypass the flooded area around the Yser and the coast, before attempting a coastal attack to clear the coast to the Dutch border.{{sfn|Edmonds|1993|p=2}}