Editing Battle of Passchendaele (section)

====1916====

{{main|Battle of Verdun|Battle of the Somme}}
{{Campaignbox The Actions of Spring 1916}}

Minor operations took place in the Ypres salient in 1916, some being German initiatives to distract the Allies from their preparations for the offensive at Verdun and later attempts to divert Allied resources from the Battle of the Somme. Other operations were begun by the British to regain territory or to evict the Germans from ground overlooking their positions. Engagements took place on 12 February at Boesinghe and on 14 February at [[Hooge in World War I|Hooge]] and Sanctuary Wood. There were actions from {{nowrap|14 to 15 February}} and {{nowrap|1 to 4 March}} at [[The Bluff, Ypres|The Bluff]], {{nowrap|27 March – 16}} April at the [[Sint-Elooi|St Eloi Craters]] and the [[Battle of Mont Sorrel]] from {{nowrap|2 to 13 June.}}{{sfn|Edmonds|1993|pp=163–245}} In January 1917, the Second Army (General [[Herbert Plumer]]) with the II Anzac, IX, X and VIII corps, held the Western Front in Flanders from Laventie to Boesinghe, with eleven divisions and up to two in reserve. There was much trench mortaring, mining and raiding by both sides and from January to May, the Second Army suffered {{nowrap|20,000 casualties.}} In May, reinforcements began arriving in Flanders from the south; the II Corps headquarters and {{nowrap|17 divisions}} had arrived by the end of the month.{{sfn|Falls|1992|pp=533–534}}

In January 1916, Plumer began to plan offensives against [[Messines Ridge]], [[Lille]] and Houthulst Forest.{{sfn|Edmonds|1993|p=31}} General [[Henry Rawlinson, 1st Baron Rawlinson|Henry Rawlinson]] was also ordered to plan an attack from the Ypres Salient on 4 February; planning continued but the Battle of Verdun and the Battle of the Somme took up the rest of the year.{{sfn|Terraine |1977|pp=14–15}} In November, Haig, the French commander-in-chief [[Joseph Joffre]] and the other Allies met at [[Chantilly Conferences|Chantilly]]. The commanders agreed on a strategy of simultaneous attacks, to overwhelm the [[Central Powers]] on the [[Western Front (World War I)|Western]], [[Eastern Front of World War I|Eastern]] and [[Italian Campaign (World War I)|Italian]] fronts, by the first fortnight of February 1917.{{sfn|Hart|Steel|2001|p=30}} A meeting in London of the Admiralty and the General Staff urged that the Flanders operation be undertaken in 1917 and Joffre replied on 8 December, agreeing to a Flanders campaign after the spring offensive.{{sfn|Falls|1992|p=21}} The plan for a year of [[attrition warfare|attrition]] offensives on the Western Front, with the main effort to be made in the summer by the BEF, was scrapped by the new French Commander-in-Chief [[Robert Nivelle]] in favour of a return to a strategy of decisive battle.{{sfn|Falls|1992|pp=38–39}}