From July to November of 1917, Australian soldiers fought alongside their British, French and Dominion allies in an ambitious strategy to drive the German Army from Belgium.
But what began as a determined campaign to break through the German line, advance eastwards and launch amphibious attacks against U-boat bases on Belgium's North Sea coast, narrowed to a fight for a small village atop the farthest ridge of the Ypres Salient.
Many of the battles that led to the Allies securing the village of Passchendaele, were fought in the most difficult conditions experienced by soldiers on the Western Front.
Amid this wrecked landscape, nearly half a million men became casualties in 14 weeks of fighting.
The all-volunteer Australian Imperial Force faced no sterner test during the Great War, than the battles of Third Ypres.
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