The Celtic Woods

During October of 1917, the 10th Battalion of the 1st Australian Division were preparing for a diversionary attack on the Germans near West Flanders, Belgium during the Battle of Poelchappelle in the First World War. The hardened Battalion believed that the German 4th Army was on the brink of collapsing. Field Marshal Sir Douglas Haig of the British Expeditionary Force decided to send an offensive to capture a portion of the Passchendaele Ridge, with the hopes to later capture the rest of the ridge. The plan was simple, the 10th would charge into the woods, blow up the German dugouts and fire of a flare signal upon the attack's success. At dawn, 71 men set off into the mist, never to be seen again.