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Passendale ( Dutch: [ˈpɑsə(n)ˌdaːlə] ) or Passchendaele ( English: / ˈ p æ ʃ ən d eɪ l / PASH -ən-dayl , French: [pasœndal] ; West Flemish : Passchendoale ) is a rural Belgian village in the Zonnebeke municipality of West Flanders province. It is close to the town of Ypres , situated on the hill ridge separating the historical wetlands of the Yser and Leie valleys. It is also commonly known as a battlefield and the name of a campaign during World War I , the Battle of Passchendaele .

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34-502: In the pre-Roman and Roman times the area of the town was located along the border between the Menapii and Morini Belgic tribes of northern Gaul and later the border between the bishoprics of Tournai and Thérouanne . The town is first recorded in 844 as Pascandale, and may be named after an individual by the name of Paulus or Pasko. In the Middle Ages, most of the region was ruled by

68-662: A Belgic tribe dwelling near the North Sea , around present-day Cassel , during the Iron Age and the Roman period . The Menapii were persistent opponents of Julius Caesar 's conquest of Gaul, resisting until 54 BC. They were part of the Belgic confederacy defeated by Caesar in 57 BC, contributing 9,000 men. The following year they sided with the Veneti against Caesar. Caesar was again victorious, but

102-477: A Proto-Celtic form reconstructed as * Menak ī or * Manak ī , whose meaning remains uncertain, perhaps the 'mountain people' or the 'high-living people' (from the root * mon - 'mountain'; cf. MWelsh mynydd , OBret. monid , OCo. menit ), or from the root * men - ('think, remember'; cf. OIr. muinithir 'think', Welsh mynnu 'wish'). The city of Cassel , attested on Peutinger's Tabula as Castellum Menapiorum ( Cassello in 840–75, Cassel in 1110),

136-421: A field littered with shell hole craters and relentless rain led to a battlefield having the consistency of porridge. The holes in the earth filled with water, debris, and bodies, causing nearly everything to be coated with a slick layer of slime. Despite the rain, contamination of the water supply led to massive dehydration and sickness amongst the troops on both sides during the long months of battle. Guns sank into

170-475: A large army (such as scouting parties ), but it was common to see them employed in such a way even as part of a major force. Romans first encountered that tactic in the Lusitanian War in which Lusitanians used the tactic called concursare ("bustling"). It involved charging forwards against the enemy lines, only to retreat after a brief clash or without clashing, which would be followed by more attacks in

204-727: A number of commemorative events and exhibitions. Those of 2008 were the 90th memorial commemorations of the end of the First World War. Passchendaele (2008) was a Canadian film directed by Paul Gross about the Battle of Passchendaele . Passendale is also known for Passendale cheese , and hosts an annual cheese festival every August. A blonde beer named Passchendaele is brewed by the Van Honsebrouck brewery in Ingelmunster . Notes Bibliography Menapii The Menapii were

238-400: A psychological effect on the enemy's morale . Hit-and-run is a favored tactic where the enemy overmatches the attacking force and any sustained combat is to be avoided, such as guerrilla warfare , militant resistance movements , and terrorism . However, regular army forces often employ hit-and-run tactics in the short term, usually in preparation for a later full-scale engagement with

272-593: A similar cadence. The Lusitanians drove the Roman armies to break formation and chase them, leading them to traps and ambushes . The Seljuk victory over the Byzantine Empire at the Battle of Manzikert was preceded by hit-and-run attacks of Seljuk cavalry, which threw the Byzantine army into confusion and proved fatal once it started to retreat. Similarly, the earlier Parthian and Sassanid Persian horse archers paved

306-840: Is attested by inscriptions dating to the 2nd century in Britain . Carausius , the 3rd century commander of the Roman fleet who declared himself emperor of Britain and northern Gaul, was a Menapian, born in Batavia . A legion called the Menapii Seniores is mentioned in the Notitia Dignitatum , a 5th-century register of Roman government positions and military commands. They are mentioned as Menapii by Caesar (mid-1st c. BC) and Orosius (early 5th c. AD), Menápioi (Μενάπιοι; var. Μονάπιοι, Μενάσπιοι) by Strabo (early 1st c. AD) and Ptolemy (2nd c. AD), as Menapi by Pliny (1st c. AD) and

340-680: Is indirectly named after the tribe. According to descriptions in such authors as Strabo , Caesar , Pliny the Elder and Ptolemy their territory had stretched northwards to the mouth of the Rhine in the north, but more lastingly it stretched along the west of the Scheldt river. In later geographical terms this territory corresponds roughly to the modern Belgian coast, the Belgian provinces of East and West Flanders . It also extended into neighbouring France and

374-399: The Notitia Dignitatum (5th c. AD), and under the accusative forms Menapios by Tacitus (early 2nd c. AD) and Menapíous (Μεναπίους) by Cassius Dio (3rd c. AD). The Gaulish ethnonym Menapii has been phonetically compared with Manapii , the name of a tribe from southeastern Ireland mentioned by Ptolemy in the 2nd century AD. These tribal names may ultimately derive from

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408-669: The Augustine abbey of Zonnebeke and the Benedictine convent of Nonnebossen. Both the abbey and the convent were destroyed during an iconoclasm ( Beeldenstorm ) of 1580. Passchendaele Ridge 60 m (200 ft) gives its name in common parlance to a battle of the First World War, officially the Third Battle of Ypres. It was a British-led offensive against the Germans, lasting from 31 July to 10 November 1917. Distinguishing features included

442-768: The Battle of Ain Jalut , the first defeat of the quickly expanding Mongol Empire. Vastly outnumbered in North America, the French made effective use of hit-and-run raids during the various French and Indian Wars . In the Turkish War of Independence , the Turks fought against the Greeks by hit-and-run tactics before a regular army was set up. Marathas under shivaji and his successors also resorted to hit and run tactics against Mughal Empire. During

476-827: The Nervii , and near the Meuse river. While these authors make it clear that the Menapii still lay north of the Nervii in Roman times, it is not clear if they still bordered directly upon the former territory of the Eburones , as they had been in Caesar's time, and which in imperial times was within the Civitas Tungrorum , or civitas of the Tungri . In any case as mentioned above they bordered in Roman times upon

510-668: The Roman empire was Cassel in northern France, and later this was moved nearer to a river in Tournai , in present-day Belgium, on the Scheldt. Both of these are near Thérouanne , which was the civitas of the neighbouring Morini tribe, and indeed in the Middle Ages Cassel became part of the Catholic Diocese of Thérouanne . Cassel was therefore in the southern extreme of the Menapii lands. A pattern of placing Roman tribal capitals in

544-642: The Scheldt , in Strabo 's 1st-century Geographica , they are situated further away than the Nervii and on both sides of the Rhine near its outlets to the sea, apparently not far from the Germanic Sigambri . Apparently following Caesar he said that they "dwell amongst marshes and forests, not lofty, but consisting of dense and thorny wood". They are also referred to in Ptolemy 's 2nd century Geographia , situated "above"

578-660: The Toxandrians , who apparently lived in the north of the lands of the Nervii and Tungri. South of the Menapii were the Atrebates in Artois, and south-west along the coast were the Morini . The boundary with the Morini in classical times appears to have been the river Aa . In the later Roman empire, The Princeton Encyclopedia of Classical Sites reports that "Cassel was superseded as capital of

612-677: The Vietnam War , Viet Cong forces used hit-and-run tactics to great effectiveness against U.S. military forces. The tactic was also used in Afghanistan by rebel forces during the Soviet–Afghan War . Various Iraqi insurgent groups have also used hit-and-run tactics against Iraqi Security Forces and American-led coalition forces in Iraq. Improvised fighting vehicles, called " technicals ", are often used in such operations. The term "hit-and-run"

646-402: The Menapii and the Morini refused to make peace and continued to fight against him. They withdrew into the forests and swamps and conducted a hit-and-run campaign . Caesar responded by cutting down the forests, seizing their cattle and burning their settlements, but this was interrupted by heavy rain and the onset of winter, and the Menapii and Morini withdrew further into the forests. In 55 BC

680-463: The Menapii by Tournai after Gaul was reorganized under Diocletian and Constantine the Great . The civitas Menapiorum became the civitas Turnencensium ." By medieval times, when these Roman districts evolved into medieval Roman Catholic dioceses, Cassel had in fact become part of the diocese of Thérouanne , which had been the civitas of the Morini. Their civitas , or administrative capital, under

714-451: The Menapii tried to resist a Germanic incursion across the Rhine , but were defeated. Later that year, while Caesar made his first expedition to Britain , he sent two of his legates and the majority of his army to the territories of the Menapii and Morini to keep them under control. Once again, they retired to the woods, and the Romans burned their crops and settlements. The Menapii joined

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748-662: The Menapii. South of the delta, east of the river Scheldt from the Menapii, and therefore apparently south of the Frisiavones, Pliny mentions the Toxandri , in a position apparently on the northern edge of Gaul. It is known that the Toxandri were associated with the civitates of both the Nervii and the Tungri, so they presumably had a presence in both. While in Pliny the Menapii do not stretch beyond

782-507: The Rhine. Hit-and-run tactics Hit-and-run tactics are a tactical doctrine of using short surprise attacks, withdrawing before the enemy can respond in force, and constantly maneuvering to avoid full engagement with the enemy. The purpose is not to decisively defeat the enemy or capture territory but to weaken enemy forces over time through raids , harassment, and skirmishing and limiting risk to friendly forces. Such tactics can also expose enemy defensive weaknesses and achieve

816-551: The area was threatened by Frankish tribes from outside the empire. The economic activity of the Menapii was primally extraction of wool from sheep, and the fabrication of primitive cloths, and these were perfected while the Roman Reign in the Region. These cloths were one of the most rare things in terms of goods, because of the geographical location where they were made. Besides, these cloths were exported to Italy and other regions through

850-429: The earth and troops drowned in the soft mud as they tried to charge the line. Finally, after sixteen weeks of fighting in conditions which varied from rain, mud, and slime, to hot and dry weather with great clouds of dust, the initial objective of Passchendaele Ridge had been gained at a cost of 270,000 Allied casualties, including 17,000 officers. German casualties were likewise staggering, with 217,000 German casualties;

884-656: The elder lists the people in these "Gallic Islands" as Batavi and Canninefates on the largest island, Frisii and the Chauci whose main lands were to the north of the deltas, and the Frisiavones , Sturii , and Marsacii . Of these last three, the Marsaci appear to be mentioned in another place by Pliny as having a presence on the coast south of the delta, neighbouring the Menapii, within Gaul itself. The Frisiavones are also mentioned within

918-473: The enemy when and where conditions are more favorable. Examples of the latter include commando or other special forces attacks, reconnaissance-in-force , or sorties from a fortress, castle, or other strongpoint . Hit-and-run tactics were also used by the lightly-armed horse archers , typical of the Eurasian steppe peoples, who excelled at them. That holds especially true for such troops that were not part of

952-541: The extensive rain leading up to it, as well as the relative absence of French troops. The government of France faced a massive mutiny at the time, having lost nearly four million troops to this point against the Central Powers . In addition to British, Canadian , Belgian, New Zealander , Australian and Indian troops fought on the side of the Allies , under the command of Field Marshal Douglas Haig . The combination of

986-561: The listing for Belgian Gaul, but probably therefore lived in the part of the delta south of the Batavi, northeast of the Menapii. In one inscription, from Bulla Regia , the Tungri , Batavians and Frisiavones are grouped together, apparently confirming that the Frisiavones lived inland. It is suggested that the Marsaci and the Sturii could be " pagi " belonging to the civitas of either the Frisiavones or

1020-442: The revolt led by Ambiorix in 54 BC. Caesar says that they, alone of all the tribes of Gaul, had never sent ambassadors to him to discuss terms of peace, and had ties of hospitality with Ambiorix. For that reason he decided to lead five legions against them. A renewed campaign of devastation finally forced them to submit, and Caesar placed his ally Commius of the Atrebates in control of them. A cohort of Menapian auxiliaries

1054-633: The river deltas of the Southern Netherlands . To the north and east of the Menapii lay the Rhine–Meuse–Scheldt delta . In the time of Caesar, the Menapii had settlements throughout this region and as far as the Rhine in present-day Germany, or at least its branch, the Waal. During Roman times these islands were under the frontier province of Germania Inferior , and inhabited partly by various groups of people who had moved there under Roman rule. Pliny

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1088-403: The south is also found in the neighbouring Belgian tribal states, of the Nervii and Tungri . The positions of such Roman tribal capitals frequently didn't correspond to the centre of a tribe's territory in pre-Roman political geography. Similarly, in those neighbouring regions, the centre of Roman civilization was typically moved further south, and on to a major river, in late Roman times, after

1122-682: The village was levelled. Different nations' war cemeteries are found in Passendale: Tyne Cot Cemetery (the largest Commonwealth cemetery in the world), the New British Cemetery, the Canadian Memorial, and the New Zealand Forces Memorial. The town also hosts a war museum as well as numerous memorials dedicated to the different nationalities that participated in the epic battle. Every year, Passendale hosts

1156-439: The way for their cataphracts ' attack, which achieved the decisive victories at the Battle of Carrhae and Battle of Edessa . The use of hit-and-run tactics dates back even earlier to the nomadic Scythians of Central Asia , who used them against Darius the Great 's Persian Achaemenid Empire and later against Alexander the Great 's Macedonian Empire . The Turkish general Baibars also successfully used hit-and-run during

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