Ypres east of the town. The first gas attack occurred against Canadian, British, and French soldiers, including both metropolitan French soldiers as well as Senegalese and Algerian tirailleurs (light infantry) from French Africa. The gas used was chlorine. Mustard gas, also called Yperite from the name of this town, was also used for the first time near Ypres, in the autumn of 1917. Of the battles, the largest, best-known, and most costly in human suffering was the Third Battle of Ypres (31 July to 6 November 1917, also known as the Battle of Passchendaele), in which the British, Canadian, ANZAC, and
British home army in the First World War as still essentially a body of amateurs and echoed the War Office's earlier call for a smaller, better trained auxiliary. At the end of 1917, the huge losses suffered by the BEF during the Third Battle of Ypres, the implications of the October Revolution in Russia, the Austro-German success in the Battle of Caporetto on the Italian Front and the anticipated German Spring Offensive generated a surge in demand for manpower. In December, the army was prioritised below the navy, the Royal Flying Corps, the shipbuilding, aircraft and tank manufacturing industries, and food and timber production for the allocation of