BY September, 1917, the Third Battle of Ypres was already bogged down in the Flanders mud. The earlier successes that year, when the British had broken through at Messines, was now a distant memory.

This area of Belgium was experiencing the wettest summer for years. The water table in Flanders is only a few feet below the surface, and it was this factor - coupled with the peculiar nature of the soil - that accelerated the casualty list.

This quagmire not only hampered movement, but also swallowed up horses, mules, guns and men - and it was into this hellish environment that Worcester soldier Pte Hilary Charles found himself as the British desperately fought to take the village of Passchendaele.

The battles of the Ypres Salient were responsible for the greatest loss of British lives during the First World War. From October, 1914, until November, 1918, the fighting was almost continuous. It was the most dangerous sector of the Western Front.

We do not know how Pte Hilary Charles died, yet there are some clues. For example, he is buried at Reninghelst New Military Cemetery, which is located near Poperinge. 'Pops' was a haven for British soldiers as it was six miles behind the Ypres frontline, and only rarely shelled by German long-range artillery.

But it was also a place where vast numbers of wounded men were taken, many of whom would die from their injuries. It's quite possible that Hilary Charles was one of them.

The village of Reninghelst was also sufficiently far from the frontline to provide a suitable field station for field ambulances. There are now 798 Commonwealth burials from the First World War in the cemetery which, like all the others in France and Flanders, was designed by Sir Reginald Blomfield.

The Ypres Salient was a finger of land that stabbed into German-occupied Belgium. The enemy occupied all the high land encircling the town. A soldier serving here could be shot at from in front, the sides, and at the rear.

Names such as Hellfire Corner and Shrapnel Corner survive to this day, testament to the ferocity of the shot and shell that was unleashed in this sector.

I catch up with Peter Parker, Pte Charles' grandson. He's retracing the former battle lines of the Western Front courtesy of the War Research Society, a Birmingham-based organisation that provides a unique service by taking relatives to the graves of the fallen.

It is thanks to this society - and the Worcester News - that 74-year-old Peter, a retired bricklayer, is being reunited with his grandfather. For with the aid of the internet, I soon discover the necessary details that will make this possible.

That's the easy part. Now it is the turn of War Research organisers Alex Bulloch and David Paterson to do all the real hard work of finding Reninghelst.

But first, we travel to Tyne Cot, the largest war cemetery on the Western Front. This contains the remains of more than 11,000 British and Empire soldiers, and is so called because the men from the north-east of England noticed how the German bunkers resembled the "cots" (cottages) of their native Northumberland. It was not far from here that Fred Dancox VC, a Worcester soldier from Dolday, captured a bunker and took 40 Germans prisoner. His incredible feat was accomplished with just a rifle and grenade.

Tragically, Pte Dancox was killed only weeks later after being posted to Cambrai just over the border in France.

Tyne Cot is overwhelming. It is barely possible to comprehend the scale of the loss of life that was the awful cost paid to dislodge the Germans from Passchendaele. I ask an elderly man why he is here. The silver-haired old soldier, weighted down with medals from the Second World War, looks at me over his glasses and says: "I'm here to meet my father. He's somewhere in this Flanders mud."

Peter Parker also meets a close relative on this day, for we find Reninghelst cemetery, and then the last resting place of Hilary Charles, grave/memorial reference IV.E.26. Peter is standing by the grave, posing for photographs when, quite suddenly, a blood red November sun sinks behind him into the west.

It is hard to imagine a more poignant scene as this Worcestershire man stands at the last resting place of the grandfather he never knew.

PASSCHENDAELE: THE OBJECTIVES

THE objects before the British in delivering the offensive in Flanders were, from a strategical point of view, to pin the German Army to the British front in the north and draw in their reserves; and, from a tactical point of view:

l To free Ypres by gaining the Passchendaele ridge which lies in a semi-circle round the eastern side and dominates the town and surrounding country.

l To gain the Passchendaele ridge, thereby commanding with long-range gunfire the enemy's communications through Roulers and his submarine bases at Ostend and Zeebrugge.

l To exploit to the full any tactical success gained (for this special preparations were made).

In the ensuing fighting, the Germans lost approximately 250,000 men, while the British Empire forces lost about 300,000, including 36,500 Australians - 90,000 British and Australian bodies were never identified.

read how their names will live for evermore in the final part of John Phillpott's trip to the battlefields - monday