Passchendaele - 100 years on from WW1's muddy carnage
This year marks the centenary of one of the First World War's bloodiest episodes - a battle that claimed 500,000 lives.
Sunday 30 July 2017 19:35, UK
Greg Heffer, News Reporter
A century ago an offensive began which has come to symbolise the horrors of the First World War - with hundreds of thousands perishing in Belgian mud.
The Third Battle of Ypres, most commonly known as Passchendaele, started on 31 July 1917, in what was to become a three-month campaign.
Allied and German troops fought over a small patch of land near the Belgian city of Ypres in one of the bloodiest episodes of the First World War.
Little, if any, strategic gain was made during the Allied offensive, which was in fact a total of eight battles.
It increased distrust of military commanders such as Field Marshal Sir Douglas Haig, and left many soldiers utterly demoralised.
WHAT WAS THE AIM?
By 1917, British forces were suffering heavy casualties on the Western Front near Ypres.
In order to improve his troops' position, Field Marshal Haig aimed to dislodge German soldiers from their higher ground and capture an important rail junction.
He also hoped the Allies could then advance to Belgian coastal ports, from where German U-boat operations were threatening Britain with total defeat.
Preliminary attacks on the German lines - which involved a preparatory artillery bombardment of some 4,200,000 missiles - were a success and cemented political support for the major offensive.
But further preparations meant the precious summer weather was lost and allowed the Germans time to enhance their defensive systems.
The main battle was launched on 31 July when 2,000 Allied guns were opened up on German lines, with 14 British and two French divisions attacking along 15 miles (25km) of the front.
Despite some successes, ceaseless unseasonal rain and fierce enemy counter-attacks meant the advance was only half what had been hoped for.
The shell-damaged ground quickly turned into a muddy quagmire that was to last weeks.
An improvement in the weather in September and October - along with the introduction of new troops, including those from Australia and New Zealand - allowed three successful Allied assaults to raise optimism.
But heavy rain soon returned again to hamper the offensive, although Field Marshal Haig dismissed his generals' suggestions to call off the campaign.
During October and early November, exhausted and demoralised British, Australian, New Zealand and Canadian troops fought to capture the Passchendaele Ridge in near impossible conditions.
The offensive was brought to an end on 10 November, with the Allies having advanced a mere five miles (8km) in three months.
Passchendaele village and the ridge were seized but the vital railway still lay five miles away.
HOW MANY DIED?
Recent estimates suggest around 275,000 British Empire troops were killed in the Third Battle of Ypres.
The French lost around 8,500 soldiers, while estimates for German casualties range from 217,000 to 260,000.
In terms of lives lost in a single day, the more than 840 New Zealand troops killed on 12 October 1917 remains the greatest disaster in the country's history.
The youngest known casualties of Passchendaele were just 15 years old, with the oldest a 56-year-old Canadian soldier.
WHY IS IT SO INFAMOUS?
The staggering scale of the slaughter means Passchendaele has become synonymous with the carnage and futility of First World War battles.
Field Marshal Haig's decision to carry on with the offensive against the advice of others was heavily criticised in the years after the war.
The prime minister of the time, David Lloyd George, wrote in his memoirs: "Passchendaele was indeed one of the greatest disasters of the war... no soldier of any intelligence now defends this senseless campaign."
Britain's Second World War leader Winston Churchill was also a critic of Field Marshal Haig's actions.
Passchendaele inspired much influential war photography, artwork and poetry, with renowned First World War poet Siegfried Sassoon mentioning the battle in his works. His poem Memorial Tablet (Great War) used the phrase "I died in hell - (They called it Passchendaele)."
HOW IS IT BEING REMEMBERED?
Prime Minister Theresa May will break off her three-week summer holiday to join Prince Charles and the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge to attend an event marking the centenary of the start of the battle on 31 July.
Thousands of descendants of the soldiers who fought at Passchendaele will also be present in northern Belgium, where representatives of all combatant nations will lay wreaths below the Menin Gate memorial in Ypres.
Mud from the fields where the battle was fought and the brass of artillery shells recovered from the site has been used in the making of 60,083 enamel poppy pins - one for each of the British soldiers who died.
Money raised from their sales will fund the work of the Royal British Legion.
NEVER FORGOTTEN
Tens of millions of people were killed during the First World War.
Memorials, cemeteries and wartime trenches still visible in the landscape today act as reminders of the fallen.
The Battle of Passchendaele stands alongside the Somme, Verdun, Galipoli and the naval Battle of Jutland as one of the most infamous - and deadly - campaigns of the war.
