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The Battle of Passchendaele should not be remembered as a failure

Passchendaele perhaps doesn't have quite the recognition of the Battle of the Somme, but it was every bit as deadly.

Alistair Bunkall

Middle East correspondent

Monday 31 July 2017 17:33, UK

Australian troops walking along duckboards through the remains of Chateau Wood. Pic: Granger/REX/Shutterstock
Image: Commonwealth troops walk along duckboards through the remains of Chateau Wood, Passchendaele
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The position of Tyne Cot cemetery, on a ridge outside Ypres, gives you a perfect view of the ground that British and Commonwealth soldiers were trying to capture in late 1917.

The 12,000 gravestones that lie here now tell the story of the battle in their own elegant way.

But for all the gleaming white Portland stone and beautiful flowers that edge them, nothing can dilute the reality: this was carnage.

Fourteen Victoria Crosses were won on the first day alone - that itself should tell you something of the courage these men found inside themselves, odds against them.

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Ypres
Image: Almost 12,000 soldiers are buried in Tyne Cot cemetery

Tyne Cot, therefore, was the ideal place to remember those moments.

I have attended all the major World War One commemorations over the past four years - each poignant and moving in their own way.

More on Passchendaele

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Passchendaele perhaps doesn't have quite the recognition of the Somme, which was remembered last year, but it was every bit as deadly and no less futile.

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Royals and descendants mark 100 years since Passchendaele

From our broadcast position on the side of the cemetery, I could make out the cathedral spire of Ypres in the distance and see the edge of Passchendaele village off to my left - the start and end points for the Allies.

It took them three months to fight their way over that ground, and I could see it all with my naked eye.

For such cost, it wasn't much reward.

But we shouldn't remember it as failure and it would be wrong to focus on the tactical decisions taken by the generals, inept or not.

  1. British soldiers of the 8th Battalion, East Yorkshire Regiment going up to the line. Pic: Granger/REX/Shutterstock
    Image: On 31 July 2017 it will be 100 years since the start of the Battle of Passchendaele, between the Britain Empire and its allies and the German Empire, in the First World War. Pic: Granger/REX/Shutterstock
  2. A wounded soldier is carried through mud during the Battle of Passchendaele
    Image: The number killed and wounded on the British side is estimated at around 275,000, and for the Germans, up to 260,000
  3. Australian troops walking along duckboards through the remains of Chateau Wood. Pic: Granger/REX/Shutterstock
    Image: Australian troops walk along duckboards through the remains of Chateau Wood. Pic: Granger/REX/Shutterstock
  4. German soldiers in a trench tunnel protected with metal sheets. Pic: SeM/REX/Shutterstock
    Image: German soldiers in a trench tunnel protected with metal sheets. Pic: SeM/REX/Shutterstock.
  5. A horsedrawn watercart stuck in mud at St Eloi. Pic: The Art Archive/REX/Shutterstock
    Image: The battle - in Belgium - lasted more than three months and was also known as the Battle of the Mud due to the awful conditions. Pic: The Art Archive/REX/Shutterstock
  6. The destroyed town of Passchendaele as seen from an aerial reconnaissance photograph taken December 5, 1917
    Image: The destroyed town of Passchendaele on December 5, 1917. At the end of the terrible battle the British had only advanced about five miles
  7. circa 1925: A cemetery where troops killed in battle at Passchendaele are buried
    Image: A cemetery for those killed in the battle (taken around 1925)
  8. Canadian lines, Battle of Passchendaele, 1917. Pic: Kharbine-Tapabor/REX/Shutterstock
    Image: The Canadian lines, 1917. Pic: Kharbine Tapabor/REX/Shutterstock
  9. The wreckage of a British tank beside the infamous Menin Road near Ypres, Belgium
    Image: The wreckage of a British tank beside the infamous Menin Road near Ypres, Belgium
  10. Soldiers of the 16th Canadian machine gun regiment using shell holes as makeshift defences at Passchendaele Ridge
    Image: Soldiers of the 16th Canadian machine gun regiment using shell holes as makeshift defences at Passchendaele Ridge
  11. Artificial rain falls on the 'Mud Soldier' statue, which is sculpted from sand and mud from Passchendaele, on the North Terrace of Trafalgar Square
    Image: Artificial rain falls on the 'Mud Soldier' statue, sculpted from sand and mud from Passchendaele, on the North Terrace of Trafalgar Square
  12. At the tyne cot cemetery lie the bodies of soldiers of the Commonwealth army recovered from battlefields of Passchendaele
    Image: Bodies of Commonwealth soldiers killed in the battle lie at the Tyne Cot cemetery
  13. Trenches at the Memorial Museum Passchendaele in Ypres, Belgium
    Image: Trenches at the Memorial Museum Passchendaele in Ypres, Belgium
  14. Wild poppies grow on the verge of a Flanders field near Tyne Cot Military Cemetery
    Image: Wild poppies grow on the verge of a Flanders field near Tyne Cot Military Cemetery

Instead we should give our thoughts to the bravery of the men who did their leaders' bidding, whatever nationality.

They had little choice and yet they did it knowing their fate.

Whether they died or survived they are heroes, each and every one, and that is why these events are so important.

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