For many, just the name Passchendaele sums up the horrors of the First World War and in her recent work Alexandra Churchill has taken at look at the horrors endured by a selection of the men who served and often died in that hellish place.
PASSCHENDAELE | GREAT WAR
The Third Battle of Ypres, commonly just known as “Passchendaele”, has become a watchword for the attritional and wasteful horror of The Great War. Critics at the time described it as ‘purposeless’, ‘a reckless gamble… with nothing to show but a ghastly casualty list,’ or ‘a muddy and muddle-headed adventure.’ Since the latter half of 1917, however, it has been dissected and evaluated from all angles; the planning, the execution, the conditions and the reasoning behind it. All have been called into question.
Ypres, too, had become synonymous with the Great War. The British Army had entered the town and set themselves up on either side of the Menin Road to ward off the German approach in October 1914, when the dreaded salient was formed. The Kaiser’s forces tried to take Ypres in early 1915, but once again they failed to dislodge its occupants. No major offensive action had taken place in the area since. It had, however, become notorious as …
