100th Anniversary

[PaulG]

100 years ago today the Battle of Passchendaele ended.  An estimated 245,000 allied and 215,000 German casualties (dead, wounded or missing) fell after approximately 100 days of heavy fighting for a movement of the front line of only 8 kilometres.

That equates to about 60 men for every metre of front line - in a little over 3 months - or too visualize it better - that's 2 men wide and 30 deep per metre.    In much of the history written about it, there tends to be a glossing over of it being a "British victory".  Though the British had the greatest presence there, it was very much a commonwealth army of Australians, New Zealanders, Canadians, Indians, etc.  (You were defacto a British soldier in their eyes regardless of where you were from). Each had a turn at what was essentially a never ending pit of death and misery.

All of which would be lost in the spring of 1918 with a final German offensive to try and win the war.

Here are just a couple of articles on the event.

The Worst Place on Earth

I Died In Hell

Since 1928 they have played the Last Post at the Menin Gate in Ypres, Belgium every day at 8pm.  The walls are inscribed with 54,395 names of soldiers with no known grave.  The memorial was not large enough so they had to build the Tyne Cot Memorial for a further 34,984 names.  That wasn't enough either as they forgot the New Zealanders and Newfoundlanders (still British at that time). They have never forgotten.  Yet 20+ years later we did it all over again, then again, and again. And it seems we'll keep on doing it for quite a while yet.  Hopefully one day it sinks in.

[Pat Conlon]

........  Hopefully one day it sinks in.

Amen.

Drafted out of high school, as a US Army Medic, I learned the fundamental lesson: Mankind's ability to inflict horrible pain, suffering and death, far exceeds Mankind's ability to heal.

Saturday Nov. 11th, is Veteran's Day here in the USA,,,so Happy Veteran's Day guys.
May God bless you and your families.

[big r]

We call it Remembrance Day up here. My Grandfather served in the 1st. war.  I remember him saying something about Passenchdaele and how bad it was. Wouldnt say much else

[andyoutandabout]

I remember being round a WCR fire one year and Pat talking about a few experiences from his time in the military. The color drained from his face and his speech tailed off into the night. It was really quiet eerie. Otherworldly for a moment.
Big up to those who served. I'm way too much of a scaredy-cat.

[Motofun]

If you've go the time, Dan Carlin's "Hard Core History" has an excellent tutorial about the war to end all wars.  It's very long in many segments, called "armegedon".  Paschendale was beyond brutal...