Passchendaele.
The third battle of Ypres.
The ‘Race to the Sea’ left the
Allies in possession of the city of Ypres;
a provocative finger pointing into
German conquered territory.
They tried cutting off that finger,
suffocating allied troops with chlorine gas…
but they failed. After fighting steadily on
other fronts, the Allies were exhausted.
So were the Germans.
The fields in Flanders are low and swampy,
made habitable by drainage ditches.
Not ideal for battle…
Sir Douglas Haig wanted to take
advantage of the enemy’s fatigue
to push north, take the bases
used by German submarines,
and prevent further attacks on
trans-Atlantic shipping lines.
The Allied sappers dug tunnels under
the German lines for eighteen months.
In June, they detonated a million pounds
of amatol right under their feet.
I was told that the concussion blew
many men to the ground.
The Germans defences were in disarray.
The Allies could have moved forward, but no.
The New-Zealanders took Messines,
that’s all. With hindsight,
it seems like a waste…
It took 6 weeks before pushing forward.
And it started raining, endlessly.
The battlegrounds became a quagmire,
swallowing everything: vehicles, horses,
and men. Everyone was cold.
The Allied artillery barrage was incessant.
When I arrived at the front,
I found a German soldier’s diary
dating back a couple of weeks...…
Darkness alternates with light as bright as day.
The earth shakes…men hear nothing but drum-fire…
groaning of wounded comrades…
screaming of fallen horses…
the wild beating of their own hearts…
They have no way of escape…
The battle started three months ago.
They tell me the rain hasn’t stopped since.
How many times have I stepped on
a dead comrade so as not to be
sucked in by the mud?
The other morning, wounded who had been
crying for hours, some for days finally stopped…
they drowned in their trenches.
We Canadians were asked to take what
remained of Passchendaele;
not a village but a pile of rubble.
We did it. But it ended there. Really.
250 thousand allied dead and wounded,
200 thousand Germans…
For a pile of rubble!
Today,some historians say that
Passchendaele symbolizes the futility
of trench warfare.
I’d say it was even worse…
it made me believe in hell.