100 years since the Battle of Passchendaele

[oggbashan]

Tomorrow, 31 July is 100 years since the start of the Battle of 3rd Ypres, otherwise known as Passchendaele, although Passchendaele was only part of the larger campaign.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Passchendaele

The number of casualties is still disputed but must be close to half a million for the opposing forces. So many of the dead were never found and their bones are still ploughed up on the old battlefield.

For the Allies it didn't reach its main objective of capturing the Channel ports used by German submarines. What the extended battle did do was relieve pressure on the French Army around Verdun, and destroyed so much of the German army that some consider 3rd Ypres was the time Germany lost the war.

Half a million dead or seriously injured for 5 miles of land? That must be the most expensively won territory in the history of warfare.

 

[Nipples_Mcgee1]

Which unit were you with?

 

[Hypoxia]

Which battle in world history was the worst? -- "Personally I would say Stalingrad, but what do you guys think?" Respondents go with Stalingrad and Passchendaele. Probably more dead at Stalingrad but it took longer.

 

[oggbashan]

Which unit were you with?

My relations were with the heavy artillery.

 

[gotsnowgotslush]

Ypres

"...there’s a whole room at the top end of the suite easily missed through bad signage, which contains several sculptures of note, including Charles Sargeant Jagger’s huge plaster relief of ‘The Battle of Ypres’, and John Singer Sargent’s harrowing masterwork ‘Gassed’."

Published on the occasion of the Charles Sargeant Jagger war and peace sculpture centenary exhibition 1885-1985 at the Imperial War Museum 1 May - 29 September 1985

The word "imperial," is not not heard, very often. "Imperial War Museum," because it was their Imperial Royal Majesties...

 

[trysail]

Tomorrow, 31 July is 100 years since the start of the Battle of 3rd Ypres, otherwise known as Passchendaele...

If asked, roughly 99.897% of the population of the U.S. wouldn't have the foggiest idea in hell what your post is about.

They are also oblivious to the fact that 1939 ('41, for the U.S.)-1945 was actually World War I (cont'd).


​

 

[Hard_Rom]

Passchendaele probably ranks about 4th in battles fought by Canadian forces in our national mythology. Vimy Ridge, Dieppe, D-Day, Paschendaele, Italian campaign. Locally War of 1812 battles rank higher than other parts of the country. Brock is more of an Ontario hero than all Canadian. Wolfe's win on the Plains of Abraham might make list but French and English fought on separate sides in pre-Canada history. War of 1812 first time we fought on same side.

By mid '17 Canadian, Aussie and New Zealand commonwealth units were regarded by friend and foe as some of the most effective Allied units. Vimy Ridge, Passchendaele and the 100 Days are looked at here as very much Canadian victories during WW I. More for being first to the top of the hill as thousands of other allied troops were fighting and dying on the flanks in support. Every nation has their myths.

 

[gotsnowgotslush]

29 July 2017

Three horrific battles were fought for little gain here, of which the third and final was launched 100 years, ago

Menin Gate Memorial in Ypres, Belgium
The engraved names of the 54,392 men who fell but who were never found.

90th anniversary of the inauguration of the great white gate, the first memorial to the missing, built on the route marched by the soldiers on the way to the frontlines of the first world war.

On this day, this evening, as the sun goes down, the duke and duchess, along with the king and queen of Belgium, will join 200 descendants whose ancestors’ names are engraved on the Menin Gate. Prince William will say a few words, alongside the king, and they will lay a wreath before the bugles sound.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2...100-years-on-a-final-great-act-of-remembrance

On this page, with the announcement, there is a picture of Harry Patch, who fought at Passchendaele, at the Menin Gate in 2007
He was 109 years old. Harry Patch, died in 2009 at the age of 111

We had a little group of people that survived. They had their own flag, and their own ceremony in front of the memorial. Their uniforms had been carefully cared for. As the years passed, there were fewer and fewer members to commemorate their fallen comrades and friends.

They were very grave and reverential, as they attended to their remembrance.

 

[thør]

My grandfather joined the CEF in Jan 1917 and went to England, and then, France. I don't know what battles he fought, if any. Service records are pretty sparse. I do remember my oldest uncle telling me that after he joined the Army during WW2 and before he was shipped out, grandpa sat him down, and told him how to get a guy off his bayonet, should it become "stuck". "Pull the trigger!" And then, they drank whiskey.

 

[Nipples_Mcgee1]

If asked, roughly 99.897% of the population of the U.S. wouldn't have the foggiest idea in hell what your post is about.

They are also oblivious to the fact that 1939 ('41, for the U.S.)-1945 was actually World War I (cont'd).


​

Your latter remark is a matter of historical debate; there is no scholarly consensus, dumb-dumb.

 

[Wrong Element]

Which battle in world history was the worst? -- "Personally I would say Stalingrad, but what do you guys think?" Respondents go with Stalingrad and Passchendaele. Probably more dead at Stalingrad but it took longer.

The thing about Stalingrad is that so many of the casualties either froze to death or died of starvation, which are pretty unpleasant ways to go even by the standards of warfare.

 

[Boxlicker101]

Maybe this one also belongs among the worst, except most of the losses were civilians. http://www.eyewitnesstohistory.com/leningrad.htm

 

[Bad_Doggie]

Siegfried Sassoon:

Squire nagged and bullied till I went to fight,
(Under Lord Derby’s Scheme). I died in hell -
(They called it Passchendaele). My wound was slight,
And I was hobbling back; and then a shell
Burst slick upon the duck-boards: so I fell
Into the bottomless mud, and lost the light.

At sermon-time, while Squire is in his pew,
He gives my gilded name a thoughtful stare;
For, though low down upon the list, I’m there;
‘In proud and glorious memory’...that’s my due.
Two bleeding years I fought in France, for Squire:
I suffered anguish that he’s never guessed.
Once I came home on leave: and then went west...
What greater glory could a man desire?

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/e/e6/Chateauwood.jpg/300px-Chateauwood.jpg

Unimaginable.

Woof!

 

[Lancecastor]

All that for 5 miles.

One of the most senseless battles in history after rob/que.

 

[Hypoxia]

It's always the old who lead us to the wars
Always the young who fall
Now look at what we've won with a sabre and a gun
Tell me, is it worth it all?
--Phil Ochs

 

[Boxlicker101]

All that for 5 miles.

One of the most senseless battles in history after rob/que.

The whole war was a highly negative affair. Except for the US, all the major countries were in it for their own imperialistic ambitions, either taking territory from their neighbors or expanding their overseas holdings.

 

[doowdniw]

I have a cousin who went to Ypres and never came back. He was never found, but his name is on the monument there.

 

[renard_ruse]

It's always the old who lead us to the wars
Always the young who fall
Now look at what we've won with a sabre and a gun
Tell me, is it worth it all?
--Phil Ochs

Yet according to a supposed poll from Gallup I believe, 80% of Americans support NATO, 75% view US domination of the world as a force for good, and large majorities support continued US presence in over 100 countries around the world.

Instead of each country minding its own business and living in peace, people want a New World Order of constant war and outdated "alliances" with no rational purpose.

 

[renard_ruse]

Iron Maiden Paschendale

 

[Lancecastor]

The whole war was a highly negative affair. Except for the US, all the major countries were in it for their own imperialistic ambitions, either taking territory from their neighbors or expanding their overseas holdings.

The usa was there for the air miles?

 

[Boxlicker101]

The usa was there for the air miles?

I don't believe the commercial airlines had started offering "air miles" in 1917.

 

[Lancecastor]

I don't believe the commercial airlines had started offering "air miles" in 1917.

Boxlicker47 was much funnier than you.