Thank-you for this great story of Passchendaele. My maternal grandfather was an English-born Canadian soldier who was there, as well as Vimy, Ypres, Hill 70 and others. He was gassed, but survived the war, only to die of a heart attack at a regimental reunion at the age of 47.
My paternal grandfather was at the very same "shows"... though he wasn't gassed he did leave a leg in Belgium in 1918. Back in Canada in 1919 he passed at 57 years old in 1947. He lived long enough to welcome 3 sons home from War 2.
My Great Grandfather was killed at Passchendaele on the 12th October. He was one of the 2700 New Zealand causalities on that day marking the bloodiest day for NZ's military in any war. His body, like many others was never recovered and his name is in the Tyne Cot memorial. Lest we forget.
My Grandfather, an Old Comtemptable, got an MC for laying telephone lines under fire at Paschendale. He never spoke of it but like Haig believed it was a building block for the victory of 1918.
Our understanding from what records we can find, is that our grandfather fought in this one. A 26 year old farmer from Gundagai. It's hard to imagine what he went through. Thanks for this.
I’ve been reading Undertones of War by Edmund Blunden. His account of the battle is truly haunting. By the way IWM your videos are absolutely excellent.
Great video. Just a note though. In 1917 the Canadian flag was the Red Ensign, not the Maple Leaf as shown n the video. Found it surprising you'd use the new flag as you're a museum.
I shall watch the video in a moment but the question of "Who won the battle of Passchendaele?" is a rather meaningless one. The thousands of grieving mothers, fathers, wives and children of England Scotland France GermanyWales Ireland and probably others mean there were no winners. It was simply a testament to stupidity and ignorance.
In the context of the war being a pointless waste of life? Yeah. Within the military context of the war? No. These battles had very big effects that weren't immediately seen, after the battles of 1916 Germany was forced to stay on the defensive, for example
Considering the limited movements during most of WWI on the western front, the amount of casualties in WWI were simply unparalleled in history and the human race has still not learned the lesson. War has never really solved anything. WWI was known as the war to end all wars and yet, WWII happened only just over 20 years later. Again, people believed that WWII was the war to end all wars. At the end of the day, we are stuck on a tiny planet in a solar system far removed from anything else in the galaxy and yet, we do our best to make sure the human race will just be a tiny blip in the history of this planet. The human race simply don't deserve to survive. The planet will recover long time after the human race is gone and in 20-40 million years another dominant species will emerge like it has been the case in the past. Human beings have never managed to evolve sufficiently to put away politics, religion and the quest for power and wealth and instead focus on how the planet and the living species on the planet may survive. The human race simply don't deserve to survive.
Thank-you for this great story of Passchendaele. My maternal grandfather was an English-born Canadian soldier who was there, as well as Vimy, Ypres, Hill 70 and others. He was gassed, but survived the war, only to die of a heart attack at a regimental reunion at the age of 47.
My paternal grandfather was at the very same "shows"... though he wasn't gassed he did leave a leg in Belgium in 1918. Back in Canada in 1919 he passed at 57 years old in 1947. He lived long enough to welcome 3 sons home from War 2.
@@haggis525 Bless those incredible men! "The Maple Leaf Forever".
My Great Grandfather was killed at Passchendaele on the 12th October. He was one of the 2700 New Zealand causalities on that day marking the bloodiest day for NZ's military in any war. His body, like many others was never recovered and his name is in the Tyne Cot memorial. Lest we forget.
My Grandfather, an Old Comtemptable, got an MC for laying telephone lines under fire at Paschendale. He never spoke of it but like Haig believed it was a building block for the victory of 1918.
Our understanding from what records we can find, is that our grandfather fought in this one. A 26 year old farmer from Gundagai. It's hard to imagine what he went through. Thanks for this.
Lots of people from the Tumut and Gundagai area both.
I’ve been reading Undertones of War by Edmund Blunden. His account of the battle is truly haunting.
By the way IWM your videos are absolutely excellent.
Extremely interesting program. Thank you.
RS. Canada
My Grandad won a DCM here, near St Julien while serving with 9th Royal Scots
Great video. Just a note though. In 1917 the Canadian flag was the Red Ensign, not the Maple Leaf as shown n the video. Found it surprising you'd use the new flag as you're a museum.
I shall watch the video in a moment but the question of "Who won the battle of Passchendaele?" is a rather meaningless one. The thousands of grieving mothers, fathers, wives and children of England Scotland France GermanyWales Ireland and probably others mean there were no winners. It was simply a testament to stupidity and ignorance.
Last time I was this early to an Imperial War Museum video... the British "red coats" were still fighting the Boers in South Africa.
🌐
Who won it? Canadian Gen. Arthur Currie.
👍👍👍
Yep
Everyone was fighting a mobile war with siege weapons. Any success/failure was just luck anyway
Very secret signed by Bond, could it be?
It's more who lost less than who won
The battle was won by the ferryman
250000 casualties for 5 miles average ww1 battle
Land gained isn't as important as line broken. Lines broken were generally never retaken and huge areas went without a fight
Every WW1-battles were pointless..
In the context of the war being a pointless waste of life? Yeah. Within the military context of the war? No. These battles had very big effects that weren't immediately seen, after the battles of 1916 Germany was forced to stay on the defensive, for example
Dentist with waterloo teeth and the undertakers won.
Considering the limited movements during most of WWI on the western front, the amount of casualties in WWI were simply unparalleled in history and the human race has still not learned the lesson.
War has never really solved anything. WWI was known as the war to end all wars and yet, WWII happened only just over 20 years later. Again, people believed that WWII was the war to end all wars.
At the end of the day, we are stuck on a tiny planet in a solar system far removed from anything else in the galaxy and yet, we do our best to make sure the human race will just be a tiny blip in the history of this planet.
The human race simply don't deserve to survive. The planet will recover long time after the human race is gone and in 20-40 million years another dominant species will emerge like it has been the case in the past.
Human beings have never managed to evolve sufficiently to put away politics, religion and the quest for power and wealth and instead focus on how the planet and the living species on the planet may survive.
The human race simply don't deserve to survive.