Today is the 90th anniversary of the start of the WWI Battle of Passchendaele, officially known as the Third Battle of Ypres.
Around 600,000 Allied and German troops died fighting each other over the three months until 10th November 1917. Not everyone was killed by bullets or shells: conditions were so appalling that unknown numbers of men and horses simply drowned in liquid mud.
This was trench warfare. The lice-infested men and boys shared their muddy trenches with rats. When a shell exploded right in a trench it often brought the whole thing down, and the soldiers’ bodies were never recovered. This was how my grandfather died, ironically only 11 days before the end of the battle.
Harry Patch is the only living survivor of the Battle of Passchendaele. He was 18 when he was called up for service and now he’s 109. You can read his account of it here. This is what he tells us:
It wasn’t worth it. No war is worth it. No war is worth the loss of a couple of lives let alone thousands. T’isn’t worth it … the First World War, if you boil it down, what was it? Nothing but a family row. That’s what caused it. The Second World War – Hitler wanted to govern Europe, nothing to it. I would have taken the Kaiser, his son, Hitler and the people on his side … and bloody shot them. Out the way and saved millions of lives. T’isn’t worth it.
I am not a complete pacifist, I believe there are actually a very, very few “just” wars that we should fight. And sometimes the only way to know what is just is what history tells us.
But I read a report yesterday that talks about the humanitarian crisis caused by war that has left 8 million Iraqis in urgent need of aid. T’isn’t worth it.
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Very interesting story about WWI. I have hesitated to have a firm opinion about the Iraq war because I am all too aware that I couldn’t possibly have all the facts, however, I do find it disingenuous of Pres. Bush when he first went in because of WMD’s and then said it was about terror and clearly we our soldiers are stuck in the middle of a civil war over there. I think it is laughable that anyone could think there is a “winning strategy” at this point. I have not only been praying for our soldiers, but the innocent men, women and children over there that must be suffering greatly.
Very powerful post, Tess. T’isn’t worth it, indeed.
horrible.
I think about Iraq and I know that even if those soldiers get back to their families, they will never truly be “back” because they’ll be forever changed.
I hate hatred and war.
(but I do like that somehow I get to your current blogspot now, and I never got around to changing the address on my screen- You must have done something.
thanks.
Thanks all. Maya, I too have some uncertainty over the Iraq war – now at least. I think we should never have gone in the first place but now we are there, I don’t feel I have enough knowledge to have a firm view on whether we should pull out.
Joyce – not sure what I’ve done re the blog address but have been fiddling behind the scenes!!