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"Surely we have perished"
(Wilfred Owen)

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Ypres, a market town in Flanders,

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a beleaguered fortress,
guarding the last free corner of Belgian soil.

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Yprès to the British army,

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or Ipps, Wipers,
to the newspapers and the upper classes.

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The British first came to Ypres in Oct. 1914.

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We pass over the moat through Vauban's
17th century ramparts by the Lille gate

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The large cobbled square is full
of British and Belgian troops.

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We pay a too brief visit to the wonderful
Flemish Cloth Hall and St. Martin's Church.

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It's a gem of a town
with its lovely old-world gabled houses,

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red-tiled roofs
and no factories visible to spoil the charm.

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The first battle of Ypres
in 1914 began to demolish the charm.

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In 1915 still heavier bombardments
beat upon the ancient town.

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This was the 2nd battle.

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Ypres crumbled steadily
but held out.

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Through it lay all communication
to the salient.

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The salient was a vast British slaughterhouse.

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Everywhere the Germans looked down
on the British positions from the so-called ridges.

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It was in the salient in April 1915
that the Germans first used the new weapon of gas.

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I ... don't want to admit it that
I didn't think much of the urinating on a handkerchief.
I didn't think it was sufficient protection.

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So I went into one of the trenches' latrines,
you know, just a bucket stuck in a hole,

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and I stuck my head in the bucket.

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And made sure of it.

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And in the salient, at Hooge,

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two months later, the British first encountered
the horror of flame-throwers.

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The first idea that flitted through my mind was,

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that the end of the world had come,

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that this was the day of judgment.

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Because suddenly the whole dawn ...

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had turned a ghastly crimson.

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All through 1916 the outline of the salient
barely altered.

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100 yards here, 1/4 of a mile there,

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fruits of what was called
the "crater fighting".

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Scraps of ground were captured, lost,
recaptured

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at a cost never measured against real gain.

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In the salient the guns were never silent.

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Labour was unending.

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Death and pain were always present.

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By 1917 the whole area had become
an immense disgusting sty,

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a ravaged vista of splintered trees,
wrecked farms

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and craters which quickly filled with water.

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In this low country drainage was all important.

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But years of shelling had burst the drains
and broken the banks of the streams which flowed through the salient.

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Rough plank roads and treacherous duck-board tracks
zigzagged through the mires.

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All supplies had to be carried along them,
mostly by night.

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All of them, day and night,
were death traps.

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To the British Army,
Ypres had become what Verdun became to the French:

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a symbol of absolute determination,

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of fatal endurance.

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By the summer of 1917
General Robert Nivelle's offensive on the Aisne had collapsed,

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and the French Army had collapsed with it.

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Russia, swept by revolution in March,
was now an unknown quantity.

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As Britain's Prime Minister, Mr. Lloyd George said:

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The British Army was the one allied army in the field
which could be absolutely relied on for any enterprise.

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Upon this army now fell the burden of the war.

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Not until June was the first stroke ready,
under General Plumer,

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veteran commander of the British 2nd Army.

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And now one of the war's most deadly methods
reached its climax:

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the underground war.

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the war of mines and tunnels
groping beneath no-mans-land towards the enemy lines.

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in which men dug and crouched
and fought and blew each other to pieces.

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The essence of mining the area was
silence and secrecy.

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We wore felt slippers, rubber-wheeled trolleys,
wooden rails and we spoke in whispers.

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And when the Germans blew us we never answered back,
we suffered casualties and said nothing,

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tried out to give away where we were.

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Under the Messines ridge which
shut in the southern side of the Ypres salient,

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the British had driven 19 deep mine tunnels,
containing nearly 1 million pounds of high explosives.

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Some of these mines had been begun
as far back as 1915.

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By 1916, some 20.000 British, Australian, Canadian
and New-Zealand soldiers

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and about as many Germans,

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were tunnelling towards each other.

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The date was June 7th,

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the time was 3:10 a.m.

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Nightingales were singing in the woods.

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Then suddenly the whole earth heaved,

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and up from the ground came
what really looked more like two enormous Cyprus trees,

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silhouettes of great dark cone-shaped lifts of earth,
up to 3, 4, 5.000 feet

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and we watched this and then a moment later
we struck the repercussion wave of the blast,

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and it flung us right away backwards.

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The whole hill, the whole hillside,
everything rocked like a ship at sea.

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The noise from the artillery was deafening.

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The thunder from our charges was enormous.

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The infantry dashed forward
under a barrage

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and went forward
and kept sending back thousands and thousands of prisoners.

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Over 7.000 German prisoners were taken at Messines.

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Men shaken and unnerved by the huge explosions
which had swallowed up many of their comrades.

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In one concrete shelter
four German officers were found sitting round a table,

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killed by shock.

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For miles around it seemed like an earthquake.

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It was distinctly felt in London.

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General Plumer's 2nd Army had won
a clear-cut victory.

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In April Vimy,

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in June Messines,

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the two strongest bastions of the German front
had been stormed by the British Army.

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All the omens seems favourable
for the great offensive.

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Breaking out of the salient seemed to be
only a matter of time and preparation.

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The army had trained and laboured
at the massive build-up required for a set-piece battle in 1917.

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They were in good heart

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they did not know that ugly clouds were gathering
about their enterprise.

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On June 19th Haig was summoned to London

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to discuss the campaign with the Cabinet.

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The meetings were charged with ill feeling

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Distrust between the nation's political leaders
and its generals had never been higher.

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When Sir Douglas Haig explained his projects to the civilians,
he spread on the table a large map

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and made dramatic use of both his hands

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to demonstrate how he proposed
to sweep up the enemy.

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First the right hand
brushed along the surface, irresistibly

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then came the left,

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the outer finger ultimately touching
the German frontier,

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with a nail across.

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It is not surprising that some of our number
were so captivated by the splendor of the landscape
opened out to our vision,

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that their critical faculties were overwhelmed.

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Lloyd George remained sceptical.

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But there was a shock in store for him.

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A most serious and startling situation
was disclosed today:

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at the day's conference
Admiral Jellicoe as First Sea Lord

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stated that owing to the great shortage of shipping
due to the German submarines

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it would be impossible for Great Britain
to continue the war in 1918.

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This was a bombshell

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for the Cabinet and all present.

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Jellicoe insisted that
Zeebrugge must be cleared of U-Boots.

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Lloyd George was in a dilemma.

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It was decided that I should once more
sum up the misgivings which most of us felt:

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and that the responsibility for decision should be left
to Sir William Robertson and Sir Douglas Haig.

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Reluctantly, the Government gave its authority
to the Flanders offensive on the advice of the Naval and Army leaders.

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Now the time for talking was drawing to an end.

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On June 21st one of Haig's staff officers wrote:

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the longest day of the year,

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and we have not yet begun the really big effort.

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we fight alone here.

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the only army active.

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we shall do well

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of that there is no reasonable doubt.

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have we the time to accomplish?

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time was inexorably passing.

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time while the staffs worked out
their detailed plans

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time while roads were laid

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mended, re-laid and re-mended

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time while new divisions,
including a whole French army

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poured into the salient

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time while training
received its finishing touches.

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As each day passed the signs of coming battle multiplied.

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Veterans knew now how to interpret them.

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Until yesterday, most of those addressing us
with a comprehensive sweep of the pointer across the map

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have declared that by zero hour
all the German trenches will be obliterated by our shells.

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A tale we've heard before.

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The last lecturer however, ominously omitted
to provide this comforting assurance.

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The men of 1917 were less easily deluded.

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less trustfull than earlier generations of the war

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Too many things had gone wrong.

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Good morning, good morning, the General said,

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when I met him last week on our way to the line.

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Now the soldiers he smiled at are most of 'em dead,

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and we're cursing his staff for incompetent swine.

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"He's a cheery old card," grunted Harry to Jack,

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as they slogged up to Arras with rifle and pack.

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But he did for them both by his plan of attack.
[S. Sassoon]

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The last days of July were running out.

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A certain uneasiness made itself felt

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in the line and behind it.

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A staff officer wrote:

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My one fear is the weather

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I do not think that we can hope for more than a fortnight's
or at best 3 weeks of really fine weather.

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Through the stinking smoking ruins of Ypres
and the shattered villages around it

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the troops marched to their positions.

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Because soldiers like to sing
and because they were still a long way from the end of hope,

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they marched in, singing.

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but the songs were changing

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the sardonic note was more emphatic now

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"we're here because we're here"

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The entire Ypres salient to a depth of some 8 miles
from the front line is alive with infantry, artillery, repair workshops,
hospitals and ambulances of Gough's 5th Army.

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in billet, bivouac, mottle painted tent or hut

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the sheds and yards of buildings, copses and all other cover
hide tanks, long-range guns, heavy howitzers and ammunition

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tonight we must bivouac

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and there seems to be scarcely a bit of vacant ground
the size of a football pitch clear of troops, gear and stores.

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halted against the shade of a last hill they fed

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and lying easy, were at ease

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and finding comfortable chests and knees,

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carelessly slept.

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but many there stood still
to face the stark blank sky beyond the ridge.

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knowing their feet had come to the end of the world.

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Final decisions

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final preparations

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I've ordered the Provost Sergeant
with the Battalion Police to line up in the front trenches
as soon as the assault starts.

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there to arrest any men who return improperly

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although I command a Battalion whose courage and loyalty
have never given me a trace of anxiety

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one must guard against those inexplicable panics
which may seize brave men

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and which are so infectious

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this by now was an army of veterans

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the men of 1917 were wearier, more skillful

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but they were less hasty to sacrifice themselves

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the war itself was an older and uglier beast

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Edmund Blunden wrote:

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There were opportunities enough for death or glory,

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but the experienced sense observed that people did not espouses them
with a comparatively bright eye of the year before.

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1917 was distasteful

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Zero hour was 3:50 a.m. on July 31st.

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9 divisions of the 5th army,

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5 divisions of the 2nd army,

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and two French divisions went over the top.

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This was the British Army's largest single effort
since the Somme 13 months before

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But this was no Somme catastrophe

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yet this was no victory either

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this was not a Vimy or a Messines

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it was that most delusive of war's products:

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a half-success

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or half-failure.

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Straightaway two persistent features of this battle were seen

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early in the afternoon rain began to fall

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soon it turned into a drenching torrent

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and shortly after the rain began
the German counter-attack started to come in

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up to their knees in mud,
with rifles and light machine-guns choked by it,

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inch by inch, the German infantry began to
wrestle back the British morning gains

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to that extent, this was another Somme

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with this difference:

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the rain did not cease

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Every attack was drowned.

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The British were bogged

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The August weather washed their hopes away

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The battlefield turned into a swamp

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the miseries of war multiplied

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and heaped upon the soldiers

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It rained absolutely continuously

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one was as afraid of getting drowned
as one was of getting hit by shells

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there was no chance of getting wounded
or getting a blighty one at Passchendaele

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you'd either get through or die in it

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cause if you're wounded and slipped off the duck-boards

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you just sank into the mud

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the mud was so deep

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that with drag-loads on the wheels

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and something like 100 men on the drag-loads

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it was impossible to pull the guns out of the mud

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you'd see fellows coming down there
from the trenches, badly wounded

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covered from head to foot in blood,
perhaps an arm missing

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you'd see some of the fellows drop off the duck-board
and literally die from exhaustion, from loss of blood

236
00:22:18,016 --> 00:22:19,864
horrible it was

237
00:22:20,064 --> 00:22:24,220
Bent doubled, like old beggars under sacks,

238
00:22:24,420 --> 00:22:26,857
Knock-kneed, coughing like hags,

239
00:22:27,057 --> 00:22:32,833
we cursed through sludge,
till on the haunting flares we turned our backs

240
00:22:33,033 --> 00:22:36,422
and towards our distant rest began to trudge.

241
00:22:36,622 --> 00:22:43,494
Men marched asleep. Many had lost their boots
but limped on, blood-shod.

242
00:22:44,605 --> 00:22:49,270
All went lame; all blind; drunk with fatigue;

243
00:22:49,370 --> 00:22:54,578
deaf even to the hoots of gas shells
dropping them softly behind.

244
00:22:54,678 --> 00:22:57,768
Gas! Gas! Quick, boys!

245
00:22:57,968 --> 00:23:02,687
An ecstasy of fumbling, fitting the clumsy helmets just in time;

246
00:23:02,887 --> 00:23:09,548
But someone still was yelling out and stumbling,
and flound'ring like a man in fire or lime ...

247
00:23:10,501 --> 00:23:21,750
Dim, through the misty panes and thick green light,
as under a green sea, I saw him drowning.
[W. Owen]

248
00:23:23,500 --> 00:23:26,556
The barrage roars and lifts.

249
00:23:26,756 --> 00:23:35,244
Then, clumsily bowed with bombs and guns and shovels and battle-gear,
men jostle and climb to meet the bristling fire.

250
00:23:35,344 --> 00:23:43,491
Lines of grey, muttering faces, masked with fear.
They leave their trenches, going over the top
while time ticks blank and busy on their wrists,

251
00:23:43,691 --> 00:23:49,530
And hope, with furtive eyes and grappling fists,
Flanders in mud.

252
00:23:49,730 --> 00:23:54,532
O Jesus, make it stop!
[S. Sassoon]

253
00:23:57,367 --> 00:23:58,712
the weather cleared

254
00:23:58,912 --> 00:24:00,593
the ground began to dry

255
00:24:20,117 --> 00:24:22,650
our artillery barrage was magnificent

256
00:24:22,850 --> 00:24:25,327
quite the best that the Australians had ever seen

257
00:24:25,527 --> 00:24:28,658
creeping forward exactly according to plan

258
00:24:28,858 --> 00:24:32,370
the barrage won the ground
while the infantry followed behind

259
00:24:32,570 --> 00:24:36,368
and occupied all the important points
with a minimum of resistance

260
00:24:36,568 --> 00:24:39,753
this seemed to be a turning-point at last

261
00:24:39,953 --> 00:24:43,405
the German Army Group Commander wrote:

262
00:24:43,605 --> 00:24:46,797
it is to be hoped
that another attack will not follow too quickly

263
00:24:46,997 --> 00:24:49,860
as we have not sufficient reserves behind the front

264
00:24:50,060 --> 00:24:53,250
an officer on Haig's staff was writing:

265
00:24:53,450 --> 00:24:55,352
it is a race with time

266
00:24:55,552 --> 00:24:58,164
and a fight with the weather

267
00:24:58,364 --> 00:25:00,549
would the weather hold?

268
00:25:04,782 --> 00:25:08,097
Plumer's next attack was scheduled
for October 4th

269
00:25:08,297 --> 00:25:11,783
the barometer began to fall
on October 1st

270
00:25:11,983 --> 00:25:15,213
zero hour on the 4th was 6 a.m.

271
00:25:15,413 --> 00:25:21,851
the objective: the line of German concrete pillbox defences
on the Broodseinde ridge

272
00:25:22,051 --> 00:25:27,384
as we advanced we saw Germans out of their trenches
caught in our creeping barrage

273
00:25:27,584 --> 00:25:29,897
they had been attacking at the same moment as us

274
00:25:30,097 --> 00:25:32,850
we pressed on and reached our objective

275
00:25:33,050 --> 00:25:34,632
we were on slopey ground

276
00:25:34,832 --> 00:25:36,547
and ahead lay the crest of the ridge

277
00:25:43,098 --> 00:25:49,775
it was really surprising to look across
and see before you the green fields of Belgium

278
00:25:49,975 --> 00:25:53,837
actual trees,
grass of course churned up a good deal

279
00:25:54,037 --> 00:25:56,692
fields shot up with barrage shells

280
00:25:56,892 --> 00:26:00,425
but it was, as far as we were concerned,
open country

281
00:26:00,625 --> 00:26:05,162
but then to look back,
from where we came, back to Ypres

282
00:26:05,362 --> 00:26:07,362
there was devastation

283
00:26:07,562 --> 00:26:10,101
and it was just dawn time

284
00:26:10,301 --> 00:26:12,383
and you could then see why

285
00:26:12,583 --> 00:26:18,053
our own gunners had such a gruesome time

286
00:26:18,253 --> 00:26:24,884
you could see the flashes of all the guns
right from Broodseinde, right back to the very gates of Menin gate

287
00:26:25,084 --> 00:26:29,904
the Australians were standing
on the very edge of the salient

288
00:26:30,104 --> 00:26:33,747
General Monnash commanding their 3rd division, wrote:

289
00:26:33,947 --> 00:26:36,958
great happenings are possible in the very near future

290
00:26:37,158 --> 00:26:39,879
as the enemy is terribly disorganized

291
00:26:40,079 --> 00:26:43,024
our success was complete and unqualifying

292
00:26:43,224 --> 00:26:46,300
we got absolutely astride of the main ridge

293
00:26:46,500 --> 00:26:50,183
the Germans called October 4th a black day

294
00:26:50,383 --> 00:26:52,243
Ludendorff wrote:

295
00:26:52,443 --> 00:26:55,609
the infantry battle commenced on the morning of the 4th

296
00:26:55,809 --> 00:26:58,686
it was extraordinarily severe

297
00:27:01,895 --> 00:27:05,342
and again we only came through
with enormous losses

298
00:27:05,542 --> 00:27:10,156
now the great question presented itself in simple terms:

299
00:27:10,356 --> 00:27:14,375
in view of three step-by-step blows,
all successful

300
00:27:14,575 --> 00:27:17,376
what will be the result of three more
in the next fortnight?

301
00:27:17,576 --> 00:27:19,827
the question was never answered

302
00:27:20,027 --> 00:27:24,267
Prince Rupprecht of Bavaria,
commanding the Germans in Flanders, wrote:

303
00:27:24,467 --> 00:27:27,566
sudden change of weather,
most gratifying

304
00:27:27,766 --> 00:27:30,197
rain, our most affective ally

305
00:27:32,662 --> 00:27:35,187
Haig's staff officer noted:

306
00:27:35,387 --> 00:27:37,607
it was the saddest day of this year

307
00:27:37,807 --> 00:27:40,550
we did fairly well,
but only fairly well

308
00:27:40,750 --> 00:27:44,446
it wasn't the enemy but mud
that prevented us doing better

309
00:27:44,646 --> 00:27:48,423
but there is now no chance
that completes success this year

310
00:27:48,623 --> 00:27:51,425
we must still fight on for a few more weeks

311
00:27:51,625 --> 00:27:53,950
but there is no purpose in it now

312
00:27:54,150 --> 00:27:56,748
so far as Flanders is concerned

313
00:28:24,665 --> 00:28:30,286
now the ridges were needed to lift the army,
if only a little, out of the sea of mud

314
00:28:30,386 --> 00:28:34,146
this was the Slough of Despond

315
00:28:34,346 --> 00:28:40,518
in this wasteland, shell craters touched each other,
lip to lip, filled with disgusting ooze

316
00:28:46,380 --> 00:28:51,696
forward, inch by inch,
along the slimy tracks between these stinking ponds

317
00:28:51,896 --> 00:28:59,069
British, Australian and New-Zealand soldiers
crept towards Passchendaele

318
00:29:03,735 --> 00:29:08,594
I don't know how far the duck-boards extended
because it was such slow going up to the front

319
00:29:08,794 --> 00:29:13,081
it must have been hundreds and hundreds of yards
as they zigzagged about.

320
00:29:13,281 --> 00:29:15,610
but each side was a sea of mud

321
00:29:15,810 --> 00:29:19,180
you stumbled and slud along,
if you slipped

322
00:29:19,380 --> 00:29:22,622
you went up to the waist, possibly

323
00:29:22,822 --> 00:29:29,464
not only that, but every pool was
filled with decomposed bodies

324
00:29:29,664 --> 00:29:31,695
humans, mules

325
00:29:31,895 --> 00:29:33,879
all mules - sometimes both ???

326
00:29:36,244 --> 00:29:39,917
and if you're wounded and slipped off,
well then that was the end of you

327
00:29:40,605 --> 00:29:42,611
I died in hell -

328
00:29:42,811 --> 00:29:45,291
they called it Passchendaele.

329
00:29:45,491 --> 00:29:47,708
My would was slight,

330
00:29:47,908 --> 00:29:49,683
and I was hobbling back,

331
00:29:49,883 --> 00:29:54,101
and then a shell burst slick upon the duck-boards:

332
00:29:54,301 --> 00:30:00,555
so I fell into the bottomless mud,
and lost the light.
[S. Sassoon]

333
00:30:00,642 --> 00:30:06,248
How many men, wounded, over-burdened
or over-tired, vanished in the swamp

334
00:30:06,448 --> 00:30:07,672
no one will know

335
00:30:07,872 --> 00:30:11,482
the October days were nightmares for the British Army

336
00:30:16,582 --> 00:30:21,893
the icy fingers of nightmare clutched men's hearts
on both sides of the line

337
00:30:22,093 --> 00:30:25,782
the Germans were in as bad a position as we were

338
00:30:25,982 --> 00:30:32,248
in fact, we had a case where
one little party of men was making

339
00:30:32,448 --> 00:30:34,960
a home or comfortable scoop-in

340
00:30:35,160 --> 00:30:37,141
and someone pointed out,
the Germans were doing the same

341
00:30:37,341 --> 00:30:39,734
but both of them,
in their misery taking no notice of each other

342
00:30:39,934 --> 00:30:41,924
a German officer wrote:

343
00:30:42,124 --> 00:30:43,522
I am scared

344
00:30:43,722 --> 00:30:49,635
for the first time in this war,
I have doubts whether we shall be able to hold out
against the odds

345
00:30:49,835 --> 00:30:55,308
all together, there must be 8 to 10.000 guns
employed on this little bit of front

346
00:30:55,508 --> 00:30:58,206
that is the picture which scares me

347
00:30:58,406 --> 00:31:04,764
Verdun, the Somme, and Arras are mere purgatories
compared with this concentrated hell

348
00:31:04,964 --> 00:31:08,664
which one of these days will be stooped up
to white heat

349
00:31:08,864 --> 00:31:13,615
it makes you grind your teeth with rage
and gives you a dry feeling in your throat

350
00:31:13,815 --> 00:31:17,447
I have a sense of coming disaster

351
00:31:26,831 --> 00:31:29,615
The place was rotten with dead;

352
00:31:29,815 --> 00:31:36,130
green clumsy legs, high-booted,
sprawled and grovelled along the saps

353
00:31:36,230 --> 00:31:40,055
And trunks, face downward, in the sucking mud,

354
00:31:40,255 --> 00:31:43,807
wallowed like trodden sand-bags loosely filled;

355
00:31:48,269 --> 00:31:52,033
And naked sodden buttocks, mats of hair,

356
00:31:52,233 --> 00:31:56,149
Bulged, clotted heads slept in the plastering slime.

357
00:31:56,349 --> 00:32:02,944
And then the rain began,-the jolly old rain!
[S. Sassoon]

358
00:32:06,066 --> 00:32:08,811
Who are these?

359
00:32:09,011 --> 00:32:11,327
Why sit they here in twilight?

360
00:32:13,530 --> 00:32:16,832
Wherefore rock they, purgatorial shadows,

361
00:32:17,032 --> 00:32:24,467
drooping tongues from jaws that slob their relish,
baring teeth that leer like skulls' teeth wicked?

362
00:32:24,667 --> 00:32:28,628
Stroke on stroke of pain,

363
00:32:28,828 --> 00:32:34,940
but what slow panic gouged these chasms
round their fretted sockets?

364
00:32:35,140 --> 00:32:41,626
Ever from their hair and through their hands' palms
misery swelters.

365
00:32:43,061 --> 00:32:47,869
Surely we have perished sleeping,
and walk hell;

366
00:32:53,075 --> 00:32:56,064
But who these hellish?

367
00:32:57,062 --> 00:33:04,735
These are men whose minds the Dead have ravished.
[W. Owen]

368
00:33:06,968 --> 00:33:10,028
Canadians came in to relieve the Anzacs.

369
00:33:10,228 --> 00:33:12,535
more British divisions moved up

370
00:33:12,735 --> 00:33:16,248
yard by yard they crept towards Passchendaele

371
00:33:16,448 --> 00:33:19,374
on October 28th Haig wrote:

372
00:33:19,574 --> 00:33:25,123
the 7th division were really engulfed in mud
in some places when they attacked

373
00:33:25,323 --> 00:33:27,888
rifles could not be used

374
00:33:28,088 --> 00:33:29,930
it happened every day

375
00:33:30,130 --> 00:33:32,272
Ludendorff wrote:

376
00:33:32,472 --> 00:33:34,930
it was no longer life at all

377
00:33:35,130 --> 00:33:38,069
it was just unspeakable suffering

378
00:33:38,269 --> 00:33:43,111
and through this world of mud
the attackers dragged themselves

379
00:33:43,211 --> 00:33:47,050
slowly but steadily
and in dense masses

380
00:33:47,150 --> 00:33:49,502
man fought against man

381
00:33:49,702 --> 00:33:52,430
but only too often the mass was successful

382
00:33:57,015 --> 00:33:59,949
Oh German mother dreaming by the fire

383
00:34:00,149 --> 00:34:03,238
while you are knitting socks to send your son

384
00:34:03,438 --> 00:34:09,596
his face is trodden deeper in the mud
[S. Sassoon]

385
00:34:20,714 --> 00:34:25,611
Passchendaele, not more than
a brick coloured stain on the watery wilderness

386
00:34:25,811 --> 00:34:28,120
fell to the Canadians on November 6th

387
00:34:28,320 --> 00:34:31,618
six days later the battle ended

388
00:34:31,818 --> 00:34:37,272
it had cost the British army nearly
1/4 of a million casualties in 3 1/2 months

389
00:34:37,472 --> 00:34:41,440
they had not even completely reached their first objective

390
00:34:41,640 --> 00:34:45,533
Oostend and Zeebrugge remained firmly
in German hands

391
00:34:45,733 --> 00:34:50,095
But a German staff officer called this battle

392
00:34:50,295 --> 00:34:52,969
the greatest martyrdom of the war

393
00:34:53,169 --> 00:34:57,097
and another German wrote in his last letter home:

394
00:34:57,297 --> 00:35:00,342
you do not know what Flanders means

395
00:35:00,542 --> 00:35:04,692
Flanders means endless human endurance

396
00:35:04,892 --> 00:35:07,622
Flanders means blood

397
00:35:07,822 --> 00:35:09,605
and scraps of human bodies

398
00:35:09,805 --> 00:35:14,303
Flanders means heroic courage
and fatefulness

399
00:35:14,503 --> 00:35:16,788
even unto death

400
00:35:16,988 --> 00:35:23,024
in the Ypres salient the ultimate battle was fought
not amid the swamps

401
00:35:23,224 --> 00:35:24,770
but in the hearts of men

402
00:35:24,970 --> 00:35:29,514
and now they were beginning to recognize their other enemy

403
00:35:29,714 --> 00:35:32,727
a war correspondent caught a hint of it

404
00:35:32,927 --> 00:35:37,529
for the first time, the British Army lost its spirit of optimism

405
00:35:37,729 --> 00:35:43,285
and there was a sense of deadly depression
among many officers and men with whom I came in touch

406
00:35:43,485 --> 00:35:45,996
they saw no ending of the war

407
00:35:46,196 --> 00:35:48,780
and nothing except continuous slaughter

408
00:35:48,980 --> 00:35:50,710
such as that in Flanders

409
00:36:25,140 --> 00:36:29,458
the soldiers' general opinion of this battle
they were extremely bitter

410
00:36:29,658 --> 00:36:33,608
the point at issue was,
no one, no infantryman at all

411
00:36:33,808 --> 00:36:37,257
minded one bit being shot about

412
00:36:37,457 --> 00:36:42,090
or doing his job on a turf ???
somewhere where he could stand to fight

413
00:36:42,190 --> 00:36:49,100
but here we were so hopelessly placed
that there was no sort whatsoever getting to any fine objective

414
00:36:49,300 --> 00:36:52,969
because you couldn't even swim or stagger here

415
00:36:59,281 --> 00:37:03,905
so there was this bitter feeling
that deepened among quite a lot of your infantrymen

416
00:37:04,105 --> 00:37:07,825
when I saw their lads
and they knew, not wounded

417
00:37:07,925 --> 00:37:11,212
and not killed, but drowned in this filthy mud

418
00:37:15,327 --> 00:37:19,430
"if you want the old Battalion
we know where they are"

419
00:37:19,630 --> 00:37:23,908
we know where they are

420
00:37:24,108 --> 00:37:28,457
if you want the old Battalion,
we know where they are

421
00:37:28,657 --> 00:37:32,626
they're hanging on the old barbed wire

422
00:37:32,826 --> 00:37:37,414
we've seen 'em, we've seen 'em

423
00:37:37,614 --> 00:37:41,341
hanging on the old barbed wire

424
00:37:41,541 --> 00:37:46,033
we've seen 'em, we've seen 'em

425
00:37:46,233 --> 00:37:51,047
hanging on the old barbed wire

426
00:37:52,009 --> 00:37:53,564
I can see them all asleep

427
00:37:53,764 --> 00:37:55,057
three men deep

428
00:37:55,257 --> 00:37:58,930
and it's bitter cold at night,
since the fight

429
00:37:59,030 --> 00:38:00,802
and I'm nowhere near a fire

430
00:38:01,002 --> 00:38:03,285
but our wire has 'em fast as can be

431
00:38:06,464 --> 00:38:08,349
can't you see when the flare goes up?

432
00:38:08,549 --> 00:38:10,686
shh, boys

433
00:38:10,886 --> 00:38:11,772
what's that noise?

434
00:38:11,972 --> 00:38:14,439
do you know what these rats eat?

435
00:38:14,639 --> 00:38:16,424
body meat

436
00:38:23,890 --> 00:38:28,082
Since we believe not otherwise
can kind fires burn,

437
00:38:28,282 --> 00:38:33,169
nor ever suns smile true on child, or field, or fruit.

438
00:38:33,369 --> 00:38:38,679
For God's invincible spring our love is made afraid;

439
00:38:39,279 --> 00:38:42,191
Therefore, not loath, we lie out here;

440
00:38:42,391 --> 00:38:45,451
therefore were born,

441
00:38:45,651 --> 00:38:49,956
for love of God seems dying.
[W. Owen]

442
00:38:52,203 --> 00:38:53,647
Goodbye, old lad

443
00:38:53,847 --> 00:38:55,360
remember me to God

444
00:38:55,560 --> 00:39:01,212
and tell him, our politicians swear
they won't give in till Prussian rule's being trod
under the heel of England

445
00:39:02,370 --> 00:39:03,397
are you there?

446
00:39:04,200 --> 00:39:05,263
yes

447
00:39:05,463 --> 00:39:08,444
and the war won't end for at least two years

448
00:39:08,644 --> 00:39:11,536
but we've got stacks of men

449
00:39:11,736 --> 00:39:14,239
I'm blind with tears

450
00:39:14,439 --> 00:39:16,235
staring into the dark

451
00:39:17,891 --> 00:39:19,085
cheerio

452
00:39:19,285 --> 00:39:22,766
I wish they'd killed you in a decent show