PASSCHENDAELE, REQUIEM FOR DOOMED YOUTH BY PAUL HAM

“…no pen or brush has yet achieved the picture of that Armageddon in which so many of our men perished”
Philip Gibbs, war correspondent, October 1917

I was lucky enough to attend the UK book launch of Paul Ham’s latest book entitled “Passchendaele, Requiem For Doomed Youth” and of course, with the ceremony yesterday to honour the bravery of those who fought in one of the bloodiest battles of World War 1, 100 years ago, the story of the human sacrifice is very much on our minds.

In three months of fighting, half a million (HALF A MILLION!) allied and German soldiers were killed, wounded or went missing. Described as the third battle of Ypres, it began on July 31st and ended on November 11th 1917, infamous not just for the number of casualties, but for the liquid mud and chemical gas that seeped into the lungs of those young men and drowned them.

Four thousand relatives attended the service at Ypres yesterday. The words of Private C Miles described the ordeal of living amid so much mud. “It was forever pulling you down, you could hear the sound of your feet coming out in a kind of sucking ‘plop’ that seemed much louder at night…In a way it was worse when the mud didn’t suck you down; when if yielded under your feet you knew it was a body you were treading on. It was terrifying.”

Paul Ham’s book unearths fresh evidence about the Battle of Passchendaele that encapsulates the utter futility of the war, as he describes the story of an army caught in the grip of an extraordinary global power struggle. He examines the culpability of governments and military commanders through the eyes of ordinary men on both sides who were all too aware that they were being gradually, deliberately felled.

During his reading, one of the most poignant elements he includes in his book are a number of letters from women writing to the padre for information on their son or husband. Their letters make some of the saddest reading of the war:

Dear Sir,
I have received…the sad news of the death of my dear son. It came as a great blow to us all. He was a good and devoted boy…We are glad to know that his death was instantaneous…

Dear Sir,
I am writing to thank you for letting me know about my dear husband’s death. It came as a great blow to me but I am more than pleased to think you witnessed his death and berrial (sic) as I can rest quite comfortable that heisput (sic) comfortable away.

To the Padre..
..He was our only surviving son and it is, therefore a bitter grief. We would be so grateful for any little new of him…

Sir,
Would you kindly tell me what you know about my poor Boy…is he alive or dead, it is 8 weeks now since I heard a word…

Dear Sir,
I hope you won’t mind me writing to you again…your kind letter of sympathy is of a great help to us poor mothers. I can’t realise yet that I shall not see my dear boy again on earth but I do miss his bright cheery letters, they were such a help to me. it does seem so hard that we should lose them like that when you have brought them up so many years with no husband to help you but I mustn’t repine. God knows best and I pray that my dear boy and I shall meet again in a better land. Should you know of any boy who is lonely and gets no letters from home if I could write him sometimes I should still feel that I had someone out there I could help in that way…