Posted on 04/24/2009 6:50:18 AM PDT by Clive
Army News videos:
Historian explains battle of Passchendaele, Part 1
Historian explains battle of Passchendaele, Part 2
Thursday, April 23, 2009
Ottawa, ON – Norman Leach discusses the bravery and strategy of WWI Canadian soldiers.
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Here’s the brief explanation: Mud-hole turns into hell-hole.
I’m interested in the topic, but the bilingual approach made me leave pretty quickly.
I was waiting for the movie. Was it ever released?
I felt the same way. Don’t need an echo in French!
The bilingual “echo” is replaced with English dialog and French sub titles once the actual interview starts.
See a playbill here.
See a trailer here
Ah, yes, the beauty of a "bi-lingual" country. Here in the US the echo will be in Spanish.
Passchendaele or Ypres?
Thanks so much. Great post!
After the battle had been going on for some weeks, a couple of staff officers made their first(!!!) visit to the battlefield. They reached the back edges -- far behind the front lines and the worst of the mud. One of the officers broke down, crying. "My God! We sent them out to fight in this?"
That's right: neither Haig nor his staff ever visited the battlefield. They had no idea of the hell in which they were pissing away the lives of their men.
Jeez. I’m an idiot. Everytime I see something like this I think there is going to be a huge opening. I just got burnt. I don’t think it played anywhere in my area at all. The same thing happened to me for “The Great Raid.” I think it’s going to be a blockbuster and on opening day the theater was half full.
Well, the dvd is cheap so I just bought it.
Passchendaele is known by some as the third battle of Ypres. Canadians know it as the Battle of Passchendaele.
I should have added that Passchendaele is what is griven on the lists of battles on cenotaphs across Canada.
It is a Canadian movie about a battle famous to Canadians but little known to Yanks so it is not likely to attract a significant audience in Pennsylvania.
Years ago I took the family on a tour through Canaada and when in Quebec we stopped off at a great military museum. Of all the displays, the one I remember was a WWI 303 Enfield where a guy carved the names of his French girlfriends on the stock. The Army fined him something like $1.75 for the stock he “defaced”.
The gun was lost when he was gassed in one of the many battles he went through.
I don’t remember how long it was (something like after WWII) the gun turned up and was temporarly reunited with the old vet. I don’t think it was at Passchendaele, but it is still quite a neat bit of history.
Currie did visit his battlefields. He made models, set up simulations, gave his soldiers maps and let everyone know where he stood in the order of battle.
He developed the creeping barrage wherein his advancing soldiers were walking into the area right behind an advancing fall of shot.
Currie had joined the militia and worked his way up the ranks. He was a weekend soldier until hostilities broke out. He was an indifferent strategist but a brilliant tactician. He never went to Sandhurst but by the end of the war the Sandhurst graduates were copying his tactics.
bookmark for later
“...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 duckboards; so I fell
into the bottomless mud, and lost the light”
— Siegfried Sassoon
By October of 1917, the Canadian troops were called upon to enter the situation and bring about a successful conclusion to this disaster. It was hoped that not only would the battle be turned in favour of the allies but also, unofficially of course, save the career of Field Marshal Haig. By the time the Canadians arrived at Passchendaele practically no objectives had been met.
General Currie, Commander of the Canadian Corps, wanted no part of this enterprise but was soundly over-ruled by the British High Command. In fact, they were prepared to send their most innovative and gifted officer packing if he showed any more resistance to the order. Currie did, however, manage to win the point that extensive preparations and planning would be needed and that time must be granted for the Canadians to prepare and hopefully avoid making the same errors that had caused so much suffering for the British and Australian forces.
The field as faced by the Canadians was full of mud, water, corpses, dead horses, barbed wire and miscellaneous wreckage of almost four months of battle. The trench lines were almost unrecognizable due to the water and mud. The Canadian plan began with the rebuilding of the transport systems and an attempt to drain the field as best as possible. German shelling, aircraft attacks and nature caused over 1500 Canadian casualties before the attack even started.
The Canadians attacked on October 26, 1917 behind a covering artillery assault. The first day saw almost 2500 casualties. The next bite into the German lines would be on October 30 following an even larger artillery assault
By November 10 the ridge had fallen to the Canadians. The Germans were ordered to retake the position at all costs but could not.
By November 14, 1917 the Canadians, having done what was asked of them, retired back to the Vimy region. Their positions were taken up by British troops. Almost 15,654 Canadian casualties had been counted (Currie had warned the British High Command that victory would cause 16,000 casualties a month earlier). Nine Canadians had earned the Victoria Cross. Roughly two square miles had been taken at a cost of 500,000 casualties to the Allied forces. Field Marshall Haig was spared his career.
With little fanfare and a grudging recognition of their deeds, the Canadian Corps had proven to all that their bravery, planning, training and skill had made them the elite Corps of the allied forces. With this killing ground behind them, the Canadians would take up their positions by Arras / Vimy / Lens and prepare to take on the final German defences of the Siegfried Line and in fact, lead the final assault that would bring the war to a close.
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