Summer, 1917. The Germans are holding on in the trenches, but Russia has been swept up in a revolution and the Czar has abdicated. The French are all fagged out. Little is heard from the Italian Army. The only troops that were fit and available for an attack were the British Army and colonials like the Australians. Since there was, after all, at least one Allied army left in the field, an attack against the German lines near Ypres, including Passchendaele, was launched. The intention was to reach Zeebrugge on the Belgian coast, the chief harbor for the U-boats that were slowly strangling Britain.
The episode opens with a quote from a letter written by a British soldier in 1914 upon first visiting the city of Ypres. A magnificent place with a fine old cathedral, ancient walls, tiled roofs. He goes on and on. And then it was all reduced to rubble by bombardment. Ypres, by the way, was pronounced "Wipers" by the upper class, according to Michael Redgrave's narration. In French, it's "Eeep", with the merest suggestion of an "r" at the end.
At this point I might mention that there are times when the narration rather seems to soft pedal any possible mistakes made by British generals. Ypres was a controversial move. Lloyd George, the British PM, did not endorse the attack. Neither did the French chief of staff, Foch. And the British commander, Douglas Haig, began the attack before receiving permission to do so. In any case, some ground was gained but then the rain began -- a real torrent -- and everything bogged down everywhere. There are still photos of soldiers up to their knees in mud, and participants tell of mud that was waist high and covered the decomposing bodies of men and horses.
Every episode of this series is available free on YouTube, by the way. In the last two, the sound sometimes is reduced to a murmur or cuts out altogether.
The episode opens with a quote from a letter written by a British soldier in 1914 upon first visiting the city of Ypres. A magnificent place with a fine old cathedral, ancient walls, tiled roofs. He goes on and on. And then it was all reduced to rubble by bombardment. Ypres, by the way, was pronounced "Wipers" by the upper class, according to Michael Redgrave's narration. In French, it's "Eeep", with the merest suggestion of an "r" at the end.
At this point I might mention that there are times when the narration rather seems to soft pedal any possible mistakes made by British generals. Ypres was a controversial move. Lloyd George, the British PM, did not endorse the attack. Neither did the French chief of staff, Foch. And the British commander, Douglas Haig, began the attack before receiving permission to do so. In any case, some ground was gained but then the rain began -- a real torrent -- and everything bogged down everywhere. There are still photos of soldiers up to their knees in mud, and participants tell of mud that was waist high and covered the decomposing bodies of men and horses.
Every episode of this series is available free on YouTube, by the way. In the last two, the sound sometimes is reduced to a murmur or cuts out altogether.