0:01:17 > 0:01:20Ypres, a market town in Flanders.
0:01:22 > 0:01:27A beleaguered fortress, guarding the last corner of Belgium's soil.
0:01:27 > 0:01:35"Iprey", to the British army or "Ips". "Wipers" to the newspapers and the upper classes.
0:01:35 > 0:01:39The British first came to Ypres in October 1914.
0:01:39 > 0:01:46We pass over the moat through Vauban's 17th century ramparts by the Lille gate.
0:01:49 > 0:01:54The large cobbled square is full of British and Belgian troops.
0:01:54 > 0:02:00We pay a too brief visit to the wonderful Flemish cloth hall and Saint Martin's church.
0:02:05 > 0:02:10It's a gem of a town with its lovely old-world gabled houses,
0:02:10 > 0:02:14red-tiled roofs, and no factories visible to spoil the charm.
0:02:14 > 0:02:19The first battle of Ypres in 1914 began to demolish the charm.
0:02:19 > 0:02:21Fire!
0:02:27 > 0:02:32In 1915, still heavier bombardments beat upon the ancient town.
0:02:32 > 0:02:35This was the second battle.
0:02:44 > 0:02:48Ypres crumbled steadily, but held out.
0:03:01 > 0:03:06Through it lay all communication to the Salient.
0:03:06 > 0:03:10The Salient was a vast British slaughter house.
0:03:13 > 0:03:18Everywhere the Germans looked down on the British positions
0:03:18 > 0:03:20from the so-called ridges.
0:03:22 > 0:03:28It was in the Salient in April 1915 that the Germans first used the new weapon of gas.
0:03:28 > 0:03:34I didn't think much of the urinating on a handkerchief.
0:03:34 > 0:03:37I didn't think it was sufficient protection.
0:03:37 > 0:03:44So I went into one of the trench latrines - you know, just a bucket stuck in a hole -
0:03:44 > 0:03:48and I stuck my head in the bucket, and I made sure of it.
0:03:48 > 0:03:55In the Salient at Hooge, two months later, the British encountered the horror of flame throwers.
0:03:57 > 0:04:04The first idea, that sort of flitted through my mind, was that the end of the world had come
0:04:04 > 0:04:07and this was the day of judgment,
0:04:07 > 0:04:14because suddenly the whole dawn had turned ghastly crimson.
0:04:17 > 0:04:22All through 1916, the outline of the Salient barely altered.
0:04:22 > 0:04:29100 yards here, a quarter of a mile there. Fruits of what was called the crater fighting.
0:04:29 > 0:04:36Scraps of ground were captured, lost, recaptured, at a cost never measured against real gain.
0:04:37 > 0:04:41In the Salient the guns were never silent.
0:04:43 > 0:04:46Labour was unending.
0:04:49 > 0:04:52Death and pain were always present.
0:04:56 > 0:05:01By 1917, the whole area had become an immense, disgusting sty.
0:05:01 > 0:05:09A ravaged vista of splintered trees, wrecked farms, and craters which quickly filled with water.
0:05:10 > 0:05:14In this low country, drainage was all-important.
0:05:14 > 0:05:22But years of shelling had burst the drains and the banks of the streams which flowed through the Salient.
0:05:22 > 0:05:27Rough plank roads and duckboard tracks zigzagged through the mires.
0:05:27 > 0:05:34All supplies had to be carried along them, mostly by night. Day and night, they were death traps.
0:05:42 > 0:05:47To the British army, Ypres became what Verdun became to the French -
0:05:47 > 0:05:52a symbol of absolute determination, of fatal endurance.
0:06:06 > 0:06:13By the summer of 1917, General Robert Nivelle's offensive on the Aisne had collapsed,
0:06:13 > 0:06:18and the French army had collapsed with it.
0:06:19 > 0:06:26Russia, swept by revolution in March, was now an unknown quantity.
0:06:26 > 0:06:30As Britain's Prime Minister, Mr Lloyd George, said,
0:06:30 > 0:06:38"The British army was the one allied army which could be absolutely relied on for any enterprise."
0:06:39 > 0:06:44Upon this army now fell the burden of the war.
0:06:55 > 0:07:02In June the first stroke was ready, under General Plumer, commander of the British second army.
0:07:02 > 0:07:08And now one of the war's most deadly methods reached its climax.
0:07:08 > 0:07:10The underground war.
0:07:10 > 0:07:17The war of mines and tunnels, groping beneath no-man's-land towards the enemy lines,
0:07:17 > 0:07:23in which men dug and crouched and blew each other to pieces.
0:07:23 > 0:07:28The essence of mining in the clay area was silence and secrecy.
0:07:28 > 0:07:34We wore felt slippers, rubber-wheeled trolleys, wooden rails, and we spoke in whispers.
0:07:34 > 0:07:41And when the German blew us, we never answered back - we suffered casualties and said nothing,
0:07:41 > 0:07:43so we didn't show where we were.
0:07:43 > 0:07:48Under the Messine Ridge, which shut in the south side of the Salient,
0:07:48 > 0:07:55the British had driven 19 deep mine tunnels containing nearly a million pounds of high explosive.
0:07:55 > 0:07:59Some of these mines had been begun as far back as 1915.
0:07:59 > 0:08:04By 1916, some 20,000 British, Australian, and Canadian soldiers,
0:08:04 > 0:08:09and about as many Germans, were tunnelling towards each other.
0:08:24 > 0:08:28The date was June 7th. The time was 3.10am.
0:08:28 > 0:08:32Nightingales were singing in the woods.
0:08:44 > 0:08:51Then suddenly the whole earth heaved and up from the ground came what looked like two huge cypress trees,
0:08:51 > 0:08:59the silhouettes of great, dark, cone-shaped lifts of earth up to three, four, five thousand feet.
0:08:59 > 0:09:07We watched this and a moment later we struck the blast's repercussion wave and it flung us backwards.
0:09:29 > 0:09:34The whole hillside, everything rocked like a ship at sea.
0:09:34 > 0:09:38The noise from the artillery was deafening.
0:09:38 > 0:09:42The thunder from the earth charges was enormous.
0:09:42 > 0:09:47The infantry dashed forward under a barrage and went forward
0:09:47 > 0:09:53and kept sending back thousands and thousands of prisoners.
0:09:54 > 0:09:59Over 7,000 German prisoners were taken at Messine.
0:09:59 > 0:10:06Men shaken and unnerved by the huge explosions which had swallowed up many of their comrades.
0:10:06 > 0:10:13In one concrete shelter, four German officers were found sitting round a table, killed by shock.
0:10:13 > 0:10:16For miles around, it seemed like an earthquake.
0:10:16 > 0:10:19It was distinctly felt in London.
0:10:19 > 0:10:24General Plumer's second army had won a clear-cut victory.
0:10:30 > 0:10:33In April - Vimy. In June - Messine.
0:10:33 > 0:10:39The two strongest bastions of the German front had been stormed by the British army.
0:10:39 > 0:10:44ALL the omens seemed favourable for the great offensive.
0:10:44 > 0:10:49Breaking out of the Salient seemed to be only a matter of time.
0:10:49 > 0:10:57The army trained and laboured at the massive build-up required for a set piece battle in 1917.
0:10:58 > 0:11:05They were in good heart. They did not know that ugly clouds were gathering about their enterprise.
0:11:06 > 0:11:13On June 19th, Haig was summoned to London to discuss the campaign with the Cabinet.
0:11:13 > 0:11:17The meetings were charged with ill feeling
0:11:17 > 0:11:21from distrust between the nation's political leaders and its generals.
0:11:21 > 0:11:26"When Sir Douglas Haig explained his projects to the civilians,
0:11:26 > 0:11:33"he spread on the table a large map and made dramatic use of both his hands,
0:11:33 > 0:11:37"to demonstrate how he proposed to sweep up the enemy.
0:11:37 > 0:11:44"First the right hand brushed along the surface irresistibly, then came the left.
0:11:44 > 0:11:51"The outer finger ultimately touching the German frontier with a nail across.
0:11:51 > 0:11:59"It is not surprising that some of our number were so captivated by the splendour of the landscape,
0:11:59 > 0:12:03"that their critical faculties were overwhelmed.
0:12:03 > 0:12:09"Lloyd George remained sceptical but there was a shock in store for him."
0:12:09 > 0:12:15"A most serious and startling situation was disclosed today.
0:12:15 > 0:12:23"Admiral Jellicoe stated that owing to the shortage of shipping due to the German submarines,
0:12:23 > 0:12:28"it is impossible for Great Britain to continue the war in 1918.
0:12:28 > 0:12:32"This was a bombshell for the Cabinet and all present."
0:12:33 > 0:12:37Jellicoe insisted that Zeebrugge must be cleared of U-boats.
0:12:37 > 0:12:41Lloyd George was in a dilemma.
0:12:41 > 0:12:46"It was decided that I should sum up the misgivings that most of us felt,
0:12:46 > 0:12:53"and that the responsibility for decisions should go to Sir William Robertson and Sir Douglas Haig."
0:12:53 > 0:12:58Reluctantly the government gave its authority to the Flanders offensive
0:12:58 > 0:13:01on naval and army leaders' advice.
0:13:01 > 0:13:05Now the time for talking was drawing to an end.
0:13:05 > 0:13:09On June 21st, one of Haig's staff officers wrote,
0:13:09 > 0:13:14"The longest day of the year and we have not yet begun the big effort.
0:13:14 > 0:13:18"We fight alone here. The only army active.
0:13:18 > 0:13:23"We shall do well. On that there is no reasonable doubt.
0:13:24 > 0:13:27"Have we the time to accomplish?"
0:13:35 > 0:13:37Time was inexorably passing.
0:13:37 > 0:13:42Time while the staffs worked out their detailed plans.
0:13:42 > 0:13:48Time while roads were laid, mended, re-laid and re-mended.
0:13:48 > 0:13:54Time while new divisions, including the French, came to the Salient.
0:13:54 > 0:13:59Time while training received its finishing touches.
0:14:02 > 0:14:10As each day passed, the signs of coming battle multiplied. Veterans knew now how to interpret them.
0:14:10 > 0:14:15"Until yesterday, most of those addressing us with pointer and map,
0:14:15 > 0:14:22"have declared that by zero hour all the German trenches will be obliterated by our shells.
0:14:22 > 0:14:24"A tale we've heard before.
0:14:24 > 0:14:32"The last lecturer, however, ominously omitted to provide this comforting assurance."
0:14:32 > 0:14:39The men of 1917 were less easily deluded. Less trustful than earlier generations of the war.
0:14:39 > 0:14:42Too many things had gone wrong.
0:14:47 > 0:14:50"Good morning, good morning!" the General said
0:14:50 > 0:14:52When we met him last week on our way to the line.
0:14:52 > 0:14:56Now the soldiers he smiled at are most of 'em dead,
0:14:56 > 0:14:59And we're cursing his staff for incompetent swine.
0:14:59 > 0:15:03"He's a cheery old card," grunted Harry to Jack
0:15:03 > 0:15:06As they slogged up to Arras with rifle and pack.
0:15:06 > 0:15:11But he did for them both by his plan of attack.
0:15:17 > 0:15:21The last days of July were running out.
0:15:21 > 0:15:26A certain uneasiness made itself felt, in the line and behind it.
0:15:26 > 0:15:28A staff officer wrote,
0:15:28 > 0:15:31"My one fear is the weather.
0:15:31 > 0:15:38"I do not think that we can hope for over a fortnight, or at best three weeks, of really fine weather."
0:15:38 > 0:15:43Through the smoking ruins of Ypres and the ruined villages around it,
0:15:43 > 0:15:47the troops marched to their positions.
0:15:47 > 0:15:54Because soldiers like to sing and because they were not at the end of hope, they marched in singing.
0:15:54 > 0:16:00But the songs were changing. The sardonic note was emphasised now.
0:16:00 > 0:16:05# We're here because we're here
0:16:05 > 0:16:09# We're here because We're here because
0:16:09 > 0:16:13# We're here because we're here... #
0:16:15 > 0:16:22The entire Ypres Salient, to a depth of eight miles from the front line,
0:16:22 > 0:16:29is alive with infantry, artillery, repair workshops, hospitals and ambulances of Gough's fifth army
0:16:29 > 0:16:33in billet, bivouac, mottle-painted tent or hut.
0:16:33 > 0:16:38The sheds and yards of buildings, copses, and all other cover,
0:16:38 > 0:16:43hide tanks, long-range guns, heavy howitzers and ammunition.
0:16:43 > 0:16:50Tonight we must bivouac, and there seems to be hardly a bit of vacant ground the size of a football pitch
0:16:50 > 0:16:55clear of troops, gear and stores.
0:16:55 > 0:16:59"Halted against the shade of a last hill they fed,
0:16:59 > 0:17:03"and lying easy were at ease,
0:17:03 > 0:17:08"and finding comfortable chests and knees carelessly slept.
0:17:08 > 0:17:16"But many there stood still to face the stark blank sky beyond the ridge,
0:17:16 > 0:17:21"knowing their feet had come to the end of the world."
0:17:23 > 0:17:27Final decisions, final preparations.
0:17:28 > 0:17:35"I've ordered the provost sergeant with the battalion police to go to the trenches as the assault starts.
0:17:35 > 0:17:40"They are to arrest any men who return improperly.
0:17:40 > 0:17:47"Although I command a battalion whose courage and loyalty have never given me a trace of anxiety,
0:17:47 > 0:17:54"one must guard against those inexplicable panics which may seize men and which are so infectious."
0:17:54 > 0:17:58This by now was an army of veterans.
0:17:58 > 0:18:02The men of 1917 were warier, more skilful,
0:18:02 > 0:18:06but they were less hasty to sacrifice themselves.
0:18:06 > 0:18:10The war itself was an older and uglier beast.
0:18:10 > 0:18:13Edmund Blunden wrote,
0:18:13 > 0:18:17"There were opportunities enough for death or glory,
0:18:17 > 0:18:24"but the experienced sense saw that people did not espouse them with the almost bright eye of a year before.
0:18:24 > 0:18:26"1917 was distasteful."
0:18:26 > 0:18:31Zero hour was 3.50am on July 31st.
0:18:32 > 0:18:39Nine divisions of the fifth army, five divisions of the second, and two French, went over the top.
0:18:43 > 0:18:49This was the British army's largest single effort since the Somme.
0:19:09 > 0:19:14But this was no Somme catastrophe, yet this was no victory either.
0:19:14 > 0:19:22This was not a Vimy or a Messine - it was that most delusive of war's products, a half-success...
0:19:22 > 0:19:25or half-failure.
0:19:35 > 0:19:40Straight away two persistent features of this battle were seen.
0:19:40 > 0:19:43Early in the afternoon, rain began to fall.
0:19:43 > 0:19:50Soon it turned into a drenching torrent and the German counter-attack began to come in.
0:19:50 > 0:19:56Up to their knees in mud, with rifles and guns choked by it,
0:19:56 > 0:20:02inch by inch, the German infantry began to re-take the British gains.
0:20:02 > 0:20:09To that extent, this WAS another Somme. With this difference - the rain did not cease.
0:20:17 > 0:20:22The British were bogged. The August weather washed their hopes away.
0:20:22 > 0:20:26The battlefield turned into a swamp.
0:20:26 > 0:20:31The miseries of war multiplied and heaped upon the soldiers.
0:20:40 > 0:20:48It rained continuously. One was as afraid of getting drowned as one was of getting hit by shells.
0:20:48 > 0:20:51You would either get through or die,
0:20:51 > 0:20:59cos if you were wounded and you slipped off the duckboards, you just sank into the mud.
0:20:59 > 0:21:04The mud was so deep that with drag ropes on the wheels
0:21:04 > 0:21:09and something like 100 men on the drag ropes,
0:21:09 > 0:21:14it was impossible to pull the guns out of the mud.
0:21:16 > 0:21:21You see fellows coming down there from the trenches, badly wounded,
0:21:21 > 0:21:25covered from head to foot in blood - perhaps an arm missing.
0:21:25 > 0:21:32You see some of the fellows drop off the duckboard and literally die from exhaustion, from loss of blood.
0:21:32 > 0:21:35Horrible it was.
0:21:35 > 0:21:39Bent double, like old beggars under sacks,
0:21:39 > 0:21:43Knock-kneed, coughing like hags, we cursed through sludge,
0:21:43 > 0:21:47Till on the haunting flares we turned our backs,
0:21:47 > 0:21:51And towards our distant rest began to trudge.
0:21:51 > 0:21:55Men marched asleep, many had lost their boots,
0:21:55 > 0:21:58But limped on, blood-shod.
0:21:58 > 0:22:01All went lame, all blind;
0:22:01 > 0:22:05Drunk with fatigue, deaf even to the hoots
0:22:05 > 0:22:08Of gas-shells dropping softly behind.
0:22:08 > 0:22:14"Gas! Gas! Quick, boys!" An ecstasy of fumbling
0:22:14 > 0:22:17Fitting the clumsy helmets just in time,
0:22:17 > 0:22:20But someone still was yelling out and stumbling
0:22:20 > 0:22:24And flound'ring like a man in fire or lime...
0:22:24 > 0:22:29Dim through the misty panes and thick green light,
0:22:29 > 0:22:34As under a green sea, I saw him drowning.
0:22:37 > 0:22:43The barrage roars and lifts. Then, clumsily bowed
0:22:43 > 0:22:46With bombs and guns and shovels and battle-gear,
0:22:46 > 0:22:49Men jostle and climb to meet the bristling fire.
0:22:49 > 0:22:52Lines of grey, muttering faces, masked with fear,
0:22:52 > 0:22:55They leave their trenches going over the top,
0:22:55 > 0:22:58While time ticks blank and busy on their wrists,
0:22:58 > 0:23:02And hope, with furtive eyes and grappling fists,
0:23:02 > 0:23:07Flounders in mud. Oh, Jesus, make it stop!
0:23:11 > 0:23:16The weather cleared. The ground began to dry.
0:23:16 > 0:23:19MUSIC: Waltzing Matilda
0:23:33 > 0:23:40Our artillery barrage was magnificent. Quite the best that the Australians had ever seen.
0:23:40 > 0:23:46Creeping forward exactly according to plan, the barrage won the ground while the infantry followed behind,
0:23:46 > 0:23:51and occupied the important points with a minimum of resistance.
0:23:51 > 0:23:55This seemed to be a turning point at last.
0:23:55 > 0:23:58The German army group commander wrote,
0:23:58 > 0:24:05"It is hoped that another attack won't follow quickly, as we have not enough reserves behind the front."
0:24:05 > 0:24:07An officer on Haig's staff wrote,
0:24:07 > 0:24:12"It is a race with time and a fight with the weather."
0:24:12 > 0:24:14Would the weather hold?
0:24:19 > 0:24:23Plumer's next attack was scheduled for October 4th.
0:24:23 > 0:24:26The barometer began to fall on October 1st.
0:24:26 > 0:24:29Zero hour on the fourth was 6am.
0:24:29 > 0:24:36The objective - the line of German concrete pill box defences on the ridge.
0:24:36 > 0:24:40"As we advanced, we saw Germans caught in our barrage.
0:24:40 > 0:24:44"They had been attacking at the same moment as us.
0:24:44 > 0:24:48"We pressed on and reached our objective.
0:24:48 > 0:24:54"We were on sloping ground and ahead lay the crest of the ridge."
0:24:57 > 0:25:04AUSTRALIAN ACCENT: It was surprising to look across and see the green fields of Belgium.
0:25:04 > 0:25:11Actual trees. Grass of course churned up a good deal - fields churned up with barrage shells,
0:25:11 > 0:25:16but it was, as far as we were concerned, open country.
0:25:16 > 0:25:22But then to look back from where we came, back to Ypres, there was devastation.
0:25:22 > 0:25:25And it was just dawn time,
0:25:25 > 0:25:32and you could then see why our own gunners had had such a gruesome time.
0:25:32 > 0:25:39You could see the flashes of all the guns right right back to the very Menin gate.
0:25:39 > 0:25:44The Australians were standing on the very edge of the Salient.
0:25:44 > 0:25:48General Monash, commanding their third division, wrote,
0:25:48 > 0:25:55"Great happenings are possible in the very near future, as the enemy is terribly disorganised.
0:25:55 > 0:26:01"Our success was complete and unqualified. We got absolutely astride of the main ridge."
0:26:01 > 0:26:07The Germans called October 4th, "A black day." Ludendorf wrote,
0:26:07 > 0:26:14"The infantry battle commenced on the morning of the 4th. It was extraordinarily severe.
0:26:16 > 0:26:21"And again we only came through with enormous losses."
0:26:21 > 0:26:25Now the great question presented itself in simple terms.
0:26:25 > 0:26:32In view of three blows, all a success, what will be the result of three more in the next fortnight?
0:26:32 > 0:26:39The question was never answered. Prince Rupprecht, commanding the Germans in Flanders, wrote,
0:26:39 > 0:26:46"Sudden change of weather. Most gratifying. Rain - our most effective ally."
0:26:47 > 0:26:50Haig's staff officer noted,
0:26:50 > 0:26:54"It was the saddest day of this year. We did fairly well.
0:26:54 > 0:26:59"It wasn't the enemy, but mud, that prevented us from doing better.
0:26:59 > 0:27:06"But there is now no chance of complete success this year. We must still fight on for a few more weeks,
0:27:06 > 0:27:11"but there is no purpose in it now, so far as Flanders is concerned."
0:27:31 > 0:27:38Now the ridges were needed to lift the army, if only a little, out of the sea of mud.
0:27:38 > 0:27:41This was the Slough of Despond.
0:27:41 > 0:27:48In this wasteland, shell craters touched each other, lip to lip, filled with disgusting ooze.
0:27:53 > 0:27:59Forward, inch by inch along the slimy tracks between these stinking ponds,
0:27:59 > 0:28:06British, Australian and New Zealand soldiers crept towards Passchendaele.
0:28:09 > 0:28:16"I don't know how far the duckboards extended because it was such slow going up to the front.
0:28:16 > 0:28:20It must have been hundreds of yards as they zigzagged about.
0:28:20 > 0:28:23But each side was a sea of mud,
0:28:23 > 0:28:30and you stumbled and slud along - if you slipped, you went up to the waist, possibly.
0:28:30 > 0:28:33Not only that, but in every pool
0:28:33 > 0:28:39was decomposed bodies of humans and mules.
0:28:39 > 0:28:42Or mules... Sometimes both.
0:28:42 > 0:28:47And if you were wounded and slipped off, well, that was the end of you.
0:28:47 > 0:28:50"...I died in Hell
0:28:50 > 0:28:55"(they called it Passchendaele) my wound was slight
0:28:55 > 0:28:58"and I was hobbling back; and then a shell
0:28:58 > 0:29:02"burst slick upon the duckboards; so I fell
0:29:02 > 0:29:07"into the bottomless mud, and lost the light."
0:29:08 > 0:29:14How many men wounded, overburdened or overtired vanished in the swamp no-one will know.
0:29:14 > 0:29:19The October days were nightmares for the British army.
0:29:22 > 0:29:29The icy fingers of nightmare clutched men's hearts on both sides of the line.
0:29:29 > 0:29:33I thought that the Germans were in as bad a position as we were.
0:29:33 > 0:29:40In fact, one party of men was trying to make a hole more comfortable - scooping it out,
0:29:40 > 0:29:46and some hundreds of yards away the Germans were doing the same, but neither took notice of the other.
0:29:46 > 0:29:49A German officer wrote,
0:29:49 > 0:29:57"I am scared. For the first time in this war I have doubts whether we shall be able to hold out.
0:29:57 > 0:30:02"There must be 8 to 10,000 guns employed on this bit of front."
0:30:02 > 0:30:05"That is the picture which scares me.
0:30:05 > 0:30:12"Verdun, the Somme and Arras are mere purgatories compared with this concentrated hell,
0:30:12 > 0:30:16"which one of these days will be stoked up to white heat.
0:30:16 > 0:30:21"It makes you grind your teeth with rage and gives you a dry throat.
0:30:21 > 0:30:24"I have a sense of coming disaster."
0:30:33 > 0:30:39The place was rotten with dead; green clumsy legs
0:30:39 > 0:30:43High-booted, sprawled and grovelled along the saps
0:30:43 > 0:30:47And trunks, face downward, in the sucking mud,
0:30:47 > 0:30:51Wallowed like trodden sand-bags loosely filled;
0:30:54 > 0:30:59And naked sodden buttocks, mats of hair,
0:30:59 > 0:31:03Bulged, clotted heads slapped in the plastering slime.
0:31:03 > 0:31:07And then the rain began - the jolly old rain!
0:31:13 > 0:31:18Who are these? Why sit they here in twilight?
0:31:20 > 0:31:24Wherefore rock they, purgatorial shadows,
0:31:24 > 0:31:28Drooping tongues from jaws that slob their relish,
0:31:28 > 0:31:32Baring teeth that leer like skulls' teeth wicked?
0:31:32 > 0:31:38Stroke on stroke of pain... but what slow panic,
0:31:38 > 0:31:43Gouged these chasms round their fretted sockets?
0:31:43 > 0:31:49Ever from their hair and through their hand's palms misery swelters.
0:31:49 > 0:31:54Surely we have perished Sleeping, and walk hell...
0:31:59 > 0:32:02..but who these hellish?
0:32:03 > 0:32:08These are men whose minds the Dead have ravished.
0:32:13 > 0:32:17Canadians came in to relieve the Anzacs.
0:32:17 > 0:32:20More British divisions moved up.
0:32:20 > 0:32:24Yard by yard, they crept towards Passchendaele.
0:32:24 > 0:32:27On October 28th Haig wrote,
0:32:27 > 0:32:32"The seventh division were engulfed in mud in places when they attacked.
0:32:32 > 0:32:35"Rifles could not be used."
0:32:35 > 0:32:38It happened every day.
0:32:38 > 0:32:40Ludendorf wrote,
0:32:40 > 0:32:46"It was not longer life at all. It was just unspeakable suffering.
0:32:46 > 0:32:54"And through this world of mud the attackers dragged themselves, slowly but steadily and in dense masses.
0:32:54 > 0:32:59"Man fought against man, but only too often the mass was successful."
0:33:03 > 0:33:07O German mother dreaming by the fire,
0:33:07 > 0:33:10While you are knitting socks to send your son
0:33:10 > 0:33:14His face is trodden deeper in the mud.
0:33:28 > 0:33:33Passchendaele, a brick-coloured stain on the watery wilderness,
0:33:33 > 0:33:36fell to the Canadians on November 6th.
0:33:36 > 0:33:39Six days later the battle ended.
0:33:39 > 0:33:45It had cost the British army nearly a quarter of a million casualties.
0:33:45 > 0:33:49They had not even completely reached their first objective.
0:33:49 > 0:33:53Ostend and Zeebrugge remained in German hands.
0:33:53 > 0:34:01But a German staff officer called this battle, "The greatest martyrdom of the war."
0:34:01 > 0:34:05Another German wrote in his last letter home,
0:34:05 > 0:34:12"You do not know what Flanders means. Flanders means endless human endurance.
0:34:12 > 0:34:17"Flanders means blood and scraps of human bodies.
0:34:17 > 0:34:22"Flanders means heroic courage and fatefulness, even until death."
0:34:24 > 0:34:32In the Ypres Salient the ultimate battle was fought, not amid the swamps, but in the hearts of men.
0:34:32 > 0:34:36And now they were beginning to recognise their other enemy.
0:34:36 > 0:34:40A war correspondent caught a hint of it.
0:34:40 > 0:34:45"For the first time the British army lost its spirit of optimism,
0:34:45 > 0:34:52"and there was a sense of deadly depression among many officers and men with whom I came in touch.
0:34:52 > 0:35:00"They saw no ending of the war and nothing except continuous slaughter, such as that in Flanders."
0:35:32 > 0:35:37The soldiers' opinion of this battle - they were very bitter.
0:35:37 > 0:35:43The point at issue was no-one, no infantryman at all, minded one bit being shot about,
0:35:43 > 0:35:49or doing his job on a terra firma - where he could stand to fight.
0:35:49 > 0:35:56But here we were so hopelessly placed that there was no thought of getting to any final objective
0:35:56 > 0:36:01because you couldn't even swim or stagger there.
0:36:06 > 0:36:11There was this bitter feeling that prevailed amongst the infantrymen
0:36:11 > 0:36:18when they saw their lads and they knew not wounded, not killed, but drowned in this filthy mud.
0:36:22 > 0:36:26I can see them all asleep, three men deep,
0:36:26 > 0:36:29and it's bitter cold at night, since the fight
0:36:29 > 0:36:33and they're nowhere near a fire - but our wire
0:36:33 > 0:36:37Has 'em fast as can be. Can't you see
0:36:37 > 0:36:40When the flare goes up?
0:36:40 > 0:36:43Ssh! Boys; what's that noise?
0:36:43 > 0:36:48Do you know what these rats eat? Body-meat!
0:36:54 > 0:36:59Since we believe not otherwise can kind fires burn;
0:36:59 > 0:37:04Nor ever suns smile true on child, or field, or fruit.
0:37:04 > 0:37:09For God's invincible spring our love is made afraid;
0:37:09 > 0:37:13Therefore, not loath, we lie out here; therefore were born,
0:37:13 > 0:37:19For love of God seems dying.
0:37:22 > 0:37:25Good-bye old lad! Remember me to God,
0:37:25 > 0:37:28And tell him that our Politicians swear
0:37:28 > 0:37:31They won't give in till Prussian Rule's been trod
0:37:31 > 0:37:35Under the Heal of England... Are you there?
0:37:35 > 0:37:40Yes...and the War won't end for at least two years;
0:37:40 > 0:37:45But we've got stacks of men... I'm blind with tears,
0:37:45 > 0:37:49Staring into the dark. Cheero!
0:37:49 > 0:37:53I wish they'd killed you in a decent show.
0:38:10 > 0:38:14Subtitles by Kate Spence BBC Broadcast 2003
0:38:14 > 0:38:18E-mail us at subtitling@bbc.co.uk