For The Fallen World War One Remembered: Passchendaele

100 years ago tomorrow, the Allies prepared to face

the Imperial German Army on the fields of Flanders.

It was a brutal battle, truly beyond imagining and it

would claim the lives of tens of thousands of people.

Passchendaele, the name, the place, will forever be

synonymous with human horror - the destruction, the quagmire

of the battlefield and, above all, the terrifying massacre

Good evening from Tyne Cot Cemetery in Belgium -

the largest Commonwealth War Graves Commission Cemetery in the world.

Almost 47,000 men are buried or commemorated

Given the peace and tranquillity here today, it's difficult

to envisage the scene of carnage that unfolded a century ago.

events will be held to mark the Third Battle of Ypres

which became commonly known as Passchendaele.

And tomorrow marks the exact date 100 years ago when

the first attack was made - the 31st of July.

This evening's commemorations will begin in Ypres -

the Belgian city at the very heart of Flanders.

Winston Churchill said of the city, "A more sacred place for the British

Tonight, it's where we'll be paying tribute to all the people

who fought in and around here, from 1914 right through

And we'll be remembering in particular the half a million

The first event will focus on the Menin Gate in Ypres.

an act of remembrance - known as The Last Post Ceremony -

It's a tradition that goes back 89 years,

and it was started by the Belgians to show their deep-felt appreciation

of those individual sacrifices made for their nation's freedom.

Tonight then, we will witness a significant event -

Their Royal Highnesses the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge will attend

the commemorations together with Their Majesties,

The King and Queen of the Belgians, accompanied by lots of other VIPs

They are all here to pay tribute on behalf of their nations

to the courage and loss of those young men who fought a century ago.

Now later this evening, following that Last Post Ceremony,

there will be a unique event in the city's Market Square.

The imposing facade of a building known as the Cloth Hall will be

illuminated with projections and lights, together with some very

special live performances, from, among others,

The city of Ypres, where all those events are taking place,

Let's join Dan Snow, who's going to tell us more.

yes, Kirsty. I'm beneath the mighty Menin Gate, on the Menin Road.

During the course of the war, hundreds of thousands of men marched

Out of medieval Ypres, three. Menin Gate and out onto the battlefield

beyond. The Germans in the summer of 1917 word two miles that way, so

when the troops marched through here they were on a ravaged, devastated

battlefield, a place of horror. In around half an hour's time,

people who have been selected in a special ballot,

whose relatives are remembered on the Menin Gate, will

process down this road for the Last Post Ceremony,

where they'll be joined by some Kirsty has been finding out more

about the symbolism and meaning of this extraordinary monument.

The land around Ypres saw some of the most sustained fighting

In the sea of mud where the battles were fought, many bodies

could not be recovered - they simply sank into the earth

They died and had no known grave, and their families

Many of those soldiers had made their way to the front line

by crossing a bridge that was flanked by two lions.

It was called the Menin Gate, and it was beyond the gate

So, this place was chosen as a fitting site for a memorial.

On its walls, 54,392 names are inscribed.

For those soldiers, the Menin Gate is their tombstone.

The Menin Gate Memorial gave the families of the missing a place

The people of Ypres had seen the sacrifice

So, in their own tribute, they started playing

the Last Post under the gate and, apart from the years of Nazi

occupation, it has been played here every evening since 1929.

We bring to life, in fact, each evening, the memorial

and the names on the gate, by sounding the Last Post in honour

Symbolically, Ypres stops the daily life.

We go back in thoughts to the First World War.

Then at eight o'clock, we sound the Attention,

followed by the Last Post, to honour and remember the fallen.

We need to continue to remember those guys who came sometimes

from the other side of the world to rescue Belgium 100 years ago.

So there is always a link between Ypres and all those other

cities and countries from where they came.

It seemed full of respect, profoundly connected, not just to

the men who lost their lives but this community that saw so much

horror. As I was listening to the notes of the last post, I started

looking at the ground and was imagining these young men marching

through these very streets on the way to an unimaginable hell and it

seems not just fitting that absolutely vital that we stand here

and recognise what happened 100 years ago.

As we gear up for tonight's ceremonies, we'll be talking

about Passchendaele and the stories of those men who

travelled from Britain, Ireland and from around the world to

I'm joined by David Olusoga, broadcaster and historian, and

also with us is the author and historian Richard van Emden

who has, over the years, interviewed many hundreds of

Having just watched that again and having witnessed The Last Post

Ceremony myself, I'm sure you will have been many times. David, the

thing that struck me was how personal the ceremony is. It seems

to come from the very heart of the people of this area. I think it's an

almost unique phenomenon. This isn't an official ceremony, no act of

Parliament was passed, no one from the Belgian government says you must

do this. The people of this one small town, 35,000 people, have

decided for 80 years to remember what happened in the fields out

here. It is an amazing act of remembrance by individuals,

personal, from the bottom up, not by the government. Almost like the war

itself, unique. Richard, it was interesting for me to hear from the

man who was in charge of making sure the ceremony run smoothly every

night, he said a very poignant phrase, he said" their blood is in

our soil". What do you make of that? How true it is. You only have to

look at the cemetery behind us here tonight. I think there are countless

men being dug up every single year, their bodies are being found, then

blown to pieces here. The vast majority of these grapes here are of

men who are of unknown identities. -- these graves here. It really is,

the soil here holds the blood of so many nationalities that fought for

the Allies. Let's bring in it remind ourselves of why it was at this

point in the war, a century ago, British troops, Allied troops, found

themselves in Flanders. What was happening at this point? For those

months in 1917 this was the most terrible place in the world. This

was the place where Britain could lose the war, because if Ypres is

captured, the Germans would have access to Dunkirk and Calais, the

Channel ports and could cut Britain from France, separate the Allies.

This was a place where Britain could in a number of days lose the war.

The question nobody really knew is if this was a place Britain could

win the war. In 1917, and offensive around the Ypres Salient, the

question was, could you push forward, break into Belgium, into

the open countryside behind the line and reached the German frontier? And

could you reach the U-boat aces on the coast? Britain is beginning to

lose the U-boat war. Richard, just expand on that for a moment if you

will. It was an important time because the submarines were bombing

supplies that were literally going to feed the British people. Probably

in historical reflection, we were unlikely to lose the war because of

the U-boat menace but we had introduced the convoy system, that

protected many ships across the Atlantic. But it was perceived as

being extremely dangerous. It was felt that the offensive here, not

just an attempt to secure the coast, but also it was about holding the

allies together. The French had had a mutiny in April 1917, and a

revolution in Russia. Britain was the only army at that time that

could really be relied upon to Harris the Germans. 1917 was a year

of harrying the enemy. We have so much to talk about. I know you are

staying with us. Tonight we are commemorating

the Third Battle of Ypres, more From the early onset

of the First World War, the battlefields around Ypres

witnessed brutal fighting, and that intensified

with this offensive. David Olusoga, who we've

just been hearing from, is going to guide us through some

of the key moments Germany's U-boats were sinking

British ships at such a rate that it was feared Britain could be

starved out of the war. So it was hoped that this battle

would break through the German lines and capture the U-boat bases

on the Channel coast. Preparations were intense

but they were also dramatic, and that's because two months before

the main offensive, 19 mines, deep tunnels dug

underneath the German And in an instant, 10,000 German

soldiers were killed. Devastating though these detonations

were, they were merely meant to prepare the ground

for the main offensive. And that came 54 days later,

on the 31st of July. The initial attacks were largely

successful and among the many objectives captured was this

German signals bunker. And in here, troops sheltered

from the German shellfire And that was critical,

because at Passchendaele it very quickly became obvious

that the British had a second The ancient ditches and channels

that drained the water from the fields around Ypres,

had been almost completely obliterated by three years

of artillery bombardments. That meant that while

the rain kept falling, Well, I think there's a limit

to almost everything and the mud at Passchendaele and the sight

of seeing men sucked down in this mud, dying in this mud,

absolutely finished me off. The conditions on the Ypres

battlefield in 1917 were appalling. Men weren't fighting

in proper drained trenches. They were living in shell holes

full of mud and slime and there they were being feasted

upon by lice and by rats. Well, we were literally

living like animals. There was no enlivening sort

of attitude in living at all. Although people still fought

for their existence, the general opinion

was that it wasn't worthwhile. As the fighting continued,

a series of attacks were launched But what they all had in common

was high rates of attrition, as every month, tens of thousands

of men were wounded, And despite the appalling

conditions, Passchendaele on the 10th of November

was finally captured. The British had succeeded in pushing

back the German lines, The German war machine had

certainly been weakened, but there was no end in sight

to the First World War. And between them, the two armies

that had faced one another in the fields around Passchendaele

had suffered half And the bones and the remains

of thousands of those men still lie That gives a wonderful sense of why

we were, where we were. But of course, it is the Third Battle of

Ypres, what happened in the first two to get us to this point? The

first battle of Ypres is one that gives birth to the Western Front.

Where there is a mod come of fluid fighting and the armies are trying

to get around. This is where the British Army with a lot of Indian

soldiers hold the line and give birth to the Western Front. The

second battle, is infamous, because it is the first moment in 1915 where

the chemical weapons are used. The Germans unleashed chlorine gas and

nearly break through the lines and capture the town of Ypres.

Did the battle meet the objectives of what it set out to do? Well, the

submarine bases were never captured. There was never a significant break

through into the Belgium countryside behind the lines and the German

frontier was never confronted. But a First World War battle never

achieves its objectives. This is the Band of the Welsh

Guards, marching their weigh through the lovely little town of Ypres.

Getting into position at the Menin Gate for the evening's ceremony.

There they are. What a colour and what a sight. And let's talk about

Again Haig. His is a name in the historian community one that strikes

up a lot of controversy. What were his aims in the Third Battle of

Ypres in Passchendaele? He wanted a breakthrough on the Somme and here.

He was well aware of the fact that his army was the only army at that

time that could launch an offensive against the Germans. His decision

early on in 1917 was to Harry the Germans at each be opportunity. He

had done it at Arras, at Messines and now at Ypres he was to have

another go, to try to force the Germans back. You have to look, to

see, Ypres was so important to the British, the losses, it became so

important to us, he wanted to ensure that the Germans could no longer

oversee the British forces from the high ground, to push them back and

save Ypres. David you are nodding, when you say

important, important beyond the battle itself, as it spoke to people

at home, did it? It has become symbolic, to if it had fallen it

would have been a crisis. It would have been seen as a major defeat.

Probably more so at times, Ypres was sacred to the British.

And Richard, briefly in terms of the loss of life. When I say these

figures, reel them off, 500,000 people either injured or killed, was

the sacrifice worth it is the question that we now ask ourselves.

Is it a fair question? We look at this with the benefit of hindsight.

Was this operation a sensible idea on the 30th of July? Yes, it was.

Was it, it was time to go, it was a sensible offensive to be had at that

time. Was it sensible to continue it after the 6th of October when the

rains pulled down? It is debatable. The casualties are a by-product of

horrendous attritional warfare. There are no longer any survivors of

the Great War but the powerful testimonies remain.

Tonight, the special live event in Ypres' Market Square will feature

the stories and voices of very many veterans who fought right

Andrew Bowie was just 19 when he came to Passchendaele to fight.

I had to go there, as I was a certain age and I was...

We were there to take Passchendaele Ridge.

There was an anxiety in the air - what was going to happen

When it came to attack, the whole hell was let

loose by the Germans, because they were on the ridge,

you see, and we were in the flat below, and they couldn't miss

When we had a chance, this big shell hole was near us

You just sat there with your feet in water, ankles up,

They were all dead or wounded or something.

We were in the shell hole for two or three days.

We couldn't see our way out because this place was being sprayed

We finished off with two rifles together, ground

sheets over the top, and pretending we were

The Germans did not fire on us, luckily,

and that was the great escape for us.

680 men went in as a battalion and the roll call,

The feeling I got was, it was a waste of life.

I felt that it was just a waste of human life,

sending men in to take in a place like that.

David and Richard are still with me, and we've been joined

by the Belgian historian Professor Sophie De Schaerpdrijver.

Thank you for joining us. I'll come to you in a second. Richard, you

recorded that 20 years ago with Andrew Bowie. I don't know how

recently you have seen it but what are your thoughts this evening? It's

a powerful first testimony. It is. I have a very emotional

response to seeing that film. Andrew was a remarkable man. He suffered

the hell of Passchendaele. He is talking about the end of the battle,

October, when this place was horrific, and I mean horrific. Men

just drowned in the aye palling mud. He suffered three days of incredible

torture but it did not marr his life. I have to say that. He said he

saw it as a waste of life but he made something of his life. It

didn't finish him as an individual. He went on. He was a lovely, lovely

man. To see him now after all of these years is wonderful.

And a very significant piece of film to have.

Sophie, we have been talking about the Allied Troops and British

people, I wonder if you can give a sense of the experience of the

people of Flanders and Belgium at this point in the war? What was

happening? What was their response? The salient characteristic of

Belgium in war is that Belgium was invaded. Yes. That is to shape the

Belgium experience of war. So the British Army is here in a corner

that has not been conquered. The sense was strong, a strong sense of

part of Belgium, only part of Belgium not being invaded.

So there was a strong sense of the front of it being about rolling back

the invasion, rolling back military occupation. That sense was

prevalent, extremely so among the Belgiums in 1917 because around that

time forced labour had been introduced among the civilians,

exploitation had reached very great and very cruel heights. Civilians

were used, lives were being torn apart and the Belgium army too,

which helped the French to the north of Ypres, well, there was a strong

sense in spite of war weariness, there was a strong sense it was

absolutely crucial to hold that front.

We saw the The Regiment Carabiniers Prince Baudouin, indeed, marching

Uhl towards the Menin Gate for the evening's ceremony. It is difficult

to listen to. David you put it it in great context: It is very difficult

to Maginn how important it must have been to the people of Belgium to see

the Allied Troops on their land trying their damndest to protect

Flanders? This is a tiny corner of the country. It is that all is left.

It is as if all of Britain other than Cornwall is being conquered.

You have to defend the dream of pushing back, reuniting with your

brothers, the Belgium soldiers to the north of here, their families

are in the other side of the German line in the occupation, suffering

the forced labour that Sophie is talking about.

Later on there will be 200 descendants joining the

Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, and the King and Queen of the

Belgians alongside others, for the special Last Post

Dan Snow's with a couple of the guests.

I'm joined by three people. A special connection with the events

of 100 years ago. Christine, Ruth and Jan. Who are you here to

remember? Edmund Galletti, our grandfather who died on the 31st of

July, 1917. That was 100 years ago tomorrow.

How old was your father when his father was killed out here? He was

just a baby. A year old when his father died as he had been born in

1916. You have a special letter from the

Commanding Officer. Would you like to read it out? To all of us his

death is a great loss but our share of lurks we can measure the

greatness of yours and I venture to send our deepest sympathy. You have

the consolation of knowing he did his duty nobly, and to your little

son his father should always be a proud memory.

It is a special thing to have that letter in the family. Jan, what is

it like being here, seeing his name on the wall and looking around Ypres

today? It is incredible. It is a privilege. It is a pilgrimage. We

are here to honour not just our grandfather but our father as well,

who really didn't know him as we knew him. So it is massive to be

here. This whole event is just fantastic.

Thank you for joining us and sharing the stories about your grandfather.

Thank you. Thank you.

The ladies will be enjoying the events taking place later.

Now elet's have a look at the scene at the Menin Gate.

There are the Band of the Welsh Guards.

A fantastic scene there. One man who has a very big job is Lieutenant

Kevin Reynolds, doing his best to conduct all of the music this

receivening. No small task, overseeing four different groups of

musicians, the Walsh, the Central Band of the RAF and the Band of Her

Majesty's Plymouth. And the The National Youth Choir of Scotland. I

have heard the rehearsals it will be something to look forward to.

The First World War is now beyond living memory,

but the testimonies of those who fought mean the horrors

The following film is a testament to the remarkable story of one

ordinary man who fought at Passchendaele and became

During the four years of war, over five million men from Britain

and the Empire fought on the Western Front.

They were ordinary men, destined to fight an extraordinary war.

Such was the pain of that doomed generation that it

Eventually, from all those who fought in the trenches,

The first time he spoke publicly about the war was in 1998,

There was number one on the gun, there was me with the spare parts

and they were carrying the air munition.

It's a difficult thing to describe, the friendship there was between us.

We each knew where the other came from and what their lives had been,

We belonged to each other, if you understand.

When it came to the point when we went into action,

We were on a piece of ground and the Whizz Bang

The last three, who were the air munition carriers, they must

have been right back where the shell burst.

I shall never forget the three I lost behind me.

80 years after, I always remember it.

That is the trouble now, talking to you.

You are making me relive what happened, years and years ago.

Over the next 11 years, Harry confronted the memories that

tormented him, and became a figurehead for remembrance.

When he passed away on the 25th of July 2009, we lost our last

living link to the trenches of World War I.

But the legacy of Harry's generation will last for ever.

The memories of Harry Patch. I should tell viewers at home David

Denton Richard Ewing and said, you should be very proud of that. --

David turned to Richard. You got him to talk about bits of his life he

had never discussed before, even with his family, the people he loved

the most. Why do you think he spoke to you and at that point was ready

to talk? Because he knew it was two minutes to 12 in his life. He knew

he was going to take this to the grave with him and it was a monkey

on his back. When I first met him, he told me his entire war in five

minutes, he said that sick, I don't think there's any more I can tell

you. I said, can I ask you more questions? When I said afterwards,

we would love to feel knew about this, is that possible? He agreed.

He said on the clip, you're making me talk about things. We weren't, we

said if we bring a crew down here and talk to will you up and tell it?

He said yes, I will. It was incredibly painful for him but you

could see, as he talked about it, not just on that occasion but

occasions, slowly this monkey that had been on his back for 80 years

began to lift. I'll tell you something, just before he died, I

think he actually wanted to die here. He said to me, take me back to

Passchendaele. It was coming up to his 111th birthday, there was no way

he could have come back. He went like this I pulled out his passport.

I think he wanted to come back here and die. But he was happy. At that

time, he'd got over his war. The last couple of times we brought him

here, with so much more at peace than he was the first time we came

here and he couldn't get off the bus for crying. When he came here, did

he talk while he was here or word the memories internal and personal

whilst he was in Flanders? The first time we came here we went to where

he was on the 16th of August any good and he couldn't really talk

about it, he wept. He couldn't even get off the bus at first. Slowly but

surely he would let us in a little bit more, tell us a little bit more

about what had happened to him. But it traumatised him. Even just before

he died, he said to me, have you ever handled a man without a head? I

said, are you talking about the Second World War? He said no, the

First World War. I said to Harry, I said maybe this is the time to leave

that. We are just looking at pictures of Harry, a visit to a

German cemetery. David, that is an interesting idea, that someone is

willing to confront not just the horror of what he and his comrades

and his friends went through, but what happened on the other side.

That seems to have been a great strength of the man, that he could

confront that? He was aware he had been through hell and an equal hell

had been experienced by men on the other side of the line. I met quite

a number of veterans, not as many as Richard, they were aware they had

killed as well as seen their comrades die. There was among many

of them a sense that what they had been through was something that

should never have been asked of any generation. There was not a pacifism

but they sense that war, especially this war, with something that had to

be regretted unlamented and not glamorised. Sophie, as a Belgian and

historian, when you hear Richard say he was talking to this man is more

than 100 years old, who felt above all else, he would have been

happiest and most comfortable coming back here to die. That is an

extraordinary thing. It must be almost a strange thing for a Belgian

person to hear? Would you of that? I have interviewed Belgian veterans

and they have they similar things. It is probably the defining

experience. It may be remembered as such in extreme old age. I would

like to refer to something that David said, about the German

soldiers dying in the Salient. Their memorial footprint is much smaller,

so the landscape here tells a story, but it tells a lopsided story,

because you wonder, where are the Germans? You miss them. They are

there, but you have German war cemeteries that are much smaller

than Tyne Cot but hold many more remains. Do you think that is

something potentially in the future people will be willing to explore or

do you think it's buried with history? If this is to be as it

should become a European memory, then yes, this is the way to go.

Later this evening there is a very special live event that will pay

tribute to these men we have been talking about, who fought in the

fields of Flanders. Hosted by Dame Helen Mirren, it

will feature performances of songs, Dan met with Ian Hislop who was

taking part in the events later. What can expect from you and the

team tonight? The commemoration of the Battle of Passchendaele and we

are doing extracts from the play The Wipers Times, which my friend and I

wrote. We are doing selected bits, which is particularly good because

our slot were actually at the Battle of Passchendaele. What was The

Wipers Times? Unbelievably a satirical newspaper produced in the

trenches and it started right here in Dammartin-en-Goele. Two British

officers and their Sergeant, who turned out to be a printer, started

a newspaper and it around throughout the rest of the war, from 1916 to

the Armistice. Ian Hislop, what first attracted you to a satirical

newspaper written in the trenches? What a question. Two men in the

worst possible circumstances producing a brilliantly funny paper,

under duress and threat of death. On the front line, they didn't do it at

home and send it up, it was on the front line. At one point they had to

correct page proofs before going over the trenches. These guys did it

for real. You do it for real as well, thank you very much. Back to

you, thank you.

Back to the Menin Gate. A ceremony that takes place every evening but

tonight a rather bigger and more special event. The UK Defence

Secretary Michael Fallon taking his place. The welcoming party for all

of these significant people includes Sir Tim Laurence, the vice-chairman

of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission, and the husband of the

Princess Royal, Princess am. We can also see the mayor of Ypres. Born in

a village nearby and it will be a proud evening an important evening

for him as he watches the people gather under this important

monument. With me still are Sophie, David and Richard. I'm keen to try

and explore a little more of the history of this place, and I'm

talking not about when the battles were here but when people were going

about their daily lives. The first thing that struck me, and it is the

first time I have been to Ypres this week, was to see Cloth Hall. So

beautiful and ornate as a piece of architecture, yet it has a very

simple name, the Cloth Hall, because that was the industry of the area.

Can you put it some context? The Cloth Hall does look like a

cathedral. Yes. The largest Gothic civil building in Europe. Why is

that? Why does it look like a cathedral? What was done there was

trading in woollens. It was the heart, the driving heart of the

woollen trade, with England and then across Western Europe. If you look

at medieval Europe, you can see almost a spine of cities going from

England, and then flounders, you have Paris and then it goes all the

way down to northern Italy, which is in many ways this long spine of

trade, exchange, communication, knowledge, discovery. There is a

very proud memory of that, even though by the late 19th-century,

Ypres was no longer the heart of things as it had been. The Cloth

Hall lay in ruins at the end of the Second World War. That was not just

a practical problem for the people of this area but somehow hugely

significant symbolically. The whole idea was it stood for urban

liberties, it stood for trade, it stood for exchange and openness, all

of that simply had to be rebuilt, even if in the event it meant

prioritising that kind of rebuilding over rebuilding houses for ordinary

people. Many of them lived in barracks well into the 1920s,

however it was absolutely a priority. It was crucial. The

picture we saw is of a pile of rubble that nothing but almost two

faces of the tower still standing. When it was proposed that a lot of

effort and I'm guessing a lot of money was put into rebuilding it,

the people of Ypres and Flanders said good idea? If they were living

in barracks? First of all, we're not in a social democracy yet so their

opinion was not being asked. They may have muttered but there were no

channels for they're muttering, so we do not know. I'm sure they

weren't very happy. It could well be that the very idea they could not

yet be articulated. We're going to take a little look now at the

descendants procession that is taking place, towards the Menin

Gate. Since the 1920s families have come to Ypres to visit the Menin

Gate and commemorate the last dead, those who had no grave and no tomb

at that point. They are led by the Royal Irish pipes and drums in fine

fettle. A fine evening, the sun has come out. The clouds have parted and

we have a fine evening for the commemoration. David, I want to ask

you about these families. There is a great question as to why people

still come. They have been coming since the 1920s. In the beginning,

entirely understandable because these were mothers, sisters, and

aunts who wanted to know where their young men had gone and wanted

somehow to connect with their death. Why do you think it is, and we have

hundreds of them here this evening, that each and every year tens of

thousands of people come to this tiny town in ostensibly the middle

of nowhere, to connect with that event? I think it's one of the great

questions of British history. 100 years ago people would say this will

be remembered in 100 years' time but I don't know if they were confident.

Most wars are forgotten, this war hasn't been. Normally when the

generation who fought leave us, wars are put behind us. This hasn't

happened. In the 1980s there was talk that even the Remembrance Day

ceremony would eventually die out. That is unimaginable now. The First

World War has become part of who we are. I don't think anyone can answer

as to why, but it is part of European history and British history

and the idea of not commemorating it is unimaginable. Is an intrigue in

many ways, White a century on we are still doing it. I know you have a

great depth of information about many of the family stories. One of

the stories I read about were three Australian brothers. Can you tell us

about them? Three brothers from Sydney in Australia that came over

here and they fought at the Battle of Menin Road on the 20th of

September. All three were mortally wounded, two dying very soon

afterwards, their bodies were lost, never recovered. They are on the

Menin Gate. The third one died of his wounds I think the following

dates and is buried a few miles at the back of Ypres. All three

brothers effectively killed at the same time, at the same place. Some

of those commemorated on the gate, under the age of 18, am I right in

saying that? Yes, I had a great interest in a number of boys who

served under age in the First World War. There are certainly ten

15-year-olds on the Menin Gate. It only holds 50% of ages on their

website, so you could fairly well speculate there would be at least

twice that and probably more. Many boys used false names. Parents have

the habit of rounding up ages, when they were asked to log their son

was, born in 89 and died in 16 so he was 15 but he might have been

younger. A lot of young lads. The idea age, the more there are. A lot

of 17-year-olds, lots of 16-year-olds are lots of

18-year-old. At the time you had to be 19. We're seeing a splendid site

of the Belgian standards. This is a procession of the descendants making

their way towards the Menin Gate. David, can you give us a little bit

more, some of the facts and figures behind the Menin Gate. As we saw in

the earlier film, of course, this is a commemoration. Before it used to

be there with the bridge on the lines on the bridge that was it, but

here at the Menin Gate now, when people come to visit, what are they

seeing and witnessing? They are seeing the transformation

of what was a number of gates of medieval Ypres turned into an

international place of pilgrimage. Those 53,000 names are the names of

those without a proper burial, without a proper headstone. The

reason is because of the nature of the war, the landscape it was fought

on, meant they were atomised by the explosions or drowned in the mud.

The scale of the monument is in balance to the horror that happened.

We needed to build something here, to try to acknowledge account awful

this had been. And Sophie, as I was standing there,

there is no pomposity, there is something that is almost spare and

noble about this. What are your thoughts on that? Absolutely. It is

not a performance. It does not matter there is no audience. Many

people here remember decades where on many, many, many evenings, where

there was nobody, or maybe two people, somebody walking a dog, it

doesn't matter, it is not a performance. Precisely on those

I'vening, you can sense how brilliant the ritual is. It doesn't

tell you what to think about war, one way or another but it is done

every day. The brilliance of the significance, lies in the sheer

dogged dailiness of it. Let's cast our minds back 100 years

ago, and beyond that, to the information that was reaching people

in Britain. What did people know about what was happening out here?

How much did they know? By 1917 people understand the nature of the

war. By 1917 there is a certain amount of naivety about the Western

Front. There is a control of newspaper, there is a degree of

censorship but it cannot disguise the list of the deads. So people

after the Somme know what the First World War. They may not know the

grimmer, the nastier details but they know that the Western Front is

slaughterhouse, that the Ypres Salient is the worst place in the

world. Sophie? They know it is a

slaughterhouse, how many are falling dead every day but at the same time,

that it is not just a testimony to how horrible it is but also an

emblem of natural resolve, somehow. That is the mentality of that war,

that explains why Britain stick it out.

Richard, how much did you find that, when talking to men who had fought

here? We are not talking as we are now but talk of a highly

individualised civil sighs, where people may not agree with it, that

they know they could be going to hell. But they do it as it is

expected of them? They would spell it out to me DUTY, duty. They had

huge store in the word. For some of them, it was right or wrong but for

the majority it was country-right. In that they believed that the task

that they were Jung was legitimate. So willing to do their utmost for

that. They knew the horrors. I mean, Harry Patch, his brother had been

here, two years before he had arrived here. He had no illusions

what he was going to. But he was determined. He was conscripted and

he would do his level best. And you can is a that about the vast men who

came here. David, can you give a snapshot of

this time if you can? 1917 began with feeling for peace. American

President Wilson had brokered a suggestion of peace, the Catholic

Church had offered services to broker for peace and even from the

Germans to suggest a way to find a way to end the world. One of the

great questions, with espent years debating why the war began but

equally, why in we could not stop the war. 1916, 17, was a

catastrophe. On Verdun, on Arras, there was a des rate conversation to

end it but nobody seemed to know how to do it.

I am interested to talk about that more. Why is your theory why it

could not be reached if there was intent on each side to reach it? The

grim calculation is that by the end of 1916, so many men had died on

each sides, that to bring the war to an end, was to suggest that the men

had died for nothing. So the temptation was to keep fighting so

that there was a victory for those who died. But you were throwing more

lives on to the pyre. And Haig, all of the intelligence he was receiving

was that Germany was on the last legs, one more push, we could win

the war. That was coming directly from Ypres and when the Germans came

close to winning the war, close to breaking the British line and Haig

had seen it, he would never make that mistake, that his intelligence

was telling him if he pushed to gain victory, he would go for it. That is

what happened here. That is why he pushed for as long as he did, that

he could bring the war to a successful end, to its conclusion.

Sophie? I think it was because neither side was willing to

compromise over invaded areas. 14 million Europeans are living under

military occupation, so the allies do not want to let this go. So those

powers that have overrun the areas have no intention of relinquishing

them. So that is where it stands. We see now the British Prime

Minister, Theresa May, walking up to the Menin Gate here in her official

capacity as the Prime Minister but she is also personally connected to

the event. Her paternal grandfather served in the First World War in the

4th Battalion, the King's Royal Rifles. Her grandfather was awarded

the Military Cross. She's speaking there to Commander

Tim Lawrence. She's also talking to the Secretary

of State for Culture and now to the Mayor of Ypres.

She's shaking the hand of Benoit Mottrie, the.man who makes sure each

and every night, when there are no VIPs, when there are no standards,

that the ceremony goes ahead with dignitaries. I spoke to him the

other night. He is a man of great precision, great respect, as well as

great height! And for this small town, Sophie, I know it is used to,

and indeed, Benoit Mottrie had said that we had Her Majesty the Queen

here a few years ago, that this is another event to be taken in its

stride but do you think that for this little town, that this is a big

occasion, after 100 years, to take a breath as well as to make the

preparations and host such a grand event? Yes, to be sure. It is also

very obvious that British war memory, which has this extremely

coherent narrative of the war, and is extremely convincing aesthetic,

the poppies, the Portland Stone, the poems, has really pretty much taken

over war memory, including in Belgium.

And there must, as there is in every town, in every city, of every

country, people of differing views who think it is time to move on, is

that heard often in Belgium? That, OK, we acknowledged the past for

long enough but we have to move on from it? I'm sure you would hear it

but they would not make themselves popular here, I think.

Yes, this is a busy town that thrives on the tourism for them.

And so many guests coming this evening.

With are expecting the Duke and the Duchess of Cambridge. A fine night

in Ypres. All of the preparations have gone smoothly. The dignitaries

are gathered, the des end ants are gather #d, the bands are massed and

the preparations have all gone very smoothly indeed it is a fine

evening. And David, as you look as somebody

familiar with every aspect, I don't think there is a question that I can

throw at you cannot answer, when you see, what is essentially people

connecting with history, it is an interesting moment, surely? This

event, this daily event at Menin is a communion between generations.

The connections to the generations that lie here, they are permanent.

We are looking at the Belgium Minister of Defence.

He is taking up his place and shaking the hands of the welcoming

committee. Sorry, do carry on, David.

Where the ceremony is taking place is where hundreds of thousands have

been marched to the guns, to the trenches, to the battlefields, where

the dignitaries are walking now, the sense of that journey, that they

went through, it has to be remembered. It is very strong.

And of course we see the Duke and the Duchess of Cambridge making

their way up Menenstraat towards the Gate. The Duchess accompanied the

Duke back in 2014 to common rate events since the start of the First

World War. There was a reception to mark the

Ken tenary of the battle of Messines.

And so the Duke and the Duchess of Cambridge being welcomed there to

Right Honourable Karen Bradley, Secretary of State for Culture, and

Sir Tim Laurence, the Vice-Chairman of the Commonwealth War Graves

Commission and the Mayor of Ypres, along with Benoit Mottrie. It was

last Thursday the Duke carried out his last ever shift with shift as an

Air Ambulance pilot, serving with them for many years. By their side

is Ambassador Alison Rose. Here, now, we welcome the King and Queen

of the Belgians. As monarch, the King, is commander

of the Belgium army. He has a strong military background in the Belgium

Air Force, indeed, he was a fighter pilot.

Every evening, the city of Ypres falls silent at eight o'clock, and

The Last Post is played by the buglers of The Last Post

Association. With the sounding of this bugle call, the 250,000 British

and Commonwealth soldiers who were killed on the Ypres Salient during

the First World War are remembered. The battlefields of the Salient came

to define the war for many British and Commonwealth soldiers. The

defence of the city at such great cost, meant that it became hallowed

ground. Winston Churchill said of Ypres

"More sacred for the British race does not exist in all the world. "

It was from here, along the Menin Road, that so many marched towards

the front line. After the war, when a location was

being sought for a lasting memorial to these men, it seemed fitting for

it to be built by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission in this place.

To date, the Menin Gate records almost 54,000 names of the men who

did not return home. The missing with no known grave.

Members of our families, our regiments, Alan Nations -- our

nations, all sacrificed everything for the lives we live today.

During the First World War, Britain and Belgium stood shoulder to

shoulder, 100 years on, we still stand together. Gathering, as so

many do every night, in remembrance of that sacrifice.

Thank you for the honour that you do ask. -- to us.

Every time we stand here, under the Menin Gate, we feel overwhelmed by

the immensity of the sacrifice of the men whose names around us. And

when a fresh breeze whispers through the archers, it touches something

inside all of us. It is as if the fallen were telling us, we did this

for you. Indeed, they came to our country from near and far, to defend

our freedom, alongside our own soldiers. Ever since, we have

expressed our gratitude to these heroes, and 100 years have been

passed without it being diminished. I am proud of the people of Ypres

and of other places on the Western front, conscious of the sacrifices

made by those who fought on Belgian soil, they pay homage daily on

behalf of all Belgian citizens. The Last Post ceremony, held here

each evening, is a tradition founded and maintained by the local

community. It has taken place more than 30,000 times since 1928, and is

an important part of the identity of the city of Ypres. Members of The

Last Post Association organised the ceremony day after day, an busy

summer evenings and quiet winter nights, for your dedication, we

thank you. Passchendaele was a struggle for

freedom. Our common freedom, the freedom we enjoy today. At the time,

it was a fight for land. Every possible metre of land. Blood soaked

the Earth. The bodies of the thousands of soldiers who remained

here for ever became one with the Earth. So your Graves on our soil

have become our grades on your soil, in the same way your Menin Gate has

become our gate, and our cities and countryside on the Western front

will for ever be a part of our common history.

This battle, 100 years ago, makes the bond between our countries

strong and everlasting. At our gathering today, let us together

with a new generation renew our commitment to the fallen, to use the

freedom we owe to them in a way that honours their immense sacrifice.

They shall not grow old as we that are left grow old. Age shall not

weary them or the years condemn. At the going down of the sun and in the

morning, we will remember them. We will remember them.

And so, the wreath-laying ceremony against the King of Belgium, King

Philippe of Belgium and the Duke of Cambridge.

HEARTS And the turn now of the Belgium Minister of Defence,

accompanied by the British Prime Minister, Theresa May.

Laying wreaths now will be the Governor of West Flanders and Sir

Tim Laurence. Following on from them, Jan Durnez,

and Benoit Mottrie. Now in this final grouping, a large

grouping, we see about 19 members of the National Citizenship Service. We

will witness them handing wreaths to representatives from various

combatant nations that served in the First World War. The countries we

see being represented this evening are Algeria, Australia, Bangladesh

and Canada. The Democratic Republic of Congo, France, and Germany.

We will witness an and ant representative among the various

British colonies, India contributed the largest number of men, with

approximately 1.5 million recruited during the war and up until

December, 1919. There are representatives interest Ireland, be

Montserrat, New Zealand, Pakistan and Morocco, 24300 Moroccans served

in the French army during the First World War.

O valiant hearts who to your glory came

Through dust of conflict and through battle flame;

Tranquil you lie, your knightly virtue proved,

Your memory hallowed in the land you loved.

Proudly you gathered, rank on rank, to war

As who had heard God's message from afar;

All you had hoped for, all you had, you gave,

To save mankind - yourselves you scorned to save.

Splendid you passed, the great surrender made;

Into the light that nevermore shall fade;

Deep your contentment in that blest abode,

Who wait the last clear trumpet call of God.

In glorious hope their proud and sorrowing land

Commits her children to Thy gracious hand.

When you go home tell them of us and say: For your tomorrow, we gave our

today. So the Royal party now meets the

Menin Gate Last Post Buglers. They are part of a team that alternative

the responsibilities for the nightly task of performing The Last Post.

And the 90 singers we enjoyed this evening, congratulate themselves so

far this evening, they were from between the ages of 16 and 24.

There we see the Prime Minister's message on the wreath that she laid

tonight on the Menin Gate. And that is His Royal Highness'

Prince William's wreath. Now the Queen of the Belgian's

grandfather was a Sergeant in the Belgian army. He was captured and

spent the much of the war as a prisoner of war in a German war

camp. So for many of the people here, and for Theresa May too, there

are personal memories connected to this very civic occasion.

And there we are. The Last Post has been sounded at the Menin Gate as it

has each and every night. David Olusoga Professor Sophie de

Schaerpdrijver and Richard van Emden are still with me. We are at Tyne

Cot Cemetery a few kilometres from Ypres. We have spoken much about the

commemorative moment, about what the Menin Gate means to the world,

Sophie, what was going through your head while watching the ceremony? I

was reminded of something that David said earlier about the communion of

today's generation with the generation of those men and not only

as a Belgian but more in general. I am struck by the fact that here was

an entire generation put in uniform and put in harm's way. We have

travelled an enormous distance. There are very few states in the

world that could manage that today, that would want to sort of a very

awe authoritarian state. Most of our young people are growing up in the

knowledge that they will never have to face something like this. So on

the one hand there is an intense communion with the dead, on the

other hand, they were facing a fate that today's young people will most

probably not have to face. So there is a disconnect there,

coupled with an intense wish to understand. It is fascinating in

itself. We heard His Royal Highness say, 100

years on we stand together. Leaving aside the current political

complexities in which we are, it is an interesting phase phrase to use?

Britain entered the First World War to defend the Belgian majority. It

is appropriate that the link between Belgium and Britain is special for

those reasons. A quarter of all of the British and the Belgian

servicemen died in these fields in this very small area. It was always

going to be a special place it is where the bond between Belgium and

Britain was born. You mentioned the Empire servicemen.

Stay with that thought, we are now going to move on.

This evening's next event will take place in the Market

Square of Ypres in around ten minutes.

Earlier Dan Snow Medvedev on the performers, Dame Helen Mirren.

What can we expect from tonight? I think it will be pretty

spectacular tonight, very emotional, how can it not be? We are standing

right here on the spot that so many young men walk to their deaths or

into incredibly heroic actions. So it's loaded with a motion, with

feeling. It will also be very stirring. There is an orchestra of

100 people, there is a beautiful young choir of 100 young kids

singing and this incredible building behind us is going to be lit up with

the most amazing light show. So the whole thing, I think, is going to be

pretty spectacular. You are being typically modest because you are

playing an important part. What are you doing? I'm just the glue, one of

many contributors to the evening. There are quite a few British actors

who are going to be there tonight. But I'm just really one of the

contributors. I'm sort of the glue that holds sections of it together,

to describe exactly in the most simple terms, exactly what happened

historically. You have done so many different and

varied jobs over the years, what is it like to be here and part of this

event? It means an enormous amount to me.

I'm basically a child of the Second World War, but my parents generation

were very much of the First World War. So I feel it's kind of in my

history and in my blood, that particular terrible, terrible

battle. I lost an uncle, my mother was the 13th of 14 children. By the

time she was born, she had already lost one of her brothers, early

brothers, in the First World War. So literally one of my uncles was

killed in the First World War. So obviously I feel that, that

emotional connection with it. Also, much more than that in a way, every

time I travel in Europe and I go to a small village in France or in

Germany or the Netherlands, or Belgium, you see the monument to the

boys, the lost boys of that tiny little village, and there's a list

of ten, 15 or 20 names and you realise a whole generation of young

men were wiped out in this particular war. And so many of them

lost their lives in this particular battle that we are commemorating

today. Thank you for playing your part in that commemoration.

We look forward to seeing Dame Helen Mirren later. Welcome back to Tyne

Cot. David, if I'm going to interrupt you for anyone, Dame Helen

Mirren isn't bad! I'm honoured. What I was beginning to ask you is about

Commonwealth troops. Very many of the countries, 19 nations that were

represented tonight in that ceremony at the Menin Gate. The one I didn't

have time to mention was Nepal, 90,000 Indian Gurkhas served in the

war. An astonishing number. Their role in that, if enough done to mark

their contribution, do you think? I've been really pleased in this

three years so far, one year to go, of centenary remembrance, that we

have begun to make a sea change in recognising that this was a war of

empires. Britain was an empire, France and Belgium were empires. Men

from all over the world fought and laboured on the Western

The Western front was most the most ethnically diverse place there had

been by 1917. I think we're beginning, when we have these

moments and celebrations, these moments of remembrance, that it was

a world War. That was the phrase I was going to use. Sophie, you were

nodding your head. It was a world war and we cannot for a minute

discount that it touched every corner of our world. It did indeed,

every corner, yes, in the sense of all those tens of thousands,

hundreds of thousands of men coming here to fight. It also touched home

fronts across the globe, economies, trade routes.

Richard, you have been steeped in this war for decades now. There is

barely a part of it that you don't seem to almost tangibly feel in your

bones. When I was listening to King Philippe of Belgium talk tonight, he

was poetic in parts. He seemed to sort of be trying to sum up not the

facts as we do sitting here, but the spirit. What did you make of his

attempt to do it? The word to use, he said when a fresh wind whispers

through the arches it's like the fallen talking and calling to you.

Yes, that emotion we all feel. We have such reverence for that

generation of men from all corners of the globe that came here to

Belgium and France and lay down their lives. You can't help but feel

very emotional when you see the poppies coming through... A

remarkable moment. A beautiful moment, with the playing of The Last

Post. We all stand here now, 100 years on, saying, and I said this at

the sombre year ago, a Farewell to these men. There won't ever be

another commemoration like this. This is a very important day. I

think he caught the spirit exactly. How much are you concerned... I

noticed when I was at the Menin Gate watching The Last Post ceremony a

couple of nights ago, there were all sorts of people that is very elderly

men in wheelchairs, a toddler on top of his father's shoulders. I was

standing next to two sisters, about nine and five, and they seemed

generally interested in what was going on. How much are you concerned

that what you write about, what you all spend your lives trying to

communicate, is going to be of interest to the next generation?

Well, I can only hope and pray it is. Things ebb and flow. 20 years

ago, 25 years ago, I was here with the regular army men and there were

12 old contemptible is under the Menin Gate with 12 helpers and five

other people. Just looking at some pictures just

now in Dammartin-en-Goele at Cloth Hall. The arrivals for this evening.

I mentioned they would be meeting each other tomorrow. -- now in

Ypres. They are again together right now, to watch what promises to be a

rather intriguing and remarkable creative event tonight. We are going

to be watching these performances, along with the Duke of Cambridge and

the Royal Belgians. And accompanied by Sir Tim Laurence. It will take

place in the Market Square of Ypres and retell the story of the Battle

of Passchendaele. As we saw from Dan Snow, Dame Helen Mirren will be our

narrator. Ian Hislop, who we also heard from earlier, will introduce a

performance of his play, The Wipers Times. I could tell you a little bit

about it, but he tells me he doesn't want me to spill the beans, so I

won't do that. Stay tuned to see what it's all about. It promises

interestingly a few laughs as well as a few very poignant moment. It

has been in the West End, I've seen it for myself, and it will be

touring around Britain through September. There you see their Royal

Highness is making their way to their seats, taking their time,

allowing people to take their photograph. Those are cobblestones,

and very high heels, not easy to negotiate! No wonder they are taking

their time. There will also be some specially written extracts from War

Horse and plenty of music to enjoy as well, including the voices of the

National Youth Choir of Scotland, who you heard earlier at the Menin

Gate. And even for rehearsals last night,

the entirety of the Market Square in Ypres was full of people, crammed to

the barriers. Standing room only tonight, apart of course from the

Royals themselves and other esteemed bitter that is, will be taking their

seats. We estimate about 9000 people will be in the square in this little

market town in France this evening. There they are, just setting

themselves down in the Royal box. It is a fine evening. Sophie, it's

always nice, I feel this about Scotland, my home country, if it's a

country that gets a lot of rain, it's very nice to see it on a

beautiful night like this, looking its very best for such a significant

occasion. And so... The event will be starting

very soon. It promises to be a feast for the eyes. We will see

projections, we will hear from Harry Patch, among others, and it will be

presented very creatively, I promise. I think it will be like few

things that you have seen before. I witnessed some of the rehearsals and

it was a remarkable sight. In Flanders Fields, the poppies blow

between the crosses... We shall not sleep,

though poppies grow # Will ye go tae

Flanders, my Mally O? # Tae see the bold

commanders, my Mally O? # And the soldiers,

how they die # And the ladies how

they cry, Oh my Mally O? # Will ye go tae

Flanders, my Mally O? # Oh will ye go tae

Flanders, my Mally O?.#. # Oh will ye go tae

Flanders, my Mally O?.# # Oh will ye go tae

Flanders, my Mally O?# Passchendaele was remembered by many

soldiers as the most horrific battle Officially called the Third Battle

of Ypres, it was one of the many battles that were fought in Flanders

by the armies of the British Britain entered the war in 1914,

following the German The French, British

and Belgian Armies did all they could to stop the German

advance through Europe. Two months later in October 1914

the fighting arrived here, in Ypres. From the diary of Pastor Van

Walleghem, 13th October 1914. "The sound of the guns

could be heard from early violent and getting nearer

all the time. No doubt the Germans

are being driven back... At about 7:30 in the morning,

a dozen German soldiers They had a careful look

around and then departed Half an hour later, three

armoured cars arrived. Everyone was saying,

"The Germans are back!", Later in the afternoon, 150 French

soldiers marched past Hallebast. And so we had seen

the troops of four different armies in a single day - German,

Belgian, English and French." Father Camille Delaere,

Pastor St Peter's Parish, Ypres. "Wednesday 14th of October,

a powerful British army, about 40,000 men, admirably

equipped, took possession On the 14th October the 7th

Division, halfway to being convinced that the war would be over before

they had participated, We had marched 103 miles,

of which the last 40 miles had been To the weary British Ypres seemed

as peaceful and welcoming as Lyndhurst after a long march

through the New Forest. The quaint old fashioned

Flemish town lies sleepily by the side of a serene,

tree shaded canal, and seemed Sister Marie-Marguerite,

teacher and member of the Sisters of Mary at the La Motte Convent,

Ypres. 250 English soldiers and 60 horses

were housed in our convent. Inside the town there

was still a number of British All the city's ambulances,

our school, were full of refugees and represented

the saddest of scenes. But also, sadly, they represented

the desolation and destruction of our poor country,

which only yesterday Gunner Charlie Burrows,

Royal Field Artillery. They blocked the roads

and we cannot move until they get Our officer tells us that a great

battle will soon be fought here. All the people are

running for their lives. The village is burning

just in front of us. Poor things."

shelling again and we see the shells # O vaderland, aanhoor onze klacht

Gij doet er menig herte lijden. # Gij maakt ons vrouwen zo ongerust,

In dez' bedroefde oorlogstijden # Omdat wij hier man en zoon Vier

lange Jaren moeten derven. # Wij vrouwen zijn

al om te sterven. # Fatherland, hear our

complaints, # De zorgen voor morgen,

drukken on sneer. # Hoe zal de toekomst

ons nog bezwaren? # Wij

hopen, wij vrezen. # Blijft alles donker,

blijft alles zwart? # Wij vrouwen zullen

altijd wachten.# Corporal John Lucy,

Royal Irish Rifles, November 1914. "The dwindling Regular battalions

faced assault after assault. The fighting was tremendous,

and the slaughter such Practically every unit

had lost three-quarters of its fighting strength,

yet fresh German attacks kept coming on, and more and more enemy

batteries thickened the circle Father Camille Delaere, Pastor St

Peter's Parish Ypres, May 1915. "As I am writing, no less

than five shells have fallen Permission to stay here has

been revoked and we must The shrapnel is still exploding

on the outskirts of the city. Four horses are bathing

in their blood in the Market Square. We see bloodstains from far away

in the Rue du Beurre, When the British troops arrived

in Ypres, they brought In the ruins of the city,

a group of soldiers from the Sherwood Foresters,

led by Captain Fred Roberts and Lieutenant Jack Pearson,

produced an extraordinary satirical trench

newspaper which laughed at the high command, at the horrors

of the war. Its defiant flippancy

embodied the triumph of the human spirit in the face

of overwhelming adversity. I find it frightfully

difficult to tell. It's certainly hot

for the time of year. Fritz's love-tokens seem to be

arriving with disturbing accuracy. That's how we know

the artillery is not our own. The state of the roads out

there is quite appalling. I'm going to have to complain

to Ypres Town Council. The Boche use them for

target practice, Sir. Yes, they're not as "poplar"

as they used to be. Sir - where's this Ypres place that

everyone keeps talking about? Ypres is what the

Belgians call Wipers. It's like the Napoo rum

they have over here. Well, why don't they

just say that sir? Very good Dodd, we'll make

a sapper of you yet. The Arab is an Anglo-American

handfed Platen Press. It's a manual, pedal

operated printing machine. How on earth do you

know all this Tyler? I used to be a printer back

in civvy street sir. No, no, it's temporary

requisitioning of civilian facilities

for military purposes. You ever done any

journalism Pearson? Because what we are going to do,

boys, is produce a newspaper. I was thinking of something

rather more accurate. And what shall we call

this publication? It's not going to be in Belgium, is

it? We all call it Wipers, sir. Will the Wipers Times address

the big issues of the war? We'll write the first thing that

comes into our heads and fill There is a slight

problem with potential advertisers such as shops,

theatres, restaurants, I'm sure we can find

some advertisements... Fred, you are an

incorrigible optimist. Many are and don't know

the tell-tale signs. I just need

you to answer a few questions. Do you wake up in the morning

feeling that all is going Do you sometimes think

that the war will end sometime Oh dear this

is the worst case of I'm writing something for you now

which should cure you completely. Is it

a prescription, Doctor? # Take a wilderness of ruin,

Spread with mud some six feet deep; # In this mud now cut some channels,

Then you have the line we keep. # Now you get some wire

that's spiky, Throw it round outside your line,

Get some pickets, drive in tightly # Now you have a war in the making,

As waged here from day to day. Ypres stood between the German Army

and the coastal ports. Right here, the Allies

halted the German advance, in what became known

as the First Battle of Ypres. After fighting to a stalemate both

sides dug in, forming The Western Front -

a 440 mile trench system that snaked To the east of this

city, the German Army held the high ground -

small hills that dominated the area. The Allies were surrounded

on three-sides, in what came to be The Second Battle of Ypres

in the Spring of 1915 saw the German Army launch a major gas

attack here for the first time. The Allies were driven back,

but the line held, just. Their foothold became smaller,

the pressure even more intense. Fighting in the Salient

was continuous. Over a million men marched

along the Menin Road, many passing through this square

on their way to the front line. Shelled constantly, it was one

of the most dangerous places Every regiment and corps of

the British Army would serve here and by 1917, thousands were wounded

or killed every month # Where German snipers

can't get at me # Damp is my dug out

cold are my feet # Waiting for whizzbangs

to put me to sleep #. In the summer of 1917,

the Allies began a major offensive to push back the German Army

and finally break out of their precarious

positions in the Salient. On 31st July, after two weeks

of intense shelling, The Third Battle of Ypres would rage

for the following 100 days, and eventually come to an end

at a small village on the high This is the story of that battle

told by the men who were there. I was 19 years of age;

I was in the front line Now Passchendaele when I knew

it was flat, everything On that morning, the 31st July,

we were told we were going over the top, the terrain was very very

difficult, shell holes, some of them We entered the front line,

Shell holes over shell holes, On the other side,

there were the snipers, And the artillery fired at everyone

whom they saw in these fields. About 8 o'clock in the morning, one

of those whizz bang shells landed about two feet under me and blew me

right over the whole place. My section was almost buried,

but fortunately the shell did not The air was boiling

with the turmoil of the We were thrown about in

the aircraft, rocking from side Below us was mud, filth,

smashed trenches, wreckage And as we came out of it,

I felt that we had escaped from one of the most evil things that I had

ever seen at any time in any of the flying that occurred

to me during that war. # Against all of the

songs you can sing # And the snow falls,

the wind calls # And like Barleycorn

who rose from the grave Father used to tell me that when he

was a littlun, he used to get He always said that the worst scrape

he got hisself into, was the First World War,

and the worst battle And he was there, all

because of a horse. He was a farm boy when the war broke

out, 15, that's all. Like me, he didn't get

a lot of schooling. He always said you could learn most

of what was worth knowing from keeping your eyes

and ears peeled. Father had this young colt,

Joey he called him, broke him to halter,

broke him to ride, Grew up together they did,

best friends, meant If ever that horse got sick,

Father would bed down beside him in his stable,

till he was better. Now Father weren't old enough yet

to join up, but Joey was. Father was busy with

Joey out in the fields. He were thinking

about his ploughing. He didn't know the army were coming

to the village looking for good sturdy horses to buy,

for the cavalry, for pulling guns They needed all the horses

they could get, and they were It were his own father who done it,

done it without telling him, His father took Joey up

to the village and sold Albert squared up to his father

and told him just what he thought of him, said goodbye

to his mother, and told them Nothing they could

say would stop him. Now there's millions of men over

there at the front in Belgium, Needle in a haystack you might

think, Father told me, Just staying alive

was the difficult bit. The worst was at the battle

of Passchendaele, he always said. Hell on earth, he called it,

for men and horses both. The horses died just

the same way the men did, shell fire, machine

gun fire, barbed wire. And every horse Father

saw, dead or alive, Then at first light one grey misty

morning, Father's on stand-to in the trenches on the lookout

for German attack, mist and he sees something

moving out there, not a German, not a cow,

but a horse, a horse in Nomansland! He loves horses, all horses,

so he's got to go out Quick as a twick, Father is up

and over the top, and stumbling through the mud

towards this horse. Trouble is there's this German bloke

doing just the same thing, So the two of them, a Fritz

and a Tommy, had a little chat. "We don't want to

start a war, do we?" The German bloke laughs,

takes a coin out of his pocket, "I have a good idea, Tommy,

let us toss for the horse. Seemed like a fair idea to Father,

so he calls, "Heads!" "That, I am afraid to say,

is the face of my Kaiser looking up The two of them shook hands

and wished each other well. Auf wiedersehen, Tommy. Same to you,

So Father won, and, you guessed it, when they got the horse back

to the veterinary hospital, and cleaned him down,

and that took some doing, Father said

Takes some believing, I know, but it's true

Father always said he and Joey were the lucky ones.

They came home at the end of the war, and the whole village

was there to meet them, bells ringing, band

But all Father could think of, he told me, as they

rode up into the village that day, were the millions of men and horses,

on all sides, for whom the bells were not ringing, the band not

"It began to rain and rained continuously so that the bog

of Passchendaele spread out into a lake.

To begin with, we were sitting up to our knees in mud and water."

"Now the mud at Passchendaele was very viscous indeed,

But it stuck to you all over, it slowed you down.

It got into the bottom of your trousers, you were covered with mud.

It "drew" at you, not like a quicksand, but a

"Because of the mud there were no trenches, just shell-holes.

That forward line was made of shell holes.

The men were wet to the skin day after day.

Their overcoats were plastered with mud.

So you can imagine how hard it was to move at all."

"I remember very well trying to assist a lad,

we called to him, "Are you hit, son?"

There was no hope of getting to him he was in the middle of this huge

The look on the lad's face, it was really pathetic,

Had I bent a little more, I should have gone in with

"I don't know how far the duck boards extended,

but each side was a sea of mud, you stumbled and slugged along

and slipped, you went up to the waste possibly,

not only that, but in every pool there was decomposed bodies

of humans and mules, or perhaps both, and if your wounded

and slipped off well then that was the end of you."

The Wipers Times continued to be produced throughout

the war, despite the fact that the Sherwood Foresters

were involved in the heaviest fighting - with both editors Roberts

and Pearson winning the Military Cross.

Amidst all the carnage, including the battle of Passchendaele -

the paper's mix of subversive humour, silly jokes and poignant

poems provided an unlikely, but very British form

of morale-boosting - and the Wipers Times was hugely

What we need to do, Jack is...increase the print run,

up the cover price and get in some new writers.

You don't think you might be getting rather obsessed

Sergeant Tyler - are there any new submissions to the paper?

Tell you what, though - that Wipers Times does

DODD: Do you ever get used to the noise Barnsey?

Do you ever get used to the noise Barnsey?

What did you do before you joined up?

And I was a machine worker digging tunnels for the Underground.

So you won't hear us complaining about the noise.

So what do you really think of the poetry?

think poetry is essential in the modern battlefield sir.

Probably better not to dwell on the...

That's why I would rather think about the paper.

Excuse me for asking Sir, but there's a rumour going round.

I am afraid such information is a bit hush-hush Dodd.

They were shouting out across no man's land.

Yes, perhaps it is not the best kept military

secret in the history of the British Army...

However, I do have some good news, lads.

It's a small v-shaped piece of coloured cloth to be sewn

onto your tunic to denote active service overseas.

How we've managed to sleep at night without chevrons all this

time is one of the astounding features of the war!

BARNES: If only I'd got me bloomin' chevrons Sir, I'd die happy!

Is there time to give the boys a tot?

passes a jug down the line, and the soldiers tip it

Dodd's too young - I'll have his.

We don't want you incapable Henderson.

Rum jar continues down line

Water is not for drinking, Sergeant -

it's for putting in the radiators of the staff officers' cars.

Don't do anything that's risky - forget

There are various types of courage there

# Hands the courage which is Dutch...

# There are various types of courage

# Hands the courage which is Dutch...

the whole of Passchendaele, there was a smell.

It was the smell of decaying bodies, or decayed bodies, men, mules.

Now, you got this smell more strongly and more strongly

as you got towards the front line because the shells

You see, the ground was full of these dead bodies.

And over that was a very strong smell and if it got

stronger it was dangerous, it was chlorine gas.

I do hope you will have this note before learning from the War Office.

Morris was admitted to our Ambulance about 9am this morning suffering

from abdominal wounds, and is very dangerously ill.

He was operated on shortly after admission, is just

He is young and strong and we hope with God's help to pull him ?

I will write again tomorrow and tell you how he is.

Need I say how deeply we sympathise with you in your

I remember these wounded men hanging on to the end

of these duckboards with their body about half submerged

in the mud, and some of these fellows not knowing

they were there, would step on their fingers, you know,

It just haunts you, you know but - strict orders,

Your son, I am sorry to say, is not nearly so well this morning.

He had a very restless night and his condition

He does not appear conscious of pain and takes

I am so sorry for you, so far away from your boy,

I came across a Cornishman, he was ripped from his shoulder

to his waist with shrapnel, directly we got to him,

Before we could pull the revolver, 30 seconds, he was dead.

Your wire came this morning just an hour too

late, your dear boy having passed peacefully away at 9 o'clock.

Sister Rickard was with him and took this little piece of hair for you.

She also put some white flowers in his hands in your name,

It may be of some comfort to you to know he didn't suffer.

I cannot tell you how sorry we are not to have been able

to save him for you, but really if you had only seen

how wearied he looked you would not grudge him to rest.

With deepest sympathy with all his friends,

# The blue high blade of Cotswold lie

# By jagged Malvern with a train of shadows

# Where the land is low like a huge imprisoning

# I hear a heart that's sound and high,

# Cotswold or Malvern sun or rain

At last I have the opportunity of writing

In the first place dearest, I trust you and the children are quite well.

I am sorry to say that nearly all the boys from the 7th that came

out with me have gone under, poor fellows...

We are expecting to go up again in two or three days

It's nearly six months now since I saw you.

How I long for you and the children God bless you all.

What a lot of love we have missed but please God it will make it

I often take your photo out of my pocket and look at your dear

face and think of the times we have had together.

And when I think again of some of the worry I have caused

you, it makes me only the more eager to get home to you to atone

for all the worry and anxious moments you have had

Out here, dear, we're all pals what one hasn't

We try to share each other's troubles, get each

You wouldn't believe the humanity between men out here.

Please God, it won't be long before this war is over.

We are pushing old Fritz back and don't think he will stand

the British boys much longer, and then we will try

Well, darling, I don't think I can say any more at present.

Goodnight love, God bless you and my children and may He soon

send me back to those I love is the wish of your

When Jack's letters stopped, every effort was made

On 4th December 1917, Lizzie received a telegram,

informing her that Private Jack Mudd, 24th Battalion,

London Regiment was missing presumed dead.

There is precious little glamour about modern war seen on the spot;

squalor is its means, and destruction its end.

Everyone is homeless, and the homeless man is,

for all his heroic cheerfulness, a most forlorn fellow.

And so, here stands Talbot House - a refuge behind the lines

where British soldiers of all ranks can escape.

It was plain that it was up to the chaplains to open

a place of their own, an institutional church,

to provide happiness for men, and also, if possible,

a hostel for officers going on leave.

And here I am - Chaplain to the Forces.

I am a comic kind of creature in officer's kit, but people

are getting used to me and my queer unmilitary way.

My job here is of the kind I more or less understand ie.

Being friendly to all comers, without any of the regimental

Don't dally with the doormat; it is accustomed to neglect.

On the left han,d its walls are covered with maps,

See how the London we love, without knowing it is worn away

by the faithful fingers of your fellow-citizens.

Looking straight through the hall, you catch a glimpse of a well-kept

garden, where men bask, as in St James' Park.

Come into the garden and forget about the war.

# Till the sergeant brings our breakfast up to bed

# How shall we spend the money we earn?

# 'Til it seems, the world is full of dreams

# There's a long long trail a-winding

# There's a long long night a-waiting

# 'Til the day when I'll be going down

# Seem to hear your footsteps falling

# Though the road between us stretches

# There's a long long trail a-winding

# There's a long long night a-waiting

Lieutenant Edmund Blunden MC fought at Third Ypres.

He would later recall vividly entertainment behind the lines

in his poem: Concert Party - Busseboom.

the house was packed, The famous troop began;

# Dance sprang and spun and neared and fled,

# Jest chirped at gayest pitch, Rhythm dazzled, action sped

# With generals and lame privates both Such charms worked wonders,

# Till The show was over - lagging loth We faced the sunset chill;

# And standing on the sandy way, With the cracked church peering

# Past, We heard another matinee, We heard the maniac blast Of barrage

# South by Saint Eloi, And the red lights flaming

# There Called madness: Come, my bonny boy, And dance

# To this new concert, white we stood; Cold certainty

# Held our breath; While men in tunnels below Larch Wood.

By the end of 1917, the city of Ypres was in ruins

and its magnificent Cloth Hall reduced to rubble.

On 10th November, British and Canadian forces finally secured

the village of Passchendaele and the offensive was called off.

Paul Nash served on the Ypres Salient in early 1917.

Following an injury he returned as an official war artist

On the 13th November 1917 he wrote home to his wife Margaret: