In Flanders Fields World War One Remembered: Passchendaele

As dawn was breaking on the 31st of July 1917,

an attack would be launched on the fields of Flanders

that would begin the Battle of Passchendaele.

That name has become synonymous with a quagmire of a battlefield

and the scene of a terrifying massacre

of a generation of our young men.

the human cost was half a million casualties.

we remember all those who lost their lives

and those who survived but bore the terrible scars of Passchendaele.

just a series of posts, scraped in the mud.

The Germans would be shelling them the whole time.

There was mud to your right and mud to your left,

It was a terrible place, just a sea of mud everywhere.

If you got off the duckboards, you'd got no chance whatsoever -

you just fell in the mud, and you were drowned.

All day long, one had nothing to do but to sit in the mud, shivering,

wet and cold, and trying to keep up appearances

in some way or another, as the shells arrived.

The noise would grow into a great crescendo,

and at a certain point, your nerve would break

and you'd throw yourself down in the mud

and cringe in the mud till it was passed.

you could literally feel your heart pounding against the ground.

In a continuous bombardment, which lasted sometimes for hours,

the emotional strain was absolutely terrific.

Until, when you got the order to advance,

it was a sort of release from that bondage.

We heard one of their big ones coming over,

and I was too damn tired even to fall down.

Next I had a terrific pain in the back and the chest,

and I found myself face downwards in the mud.

And then I suddenly realised that I was alive.

That if these wounds didn't prove fatal,

then I should get back to my parents, to my sister,

to the girl that I was going to marry.

I've seen men coming out covered in mud.

They just scraped the mud from their eyes.

You never wanted to go to that sector again.

We've just heard vivid recollections

from men who served on the front line.

Haunting memories, but their testimonies remain strong and vital

in reminding us of the horrors that unfolded

and of the devastating human cost of that war.

Today, we're in Tyne Cot Cemetery in Belgium,

where almost 12,000 men are buried, making this the largest

Commonwealth War Graves Commission cemetery in the world.

To the northeastern end of the cemetery stands the striking

vast Memorial Wall to commemorate nearly 35,000 more servicemen

from the United Kingdom and New Zealand who have no known grave.

Later this morning, commemorations will be held here

to mark the centenary of the Third Battle of Ypres,

now more commonly known as Passchendaele.

More than 4,000 people are expected to attend the service,

and they started arriving in the cemetery about an hour ago.

His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales,

and Their Royal Highnesses the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge

ready to welcome Their Majesties the King and Queen of the Belgians.

And indeed the Prince of Wales is expected

Events to mark this anniversary began last night

in the city of Ypres with the Last Post ceremony

at the Menin Gate, a poignant act of remembrance

that traditionally takes place every night.

The historic Cloth Hall in the city's Market Square

was the dramatic backdrop for the story of the battle,

and there were performances from, among others, Dame Helen Mirren,

the cast of War Horse, from the play of the same name,

It was a very special evening, and today we'll continue

to remember all those who fought in the battle.

The official commemorations are due to start in an hour,

and in fact people in the cemetery are beginning to gather

Dan Snow is among them to tell us more.

It's very hard to imagine on this summer morning that this site

was once the scene of such death and destruction.

The men of the Australian Third division were attacking up the top

of this rich, and they found themselves in a featureless

battlefield, shattered, destroy the landscape, shell holes which

contained water, mud you could drown in. The unburied corpses of other

soldiers. And among that, German positions, not trenches, like at the

Somme, but an interlocking network of concrete positions, so the

Australians were drowning and surrounded by German strong points.

Unsurprisingly, the cost was extraordinarily high as the

Australians are up this slope. At the top we have the Cross of

Sacrifice, a memorial to the fallen built on top of a German pillbox.

Today we will be hearing from the descendants of those who fought in

the wider Battle of Passchendaele, but also some of the stories of the

brave men who live the need our feet in Tyne Cot Cemetery.

I'm now joined by two guests who took part

I'm delighted to welcome the broadcaster and writer

Ian Hislop and the author of War Horse, Michael Morpurgo.

Michael, I was glued to every single second of the event, what did you

make of it? It was unique, it stood alone, I have never seen anything

like it. It was very difficult to perform in, because by its nature,

you had to mean every word of it, and that is always hard. You are not

doing it in the bubble of a drama, you are doing it in the place that

this thing happened. And all these people died, and it was important,

so you had to get it right, which put a lot of pressure on. But once I

got talking, I could become who I was supposed to become, but the joys

bid for me, I have to say, was sitting down afterwards and watching

the extraordinary music, the lights on the hall, but also the edge -

there was an edge to the whole thing which was so important. What you do

not want to do is somehow smooth it over with a nice comforting cloth,

there is nothing comforting about the First World War. We can see

that, and there must not be, this is not a nostalgic exercise, it is an

exercise in understanding history and what happens when people go mad.

Ian Hislop, let's think about The Wipers Times, the play that you have

co-written, it has been filmed as well as performed live onstage, and

it continues to be performed in the next few months. It is an

interesting conundrum, to think that we mark something as complex and as

difficult and as horrific as this through performance. What you think

is to be gained from an understanding of what was a hugely

complex situation? I think what one can do is add another angle, and

certainly what War Horse did, and The Wipers Times, which was a

satirical newspaper, it actually started in Ypres, and what you can

do, these are not just men who died - they lived first. And what we were

trying to do was show that they lived and they laughed, and they had

an attitude to the war, they were not uncritical, they were not

idiots. We tend to condescend, they did not understand as well as us,

how could they possibly? Now that the last people who were there have

died, the job is to keep on understanding who they work. And the

you have written, The Wipers Times, for those who have not seen it, you

use a lot of the words and phrases and humour that was employed in

print at the time from the front line, which seems entirely

remarkable to me. Yes, if you want the authentic voice of someone in

the trenches in 1917, it is in The Wipers Times, they were writing it

that afternoon, and it is rude, it can be sentimental, it is not

reverential, and it is not like that. And interesting point, we are

looking at pictures of the Central Band of the RAF just making their

way towards the Stone of Remembrance, they will be central to

today's performance, and again, you used the word, it is important not

to sentimentalise, but also there has to be a degree of pomp and

ceremony to honour these people. There does, but it must not be idle

ceremony. Ceremony is fine as long as we understand the reason for the

ceremony. If it is simply to make us feel better and to tap our toes to

the band and to weep a bit when the bugles play and the pipes play, that

is not enough. All that does, in the end, was make us feel, OK, we won,

or something. And it is not about that. I am all for the bugles and

pipers, though, you have to help people into the emotion. I am pretty

emotional without them! We really appreciate you both taking the time.

The Battle of Passchendaele took the lives of tens

of thousands of men from across the British Empire.

Historian and broadcaster David Olusoga

has traced the steps of those soldiers,

many of whom were fighting a long way from home.

every British infantry regiment was, at one time or another,

rotated through the Ypres battlefield.

But in this war, fought between global empires,

the Western front also drew in men from across the world.

The front became the most diverse place on earth,

perhaps the most diverse place there had ever been.

are testimony to the fact that this was a world war.

100 years ago today, these trenches were filled

with men from the 38th Welsh Division.

To the south were Australians and New Zealanders,

and to the north was the French army,

which, in the First World War, included men from Africa and Asia.

And at 3:50am, the men put ladders against the wall,

whistles were blown, and they went over the top.

I remember being told, our section being told,

and we've got to bloody well stay here."

Whatever happened, we had to hold that position, which we did.

and the death toll rose for month after month,

the shattered villages of this obscure, remote

part of southern Belgian became associated forever

with the men who fought and died here.

the very worst day of the fighting for the New Zealanders,

46 men were killed in just a few hours of fighting,

the names of the dead are inscribed into these panels.

It rained and rained and bloody rained.

We were all young, fit, highly trained,

You're not shot and killed stone dead.

Four divisions of Canadian troops were rushed to the front

to relieve the Australians and the New Zealanders,

and they proved critical, because it was the Canadians

on the 10th of November who finally captured Passchendaele.

And they did so in a battle so desperate, so ferocious,

that nine Victoria Crosses - the highest military honour -

Passchendaele was a most ghastly and hopeless mess.

It was worse than we had anticipated.

As winter began, the Battle of Passchendaele,

the Third Battle of Ypres, drew to a miserable close.

but the lines had only moved by a few miles.

And men from all over the world had come and died

And we are looking now at the band of Her Majesty's Royal Marines

Plymouth, possessing past the stone of the members, and their music will

be a key part of this morning's ceremony.

And broadcaster and historian David Olusoga is with me now,

and I'm also joined by the author and historian Richard van Emden,

who has written widely on the First World War.

You spoke to so many of the men who took part, hundreds of the men.

David, in your film, we heard one of the men say that he was told, we

bloody well got here and we have to stay, that sense in which there was

no option but to hold this bulge in the front line, just explain why

that was so important. Within that area was the town of

Ypres and if it fell to the Germans it would lead them to Dunkirk and

the port. The British were using the port to transfer their troops and it

would fall into German hands. The question that is asked so often, on

and off camera, is was it worth it? When we look at these headstones,

there can be no more concrete reminder, other than the bodies

themselves, of the losses that British and Allied forces sustain.

Was it worth it? I am always torn by such a question. People talk about

the number of casualties. But we do not talk about the Battle of

Waterloo in terms of yardage made. You have got two armies here and

artillery is dominating the battlefield and they are in the

trenches and at some .1 side has to go out and attack. In attritional

warfare, which is what we have here, that will always create huge numbers

of casualties. The veterans I have met have not said it was not worth

it. I think it was worth it, but I have huge reservations. There is

nothing like sitting eye to eye with somebody and listening to what they

tell you. Tell me about that experience that you have had over

the decades, of listening to these men and have them tell you things

that they very often have not told their nearest and dearest. They have

not shared these memories with their husbands, their wives or children or

other relatives. When I interviewed these men I always wanted the family

out of the room because I knew that they would tell me things that they

would not say if there family was there. The best interview is when

you forget the camera is there and you have this amazing one-to-one

with that individual and they will explore their own emotions. I

remember one veteran telling me about having shell shock and I could

hear his daughter saying in the background, I have never heard this.

And yet there was this communion that we had at that moment and it

was an incredible memory. We are here at Tyne Cot Cemetery and we

have so many people connected in so many ways, relatives of those people

whose lives were lost. In half an hour we expect the Duke and Duchess

of Cambridge to arrive at Tyne Cot, followed by the Prince of Wales and

amongst the headstones there will be a special service of remembrance to

commemorate the first day of the battle. The three military bands are

getting into position. They are in fact now at the Stone of Remembrance

and they are in readiness for the start of that ceremony. David, I

want to ask you about the people we do not hear so much about. I was

reading myself this morning over breakfast about the nurses. Three

miles from the front line, this was as close as their station got to the

front in the entirety of the war, at the Battle of Passchendaele. These

were nice, young women with fairly sheltered backgrounds. Tell us more

about them. They are part of this world behind the lines, nurses from

all over the world, both men and women, who are close to action and

in the danger zone. They are the people we do not talk about. We

focus on the trenches and the slaughter that takes place, but

behind the lines is another world, which is much more international and

male and female. We sometimes forget that. Over 8000 people applied in a

special ballot to be part of the events today.

to give thanks and remember their fathers, grandfathers,

uncles, and close relatives who fought in the Battle of Passchen

Some were tragically killed in these fields,

others survived to share their memories.

Dan Snow is now with one of the descendants.

Rebecca, there are a lot of descended here today, but few have

the connection with this battlefield that you have. You have got two

relatives commemorated here. Yes, my great-grandfather, Harry Moorhouse,

he was acting Lieutenant Colonel when he died. And his son Ronald

mortars, who was a captain. Together they were in the fourth Battalion,

the Kings own Yorkshire light infantry, and they died on the same

day on October the 9th, 1917. A father and son in the same unit and

killed on the same day will stop it is tragic. How did the father found

out his son had been killed? They were trying to take a hill called

the Bellevue 's birth. It was raining and it was muggy, one of the

worst possible conditions. Ronald was sent by Harry because he was the

commanding officer to go up this hill and he was shot. But Harry did

not know that and he got back to base, headquarters, a farmhouse down

the road, and when he got back they brought his son in injured. He was

so horrified he said, I must go and get a doctor. The other officer

said, you cannot, it is too dangerous, there are snipers out

there. But he insisted he would go and he set out with another officer

across the swamp and the craters and was sadly shot very soon by a sniper

and died in the arms of the officer who was with him. Rebecca, it is an

extraordinary story. Thank you so much for sharing it with us. So many

extraordinary stories this morning. So many extraordinary

stories this morning. This morning's ceremony

will take place in amongst the thousands

of headstones here behind me, each one made from

white Portland stone. These headstones were erected

by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission, who today ensure every

grave is cared for with the same respect and dignity

that it deserves. On the Western Front in 1914,

the British Army had no way of organising and recording

the burial places The numbers were staggering

at that stage in the war. It was clear that the death toll

was only going to rise. Fabian Ware and his small team began

to record the burial places of British soldiers,

wherever they'd died, wherever they'd been

buried by their comrades, and that gradually developed

into what we know as the Commonwealth War Graves

Commission. Today, we commemorate 1.7 million

men and women who lost their lives We've got 23,000 different

sites in 154 different countries and territories,

all over the world, in every The biggest is Tyne Cot

Cemetery in Flanders. Three quarters of them

are unidentified. After the end of the war, Tyne Cot

was a sea of wooden crosses, then gradually over the course

of the 1920s, the War Graves Commission created

the cemetery that you see today. They installed the headstones,

they created the cemetery architecture, the walls

and the shelter buildings and, And from those very early days,

the Commission's gardeners make sure that this continues to be a place

where people can come and pay their respects,

reflect on what happened In the beginning, the idea was to

create English country gardens for these men to lie amongst,

for people to get a sense that this was a corner of England, as it were,

and that was very important to families visiting immediately

after the First World War, and we still try to maintain that

today. My dad started working in '46

for the War Graves Commission, When you are here, you feel close

to the soldiers who are buried here. There's almost 40,000

herbaceous plants, 2,500 roses It takes us two days to mow it,

but then you have the pruning, It's quite a job to do it

but it's done with love. Beneath the Cross of Sacrifice

is the Tyne Cot blockhouse, the largest German pillbox

in this area. You can still see a small area

of concrete within a wreath, as a reminder of how strong

a position it was. Once it had been captured,

it was used as an advanced dressing station to help treat those

who were wounded. The majority of the graves

here are in long rows, evenly spaced, and they're

the graves that were But those battlefield graves around

the bunker, they are exactly where they were when they were first

put there, buried by their comrades The battlefield cemetery,

that's my favourite part. If you stand there, I think

you can feel it a bit. I'm very happy to do something

for these people who made sure that we can live

in a peaceful country. These are the scenes today at Tyne

Cot cemetery in Flanders. We are looking at the chiefs of staff. We

have Sir Stuart pitch. the vice chairman of the

Commonwealth War Graves Commission, and Dr Glyn Prysor,

the Commission's resident historian. Anything I have needed to know in

the last few days, you either man I have gone to. Tim, year round this

place is kept with great care as we heard from one of the gardeners. We

do it with love. On a day like today it immaculate. Why is it important

that on the other 364 days of the year it looks like it does today? It

is important because people come here throughout the year. We want to

make sure that whenever people come here they find the cemetery in

perfect condition. It is just a team of four gardeners who look after the

cemetery. They have had a bit of extra help over the last few years

to get it right for this important event. This is a standout event, one

of the biggest events they have ever had? It is fair to say that, one of

the biggest ones. We have seen on the film these beautiful, ornate

carvings that represent the nations of the soldiers. Give us an idea of

the nationalities. There are regimental symbols from all across

the British Army, the phone of New Zealand, the Maple Leaf of Canada,

the rising Sun and the Springbok of South Africa. There were Indian

soldiers, members of the Chinese Labour Corps, nurses and so on, a

real demonstration of the diversity of the armies of the British Empire

that for at that time. What I did not expect to see where two German

headstones and there are four German soldiers buried here. Tell us about

that. Those headstones are exactly the same dimensions of the British

Army headstones. They are treated in exactly the same way. These men were

enemies in life, but in death they were brothers and they are given

exactly the same respect by the gardeners as any other soldier. The

memorial wall at the back that contains so many tens of thousands

of names. Why is that here because we think of the Menin Gate where we

see the names. We ran out of space on the Menin Gate and it was obvious

there would not be enough space, so a second memorial wall was designed

and created. It, if you like, acted as an overflow when we did not have

any more real. As I understand it, there are still commemorations and

names being engraved on that wall to this very day. Explain that to me.

Every year remains are discovered. In these very fields? By farmers?

Absolutely, by farmers. Each of them is treated as they work 100 years

ago and they are given a burial with full dignity. If their identity is

known, it is added to the memorial. It is the beauty of the commission

continuing it from 100 years ago. Thank you for taking the time to

talk to us today. The names of some of those will be

read out today. During today's commemorations

the names of some of those buried or inscribed on the

Memorial Wall in Tyne Cot will be read out in tribute

to all those killed This wall, with 35,000

thousand names on it, is a continuation of

the Menin Gate Memorial in Ypres, which gives a place

to remember the men who died Dan Snow is with Warrant Officer

William Rhodes, who has the honour of reading out

one of the names. William, you volunteer to be part of

this event, why did you do that? I volunteered as a descendant, my

great great ankle was killed in the Battle of Passchendaele. -- uncle. I

felt it was important to come out for the 100th anniversary. It has

been planned for the best part of ten years now with my family, to

come out, and now with the big commemorations, we have taken part

in that. It sounds like it was talked about within your family, who

particularly are you remembering? It is my great great uncle, he was

killed 100 years ago today, the 31st of July, the first day of the

battle, in the battle of St-Julien. He was part of the Cheshire

Regiment. They suffered extremely large casualties. I know a little

bit about him, we have been doing a lot of research, trying to gather

that information together, and we have been massively helped by the

military museum they have given us a lot of information from the Cheshire

edge and's diaries and archives. -- the Cheshire Regiment. Enjoy the

experience and the experience of remembering him as well. Thank you

very much. have been told in the

testimonies of soldiers and, of course, by journalists at the

time and subsequently historians. However, the poets of

the Great War who themselves served in the trenches

have dominated the collective memory

of the war in a unique war. They exist only on the pages

of history books, and their victims become

little more than statistics. But the First World War

is different. 100 years after it was fought,

it's still part of our slick upon the duck-boards:

so I fell Into the bottomless mud,

and lost the light. The armies of the Western Front

were unlike any that had ever For the first time,

the majority of soldiers, no matter what their class,

could read and write. These literate men found themselves

in a conflict of siege warfare - They spent much of their time

in the trenches, near to the danger and the death, but protected

underground, and that gave them time His brother, we can

hear death's roar. Those lines, translated

from Welsh, were written by Ellis Humphrey Evans,

who wrote under the name Hedd Wyn. He was killed on the first day

of the Battle of Passchendaele. Another poet who fought here was

Francis Ledwidge from Ireland. Ledwidge died on the

same day as Hedd Wyn, killed by a shell that landed

about 200 yards from here. These two poets are buried

in the same cemetery. Both men remembered

100 years after their deaths, thanks to the words

they left behind. The poetry of the First World War

is just a fragment of the otherwise unwritten work

of a doomed generation. It's a taste of

what they might have produced, These are the scenes this morning

and Tyne Cot Cemetery in Belgium. We are looking at the band of the Welsh

Guards in their red tunics and bearskin, conducted by Lieutenant

Colonel Kevin Roberts, and he has a job in hand today, because he will

be in charge of all the musicians, single-handedly overseeing four

different groups of musicians who will be participating in the

ceremony that. Shortly. -- that will start shortly.

Well, later in the commemorations, two of those poets,

killed 100 years ago, will be remembered.

An elegy will be sung in memory of the poet Hedd Wyn,

and actor Peter Campion will perform

A Soldier's Grave by the Irish poet Francis Ledwidge.

And I'm joined by Belgian historian Professor

Sophie de Schaepdrijver, together with broadcaster and historian David

Olusoga and Richard van Emden to chat a bit more about the

Richard, if I can come to you first of all, these photographs are seared

on our consciousness, and we are a hundred years away from that battle,

what impression did they make on people at the time you saw the

images that were taken? Well, I mean, you can imagine that it had a

profound effect on families back home. I mean, how could you not look

at the morass... I mean, this is the worst hell you could imagine, and to

see men stuck in there, fighting for their lives. There is one amazing

photograph of a gentleman called Reginald Brown on this ridge, there

were five men on the photograph, and the next morning four were dead, he

was the only survivor. They are testimony to the most dramatic era

for Britain, and the scenes are truly shocking, how could they be

otherwise? Poetry seems so esoteric, but it absolutely captured not just

the feelings but the brutal and vital experiences of the men on the

battlefield. It is a strange thing, we don't talk about the poetry of

the Napoleonic wars very much the Second World War, but the British

experience of the First World War is intimately linked to poetry, and

that is an anomaly. Partly it is because the men were educated,

nothing quite explains this. What is critical is whether it distorts

history, and many historians have written about why 4000 people are

here today, the poetry draws us into this epic tragedy. Sophie, when I

was talking to one of my daughters about coming here, she knew about

Siegfried Sassoon, that was her way into the war, and your country has

been memorialised in words by these people, rather brilliantly and

beautiful. Yes, it has, British poetry in particular is a milestone,

a relay station for remembrance. What is particularly interesting

about the First World War is that so many people wrote who had never put

pen to paper. This is across the belligerent world, you see it in

Germany, everywhere, so people write poetry, they write drama, they write

sketches, and they feel the need to express their war. So amidst this

war, which is regimented, which takes a generation, everyone feels

the need to express something subjective. Yes, there is the war,

but also my war. We are looking at the British guard of honour, there

will be two this morning and Tyne Cot Cemetery, the Belgian guard of

honour as well, but this is the Irish Guards, 96 men, guardsman,

Lund scored is and Lance Sergeant is. Back now to Dan Snow, he has

been joined by Linda Parton. Your father at the most extraordinary

career in the army, served all the way through to the end, did he ever

talk about those experiences? A little bit, on a very light level,

he never talked about the feelings, the fear, the dread. He talked about

having to make their own ammunition, being continually wet, footrot, but

never what it felt like. Was he happy to talk to you about it? He

was 53 when I was born, so it was quite distant from his wartime

experiences, and that made it easier for him. But you also have an uncle

who fought at Passchendaele. Yes, my father's younger brother, Walter, he

joined in 1916, as soon as he was old enough, and he was killed in

1917, just 19 years old. It must be very special being here today. It

is, to remember my uncle, but also to think about my father and what he

went through, and to have a chance to save thanks, Dad. Dan Snow, thank

you very much indeed for that. We are looking at the scenes in Tyne

Cot, and splendid scenes they are indeed, the Irish Guards, and on

their ensign, it includes 21 battle honours, the wreath of the Battle of

Passchendaele that we see there. And that was taking place at the

Stone of Remembrance, a hugely significant point in today's

commemorations. Lynne, as you look at the scenes today, what is going

through your head, because you have a very intimate relationship with

Tyne Cot and the other Commonwealth War Graves? What I am reminded of

the images of the first pilgrims coming to this place to mourn their

lost relatives, images of mothers, daughters, comrades, veterans

returning in the years after the war to pay tribute to lost friends. And

I think seeing the images of the crowds gathering here, it mind me of

1927, the images of the cemetery when it was first unveiled. We are

just doing here what we have been doing for many decades. When it was

first unveiled, it looked very different, I presume, it would have

been wooden crosses. Yes indeed, they would have been wooden crosses

laid out, and over many years the architecture was designed and

created, and of those wooden crosses are very poignant, when you see the

images of the German blockhouses rising up out of the ground. Today

it is very peaceful and beautiful, but we have to remember that this is

the work of generations of gardeners, and many of them local

people, who care for this place and create what we see today. Five

Victoria Cross awardees buried here. Yes, one is particularly striking,

Lewis Moody, an Australian soldier who was awarded his Victoria Cross

for his actions in 1917 when this area was captured by the 14th

Australian division, a tale of almost reckless bravery, incredibly

brutal fighting with bayonet and bomb, rather than with bullets, a

reminder of the brutality of the fighting, and acts of heroism on

both sides, it is important we remember that. That is an

interesting point, you are nodding your head, acts of bravery on both

sides, men on both sides going through, ostensibly, entirely the

same experience. Entirely the same experience. Actually, if you had

been here in 1927, you would have found almost 100 German cemeteries

dotted across the landscape. Really? So the story that this landscape

told in the 1920s is completely different from the story today, so

today, it is peaceful - when it wasn't, so that is already a change.

But it tells quite a lopsided story, because the Germans have been

relegated to four very large cemeteries, no longer inscribed into

the space as they had been. Just looking ahead, Richard, to the

commemoration today, we are going to see the German Foreign Minister,

there will be a German reading here today, during this commemoration,

this reconciliation of the nations, that must surely have been a very

nuanced and difficult thing to begin to look forward to at the time, post

war. Absolutely. I mean, Britain and Germany had a lot in common in so

many ways, I always be the Germans saying, you are Anglo-Saxons, we are

Saxons, so there was a kind of unity, a lot of interest to keep

Germany together as a unitary state out of the war, so a lot of

co-operation between the British and the Germans behind the scenes. But

somewhere like this, obviously it was incredibly important to build

that relationship, and coming back to Harry patch, I remember how

important it was for him to have that reconciliation, and when we

went to the biggest cemetery for German casualties, he picked up two

acorns from next to a German grave of a man was killed on the day he

attacked, and he buried them in the garden, and that communion, on a

very small scale, is being represented today on a much bigger

scale. We were just looking at the Belgian Minister of defence, Steven

Vandeput, and there will be many dignitaries this morning, we will

seed Theresa May, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, the Prince of

Wales, the King and Queen of the Belgians. We are sitting in

Flanders, but this is essentially a small slice of saying this is now

British soil, handed over in perpetuity. That is right, the War

Graves are on land donated by the government of Belgium, a very

poignant thought, this is land that will never be reclaimed, the

Commonwealth War Graves Commission is the lack has a motto about

perpetuity, and of course that was a very new idea at the time, the idea

that these would exist 100 years on was an unprecedented way of

commemorating the dead, and I think it feels so natural now, but it

wasn't always like that. With that very thought, I wanted to ask you

about communications at the time. How easy was it for the troops on

the front line to be able to communicate with commanders and

people who were so close? The wireless was in its infancy. Once

the battle started it was any man's game. You could not properly

communicate. You would have runners and men running back and forward

across the battlefield. But you would not know what had happened to

them. You had pidgins and even dogs taking messages. You say you had

pidgins, of course. Tell me more about that. It was one form of

communication when you had all other sorts of mechanisms. One way you

could communicate was with them because you could type a message to

their legs and they would go home as they were met to do and you would

pick up the message. But the Germans would try and bring them down and it

would be difficult. We are looking at an extraordinary vehicle of these

birds in this picture. There is a lot to be said for that and the way

in which these animals were remembered. They were seen as heroic

agents, resistance agents, and avian resistance agent. If you look at the

work of Michael Morpurgo what we are doing is the other way around. We

are looking at the human experience through the eyes of the animals.

Indeed and we saw a performance of war horse last night in Ypres in

front of Cloth Hall. At the forefront of our mind today I had

the men who died and we see pictures of the horses being sucked into the

mud. Man and horse worked together and people who worked with the

horses were very close to them. It must have been a terrible tragedy

for the troops on the front like to see their horses going. The

closeness men had with their animals was intense. I always remember one

veteran talking about coming up here with his mule. Mules were better

because they have smaller feet. He said he was exhausted and the mule

was exhausted and he tried to clamber onto the mule and it

collapsed. He said he was trying to pull his mule out of the earth and

it looked at him as if to say, why did you do that? He said it had

haunted him all his life. With friends dying around him, this had

haunted him. That closeness between man and animal was extraordinary in

the First World War. And a word or two on the situation with the mud,

Sophie. There was a unique confluence of circumstance which

meant the mud was significant in Flanders. If you go to the stone

quarries around here you see this layer of rubbery clay. You could see

immediately it would be impossible for what to penetrate that. For

centuries this was an area where you had all these small canals and

drainage ditches, so there was a very intricate water economy if you

will. It was blown to bits by all of those shells. Then when the rain was

added to that, you have a perfect catastrophe. David, the rain that

was added, it was twice the rainfall they normally expect at this time of

the year. It rained almost everyday in the first month of the battle.

You have a land battle in which soldiers literally drowned. One of

the reasons why we have so many unknown victims, men whose bodies

were never found, was because people sank into this mire. That is the

unique horror of Passchendaele. We can see their name live Earth for

evermore and those were words that were approved at the time by people

themselves. Why did they need this to be approved? It was so sensitive.

You look at the Commonwealth War Graves records and people are

writing in and saying, why are there not crosses? Everyone was so per

tune as to what remembrance was going to take place. We see the

Belgian guard of honour just lining the roads back to Tyne Cot Cemetery.

We believe this is the arrival of the British Prime Minister, Theresa

May. She has been an two of the three ceremonies so far and indeed

her grandfather served in the First World War in Flanders in the second

Battle of Ypres. Oh, well, and there is a surprise for all of us. It is

the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge arriving.

And Sir Tim Lawrence and the welcoming committee making them

welcome at Tyne Cot Cemetery. There has been bad traffic on the way

here, so maybe the British Prime Minister Theresa May is stuck in

that. But the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge are here. It has been a

time of great change for the Duke himself as he carried out his last

ever shipped last Thursday with the East Anglia air Ambulance Service.

His most recent visit to Belgium was at the beginning of June when he

attended the British and Irish commemorative service to mark the

Centenary of a battle at the Ireland peace Park.

It is worth noting that there are over 15,000 Canadian casualties at

Passchendaele and the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge recently

conducted a tour of Canada. That was in October of last year. The Duke of

Cambridge is having a chat with the Mayor of Zonnebeke.

There has been meticulous organisation, of course, that goes

into making sure that for these three major events people arrived,

people leave, and the person in charge is Lieutenant Colonel David

Hann of the Irish guys, part of the Queen's has division and it has been

his job, and it is no small job, to make sure that everybody gets to

where they are meant to be. I will wait with you and find out who is

going to be in this car. The welcoming party is made up of Karen

Bradley, the UK Secretary of State for Culture and I was chatting

earlier to Sir Tim Laurence, the vice-chairman of the Commonwealth

War Graves Commission. He is part of the welcoming committee for this

morning's VIPs. And indeed Theresa May is now with us. She is the MP

for Maidenhead and has been since 1987. That is significant because

the Commonwealth War Graves Commission is headquartered in her

constituency. She visited their offices in June of last year. She

said, the commission does vital work in ensuring that our fallen soldiers

are never forgotten and that respect is shown to all those who died in

the world wars. She will see first hand this morning the work that the

commission does. That is at Tyne Cot Cemetery.

And we believe now that given the flag on the car, this is the German

Foreign Minister. He has served as Vice Chancellor of

Germany since 2013. His current position is as foreign minister

since January of this year. And so the Duke and Duchess, it

looks like they have decided to become part of the welcoming

committee, which will be a lovely surprise for anybody who gets out of

their car this morning. The Duchess is no stranger to commemorative

events such as these. She accompanied the Duke and the King

and Queen of the Belgians to a series of events in 2014 and that

would seem a very good reason as to why they are waiting outside. They

will welcome the King and Queen of the Belgians to Tyne Cot Cemetery

when they arrived in just a moment or so.

And of course we see the arrival of the Prince of Wales who will be

joining their Royal Highness is to welcome the king and the Queen of

the Belgians. In so many ways for so many of the dignitaries and VIPs who

are taking part in the ceremony, there are highly personal

connections to Passchendaele and to the First World War. The Prince of

Wales' great grandfather, George V, was involved in the design of this

very Cemetery. It was George V who ordered the Cross of Sacrifice be

built on top of a captured German pillbox. You will see in some of the

wide shots that we show you this morning that that is the highest

point of Tyne Cot Cemetery. And just beyond them, the Belgian

guard of honour will be lining the route in preparation for the arrival

of their king and Queen. And so the Royal Highness is welcome

the King and Queen of the Belgians to Tyne Cot Cemetery, King Philippe

and Queen Mathilde. King Philippe was commander-in-chief of the

Belgian army, and after leaving school, he attended their Royal

Military Academy and joined the Belgian air force.

And the Queen of the Belgians' grandfather was a Sergeant in the

eighth Regiment of the Belgian army. And the King's great-grandfather,

King Albert I, he was nicknamed the King soldier, he took command of the

Belgian army in the field. He led them to victory against German

forces. The Prince of Wales, no doubt,

enjoying the music of the Welsh Guards, a key part of today's

ceremony, in terms of the music they are making, and the Prince of Wales

is Colonel of the Welsh Guards, a position he took up in March of

1975. Now, there were 15,600 Canadian

casualties at Passchendaele, and the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, they

recently conducted a tour of Canada, highlights included meeting Justin

Trudeau, the Canadian Prime Minister, and hosting an event for

members of the Canadian military at Government House.

The Prince of Wales, of course, not in regimental dress today, as this

is a commemorative ceremony, but he has a very special relationship with

the military, 12 UK regiments in particular and ten across the

Commonwealth. This includes being Colonel-in-Chief of the Parachute

Regiment, Colonel-in-Chief of the Royal Gurkha Rifles,

Colonel-in-Chief of the Army Air Corps, and the Royal Colonel of the

Black Watch, 3rd Battalion The Royal Welsh and of Scotland. -- the Royal

Regiment of Scotland. So very shortly the ceremony will

begin and it will include first person testimony read by individuals

who all have links through their family to the Battle of

Passchendaele, which began in 100 years ago today.

And some of the choral music that we will enjoy today will be the

National Youth Choir of Scotland, conducted by Colonel Roberts of the

Welsh Guards, overseeing all of the splendid music that we are enjoying

today. And their voices will mark the beginning of this very special

commemoration. # In Flanders fields

the poppies blow # Between the crosses,

row on row # That mark our place,

and in the sky # The larks still

bravely singing fly # Scarce heard amid

the guns below. # Private Edward Michael Batten

of the D Company, 13th Platoon, 45th Battalion,

Australian Infantry. Killed in action on the 12th

of October 1917, aged 40. Second Lieutenant

Frederick Falkiner MC, 17th Service Battalion

of the Royal Irish Rifles. Killed in action

flying over enemy lines near Ypres

on the 21st of August 1917. Private James Munro,

1st South African Infantry Regiment. Killed in action on

the 20th of September 1917. His commanding officer wrote home,

"Your son was a general favourite, and we shall all miss

his cheerful personality." Killed in action

on the 24th of August 1917. His son, my grandfather,

was only three years old. My great-great-uncle

Private Walter Stevenson of the 4th Battalion

Grenadier Guards. Killed in action on

the 29th of July 1916. Private Dafydd Griffith

of the 7th Battalion the King's Shropshire

Light Infantry. Killed in action on the 26th

of September 1917. His younger brother was killed

three months later. My great-great-uncle and namesake?,

Sergeant William Rhodes, Cheshire Regiment, awarded

the Distinguished Conduct Medal. Killed in action on

the 31st of July 1917. 100 years ago today, the Third

Battle of Ypres began. At ten to four in the morning, less than five

miles from here, thousands of men, drawn from across Britain, France

and the Commonwealth, attacked German lines. The battle we know

today as Passchendaele would last for over 100 days. We remember it's

not only for the rain that fell, the mud that weighed down the living and

swallowed the dead, but also for the courage and bravery of the men who

fought here. The advance was slow, and every inch was hard-fought. The

land we stand upon was taken two months into the battle by the third

Australian Division. It would change hands twice again before the end of

the war. In 1922, my great-grandfather, King George

Polona Hercog, came here as part of a pilgrimage to honour all those who

died in the First World War. -- King George V. Whilst visiting Tyne Cot,

he stood before the pillbox that this Cross of Sacrifice has been

built upon, a former German stronghold that had dominated the

ridge. Once taken by the Allies, the pillbox became a forward aid opposed

to treat the wounded. Those who could not be saved were buried by

their brothers in arms in makeshift graves. These became the headstones

that are before us today. After the end of the war, almost 12,000 graves

of British and Commonwealth soldiers were brought here from surrounding

battlefields. Today, a further 34,000 men who could not be

identified or whose bodies were never found have their names

inscribed on the memorial. Thinking of these men, my great-grandfather

remarked, I have many times asked myself whether there can be more

potent advocates of peace upon earth through the years to come than this

massed multitude of silent witnesses to the desolation of war. In 1920,

war reporter Philip Gibbs, who had himself witnessed this, wrote that

nothing that has been written is more than a pale image of the

abomination of those battlefields, and that no pen or brush has yet

achieved a picture of that Armageddon in which so many of our

men perished. Drawn from many nations, we come together in their

resting place, cared for with such dedication by the Commonwealth War

Graves Commission, to commemorate their sacrifice, and to promise that

we will never forget. KIRSTY: The Welsh poet was killed on

the first day of the Battle of Passchendaele.

We will now hear Rhodri Jones sing a tribute to him.

# Y bardd trwm dan bridd tramor - y dwylo

# Wedi ei fyw y mae dy fywyd - dy rawd

# Tyner yw'r lleuad heno - tros fawnog Trawsfynydd yn dringo

# Trawsfynydd tros ei feini - trafaeliaist

A tribute in song to the Welsh poet Hedd Wyn, who is buried

at Artillery Wood Cemetery alongside the Irish poet, Lance Corporal

Francis Edward Ledwidge of the Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers.

Ledwidge was an Irish nationalist who enlisted

Both poets were killed in action, one hundred years ago today.

A Soldier's Grave by Francis Ledwidge.

Then in the lull of midnight, gentle arms

Lifted him slowly down the slopes of death

Lest he should hear again the mad alarms

Of battle, dying moans, and painful breath.

And where the earth was soft for flowers we made

A grave for him that he might better rest.

So, Spring shall come and leave it sweet arrayed,

And there the lark shall turn her dewy nest.

Sergeant Walter Hubert Downing, 57th Battalion Australian Imperial Force.

Men fell silent, or spoke casually, or made surly jests,

Occasionally we stirred to brush the dirt from our necks

Dry, heavy clods of earth flew on the air.

Shells roared and moaned incessantly across the floor of heaven.

Private C Miles, 10th Battalion, Royal Fusiliers.

The moment you set off you felt that dreadful suction.

It was forever pulling you down, and you could hear the sound

of your feet coming out in a kind of sucking "plop" that seemed

much louder at night when you were on your own.

In a way, it was worse when the mud didn't suck you down,

when it yielded under your feet you knew that it was a body

Private Leonard Hart, 2nd Battalion Otago Regiment.

Dear Mother, Father and Connie, in a postcard which I sent

you about a fortnight ago, I mentioned that we were on the eve

of a great event, and that I had no time to write you a long letter.

Well, that great event is over now, and by some strange act of fortune

I have once again come through without a scratch.

The great event mentioned consisted of a desperate attack

by our Division against a ridge, strongly fortified and strongly

For the first time in our brief history as an army

the New Zealanders failed in their objective

with the most appalling slaughter I have ever seen.

My Company went into action 180 strong and we came out 32 strong.

Still, we have nothing to be ashamed of as our commander afterwards told

us that no troops in the world could possibly have taken

the position, but this is small comfort when one remembers

the hundreds of lives that have been lost and nothing gained.

Sister Jean Calder, Casualty Clearing Station at Remy Siding.

We'd had boys coming in all week, of course, and we'd been busy

but the ones we got at the weekend were in a shocking state

because so many of them had been lying out in the mud before

they could be picked up by the first-aid orderlies.

They didn't look like clothes at all.

We had to cut them off and do what we could.

In a civilian hospital, even an army hospital,

the man had a home quite near and relations possibly,

but the wounded man on the battlefield is miles away

He's in pain and he's amongst strangers, and I think that was why

sympathy went out from one to the other.

MUSIC: "Lux Aeterna" by Edward Elgar

Private Bert Fearns, 2/6th Lancashire Fusiliers,

describing an attack in October 1917 on the land we are

Mr Kay came up and said, "Come on, lads, it's our turn," and we just

walked round the corner of the pillbox and up the hill.

The Germans didn't have much to fear from me that morning.

There was no fire in my belly - no nothing.

I staggered up the hill and then dropped over a slope

It was here that I froze and became very frightened because a big shell

had just burst and blown a group of our lads to bits.

There were bits of men all over the place, a terrible sight,

It was still and misty, and I could taste their blood in the air.

Then an officer came across and shouted we were too far

left and must go half right, I would have probably been dead

These men had just been killed, and we just had to wade

That's one thing I'll never forget, what I saw and what I smelt.

Private F Hodgson, 11th Canadian Field Ambulance,

The doctor and his helpers were in one, and we stretcher

bearers were in another about a hundred feet away.

We put the stretcher-case in a depression in the ground.

He was very frightened, the wounded boy.

He said to me, "Am I going to die, mate?"

I said, "Don't be stupid, fella, you're going to be all right."

"As soon as Heinie stops this shelling, we'll

have you out of here, and they'll fix you up OK."

"You'll be back across the ocean before you know it."

The shelling eased off, and we picked him up

He died before we got to the dressing-station.

On the way back we passed the remains of our number one squad.

There were nothing but limbs all over the place.

We lost ten of our stretcher-bearers that day.

# In Flanders fields the poppies blow

# Between the crosses, row on row

# That mark our place: and in the sky

# The larks still bravely singing fly

# Scarce heard amid the guns below. #

My great-uncle, Rifleman Harold Emmens, Rifle Brigade.

Missing in action on the 8th of September 1917.

Second Lieutenant Alexander Currie Goudie

of the 9th Service Battalion Scottish Rifles.

He joined the Scottish Horse in 1914, before transferring

Missing in action on the 20th of September 1917.

Private Hugh Dalzell of the Royal Irish Fusiliers.

Identified by a photograph he was carrying of his mother.

Missing in action on the 16th of August 1917, aged 20.

Private Albert James Ford, C Company, 14th Service Battalion,

the Royal Warwickshire Regiment, husband to Edith and father to six.

In a last letter to his wife he wrote,

"Know that my last thoughts were of you,

in the dugout or on the firestep, my thoughts went out to you,

the only one I ever loved, the one that made a man of me."

Killed in action on the 26th of October 1917.

X Corps Cyclist Battalion, Army Cyclist Corps.

Dear friend, I am addressing you as friend

as any friend of my boys is my friend.

I thank you for sending us word of how our dear Ernest died.

It is dreadful, though, to lose our dear boy in this way.

We would not believe it till we had the letter from someone who saw him.

Did you see my boy after he died, could you tell us how he was?

I should like to know what time of the day or night

I am sure we are all the while thinking of you dear lads,

hoping and praying for you to be kept safe, and then when

these awful tidings are sent us, it shakes our faith.

But then again when we get calm we know

that God is still in his heaven and he orders all things for the best.

I sent Ernie a parcel off on 21st August.

will you share what is good between you and his friends.

I shall never forget you and hope you will write often to me.

Letter from an unknown German officer, September 1917.

Dear Mother, on the morning of the 18th, the dug-out,

containing 17 men, was shot to pieces over our heads.

I am the only one who withstood the maddening bombardment

You cannot imagine the frightful mental torments

I have undergone in those few hours.

After crawling out through the bleeding remnants of my comrades

and the smoke and debris, and wandering and fleeing

in the midst of the raging artillery fire in search of refuge,

I am now awaiting death at any moment.

Flanders means blood and scraps of human bodies.

Flanders means heroic courage and faithfulness unto death.

KIRSTY: And now the German Foreign Minister will be joined by the Queen

of the Belgians and the Duchess of Cambridge, and they are going to

collect posies from three local children. They are children that

live locally in the community, the municipality of Zonnebeke.

# The day thou gavest, Lord, is ended

# Thy praise shall sanctify our rest.

# We thank thee that thy church unsleeping

# While earth rolls onward into light

# Through all the world her watch is keeping

# The voice of prayer is never silent

# The sun that bids us rest is waking

# Our brethren 'neath the western sky

# And hour by hour fresh lips are making

# So be it, Lord, thy throne shall never

# Like earth's proud empires, pass away

# Thy kingdom stands and grows for ever

# Till all thy creatures own thy sway. #

Faithful God, compassionate and merciful,

Hear us as we remember those valiant hearts

and died here in the mire and clay of the trenches.

We honour the examples of selfless service,

of comradeship and care, that shine out of the loss and waste.

We remember the proud and sorrowing lands from which they came,

those who returned wounded in mind and body,

and all here who suffered the loss of home and community.

Guide the nations, united today in sorrow,

into the light of freedom, contentment and glorious hope,

and hear the longing of our hearts for peace.

We ask this for the sake of your world

KIRSTY: And we will now hear from the British Prime Minister, Theresa

May, she is going to be reading from Ecclesiastes, and you can listen out

for the phrase, their name liveth for evermore, carved on the Stone of

Remembrance here at Tyne Cot. All these were honoured

in their generations, There be of them, that have left

a name behind them, that their praises might

be reported. And some there be,

which have no memorial, who are perished,

as though they had never been, and are become as though

they had never been born, whose righteousness hath

not been forgotten. With their seed shall continually

remain a good inheritance, and their children are

within the covenant. Their seed standeth fast,

and their children for their sakes. and their glory shall

not be blotted out. Their bodies are buried in peace,

but their name liveth for evermore. They shall grow not old,

as we that are left grow old. Age shall not weary them,

nor the years condemn. At the going down of the sun,

and in the morning Private Robert Stokoe,

Private Edward Wright and Private Peter Hulland of

the East Lancashire Regiment. Killed in action on

the 27th of November 1917, Private William Dominey,

21st Battalion Canadian Infantry. Killed in action on 3rd or 4th

of November 1917, aged 18. My great-grandfather,

Private Albert James Goff agricultural labourer

and father of eight. Killed in action on the 26th

of October 1917, aged 38. Private Henry Morris,

2nd Battalion Aukland Regiment, Killed in action

on the 4th of October 1917. A tribute to him read,

"In a hero's grave he sleepeth." "How little we thought when we

parted, it was the last farewell." of the Duke of Wellington's

West Riding Regiment. Throughout my childhood

I was intrigued by his portrait A soldier of the Great War,

known unto God. And so as part of the laying of the

reads this morning we saw the combatant nations taking part, their

representatives, including Australia, Canada, France, Germany,

Ireland, Malta, New Zealand and South Africa. In a few moments' time

we will be witnessing a fly past by the Belgian air component. We will

see four F-16 planes and they will be flying approximately 1500 feet

above Tyne Cot Cemetery in Flanders. They will be flying in the missing

man formation, a classic aircraft manoeuvre, and it is used to honour

the dead or the missing. Take note as one aircraft breaks away from the

rest of the formation, leaving one single gap.

And well they might look up. Clear skies today above Tyne Cot Cemetery,

to enjoy that moment. Four F-16s from the Belgian air component.

All of the splendid music we have enjoyed today has been under the

charge of the conductor, Lieutenant Colonel Kevin Roberts. He has

single-handedly overseen four different groups of musicians

participating in this commemorative ceremony. And the buglers that we

saw and heard performing the Last Post were led by Bugler John Sumner

and Bugler John Challis was played under his charge, and Mike Thomas.

And so we see Prince Philip along with the King of the Belgians, I beg

your pardon, Prince Charles along with the King of the Belgians, King

Philippe. And Queen Mathilde along with the Duchess of Cambridge, her

husband behind. And so as the royal guests depart

from Tyne Cot that brings to an end to the official commemorations here

in Belgium. The battle 100 years ago on the fields of Flanders left

behind the shattered, broken landscape and in its wake of a

million men killed or wounded. Passchendaele touched the lives of

so many families from all corners of the earth. They lost fathers,

brothers, Experience the power

of the BBC Proms. # Oh, lullaby of Birdland,

that's what I... # to jazz legends Ella Fitzgerald

and Dizzy Gillespie,