Highlights World War One Remembered: Passchendaele

a hundred years ago today, 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 terrifying massacre of a generation

who lost their lives and those who survived but bore the terrible

There was no line at all - just a series of posts,

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

As you laid down on the ground, you could literally feel your heart

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

We heard one of their big ones coming over, and I was too damn

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'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

Haunting memories, but their testimonies remain strong

and vital in reminding us of the horrors that unfolded

for humanity 100 years ago, and of the devastating human cost

Earlier today, a service of solemn remembrance was held here in Tyne

Cot. Almost 47,000 men of buried and commemorated on the memorial wall.

They could remember their fathers, grandfathers, uncles, and close

relatives who fought in the Battle of Passchendaele. Some were

tragically killed and others survived to share their memories.

Dan Snow is among them to tell us more.

My father never talked about the feelings, the fear, the dreadful he

talked about some of the awful things like having to make your own

ammunition, being wet. My father joined up in 1916, as soon

as he was old enough. And he was killed in 1917 foot he was 19 years

old. It must be special for you being here today. It is. To remember

my uncle but also to think about my father and what he went through. To

have a chance to say thanks, dad. It is great for us all to have that

chance. The ceremony this morning took place in amongst the

headstones. The headstones were erected by the Commonwealth War

Graves Commission who ensure that every grave is cared for with the

respect and dignity it deserves. The British Army had no way of

recording the numbers that had died. It was clear the death toll was only

going to rise. Fabian and his small team began to record the burial

places of British soldiers. That gradually developed into what we

know as the Commonwealth War Graves Commission.

The biggest cemetery is Tyne Cot Cemetery in Flanders. There were

11,961 grades, three quarters of them were unidentified. After the

end of the war, Tyne Cot was a sea of wooden crosses. Over the course

of the 1920s, the War Graves Commission created the cemetery you

see today than they installed the headstones and created the cemetery

architecture. And, of course, the memorial. From those very early

days, the commission's on this made sure it continues to be a place

where people could come and pay their risk -- specs and reflect on

what happened 100 years ago. They wanted to create country

Gardens for this corner of England. 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. And the cemetery was looking

beautiful. His Royal Highness the Princess of Wales joined the King

and queen of the Belgians at the Tyne Cot Cemetery.

# In Flanders fields the poppies blow

# Between the crosses, row on row

Private Edward Michael Batten of the D Company, 13th Platoon,

Killed in action on the 12th of October 1917, aged 40.

Second Lieutenant Frederick Falkiner Military Cross,

17th Service Battalion of the Royal Irish Rifles.

Killed in action flying over enemy lines near Ypres

Private James Munro, 1 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."

My great-great-grandfather, Rifleman Stanley Durrant

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

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

We remember it 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

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

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

Those who could not be saved were buried by their brothers

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

Today, a further 34,000 men who could not be identified or whose

bodies were never found have their names inscribed

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,

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

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

# Tithau'n drist a than dy ro

# Ger y ffos ddu'n gorffwyso

# Trawsfynydd tros ei feini - trafaeliaist

# Troedio wnest ei rhedyn hi

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 Charles 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

this 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.

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 Frank 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 the 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.

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

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,

Killed in action on the 26th of October 1917.

Private Ernest Gays, X Corps Cyclist Battalion,

Dear friend, I am addressing you as friend as any 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 it

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.

If you could see anything of it, will you share what is good

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 of three

You cannot imagine the frightful mental torments I have

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.

# The day thou gavest, Lord, is ended

# The darkness falls at thy behest

# To thee our morning hymns ascended

# 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

# And rests not now by day or night

# Till all thy creatures own thy sway.

Faithful God, compassionate and merciful,

Hear us as we remember those valiant hearts

Who fell in the heat of the conflict

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

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

those who returned wounded in mind or body, all at home who mourned

the dead 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 and the good

of all your children, through Jesus Christ, our Lord.

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

Theresa May, she is going to be reading from Ecclesiastes,

and includes 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, and their children after them.

But these were merciful men, whose righteousness hath

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.

Their seed shall remain for ever, and their glory shall

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, aged 21,

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

of the Devonshire Regiment, agricultural labourer

He was killed in action on the 26th of October 1917, aged 37.

Private Henry Morris, Auckland 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."

My great-uncle, Sergeant John Kerwin of the Duke of Wellington's

Throughout my childhood I was intrigued by his portrait

A soldier of the Great War, known unto God.

And following on, Theresa May and the Belgian minister of defence.

Sir Tim Laurence is the vice-chairman of the Commonwealth

War Graves Commission, and he is accompanied by the minister

president of Flanders. And these groups of people now

taking part are all representing the combatant nations. At Passchendaele,

they include Australia, Canada and France and Germany in this first

group. There were 220,000 German casualties at Passchendaele.

Now, Ireland, Malta, New Zealand and South Africa are represented.

In a few moments' time we will be witnessing a fly past

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

Take note as one aircraft breaks away from the rest of the formation,

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

And Queen Mathilde along with the Duchess of Cambridge,

That draws events to a close. And so on this centenary, in the words of

the poet Siegfried Sassoon, we look down and swear by the slaying of the

war, we will never forget. From the entire BBC team in Belgium, thank

you and bye-bye.