Thanks for this, Kate. Working on a book of WWI letters and hopefully we can get permission to use a couple of these. It was a ghastly battle fought in mud and the colour picks it up.

Don't Thank The Press For Freedom Of The Press --- Thank A Soldier :)

A mistake of a battle, but easy enough now to say that. British high-command (cough) thought it was relevant.

The four months of 3rd Ypres makes modern battle casualties look like an example against jay-walking.

Never forget.

A mistake of a battle, but easy enough now to say that. British high-command (cough) thought it was relevant.

The four months of 3rd Ypres makes modern battle casualties look like an example against jay-walking.

Never forget.

Wonderful job on the photos...they remind me of some old (black-and white) pictures of my great-grandfather when he served in WWI...

The battle itself, however, should be burned into the memory of every general and politician, as a shameful waste of brave soldiers...

Photos are nicely done.

Both my grandfathers numbered among the Huns.

My paternal grandfather experience is as below.

On the paternal side Heinrich Rupprecht was blown off his charge by artillery fire three times and walked away without a scratch. The horses were not so blessed, except the fourth who had a sixth sense for where the shells were about to fall.He took part in a lot of action in the opening shots of WW1 under 6th Army (Crown Prince Rupprecht), 2nd Army (General Karl von Bülow).

Second Army's job was to support the German First Army's right sweep of the left flank of the French Army and encircling Paris, bringing a rapid conclusion to the war. The Second Army sieged, and took the Belgian fortresses around Namur, and fought Gen. Charles Lanrezac's French Fifth Army at the Battle of Charleroi on August 23-24, 1914 and again at St. Quentin on August 29-30, 1914.

Shortly after he was transferred to the Russian front, 10th Army took part in the 2nd Battle of the Masurian Lakes. The latter featured -40 C and white out conditions when the order came to charge and of course being outnumbered six to one.

Thereafter his unit was transferred to 10th Army (General-Oberst von Eichhorn) In sum, the directives laid it down that Eichhorn's left wing (from left to right, XXI Corps., XXXIX. Res. and XXXVIII. Res. Corps) should be the enveloping force, the right of its attack-mass of 6 divs. being directed on Kussen and the left " making a wide turning movement on or N. of the river Memel " with Wilkowiszki as its objective.

More here:

http://72.14.253.104/search?q=cache:ZSRhqTBGSgUJ:www.1911encyclopedia.org/Battles_In_Masuria+Winter+Battle+of+Masuria&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=13&gl=ca&client=firefox-a

FEBRUARY 1915

East Prussia - The new German Tenth Army attacks the Russian Tenth in the Winter Battle of Masuria between the 7th and 21st. Fighting in heavy snow, one Russian corps is lost to save the remaining three. The Russian army is out of the fight for the present with 200,000 casualties including prisoners - a tactical, but not a strategic victory for the Germans.

He also would have participated in the Battle of Noroch Lakes.

Mar. 18 1916 - 1st Battle of Lake Narotch began with Russian bombardment from 1271 guns for 8 hours, then 2nd Army of Gen Evert with 300,000 attacked German 10th army with 50,000 east of Vilna, but bad weather, thaws and freezes, too cold for poison gas, ineffective bombardment of Gen. Pleshkov. The attack was stopped by German guns on three sides of the Russian salient and Russians lost 100,000. German airplanes had spotted Russian infantry moving west, and Germans were able to position reserves at the correct locations. The battle ended Apr. 14 with 122,000 Russian casualties including 12,000 dead from frostbite and freezing weather, the Germans lost 20,000 casualties. The battle was the last failed effort of the old Russian Army that had been defeated by the Germans the previous year. "Lake Narotch was, despite appearances, one of the decisive battles of the First World War. it condemned most of the Russian army to passivity."

As you can see from the family history we have always been left very deep in the ugliness of war, but somehow managed to survive. In short, our family history suggests ‘we do sh*t storms’; though they are always decidedly highly unpleasant, and are personally unrewarding.

Or more eloquently as per the Bible, Psalm 91:

You will not fear the terror of the night, nor the arrow that flies by day,

nor the pestilence that stalks in darkness, nor the destruction that wastes at noonday.

A thousand may fall at your side, ten thousand at your right hand;

but it will not come near you.

Forgetting is not an option.

Hans-Christian Georg Rupprecht BGS, PDP, CFP

Commander in Chief

Frankenstein Battalion

2nd Squadron: Ulanen-(Lancers) Regiment Großherzog Friedrich von Baden (Rheinisches) Nr.7(Saarbrucken)

Knecht Rupprecht Division

Hans Corps

1st Saint Nicolaas Army

Army Group “True North”

Saw these a couple weeks ago at CKA.

Not normally a fan of colourization of pictures or films but I am more than willing to make an exception for these pictures.

Great job with the photos, thanks for posting them Kate.
My great grandmother's brother was killed at Passchendaele and when I was in Germany with Canada's Nato commitment (Air Force) in the late sixty's we searched in vain for his final resting place. After looking in far too many Canadian Cemetaries we finally found his name on the Menen Gate.

Forget those guys...

Sure doesn't look like Kandahar province to me:
http://toyoufromfailinghands.blogspot.com/2007/07/really-bogged-down.html

Mark
Ottawa

Hard to fathom the nationalist passion or loyalty to monarchs that would deliver men willingly into this unimaginable horror which ground up more than nine million soldiers and civilians.

What could these men have accomplished and given the world had they lived?

WW1's greatest legacy is the warning it provides; is a testament to the heroic nature of men as well as the danger about holding naive romantic notions about the true nature of governments. Governments are base and have few values worth defending in retrospect we see militarism, autocracy, and economic imperialism played a large role in the motives of the leadership on all sides of the conflict.

We hope that modern evolved democracies with constitutions and populations which make government's accountable can truncate these base desires of power which destroyed so many in the first 20 years of the 20th century.

@Capndan at July 20, 2007 5:31 AM

"My great grandmother's brother was killed at Passchendaele and when I was in Germany with Canada's Nato commitment (Air Force) in the late sixty's we searched in vain for his final resting place. After looking in far too many Canadian Cemetaries we finally found his name on the Menen Gate."

While in Belgium and France last year, I spent some quality time exploring and discovering Canadian memorials and battlefields. Never before did I feel so much pride in my country. The footprint left by Canada's commitment and sacrifice in both world wars is unmistakable and pronounced.

Thank you Capndan for your Nato service. Thanks Kate for this link.

A few photos from Ieper and Passchendaele:
http://i103.photobucket.com/albums/m138/karlhienz/CIMG7205.jpg
http://i103.photobucket.com/albums/m138/karlhienz/IMG_0651-1.jpg
http://i103.photobucket.com/albums/m138/karlhienz/CIMG7170.jpg
http://i103.photobucket.com/albums/m138/karlhienz/IMG_0650.jpg
http://i103.photobucket.com/albums/m138/karlhienz/CIMG7172.jpg

To - lilli marlene at July 20, 2007 2:19 PM

Thank you for caring and the photos.

Today I happened to be in a postal outlet in a mall near where I live and the middle aged lady at the counter saw my red shirt with 'Support the Troops' on it and sneeringly asked "You support the troops"? I said, "Yes it's Red Friday, how come you as a Crown Corporation employee are not wearing red today"? She responded flipantly in the same tone of voice, "Never heard of it and we don't do that here"!

Unfortunately, I'm afraid she is far from alone with her attitude. So sad, but a fact of life these days. How soon we forget, then we get to do it all over again in some other hell hole.

It was in WW I where war changed the first use of airplanes and the use of gas as well

The coloring makes the photographs so much more poignant. Likewise, color film from WWII recently shown on the History Channel has that much greater impact by virtue of the added realism that color brings to the images. I've visited the Menin Gate at Passchendaele and it evokes very powerful emotions. Lest we forget.

It is disappointing to see the level of inaccuracy about WW1. To start with the great killer in WW1 was not the machine gun, but artillery, around 60% of all casualties were caused by artillery fire. Assaults rarely were "waves of frontal assault in face of machine guns other than they couldnt think of anything else, and gawd ferbid they be labelled 'indecisive' or 'waffling' trying to come up with an alternative which did not exist", the Somme in 1916 being an exception. The Somme was an exception because the British troops involved were in most cases inadequately trained and too newly raised, the attack was forced on the British by the French to relieve the pressure on Verdun.

WW1 was almost entirely caused by Germany and the desire of the ruling clique to dominate Europe. Germany attacked, violated the neutrality of Belgium, and Britain more or less reluctantly responded. Third Ypres was a bloody battle, but an essential part of the attritional struggle leading to the ultimate military defeat of Germany and the central powers. Even at that point, peace was probably unattainable as Germany refused to consider peace except on their terms, which included the effective destruction of France and the annexation of Belgium.

In the end, the war was inevitably bloody, and fought with three major military problems. Firstly their was no effective mobile arm, cavalry was ineffective because of artillery and modern quick firing side arms (including machine guns) and Tanks, the few that existed from 1916 on, were not mobile enough. Secondly communications, more than any other before or since, battles were fought in a fog of ignorance, commanders had no effective way of really knowing what was going on in a battle within a reasonable time frame. thirdly, on the Western front, the force to space ratio, huge armies occupied a limited space.

We can criticise the commanders with hindsight, but at the time, the British high command, especially Haig, were probably as good as was available anywhere. There was a steep learning curve certainly, and many mistakes were made, but no one else did any better, and in the end, Haig's armies won the war the politicians had engaged upon. A tragic waste yes, but in the circumstances, probably close to unavoidable.