24 Replies to “The Battle of Passchendaele”

  1. Thanks Lance. My Grandad made it through Passchandaele, came home wounded. Died in a car accident at 78 when somebody pulled out of a driveway in front of him. He was on his way to join some of my uncles at their hunt camp.

  2. I read a lot of history and my anger threshold goes through the roof when I read about WW I. A lot of Canadian and American boys died for nothing over there. Canada and the USA had no interest there. A bunch of monarchist and industrialist fighting over keeping Germany in her place. WW I guaranteed WW II and again many died.
    If Russia invaded Euroland tomorrow I would fight against my boys being sent to save that sad collection of crypto countries.

  3. You don’t read enough.
    “Canada and the USA had no interest there.”
    So you would have been content to let Germany overrun a bunch of its neighbours? You also forget that Canada had no legal right to an independent foreign policy at the time. The British Empire was at war, therefore we were as well.
    “WW I guaranteed WW II and again many died.”
    Of course it did. In various forms, Prussian militarism had been a threat to all of its neighbours for more than 200 years. Stopping a thing like that always costs a lot of lives. And it’s a mistake to call it WW I and WW II. It was a single war with a single purpose with a 20-year truce in the middle.

  4. When you read their individual histories you find many of those “Canadian boys” who volunteered were immigrants from the U.K. who could no more have stayed out than if they were still living over there.
    (But it isn’t hard to find signs they were very proud to go to the aid of the mother country as Canadians.) Many of the Canadian born also thought of themselves as both Canadian and British Empire citizens. Canada has become a different country since, and we are not the same as those Canadians and shouldn’t presume they saw things as we do.

  5. Read “The Sleepwalkers” by Christopher Clark. A whole new perspective and enough blame to go around.

  6. Or “Ypres 1917” by Norman Galdden. My Grandpop was in the British infantry through the whole affair and testified to the accuracy of his account.

  7. WWI was only the second stupidest war Canada ever fought. The stupidest was the Boer War. It was nothing more than a blatant imperial conquest of a civilized people to capture their mineral resources. It spiraled out of control when the Boers kicked their asses at the beginning.
    I can’t honestly say that the world would be worse off had the other side won WWI. The Germans were the least imperialistic of the major powers. The politics that ended WWI has fueled most of the conflicts in the world ever since.

  9. “it’s a mistake to call it WW I and WW II. It was a single war with a single purpose with a 20-year truce in the middle.”
    Fully agree.
    “Prussian militarism had been a threat to all of its neighbours for more than 200 years. Stopping a thing like that always costs a lot of lives.”
    And what about English, French and Russian militarism? I guess some militarism is more equal than others.
    “You don’t read enough.”
    Attack his argument, not his person.

  10. “The Germans were the least imperialistic of the major powers.”
    Driveling nonsense, all of it. In the course of 200 years, Germany invaded Austria (thrice), Denmark (at least twice), Poland (too many times to count them easily), France (at least five times), not to mention Belgium (at least twice). It was by far the most aggressive of the European powers. While late into the overseas colonial game, it seized numerous places in Asia, Africa and did its best to secure the Danish Virgin Islands (for obvious military reasons).

  11. In the last 200 years, Britain has invaded unprovoked no one in Europe. France had two spectacular episodes of European aggression under Louis XIV and Napoleon. Otherwise it mostly minded its own business in Europe. Russia during the same period invaded only Poland unprovoked.
    So yes, “I guess some militarism is more equal than others.”

  12. Germany had virtually no territory occupied by non-Germans. It was essentially homogeneous. It did have a couple African colonies. The wars fought by Germany against its neighbors in the 19th century were essentially wars of national liberation. Austria had a large non-German majority. Russia was less than half Russian. The British Empire was maybe 10% or less British. The French Empire was a small part French. Maybe you misunderstand the word imperialism.

  13. “It was by far the most aggressive of the European powers.”
    More than England and Spain?
    The largest empire in human history was the British Empire. (I know, I know you will say the Spanish Empire.)
    The largest country in the world was, is and will be Russia — 414 times larger than Holland.

  14. “In the last 200 years, Britain has invaded unprovoked no one in Europe.”
    Proof of Eurocentrism.

  15. “In the last 200 years … Russia during the same period invaded only Poland unprovoked.”
    So Finland (pop. 4 million) provoked the USSR (pop. 168 million) in 1939, and Estonia (pop. 1.3 million) provoked the USSR in 1940, and Afghanistan (pop. 15 million) provoked the USSR in 1979!
    Keep up the great job. I need all the guffaws.

  16. General Currie was vilified by a snivelling lying opportunistic journalist upon returning home after his spectacular leadership in the great war.
    google it. they should have squashed the god&^%mn cockroach, but hey, this is cnauckistan we *always* crap on OUR military. lieberals, CONservatists, left right up down in out all the time. google ‘cdn government continues to pour millions into legal battle against veterans’ class action law suit over disability benefits’.

  17. That’s true but not sufficient. The episode was the attack on Currie over the Battle of Mons fought in the last days of the war. Currie spent many years suing for libel, ultimately winning, but the stress of the drawn-out trial destroyed his life. As you say, a cockroach journalist.
    This was in fact the Liberal Party line at the end of the war. Currie was shunned throughout the remainder of his life by that even larger cockroach MacKenzie King. It’s noteworthy that at the commissioning of the Vimy Memorial in France, King refused to attend. Edward VIII attended, the President of France, but not the Canadian Prime Minister. And in so doing for these two things, King made himself hated by the Forces ever after. He is most of the reason why Canada’s armed forces were so dilapidated and essentially unusable in 1939.

  18. Exactly! Britain, France, and Russia feared the German states unification into a German state that Bismarck engineered. The Austro-Hungarian Empire physically fought against this unification and lost. Britain, France, and Russia were afraid of the new kid on the block wanting a place in the sun and this was when the arms and more colonial acquisition races began. No country was innocent.
    Christopher Clark in “Sleepwalkers” suggests each country was guilty in pursuing its national interests and national fears, including the alliance arrangement bogyman hovering over all of them.

  19. Currie was a bit of a butcher sacrificing the Canadian Army in the last 100 days. 100,000 soldiers – 45,835 casualties in 100 days. The rest of the war 92,165 casualties in 1467 days. They took 1/3 of the casualties in 1/16 of the war. Tell me it’s not excessive. 1/3of the casualties in 100 days? Canadian battalions in the field suffered double the rate of casualties of British battalions.

  21. maybe so, but as you point out it was the LAST 100 days. in other words the carnage finally ENDED.
    also, according to some sources, Currie kept getting the shyt assignments courtesy haig et al.
    prequel to Dieppe? need to factor that in . . . . .

  22. October 26, 1917 – At Ypres, a second attempt is made but fails to capture the village of Passchendaele, with Canadian troops participating this time. Four days later, the Allies attack again and edge closer as the Germans slowly begin pulling out.
    November 6, 1917 – The village of Passchendaele is captured by Canadian troops. The Allied offensive then ceases, bringing the Third Battle of Ypres to an end with no significant gains amid 500,000 casualties experienced by all sides.
    —————-
    1917 was an eventful year in WWI. The defeat of Russia, freeing up 35 German divisions for the western front, the abdication of the Czar, and French mutinies were major events.
    WWI was a damning admission of European leadership incompetence….both military and political. Millions of troops were routinely sent to be slaughtered. Obsolete 19th century military thinking and tactics used ….
    The Western front was simply a siege line though who was besieging who was never that clear.
    Churchill was the only one with a with any kind of originality when he suggested a flanking strategy. The incompetent military leadership fu*ked that up.
    Brave Canadians died at Passchendaele. I honor their memory.

  23. Everyone at some point in their lives should spend a whole day in Ypres and absorb as best you can the enormity of WW1.

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