Passchendaele 1917: The Tommies' Experience of the Third Battle of Ypres

by Robert J. Parker

The Battle of Passchendaele was the most gruesome yet fought during World War I. The British offensive was launched on the Belgium battlefield at 3:30 am on July 31, 1917, as a massive effort by General Sir Douglas Haig and his British army to achieve a strategic breakthrough and defeat Germany. It failed. Passchendaele has become synonymous with the tragedy of World War I: the abominable conditions of weather, mud, and filth; the horrific injuries inflicted by increasingly industrialized warfare, including tanks, gas, mines, and flamethrowers; the enormous list of casualties (600,000); and the futility of the operation all combined to form a nightmare vision of war in the trenches. What was life like for the common British soldier? Was it necessary, or were there alternatives? And what, if anything, did it achieve? Passchendaele 1917 will seek to answer these questions while reminding us of the sacrifices and heroism of the soldier during World War I.

304 pages, Hardcover

Published June 15, 2017

Reviews

[Gareth · Rating 5 out of 5]

When I first started reading this I was getting frustrated at the fact that there was only small references to Passchendaele and the author was paying more attention to the outbreak of the war and the politics behind it. However once the description of the battle (and many smaller battles within in) started everything fell into place.

The reason everything was explained was that everything had a purpose relating to the battle, it was more than just a fight in the salient, there was countless political reasons such as the French mutiny and the fallout of the Somme.

This book was brilliant, very well written in a chronological order and scrutinised from every angle such as the soldiers, generals, politicians and even the Germans. It summed up the horrific, wet and depressing conditions that the British, ANZAC and Canadians had to deal with and even more so it does a very good job of identifying the blatant disregard for human life that Douglas Haig had with his pointless and unintelligent war of attrition. I could go on for ages talking about how I think this man wasted far too many lives from his ivory tower however this book does a very good job of doing it too!

If you're interested in Passchendaele or even in WW1 in general this is well worth a read, there was some points where I was generally gob smacked at the scale of the battle and I even took the book into work to show people some of the statistics!

Excellent read, I'll definitely be looking at Robert J Parker's other books.

[ShirleyLeishmanlives · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another brilliant Dad gift.

[John · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very short, half the book talks about background and equipment of the 2 armies but engaging.