The Road to Passchendaele: Arras, Messines and Ypres

by Richard van Emden

Passchendaele is the next volume in the highly regarded series of books from the best-selling First World War historian Richard van Emden. Once again, using the winning formula of diaries and memoirs, and above all original photographs taken on illegally held cameras by the soldiers themselves, Richard tells the story of 1917, of life both in and out of the line culminating in perhaps the most dreaded battle of them all, the Battle of Passchendaele. His pervious book, The Somme, has now sold nearly 20,000 copies in hardback and softback, proving that the public appetite is undiminished for new, original stories illustrated with over 150 rarely or never-before-seen battlefield images. The author has an outstanding collection of over 5,000 privately taken and overwhelmingly unpublished photographs, revealing the war as it was seen by the men involved, an existence that was sometimes exhilarating, too often terrifying, and occasionally even fun. Richard van Emden interviewed 270 veterans of the Great War, has written extensively about the soldiers' lives, and has worked on many television documentaries, always concentrating on the human aspects of war, its challenge and its cost to the millions of men involved. This book will be published in June 2017, in time for the 100th anniversary of the epic Battle of Passchendaele which began on 31st July 1917 Richard van Emdens books sold over 650,000 books and have appeared in The Times bestseller chart on a number of occasions. He lives in West London and regularly appears on television, mostly recently as BBC1s historian for the national commemorations of the Somme Battle. He has appeared on over forty television documentaries and has written nineteen books on the First World War.

288 pages, Hardcover

First published June 30, 2017

About the author

Richard van Emden is a British author and television documentary producer who specializes in the First World War.

Reviews

[Lysergius · Rating 4 out of 5]

A moving account of the battles on the Western Front in 1917 told in the soldier's own words an illustrated by their own photographs. It is worth noting that photography was absolutely forbidden by the military authorities and was seen as a serious breach of military regulations, yet judging by the wealth of photographs in this book it was widespread.

The descriptions and photographs can convey an impression of the battlefields, but I imagine the smell of rotting corpses, mud and filth escape description. How men survived the cold, hunger, sleeplessness and general deprivation, let alone fought buggers the imagination.

[Peter Fox · Rating 4 out of 5]

Books about individual campaigns are usually pretty boring. They tend to consist of maps with arrows on and a very small scale travel itinerary of which unit went where and when. This is pleasingly different, as it is made up from diary entries and photos taken by those at the sharp end. There are a few historical notes by RVE to give context to the accounts, but by and large, this is 1917 in the words of the involved.

This is a real strength and it tells a relatively well known story from a new angle. The moment by moment impressions of soldiers dealing with mud and enemy action make for powerful reading. It was nice to see a chapter based around what the Germans on the other side of things had to say. It was a bit of a shame this was expanded upon to provide a companion to each individual campaign.

This is well worth reading.

[Kevin Marsh · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very moving personal accounts of war.

[Mark Morgan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent account using contemporary diaries about the 3rd Battle of Ypres. Heroes all.

[Klaas Dijkstra · Rating 1 out of 5]

Boring after the nth letter home