Book description
The third battle of Ypres, culminating in a desperate struggle for the
ridge and little village of Passchendaele, was one of the most appalling
campaigns in the First World War. In this masterly piece of oral
history, Lyn Macdonald lets over 600 participants speak for themselves.
A million Tommies, Canadians and Anzacs assembled at the Ypres Salient
in the summer of 1917, mostly raw young troops keen to do their bit for
King and Country. This book tells their tale of mounting disillusion
amid mud, terror and desperate privation, yet it is also a story of
immense courage, comradeship, songs, high spirits and bawdy humour.
They Called It Passchendaele
portrays the human realities behind one of the most disastrous events
in the history of warfare.
