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The Battle of Passchendaele

Broadcast Date: Nov. 6, 1967

On Nov. 6, 1917 Canadian troops captured Belgium's Passchendaele ridge, ending a gruelling offensive that had begun on July 31, 1917. The Battle of Passchendaele is remembered for its atrocious conditions, heavy casualties and Canadian valour. Canadians, instrumental in securing victory, earned a total of nine Victoria Crosses for their courage. In this CBC Radio documentary marking the fiftieth anniversary of the Battle of Passchendaele, survivors describe feeling a sense of pride at having succeeded where those before them had failed.

Heavy rain and prolonged shelling turned the entire battlefield into a quagmire. Trenches could not be dug and planes were often grounded as a result of the extreme conditions. British commander Sir Douglas Haig looked to the Canadians to bring his ill-fated campaign to some sort of conclusion. In October Allied forces were bolstered by the arrival of the Canadian Corps under the command of Gen. Arthur Currie. J. Frank Willis narrates this CBC Radio documentary featuring first-person accounts from Canadian survivors of Passchendaele.

The Battle of Passchendaele

• General Currie was reluctant to enter his troops into the Passchendaele offensive, predicting 16,000 casualties. He was overruled but insisted he be given time to reorganize before proceeding. This time was used to improve roads and drainage systems, build duckboards to traverse the mud and platforms for artillery.
• Hauntingly close to Currie's prediction, 15,654 Canadians were killed or wounded.

• The Battle of Passchendaele was waged on former swampland. Elaborate drainage systems had effectively dried out the land, but shelling quickly destroyed this fragile structure. Combined with the heaviest rains in 30 years, this created the infamous muddy hell.

• Mud clogged rifles, contaminated food, weighed down clothing and prevented the digging of trenches.

• Despite all the problems it caused, the mud provided one small consolation: shellfire and bombs were absorbed into the soft ground, reducing the damage they inflicted.

• Heavy shelling and difficult terrain restricted the ability of both sides to remove their dead from the battlefield. Many of these bodies were not cleared until the following spring. In one case the corpses of a Canadian and a German were found locked in struggle, presumably having drowned in the mud as they fought.
• Approximately one thousand of the Canadians soldiers killed were left in the mud.

• Many wounded or unconscious soldiers drowned in the mud. British poet Siegfried Sassoon summarized the Passchendaele experience: “...I died in Hell (they called it Passchendaele)...”

• Mustard gas, also known as Yperite, was first used by the Germans at Passchendaele in September 1917. Canadians were among the first to suffer the painful and debilitating effects of this lethal gas which include blindness, severe skin blistering, internal bleeding, pulmonary edema and often death.

• Over half a million lives were lost in the Battle of Passchendaele – 260,000 German and 325,000 Allied troops. The entire offensive lasted over three months and gained only five miles of ground for the Allies.

• Winston Churchill described Passchendaele as “a forlorn expenditure of valour and life without equal in futility.”

• British commander Sir Douglas Haig was criticized for his poor appraisal of the objective, the geography and the weather.

The Battle of Passchendaele

Medium: Radio

Program: CBC Radio Special

Broadcast Date: Nov. 6, 1967

Guest(s): Ross Cameron, Gregory Clark, George Kilpatrick, John Mackenzie, John McKay, Andrew McNaughton, Victor Odlum, George Pearkes, Robert Shankland

Narrator: J. Frank Willis

Duration: 7:14

Last updated:
March 12, 2008