The battle of Passchendaele has a special place in the history of the first world war because it was the only time when the British experience of war in Europe approached the unredeemed horror that almost all our European neighbours would experience in the 20th century. There were other first world war campaigns that were quite as dreadful and fruitless as Passchendaele, the third battle of Ypres, in Belgium. The Italians could hold up their own pointless slaughter in the Dolomites above Trieste, where 11 futile offensives came to nothing between 1915 and 1917. Gallipoli and the Somme could be remembered – and often were – for the heroism of the soldiers involved as much as their outcome. The industrialised slaughter of Passchendaele could not be spun as triumph over tragedy.

Source: The Guardian July 28, 2017 18:00 UTC