Hell on Earth

From the Daily Mail - Hat Tip Warlord Loop for the pointer to - Hell on Earth: The never before seen colour photographs of the bloody battle of Passchendaele.

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They are the most remarkable pictures of one of the most hellish places on earth.

Never seen before, these astonishing photographs, lovingly hand-touched in colour to bring to life the nightmare of Passchendaele, were released this week to commemorate the 90th anniversary of the battle that, between July and November 1917, claimed a staggering 2,121 lives a day and in total some quarter of a million Allied soldiers...

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Les Carlyon in his story of the 1st AIF in France The Great War (Pan Macmillan Australia, Sydney 2006, ISBN-13: 978 1 4050 3761 7) cites a story that Haig's Chief of Staff, Launcelot Kiggell, drove forward after the battle to survey the front.

As his car rocked forward through the mud he allegedly broke down and wept, saying "Good God, did we really send men to fight in that?"

Apparently he was told words to the effect 'that it was far worse further up".

I remember my godfather talking about Passchendaele. The caisson he was riding on was hit my a shell and he ended up in the "soon to be gone pile". He was lucky; an old school chum was a doctor at the field hospital who, when he say him, said "That's Grier - get him out of there he's too tough to die." His friend was right - he told me about it in 1976 and didn't died until 1980.

Towards the end of the war, was when my grandfather, who born and raised in Texas, was sent from the woods of East Texas to woods of France. Texas-Oklahoma National Guard 36th Infantry Div.

All I know is that my grandfather was still crying in his heart from this experience in 1969 before he died from the long-term effect of gas poisoning. WWI was insane warfare. The machine gun and accurate artillery changed the face of war. I should state, the horror of warfare. WWI stands alone in history.

He was very active in the American Legion throughout the rest of this life. Fought and lobbied hard for the creation of a Dept. of Veteran Affairs. I proudly wear his WWI lapel button from his campaign medal as a tie clip to this day. As a child, my mother got the worse lickin' of her life when she asked her father about the war. He told her a few mild things. She replied Wilson was a fool. She had hell to pay for that. And this was around 1932 when she was about 10 years old.