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1917 - The Passchendaele Year - The British Army in Flanders: the Diary of Achiel Van Walleghem (Paperback)
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1917 - The Passchendaele Year - The British Army in Flanders: the Diary of Achiel Van Walleghem (Paperback)
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This unusual work offers a personal documentary and highly
individual witness to the terrible events in Flanders in 1917. The
Battle of "Third Ypres" - popularly known as "Passchendaele" -
epitomized the worst slaughter on the western front of the First
World War. Many thousands killed, to no avail; the trenches full of
mud; the total annihilation of the landscape; attempts to break
through to victory which only produced minor movement forward, and
at a terrible cost.This book tells the previously untold story of
daily life immediately behind the frontline during the tragic year
of 1917.The author, who kept a detailed record of events and
attitudes, was a village priest, Achiel Van Walleghem. He lived in
Reninghelst, just west of Ypres, and kept an extensive day-by-day
account. He was very well informed by the officers lodging in his
presbytery. And, urged by his innate curiosity, he witnessed and
noted the arrival of the first tanks and the increasing importance
of the artillery. He also visited the camps of the Chinese Labour
Corps and the British West Indies Regiment. On 7 June 1917 he awoke
early to see the enormous mines of the Battle of Messines
exploding. And he was present when a deserter was shot at dawn. He
records all this - and much more - with an unusual humanity.As a
bystander living amidst the troops, he often had a special view of
the events that unfolded before his eyes. Van Walleghem notes much
that mattered to the soldiers there, and to the local people. This
includes the influence of bad weather on the mood and morale of
both troops and civilians, as well as military events. His comments
on the different attitudes of English, Irish, Australian or other
Empire troops and divisions are often priceless. But Van Walleghem
equally records the misery of the local Flemish population and
their relationship with the British rank and file: in bad times
such as when a local is accused of spying, but also in good times
when a village girl gets married to a British soldier. This diary
is not just a forgotten source of the western front, it is one that
will forever change our views on the conflict, and on how men and
women tried to cope.In a year when many works will be published
about Passchendaele this is a unique book.
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