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    Horror In The Mud: What Was It Like To Fight At Ypres? | The Last Voices of World War One | Timeline



    This award-winning factual series draws on a unique collection of one hundred interviews with World War One veterans in which the soldiers and their loved ones relive all the heroism and heartbreak of the years from 1914 to 1918. Most of these men had never been interviewed before or since. All the voices are now silent.

    The story of 1917 and the terrible battles at Arras and Passchendaele. After surviving the freezing winter of 1916, the British attacked the Germans at Arras – the battle that followed saw the highest daily casualty rate of the war. There was also a dramatic battle in the skies as British airmen fought Germany’s Red Baron for air supremacy. In the summer, the British advanced towards the village of Passchendaele in the most dreadful conditions. Countless numbers drowned in mud in the battle that remains synonymous with the horror of mechanised warfare.

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    32 Comments

    2. Johnathan Ryan on

      A visionary series and we can only thank the makers for having the foresight to record these brave people whilst they were still alive.

      Now out of living memory and at a time when any mental health issues were put down to " nerves" its sad to think these people lived the vast bulk of their lives living with the constant memory of things that no one should ever see or hear.

      Brave brave men and women, made of much sterner stuff than anyone could ever be now.

      Beautifully done.

    3. Janet Kilbourne on

      My grandfather was a Lewis gunner, wounded three times and gassed twice. Like Mr Bowie, the gas affected him for the rest of his life – I always remember him coughing and bringing up phlegm. However, like most of the soldiers, he never spoke of his war, but after he died we found, amongst his effects, a rosary which must have belonged to one of his pals (he himself was not a Catholic). He must have kept it secretly for 50 odd years. I wish I could have found out more about his experiences – all I could do was go to the cemeteries and battlefields of France and Belgium and be so overcome by the sheer numbers of the fallen. But at least he did come home, unlike that nameless pal of his, who was probably one of his Lewis gun team.

    5. alex cc on

      My relative died at ypres just bedore the battle started. His sergeants record says ' sent on patrol with 3 others, did not return' his body was never recovered. His brother died October 28th 1918 in the royal flying corp's

    7. fly bobbie on

      Down the road from me is a grave stone with name of a young man 19 died at Ypres. Same South Staffs (Yeomanry) regiment as my grand dad who was same age. Grand dad survived both wars and thus i am here.

    11. MrMoggyman on

      Harry Patch was completely correct, and voiced the view of many WW1 veterans. My great grandfather had served at The Somme and Passchendaele with the 4th Territorial Battalion of The Kings Own Yorkshire Light Infantry (KOYLI). My great grandfather said this, in future leave the soldiers and civilians out of it. Take the Kings and the Kaisers, put boxing gloves on them, put them in a ring, and let them sort it out between themselves. Why should the common man be killed and maimed for the likes of those who should know better how to conduct themselves?

    12. Tim Stradling on

      My grandfather was by turn bayoneted and later gassed at Paschendale. He survived to marry his nurse at a convalescent hospital. Subsequently his general ill health encouraged my father to voluntarily join the RN after his 18th birthday in 1941 rather than be trench fodder. My other grandfather served on the Somme and suffered shell shock very severely, making his way back to be with the horses behind the front line on 3 occasions. He was a farm boy and that was his way of dealing with the overwhelming cacophony. His commanding officer recognised his complete incapacity and he was dishonourably discharged. Never strong, he was ultimately murdered in Avignon whilst on a trip to see his mother who was in Italy , in 1934. The tragedies of broken lives pervaded for many years after the sheer devastation caused by the Great War and posturing by Royal cousins, perpetuating itself 20 years later with Hitlers desire for revenge. The whole futility.

    13. Kieran Fitzgerald on

      I think i heard that alot of the WW1 Veterans re-enlisted for service during the early days of WW2. Not as standard infantry men, but as officers and generals and so on. Inspiring the new generation of soldiers to keep fighting the good fight. (Don't quote me on this, i could be wrong)

    14. Peregrine Trousers on

      A banker's war sees the murderous contempt of civilians forced into legalised killing and being killed in the most horrific scenarios imaginable. Lest we forget, for the politicians however it is still business as usual…

    15. 525Lines on

      It's not discussed much, but during and after a big war, the medical science takes a step or two forward because doctors at the front not only gained great experience but, though emergency experimentations, learned new techniques. I've seen some of the medical publications from during and just after the war and it's truly horrifying.

    20. Penfold on

      I served in the army for 26 years (well over 60 now) and have spent years of that service in some god forsaken not nice places. However, what these gentlemen endured makes my service pale into insignificance. All wars are horrendous, but this was fought using 50 year old tactics with modern weapons. The result being pointless slaughter time after time.

    22. Jonathon Lewis on

      And there was not point to this war or any of the others 🙄🤦‍♂️ I know will always have to fight but the got to start to see we have nothing for it in the end 😒

    24. Dicky H on

      Those poor men. Subject to idiot command that had no solution to modern warfare. Still used napoleonic tactics. General Haig was incompetent. To have so many men die day after day without results. General command that had no imagination. Arrogant and stupid.

    29. tekelidook on

      It just keeps repeating itself. As long as there has been mass media people have known how awful war is. There have been books, poems, songs, plays, movies made about it. Soldiers coming back from war say the same thing after every war. And still the kids line up to the recruitment booths.

    32. lyntwo on

      Re: 3:30

      USA-The early 1980's found me working as a janitor within a Veterans Administration hospital.
      One of the patients was a man in his eighties who did not sleep well.

      We talked some, he explained that the worst of his nightmares from the Great War were of the horses screaming in terror.

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