The road to Passchendaele: the heroic year in soldiers' own words and photographs

Description

Passchendaele is the next volume in the highly-regarded series of books from the best-selling First World War historian Richard van Emden. Once again, using the winning formula of diaries and memoirs, and above all original photographs taken on illegally-held cameras by the soldiers themselves, Richard tells the story of 1917, of life both in and out of the line culminating in perhaps the most dreaded battle of them all, the Battle of Passchendaele. The author has an outstanding collection of over 5,000 privately-taken and overwhelmingly unpublished photographs, revealing the war as it was seen by the men involved, an existence that was sometimes exhilarating, too often terrifying, and occasionally even fun. Richard van Emden interviewed 270 veterans of the Great War, has written extensively about the soldiers' lives, and has worked on many television documentaries, always concentrating on the human aspects of war, its challenge and its cost to the millions of men involved.;Introduction; Chapter 1 Winter wonderland -- Chapter 2 Opportunity knocking -- Chapter 3 Opportunity lost -- Chapter 4 Summer success -- Chapter 5 Fresh air and exercise -- Chapter 6 Armageddon calling -- Chapter 7 Blood and mud -- Chapter 8 Bite and hold -- Endpiece -- Acknowledgements -- Sources and permissions -- Index.