More than a century after the fighting raged, the name Passchendaele still evokes images of the hell of the First World War at its worst. The Third Battle of Ypres in 1917, popularly known simply as Passchendaele, endures as a byword for the terrible suffering and waste of life on the Western Front. Today, Passchendaele New British Cemetery near Zonnebeke, Belgium stands as a somber memorial to the men who fell in that tragic battle – a quiet place of remembrance and reflection amidst the now-peaceful Flanders fields.
The Battle of Passchendaele: A Futile Offensive
The story of Passchendaele New British Cemetery is inextricably tied to the eponymous battle that raged nearby from July to November 1917. The British High Command, led by Field Marshal Douglas Haig, launched the Third Battle of Ypres with the ambitious goals of breaking out of the Ypres Salient, driving the Germans back from the Channel ports, and potentially even ending the war.
However, the offensive soon became mired in disaster. Relentless preliminary shelling by both sides churned the clay soil of Flanders into a quagmire, destroying drainage systems and turning the battlefield into a sea of mud, flooded shell holes, and shattered trees. As the British and Commonwealth soldiers advanced, they faced tenacious German resistance from heavily fortified concrete bunkers and pill-boxes.
The fighting degenerated into a nightmarish struggle of men against mud, with soldiers drowning in the morass, guns sinking into the ooze, and tanks immobilized. Casualties mounted staggeringly, yet for months the high command insisted on continuing the futile attacks. By the time Canadian forces finally captured the rubble of Passchendaele village on November 6th, the Allies had suffered an estimated 325,000 casualties, with perhaps 260,000 German losses. As many as 90,000 bodies were never recovered, swallowed by the mud.
The grim statistics only begin to capture the horror endured by the men who fought at Passchendaele. As Private Bert Ferns of the Lancashire Fusiliers wrote in his diary:
"I just cannot describe the conditions. Anything I say cannot adequately describe the state of the earth, which was not earth but mud, stinking, yellow, and rotten, and burnt–a thing of horror under the moon."
Establishing Passchendaele New British Cemetery
In the immediate aftermath of the war, the battlefields around Ypres presented a daunting challenge for the Imperial (now Commonwealth) War Graves Commission, tasked with recovering, identifying, and burying the dead. The devastated landscape was littered with the remains of thousands of soldiers, many broken, scattered, or sunken deep in the mud.
Nevertheless, the Commission set about its grim work. Smaller wartime cemeteries were consolidated into larger ones, and new cemeteries were established to inter the remains that were still being uncovered for years after the Armistice. Passchendaele New British Cemetery, located near the ruins of Passchendaele village, was one of these post-war constructions.
Designed by the prominent British architect Charles Holden in the 1920s, Passchendaele New British Cemetery is a striking example of the Commission‘s commitment to creating dignified, reverential resting places for the fallen. Holden‘s modernist vision emphasized clean lines, massed headstones, and the integration of the cemeteries into the landscape.
At Passchendaele New British Cemetery, the Portland stone headstones are arranged in symmetrical rows on three descending tiers, creating a stepped effect that flows with the gentle slope of the land. Oaks and conifers line the flint boundary walls, softening the geometry of the architecture. At the rear of the cemetery, the Cross of Sacrifice rising up against the skyline, while the Stone of Remembrance bears Rudyard Kipling‘s inscription "Their Name Liveth For Evermore".
Passchendaele New British Cemetery holds 2,101 burials, over 1,600 of them unidentified due to the terrible conditions in which the men fell and the post-war difficulties in recovering and identifying remains. Among these graves are special Kipling memorials to seven soldiers "known or believed to be buried in this cemetery". Even today, the remains of the missing are still occasionally found by farmers and construction workers – a poignant reminder of the enduring scars left by the battle.
Remembering Passchendaele Today
A visit to Passchendaele New British Cemetery today is a moving experience that brings home both the enormous scale of the sacrifices made in the First World War and the intensely personal losses it entailed. Walking amidst the endless rows of headstones, one is struck by the youth of many of the fallen – the dates on the stones often showing men in their teens or early twenties. It‘s a sobering realization of the lives and potential cut tragically short in the mud of Passchendaele.
The cemetery is the focal point for ongoing commemorations and remembrances. Every evening at 8:00pm, the Last Post Ceremony is held at the Menin Gate Memorial in nearby Ypres, where the names of 54,896 missing soldiers are inscribed. On special anniversaries, dignitaries, veterans‘ groups, and descendants gather at Passchendaele New British Cemetery for solemn ceremonies of remembrance.
For those planning a visit, the cemetery is located off the S‘Graventafelstraat road, about 10km northeast of Ypres (Ieper). By car, follow the N332 and N303, following signs for Zonnebeke and Passendale. Buses and trains also run from Ypres station to Passendale, from which it is a short walk. The cemetery has good accessibility, with grassed ramps allowing wheelchair access between the levels.
While in the area, be sure to visit the excellent Memorial Museum Passchendaele 1917, which powerfully evokes the experience of the battle through artifacts, archival footage, and recreated dugouts and trenches. The museum‘s documentation of the battle is second to none, with a rich collection of maps, orders, personal accounts and photographs.
Other nearby sites include Tyne Cot Cemetery (the largest Commonwealth war cemetery in the world with nearly 12,000 graves), the Polygon Wood Memorial to the Fifth Australian Division, and the moving German war cemetery at Langemark. Together, these sites paint a picture of the unimaginable devastation and loss of 1917.
Over a century on, Passchendaele New British Cemetery endures as a warning from history of the terrible toll of war. Walking amidst the silent headstones, one can‘t help but reflect on the heroism and tragedy of the men who fought and fell in that blighted landscape. In a world still wracked by conflict, the poignant simplicity of the cemetery calls us to remember the human cost of war and reaffirm the vow "Never Again". As King George V said when he visited the cemeteries of Flanders in 1922:
"We can truly say that the whole circuit of the Earth is girdled with the graves of our dead…and, in the course of my pilgrimage, I have many times asked myself whether there can be more potent advocates of peace upon Earth through the years to come, than this massed multitude of silent witnesses to the desolation of war."
