British WWI veteran turns 111

Britain’s last surviving World War I ”Tommy” celebrated his 111th birthday this week.

Harry Patch fought in the Battle of Passchendale in Ypres, Belgium, in which more than 70,000 of his comrades died, according to The Shropshire Star.

Born in Somerset, England, in 1898, Patch is the second-oldest person in Britain. He served in the trenches as a private with the Duke of Cornwall’s Light Infantry from June to September in 1917 when he was seriously injured by a shell explosion.

Passchendale was a living nightmare for those involved. According to Library and Archives Canada, heavy French losses by the middle of 1917 meant the burden of continuing the attack on the Germans fell to the British forces at Passchendale:

The offensive began on July 31, 1917, but made disappointingly small gains. The British artillery bombardment, which was needed to shatter the enemy’s defensive trench system, also wrecked the low-lying region’s drainage system, and unusually rainy weather turned the ground into a wasteland of mud and water-filled craters. For three months, British troops suffered heavy casualties for limited gains.

In October, the Canadian Corps, now commanded by Lieutenant-General Sir Arthur Currie, took its place in the front lines. On October 26, the 3rd and 4th Divisions launched the first Canadian assault, in rain that made the mud worse than ever. Three days of fighting resulted in over 2,500 casualties, for a gain of only a thousand or so yards (1 km). A second attack went in on October 30. In a single day, there were another 2,300 casualties - and only another thousand yards (1 km) gained. On November 6, the 1st and 2nd Divisions launched a third attack that captured the village of Passchendaele, despite some troops having to advance through waist-deep water. A final assault on November 10 secured the rest of the high ground overlooking Ypres, and held it despite heavy German shelling. This marked the end of the Passchendaele offensive.

Passchendaele was one of the war’s most futile battles. The unspeakable conditions led to terrible losses - nearly 260,000 British casualties, including over 15,000 Canadians killed and wounded. This suffering had produced no significant gains (though it did help wear down the German army). Passchendaele has come, perhaps more than any other battle, to symbolize the horrors of the First World War.

Despite the injury, Patch was one of the lucky ones at Passchendale.

According Wikipedia, Passchendale more than any other battle has come to symbolise the horrific nature of the great battles of the First World War:

“In terms of the dead, the Germans lost approximately 260,000 men, while the British Empire forces lost about 300,000, including approximately 36,500 Australians, 3,596 New Zealanders and some 16,000 Canadians from 1915 to 1917. 90,000 British and Dominion bodies were never identified, and 42,000 never recovered. Aerial photography showed 1 million shell holes in 1 square mile.”