Futility and mass slaughter

The Tyne Cot cemetery near Passchendaele in Belgium. Photo: Hayden Meikle
The Tyne Cot cemetery near Passchendaele in Belgium. Photo: Hayden Meikle
Could it get any worse?  Yes it could.  Could the stupidity and futility of mass slaughter, the agony and suffering of thousands of young New Zealand men sink even deeper into the mud of the Western Front after the Somme and Messines?  Absolutely.

Passchendaele, where New Zealanders made a hopeless foray towards Bellevue Spur, a nondescript rise in the Belgium countryside, must live on in infamy in the consciousness of this nation.

On the morning of a single day, October 12, 1917,  843 soldiers died.  Many, many more perished  from wounds. The number wounded, dead and missing in 24 hours reached an unthinkable 2740.

At least 242 of the dead were from the Otago Regiment, mostly from Otago and Southland.

Only eight days earlier, nearby at Gravenstafel Spur, about 320 New Zealanders were killed, although the spur was taken. Passchendaele is being commemorated with events in Belgium and New Zealand on the 100th anniversary of what has been called "New Zealand’s blackest day" or "New Zealand’s darkest day".

Numbers, no matter how large, cannot convey the horror of this disaster. 

The artillery barrage failed, including a blunder with shells  falling among the New Zealand troops.  Forward progress was well-nigh impossible in the deep mud, the barbed wire was uncut, the machineguns from German pill boxes mowed down men and snipers picked them off as well.

The soldiers themselves saw no chance of success, as stretcher-bearer Linus Ryan said. 

"Officers and men walked to their deaths because it was their job".

In the words of another soldier:  "We went over in a sea of mud ... the attack was an impossible attempt ... The stunt should never have been ordered under such conditions.  It was absolute murder."

We, 100 years later, need to remember. 

We remember and empathise as best we can with the misery and pain of the soldiers, ordinary men far from home doing their duty.  No-one should ever be  part of such hell on earth.

We remember the immediate and ongoing tragedy for families, loved ones and communities, scythed by the loss of  a generation.  Nobody and nowhere should suffer such grievous, pointless loss.

We remember the revulsion of war.  It is too easy for untouched generations to forget the tragedy and torment.  It is all too easy to stumble into conflicts.

Strutting, bellicose threats, the likes of which occur today,  must incur disgust and abhorrence. We remember the  foolishness of the leadership, which failed to heed warnings, which ignored the consequences of deteriorating weather, which accepted mass casualties as normal and expected.

We mark the heroism and stoicism.  But we do not glory in what was unredeemed futile waste. Gallipoli and Anzac Day have secured their place as New Zealand’s primary war and national remembrance. 

But even the debacle, death, failure and heartbreak of Gallipoli is woven with threads of pride — the skill, efforts and bravery of Captain William Malone and the Wellington Battalion, the extraordinary casualty-free evacuation, the respectful relationship that developed with the Turks.

Let our supplementary memory of Passchendaele be riven of any exaltation.  Let it represent war and waste at its worst.  Let it stand alongside Gallipoli as a grim cenotaph and reminder to generations of New Zealanders for the next 100 years.

In the words of poet Siefried Sassoon:  "I died in Hell/ (they called it Passchendaele); my wound was slight/ And I was hobbling back; and then a shell/ burst slick upon the duckboards; so I fell/ into the bottomless mud. And lost the light."

Comments

The Japanese and Germany had to be stopped and they were.....sit back and dream about how bad wars are will get us or any country invaded... wars are sad. but happen. It's ok to be anti war if all in the world are - they are not.

This is a commemorative piece about WWI. It is not a pacifist tract, or anti War. It is anti loss, death and stupidity. No one is dreaming here. Siegfried Sassoon, poet, was at The Front. Colonial grandparents returned home with PTSD, were distant and violent to their families. The War, of 100 years ago, is being remembered. War, as such, is never welcome, even when it is necessary.