April 6, 1917 – The United States under President Woodrow Wilson declares war on Germany and her allies thus entering America into World War One. This war, optimistically dubbed “the war to end all wars” would see the advent of many new implements of war such as the machine gun, armored tank and possibly most importantly the airplane.
After four months of some of the most brutal fighting of the First World War, Canadian troops captured the town of Passchendaele, Belgium in early November, 1917. The battle, one of the most controversial of the era, has come to symbolize the extremes of that war – almost inconceivable horror and undeniable heroism and valor.
The numbers alone tell a grim story: There were almost half a million casualties in the Battle of Passchendaele. Historians estimate that the battle claimed at least 140, 000 lives and that as many as a million shells were exploded in the fields surrounding the town, turning the terrain into a barren, lunar landscape of mud and water-filled craters.
British Poet Siegried Sassoon simply called it “Hell”!
