The third battle of Ypres culminating in a desperate struggle for the ridge & little village of Passchendaele was one of the most appalling campaigns in the First World War. In this masterly piece of oral history Lyn Macdonald lets over 600 participants speak for themselves. A million Tommies Canadians & Anzacs assembled at the Ypres Salient in the summer of 1917 mostly raw young troops keen to do their bit for King & Country. This book tells their tale of mounting disillusion amid mud terror & desperate privation yet it is also a story of immense courage comradeship songs high spirits & bawdy humour. They Called It Passchendaele" portrays the human realities behind one of the most disastrous events in the history of warfare."