The Commemoration of Passchendaele, the third battle of Ypres

Main Chamber

Thursday 13th July 2017

The Centenary of Passchendaele, the Third Battle of Ypres is a key part of the UK Government’s four year programme to commemorate the First World War. The Government will be working closely with its delivery partner, the Commonwealth War Graves Commission, as well as local partners in Belgium, such as the city of Ypres, the community of Zonnebeke, Passendale and the Westtoer Province of West-Flanders to commemorate the centenary of the First World War in the Flanders Fields region.

Fighting commenced on the Ypres Salient between British and German forces in 1914, and continued throughout the war. The Battle was the first major British offensive on the Ypres Salient. The ferocity and horror of the battle is encapsulated in Siegfried Sassoon’s famous line “I died in hell - They called it Passchendaele”