Passchendaele
Requiem for Doomed Youth
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Passchendaele
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Narrated by:
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Robert Meldrum
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By:
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Paul Ham
About this listen
From Paul Ham, winner of the NSW Premier's Prize for Australian History, comes the story of ordinary men in the grip of a political and military power struggle that determined their fate and has foreshadowed the destiny of the world for a century.
Passchendaele epitomises everything that was most terrible about the Western Front. The photographs never sleep of this four-month battle, fought from July to November 1917, the worst year of the war: blackened tree stumps rising out of a field of mud, corpses of men and horses drowned in shell holes, terrified soldiers huddled in trenches awaiting the whistle.
The intervening century, the most violent in human history, has not disarmed these pictures of their power to shock. At the very least they ask us, on the 100th anniversary of the battle, to see and to try to understand what happened here. Yes, we commemorate the event. Yes, we adorn our breasts with poppies. But have we seen? Have we understood? Have we dared to reason why? What happened at Passchendaele was the expression of the 'wearing-down war', the war of pure attrition at its most spectacular and ferocious.
Paul Ham's Passchendaele: Requiem for Doomed Youth shows how ordinary men on both sides endured this constant state of siege, with a very real awareness that they were being gradually, deliberately, wiped out. Yet the men never broke: they went over the top, when ordered, again and again and again. And if they fell dead or wounded, they were casualties in the 'normal wastage', as the commanders described them, of attritional war. Only the soldier's friends at the front knew him as a man, with thoughts and feelings. His family back home knew him as a son, husband or brother, before he had enlisted. By the end of 1917 he was a different creature: his experiences on the Western Front were simply beyond their powers of comprehension.
The audiobook tells the story of ordinary men in the grip of a political and military power struggle that determined their fate and has foreshadowed the destiny of the world for a century. Passchendaele lays down a powerful challenge to the idea of war as an inevitable expression of the human will, and examines the culpability of governments and military commanders in a catastrophe that destroyed the best part of a generation.
©2016 Paul Ham, Produced by arrangement with Penguin Random House Australia Pty Ltd (P)2016 Bolinda Publishing Pty LtdListeners also enjoyed...
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- mcsmall
- 26-01-18
Impassioned Critique of the Generals
From an antipodean perspective, Ham relates the horror and sheer incompetence of the top brass, especially Hague.He is no less critical of Lloyd George for allowing the slaughter to continue.
He conveys the sheer scale of the battle but also manages to use ordinary soldiers 'accounts to enable the listener to empathise with the individuals who were so needlessly killed in a strategically useless battle
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Neb
- 10-03-18
Excellent history book
This is an excellent book with great narration. It brings home the terror and misery of war.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- J S Goulding
- 27-02-21
Breathtaking
Written with a compassion for the victims of Passchendaele an all sides that does justice to their names. Moved me to tears and enraged me at times. Highly recommended
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Jake Krige
- 08-08-17
Moving telling of the disaster of Ypres.
Any person who is under the impression that a Tory government wouldn't sacrifice the youth of the UK for its narrow political fortunes, should listen to this.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Thiriar
- 14-03-17
Brilliant
Would you listen to Passchendaele again? Why?
A wonderful narration. A vivid account of Passhendaele in it's narrow and broad scoop
What other book might you compare Passchendaele to, and why?
The Second World War by Anthony Beevor
Have you listened to any of Robert Meldrum’s other performances? How does this one compare?
No I haven't
Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?
Definitely
Any additional comments?
Accessible to all!
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4 people found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Captain Trips
- 12-07-24
Outstanding
Thoroughly enjoyed this fascinating book, superb narration & I’ve learned a lot. Will probably revisit this one time & time again.
One niggle, not the author’s fault I’m sure,, but once again there are no pdf of maps accompanying this book. This could be easily remedied in future. Not sure if it’s audible penny pinching but they really are essential. I ended up buying the kindle edition AGAIN. Please address this for these kind of history books.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- William
- 31-08-17
incredibly moving
I'm not a stranger to history books or ww1, but this book as a perfect balance of narrative and fact. it puts forward an unbiased view of the most terrible parts of human history.
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3 people found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- KR.
- 20-09-18
If you think you understand Flanders, read this.
It's a long book, with many chapters devoted to the build up to 3rd Ypres in 1917 it seemed to take a long time to get to 'the good bit'. Only after going through the chapters time lining the battles did I then comprehend the significance of the context which the first half of the book attempts to set.
I thought I understood the First World War, this book gave many new insights and accurately describes why it is misunderstood today.
Probably unintentional by the author, but this book highlighted something from over a century ago with relevance today. A conservative party in government, eager to prevent a split and loss of power rallying to a cause to maintain the position of the elite class. Pursuing a manufactured confrontation with a faction across the English Channel, a timely distraction of the public from domestic issues, ignorant or worse accepting the disaster about to happen. I wonder what the 'massed multitude of silent witnesses to the desolation of war' would think of that.
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Barnybear
- 20-10-17
Hear the real tale
This is an amazing telling of the travesty if Passchendaele and WW1 in general. Although at times it can be hard to stick with the story, loads and loads of numbers and statistics, it is well worth sticking with it. The story of Passchendaele is well known to many, but the full details and facts are known by few. At times I was reduced to tears at the sheer waste of life and the total lack of humanity by politicians and military leaders on both sides. I would recommend this book to anyone, it totally changed my view of the "Great" war. Passchendaele was 100 years ago, please read or listen to this book.
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2 people found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- Amazon Customer
- 01-02-18
Gripping
Undoubtedly one of the best books on WW1 I have encountered and I have read many. The narrative is comprehensive but easy to listen to. The performance of the reader is outstanding.
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