WALES’ PASSCHENDAELE CENTENARY: ‘WE REMEMBER THE SACRIFICE AND LOSS’
WELSH soldiers who died in the “horrific” Battle of Passchendaele were remembered at a special service in Flanders.
The Welsh service of remembrance in Belgium was held yesterday to commemorate the 3,000 Welsh soldiers who died or were injured in the battle that began on July 31, 1917 and claimed thousands of lives, including that of Welsh poet Hedd Wyn, who was also known as Private Ellis Humphrey Evans
First Minister of Wales Carwyn Jones was joined by the Prince of Wales, representatives of the Armed Services in Wales, Geert Albert Bourgeois, Minister-President of Flanders, and representatives from Ireland, Germany, Belgium as well as the leaders of the major parties in the National Assembly and Wales football manager Chris Coleman.
A wreath was laid on behalf of the National Assembly for Wales.
The service was held after the Prince of Wales, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge and Prime Minister Theresa May joined the King and Queen of Belgium and some 4,000 descendants of those who fought at a separate ceremony at the enormous Tyne Cot cemetery near Ypres.
At that ceremony, the Prince of Wales spoke of the “courage and bravery” of British soldiers killed at Passchendaele, exactly 100 years after thousands of British and Commonwealth troops went “over the top”.
He said: “We remember it not only for the rain that fell, the mud that weighed down the living and swallowed the dead, but also for the courage and bravery of the men who fought here.
“In 1920, the war reporter Philip Gibbs, who had himself witnessed Third Ypres, wrote that ‘nothing that has been written is more than the pale image of the abomination of those battlefields, and that no pen or brush has yet achieved the picture of that Armageddon in which so many of our men perished’.
“Drawn from many nations, we come together in their resting place, cared for with such dedication by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission, to commemorate their sacrifice and to promise that we will never forget.”
The Battle of Passchendaele claimed thousands more lives and saw an estimated 325,000 Allied and between 260,000 and 400,000 German casualties either dead or wounded after 103 days of heavy fighting – fighting which moved the front line by just eight kilometres.
The Tyne Cot cemetery is the largest Commonwealth burial ground in the world, with 11,971 servicemen buried and remembered there – 8,373 of whom are unidentified.
At the Welsh service, seven stones, showing the cap badges of the five Welsh Regiments and two Welsh Divisions, were unveiled during the service and blessed by the Bishop of Swansea and Brecon, John Davies. The stones were donated by a quarry in Pontypridd which also gave the larger stones for the memorial – the 9ft dragon sculpture unveiled in 2014.
Elin Jones AM said: “The Battle of Passchendaele claimed the lives of so many Welsh soldiers, and we come together to remember all those who died and were injured, so far from home.
“It is important that the National Assembly, the parliament which represents the people of Wales, marks an event which had such an impact on communities across the nation and remains part of our story today.
“We remember the sacrifice, and the loss that was felt following this horrific battle.”
The Prince of Wales spoke Welsh as he paid tribute to the country’s war dead at the imposing standing stones and dragon edifice of the Welsh National Memorial.
At the memorial Charles read verse by Robert Williams Parry, in praise of Welsh-language poet Hedd Wyn – Ellis Humphrey Evans – who was killed 100 years ago yesterday, the first day of the Battle of Passchendaele.
Mr Jones told the crowd: “It’s difficult, looking around us today, to imagine what it was like then.
“Here we are in a peaceful place and the sun is out. It’s difficult to imagine the horror of what faced our soldiers and their families back home who didn’t know if they would hear from their loved ones for months or at all.”
There was also music from the Prince’s official harpist Anne Denholm.
Charles and Mr Jones then joined other dignitaries in visiting Artillery Wood Cemetery, where hundreds of Welsh and Irish soldiers are buried.
There they laid wreaths at the graves of Hedd Wyn and the Irish poet Francis Ledwidge, who was killed on the same day 100 years ago.
Wales football manager Chris Coleman read The Pledge before a delegation from the Football Association of Wales visited the grave of Wales international goalkeeper Fred Griffiths.
Griffiths, who was born in Presteigne, died in Passchendaele aged 44. Prior to the Great War, the goalkeeper played for Millwall Athletic, Tottenham Hotspur and West Ham United amongst others. He made two international appearances for Wales, playing against Scotland and England.
Welsh soldiers were among the first to be involved in the fighting at Passchendaele.
On July 31, the 38th (Welsh) Division attacked the German held frontline on the Pilckem Ridge. To their left was the Guards Division, which included the Welsh Guards, and to their right was the 51st (Highland) Division.
It was at Pilckem Ridge that Hedd Wyn was killed. He was later to win the 1917 Birkenhead Eisteddfod and the bard’s chair was famously draped in black and carried to his home at Trawsfynydd, Gwynedd.
The Welsh Guards, who were on the left hand side of the ridge, met tenacious German resistance as they advanced and Sergeant Robert Bye from Pontypool became their first recipient of the Victoria Cross.
Sergeant Bye, seeing the leading waves being held up by two German blockhouses, rushed forward and singlehandedly put one of them out of action.
Re-joining his company he went forward to assault the second blockhouse and then as the battalion moved forward he led a party of men to clear a line of blockhouse that had been bypassed. He subsequently advanced to the third objective taking a number of prisoners as he went.
The Royal Welsh’s antecedent regiments fought along the main ridge – their units making up the 38th (Welsh) Division. They too had soldiers who received the Victoria Cross for their actions on July 31, 1917.
Corporal James Llewellyn Davies from Ogmore Vale of the 13th Battalion Royal Welsh Fusiliers and Sergeant Ivor Rees, from Felinfoel, Llanelli, of the 11th Battalion South Wales Borderers, both won the medal for their bravery.
The service was organised by the Welsh Government as part of the Cymru’n Cofio/Wales Remembers 1914 to 1918 programme.
The Weeping Window sculpture made up of 10,000 poppies is also part of the programme and will be outside the Senedd from August 8.
David Lloyd George, who was Prime Minister of the wartime coalition government during and immediately after World War One, described the Passchendaele campaign as “tragic carnage” in his war memoirs.