Event recording from 04/05/2017

PASSCHENDAELE - A NEW HISTORY

Speaker: Dr Nick Lloyd

Chair: Professor Bill Philpott

Hosted by the Sir Michael Howard Centre

The Sir Michael Howard Centre: [email protected]

Between July and November 1917, in a small corner of Belgium, more than 500,000 men were killed or maimed, gassed or drowned - and many of the bodies were never found. The Ypres offensive represents the modern impression of the First World War: splintered trees, water-filled craters, muddy shell-holes.

The climax was one of the worst battles of both world wars: Passchendaele. The village fell eventually, only for the whole offensive to be called off. But, as Nick Lloyd shows, notably through previously unexamined German documents, it put the Allies nearer to a major turning point in the war than we have ever imagined.

Dr Nick Lloyd FRHistS is Reader in Military & Imperial History at King's College London, based at the Joint Services Command & Staff College in Shrivenham, Wiltshire. He is the author of three books: Loos 1915 (2006); The Amritsar Massacre: The Untold Story of One Fateful Day (2011); and Hundred Days: The End of the Great War (2013). He lives with his family in Cheltenham.