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  • Passchendaele

  • Requiem for Doomed Youth
  • By: Paul Ham
  • Narrated by: Robert Meldrum
  • Length: 17 hrs and 1 min
  • 4.7 out of 5 stars (81 ratings)
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Passchendaele

By: Paul Ham
Narrated by: Robert Meldrum
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Summary

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 Ltd
  • Unabridged Audiobook
  • Categories: History

Critic reviews

"Provocative and challenging.... A voice that is both vigorous and passionate." ( The Times)

What listeners say about Passchendaele

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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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    3 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars

Well intentioned but flawed historical account

It's a heart felt book on a subject that clearly hits home with the author. That said it's also biased in the extreme in favour of the heroic and badly used dominion troops and the excellence of the German army against the corruption and incompetence of the British. that's not too say that many of his points aren't true and in way does that diminish the effort, bravery and sacrifice of those troops but it does so at the expense of rubbishing Britain's efforts and sacrifices . He comes across like he has a vendetta against the British and therefore he's a bad historian.

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3 people found this helpful

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    5 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars
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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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    4 out of 5 stars
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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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    5 out of 5 stars
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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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Exciting all the way through

What a great book on one of the most meaningless battles in World War 1. I can’t even imagine the horrors the soldiers went through.

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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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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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Excellent history book

This is an excellent book with great narration. It brings home the terror and misery of war.

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    4 out of 5 stars

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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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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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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