Passchendaele slithers off the tongue like some reptilian creature’s name. The word for the 1917 battles east of Ypres, Belgium, represents a legacy of loss and repulsion. The forlorn and shell-eviscerated combat zone in Flanders was embattled throughout much of the war, and was a particularly vicious cockpit for the Canadians.

Narrated by Canvet Publications’ Stephen J. Thorne, this Military Moment takes us back to the fall of 1917, three years into the First World War, the front was a ruined and shattered battlefield of endless craters and mud that trapped both the living and the dead. The Canadian Corps was thrust into this menacing warscape to help Britain, France and Belgium achieve a long-sought goal to destroy the enemy’s will to fight. That did not happen, but the battle of Passchendaele was Canada’s third major victory of 1917. Our new Military Moment explores this defining battle in Canadian history.