On this anniversary of the attack near Eap on the 31st of July 1917, was it 3rd Epe or Paschendale?

What happened that day?

And was it the blackest day in Flanders for the British Army through all four years of fighting here.

Today is the 31st of July. On this day in 1917, the Third Battle of Eap began

in the area northeast of that Flemish city.

Third Epe is often referred to as the Battle of Passiondale and will discuss

the naming of this operation later in the podcast. But for me, when I look back on those early years

of visiting the battlefields of the Western Front, there are certain books that always stand out

that help shape my knowledge, my experience and

that have stayed with me really ever since. And Lynn McDonald's, they called it Passiondale,

is one of those. I remember going into the tumble-down corner of foils in London, the old foils,

where the military section was to hunt

down this title. It wasn't available in my local bookshop, but I've been told that they had

copies in foils, and there it was. And I absolutely devoured that book, the stories, the veteran

stories within it. And I think ever since, I had a particular fascination with Pashendale, with Third Eap,

and the events in that battle from this day, the 31st of July,

through to its conclusion with the capture of Pashendale Village by the Canadians on the 10th November.

A year from today today it will be the

105th anniversary of the Third Battle of Eap and there are events planned around Eap and in some of the

villages connected with the battle from reenactments to special exhibitions and commemorative services

and I'm hoping that the old Front line podcast will be on the ground at

that time to be able to report back from it more of that obviously in a year's time but today on

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