JULY 31 was the 100th anniversary of the third Battle of Ypres, more commonly known as the Battle of Passchendaele, in Flanders, Belgium.

My late grandfather Raymond Bushell was a lieutenant in the Durham Light Infantry and took part in that grim struggle.

He kept a picture diary record and told me about some of his experiences, most far too horrible to imagine.

Because of the mud, tanks could not be used, most of the artillery could not be repositioned, the soldiers had to walk/advance on duckboards, hundreds of horses drowned and the German u-boat pens on the Belgian coast were never reached.

Grandfather suffered from trench foot, the effects of lingering gas, cold, little and poor food, always being wet or damp, and having to carry out “suicidal” orders.

The names of the senior Allied commanders are well known, ie Haig, Rawlinson, Gough, PM Lloyd George and General Nivelle of France, but all of them made catastrophic mistakes, over and over again, resulting in 244,897 Allied casualties.

The Germans lost about 217,000 troops.

The 1914-1918 war must be the most unnecessary, stupid, senseless, costly war ever.

It was basically a “family feud” between the Tsar of Russia, the Kaiser of Germany and the King of England.

Mad.

David Quarrie, Lynden Way, Holgate, York