on the Western Front, where all too often only minimal ground was lost or won, battles for months, and casualties were of hundreds and thousands. Britain's war was centered on the Western Front. This was an intricate system of trenches, which ran from the Belgium coast, through northern France, to the German border. The British section probably extended for about 75 miles. Not all this length was involved in battle all the time, though even quiet parts suffered not infrequently from shelling, and trench raids. One area, however, did suffer from continuous, unremitting warfare; this was the area, which stretched around the Belgium town of Ypres. Overlooked on three sides by the Germans it was shelled day and night for four years. During the Battle of Third Ypres, from August to November, 1917 British and Commonwealth soldiers attacked out from this salient and, after suffering about 400,000 casualties, they gained not more than about four miles of ground. In the early winter, after Passchendaele had drawn to its close, the War still had a year to run, and the Battle of Cambrai, the massive German Spring Offensive of 1918, the American attacks at St. Mihiel and in the Argonne, and the Allies final three months advance still had to be paid for with the lives of a multitude young soldiers. At the Armistice there was very little celebration by the battle-weary front-line soldiers. That the War had ended and that they, despite fearful odds, were still alive was often difficult to comprehend. Once the fact had been assimilated, however, all they wanted to do was to go back home to a country they knew and to cherished relatives and families. In the following years many former soldiers suffered many disappointments for, after the initial euphoria of their return was over, they felt themselves to be unthanked and unappreciated. In Britain living conditions in industrialized towns were poor and work very hard to come-by - especially during the De...
