http://www.newstatesman.com/writers/e_w_hornung en http://www.newstatesman.com/society/2007/07/town-major-war-ypres-1914-1917 http://www.newstatesman.com/society/2007/07/town-major-war-ypres-1914-1917 Thu, 12 Jul 2007 12:00:00 GMT E W Hornung From The New Statesman 30 June 1917 In 1914, the medieval town of Ypres in Flanders was a quiet backwater admired for its Gothic Cloth Hall, Grand’ Place and cathedral. Then in the 1914-1918 Great War, Ypres was turned into a mass killing field. Despite state censorship, this vivid report, published on the eve of the July 1917 Passchendaele offensive (in which more than half a million soldiers were killed or seriously injured in less than four months), hints at the relentless barbarism. Selected by Robert Taylor

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