It is right that we should remember the carnage of Passchendaele and the sacrifice of those who were killed there (Ypres gathering to mark those who ‘died in hell’, 29 July).
Here in Wales we will also be honouring the memory of Ellis Humphrey Evans, better known by his bardic name of Hedd Wyn (Blessed Peace).
A shepherd on his parents’ farm, Yr Ysgwrn, near Trawsfynydd in North Wales, he was also a poet and won the bardic chair of the National Eisteddfod six weeks after he was killed on 31 July 1917, at the battle of Pilkem Ridge, near Ypresin Passchendaele. He won the chair anonymously for Yr Arwr (The Hero), one of his many war poems, but never knew that his life’s ambition had been realised.
The chair was brought back to his farm draped in a black cloth, and can be seen today at Yr Ysgwrn, which has just reopened as a museum after restoration. A film based on his life, Hedd Wyn, was nominated for the Best Foreign Film Oscar in 1994.
Isobel Richards
Llangollen, Denbighshire
• Your description of Passchendaele as “fruitless” and “pointless” (Editorial, 29 July) makes no effort to put the battle in context, nor does it honour its victims. While the huge loss of life was tragic and unimaginable to us, the heroic defence of Ypres was crucial to the outcome of the war, thus the three battles fought there.
From the nearby Tyne Cot war cemetery, where many of the dead are buried, one can clearly see the proximity of Ypres to the Channel. Had the Germans broken through, they could have rolled up the Channel ports and cut off the British army.
A German victory at Passchendaele would indeed have been a “crushing failure”, but this did not happen. A year later the war was over.
Hugh Wellesley-Smith
Leeds
• While it is true that the British experience at Passchendaele was horrifying, they did not suffer alone. Commonwealth casualties numbered more than 60,000. The battle itself is named after a village captured by the Canadians in November 1917.
Gerrard Mullett
Penrith, Cumbria
• The real monument to those who lost their lives at Passchendaele is not the Menin Gate, it’s the European Union. It’s not perfect, and it’s not as dramatic as the Menin Gate, but it has been a damn sight more successful at stopping the pointless slaughter of Europeans.
Mark Walford
London
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• This article was amended on 1 August 2017 to correct the spelling of Yr Ysgwrn.
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