The Third Battle of Ypres erupted 108 years ago, on 31 July 1917, Ominously, that afternoon, it began to rain. Yet the stamp of sodden boots like a drumbeat continued for another 3 months. The stout hearted men tramped past the ruins of the Cloth Hall, and Menin Gate into the abyss. In that sodden wasteland, cannons sounded, machine guns stuttered, parachute flares fizzed, poisonous gas drifted, and disembowelled horses shrieked. ‘Mud, blood, and madness. That’s all Passchendaele ever was,’ reca