1917 is “the worst year of the great war” for Australia! 1917, marked the year that Australia lost 76,836 causalities in battle, which out of the 416,809 men enlisted in the Australian it is by far the most casualties lost in the 4 years of WW1. This year is also known as the least favourable years of the War because of the ridicules number of Australian soldiers captured by enemies as a total of 1,170 Australian troops alone where captured in the battle of Bullecourt. 1917 also holds the date of these three important but deadly battles in WW1 they were; the battle of Bullecourt, The Battle of Messines and the Battle of Passchendaele. To reinforce, 1917 is referred to the year in which combat zone for soldiers became unbearable. As the harsh …show more content…
The result of these conditions meant that military equipment like tanks weren’t able to be deployed in the combat zone. The battle of Passchendaele started on the 31st of July 1917, however it wasn’t till August of that year, when the region of Ypres in Belgium saw the heaviest rainfall in thirty years. Therefore, the battle of Passchendaele is also known as the ‘Battle of Mud’ The saturated battle field made life for Soldiers unbearable. This extract from letters sent by Henry Stanley Davis outlines the terror and the hardship that occurred during the Battle of Passchendaele “Its like a combination of sounds of, say a very heavy swell on a rocky shore, several express trains, heavy thunder, and ten thousand 1 tone kettles boiling furiously”. This terrible event outlines the pure terror that the Soldiers experienced during 1917. In all the year 1917 was a terrible and frightening year for many soldiers, and the effects of “the worst year of the great war” had a detrimental effect on the veteran’s mental state when they returned home. For that reason, 1917 is, “the worst year of the great war” because of the harsh fighting