THE GREAT WAR 17 : Surely We Have Perished (Wilfred Owen) [Main Title]

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  • Title: THE GREAT WAR 17 : Surely We Have Perished (Wilfred Owen) [Main Title]
  • Film Number: IWM 1065-17
  • Other titles: SURELY WE HAVE PERISHED (Wilfred Owen) [Alternative Title]
  • Summary: The Third Battle of Ypres ("Passchendaele"), Western Front, autumn 1917.
  • Description: Ypres, the pleasant medieval town guarding the last corner of unoccupied Belgium, was gradually demolished by the bombardments of the First Battle of Ypres in 1914 and the Second Battle of Ypres in 1915. To the east of Ypres was the Salient, surrounded by German-held ridges, which became a by-word for horror, a symbol to the British as Verdun was to the French. By 1917 the ground of the Salient was a water-filled mass of craters. But the French and Russians had both collapsed and the burden of the war now fell on the British. On 7th June General Plumer's Second Army exploded nineteen mines under Messines Ridge, occupying it with over 7,000 Germans taken prisoner, and securing the southern flank of the Salient. On 19th June Haig argued for an offensive against the opposition of Prime Minister Lloyd George. At the same conference Admiral Jellicoe, the First Sea Lord, told the War Cabinet that unless the German submarine base at Zeebrugge was captured, British shipping losses would make it impossible to continue the war into 1918. Reluctantly, the government authorised the offensive although it was past midsummer, and the weather was deteriorating. Moreover, the British Army by now was made of veterans, used to errors, professional, but lacking their earlier enthusiasm. On 31st July Fifth and Second Armies attacked, half-successfully. As the attacks persisted rain turned the battlefield into an appalling swamp. Then the weather cleared and the Australians took Broodseinde Ridge on 4th October. But the weather broke again, washing away any chance of a breakthough; the British continued fighting only to secure a safe line for winter. Passchendaele village itself, on the last ridge, was taken by the Canadians on 6th November, and six days later the battle ended. The British had lost nearly 250,000 men in three and a half months, while Zeebrugge and Ostend still remained in German hands. The sufferings and horrors of the battle had a permanent effect on both sides. Soldiers began to believe that the war would never end.
  • Alternative Title: SURELY WE HAVE PERISHED (Wilfred Owen) [Alternative Title]
  • Colour: B&W
  • Digitised: No
  • Object_Number: IWM 1065-17
  • Sound: Sound
  • Access Conditions: NON-IWM: PROJECTION PRINT ONLY - NOT FOR PRODUCTION USE
  • Featured Period: 1914-1918
  • Production Date: 1964
  • Production Country: GB
  • Production Details: Australian Broadcasting Corporation (Production sponsor) Imperial War Museum (Production sponsor) Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (Production sponsor) BBC (Production company) Essex, Tony (Production individual) Watkins, Gordon (Production individual) Terraine, John Alfred1921-01-152003-12-27 (Production individual) Rollins, Ed (Production individual) Manefield, Tom (Production individual) Terraine, John Alfred1921-01-152003-12-27 (Production individual) Jarvis, Anne (Production individual) Hipple, Rex (Production individual) Kay Film Laboratories (Production individual) Bigman, Richard (Production individual) Caravel Films (Production individual) McWatt, John (Production individual) Garland, Nicholas1935 (Production individual) Saunders, Robert (Production individual) Read, Bill (Production individual) Keene, Brian (Production individual) Callaway, Ian (Production individual) Bosworth, Pam (Production individual) Carr, Norman (Production individual) Heelas, Peter (Production individual) Toovey, Barry (Production individual) Cave, Julia (Production individual) Broadway, Anne (Production individual) Bryen, Doris (Production individual) Kersey, Jill (Production individual) Davidson, Eric (Production individual) Vigne, Jean (Production individual) Mendelsohn, Robyn (Production individual) Maloney, William (Production individual) Macloughlin, Marya (Production individual) Maros, Basil (Production individual) Virgo, Myrtle (Production individual) Descendre, Anne (Production individual) Edwards, Jeffrey (Production individual) Parry, Audrey (Production individual) Shukman, Harold (Production individual) Kuehl, Jerome (Production individual) Barrie, Alexander (Production individual) Hastings, Max Hugh Macdonald1945-12-28Researcher, BBC TV Great War series, 1963–64; Reporter, Evening Standard, 1965–67; Fellow, US World Press Inst., 1967–68; Roving Correspondent, Evening Standard, 1968–70; Reporter, BBC TV Current Affairs, 1970–73; Editor, Evening Standard Londoner’s Diary, 1976–77; Columnist, Daily Express, 1981–83; contributor, Sunday Times, 1985–86; Editor, The Daily Telegraph, 1986–95; Dir, 1989–95, Editor-in-Chief, 1990–95, The Daily Telegraph plc; Editor, The Evening Standard, 1996–2002; contributor, Daily Mail, 2002–; Contrib. Ed., Financial Times, 2009–13. As War Correspondent, covered Middle East, Indochina, Angola, India-Pakistan, Cyprus, Rhodesia and S Atlantic. Mem., Press Complaints Commn, 1991–92. Churchill Fellow, Westminster Coll., Fulton, Mo, 2011. TV documentaries: Ping-Pong in Peking, 1971; The War about Peace, 1983; Alarums and Exercursions, 1984; Cold Comfort Farm, 1985; The War in Korea (series), 1988; We Are All Green Now, 1990; Spies, in series Cold War, CNN, 1998; Hitler’s Germany, 2000; The Falklands: reluctant heroes, 2002; Winston’s War, 2003; The Falklands Legacy, 2012; The Necessary War, 2014. A Vice Pres., Game Conservancy, 1992–; President: CPRE, 2002–07; Sir Walter Scott Soc. of Edinburgh, 2012–13. Trustee: Nat. Portrait Gall., 1995–2004; Game Conservancy, 2014–. Liddell-Hart Lecture, KCL, 1994; Mountbatten Lecture, Edinburgh Univ., 2004; Leonard Stein Lectures, Oxford Univ., 2009. FRHistS 1988; FRSL 1996. Hon FKC, 2004. Hon. DLitt: Leicester, 1992; Nottingham, 2005. Journalist of the Year, British Press Awards, 1982 (cited 1973 and 1980); What The Papers Say, Granada TV: Reporter of the Year, 1982; Editor of the Year, 1988; Duke of Westminster Medal for military literature, RUSI, 2008; Literary Award for Lifetime Achievement, Chicago Pritzker Library, 2012; Friuladria Prize, Gorizia Internat. Hist. Fest., 2014 (Production individual) Liddell Hart, Basil Henry1895-10-311970-01-29 (Production individual) Terraine, John Alfred1921-01-152003-12-27 (Production individual) Barnett, Correlli Douglas (Production individual) Pitt, Barrie (Production individual) Horne, Alistair1925Trustee of the Imperial War Museum (Production individual) Bonham-Carter, Victor (Production individual) Williams, John (Production individual) Josephs, Wilfred (Production individual) BBC Northern Orchestra (Production individual) Hurst, George (Production individual) Redgrave, Michael (Sir) (Production cast) Richardson, Ralph (Sir) (Production cast) Williams, Emlyn (Production cast) Goring, Marius (Production cast) Luckman, Cyril (Production cast) Shaw, Sebastian (Production cast)
  • Personalities, Units and Organisations:Lloyd George, David (person)
  • Keywords: 01/3(4-15).73 (event) 01/3(4-15).74 (event)
  • Physical Characteristics: Colour format: B&W Sound format: Sound Soundtrack language: English Title language: English Subtitle language: None
  • Technical Details: Format: 16mm Number of items/reels/tapes: 1 Footage: 1504 ft; Running time: 45 mins
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  • Link to IWM Collections page:

    IWM 1065-17

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