PASSCHENDAELE, Belgium - Britain's Prince Edward joined descendants of Canada's First World War "suicide battalions" Saturday to commemorate the 90th anniversary of the Battle of Passchendaele, which saw some of the bloodiest trench warfare on the Western Front.
The youngest son of the Queen led the commemorations along with 30 members of the Saskatchewan Dragoons, the regiment that incorporated Canada's 46th infantry battalion which lost more than 400 of its 536 soldiers during the first hours of the battle for this village amid the Flanders fields of western Belgium.
For many, the day of remembrance was a family affair.
"I have history here, from my father, and I've come to see that," said Gordon W. Green, 83. "Besides, I am getting older and I think this will be my last trip."
Green travelled from the Dragoons base in Moose Jaw, Sask., almost 7,000 kilometres to Belgium to honour his father, Allan, who was 17 when he joined and fought at Passchendaele. Gordon Green was joined by his son and granddaughter.
"This is a very humbling experience; to see the sacrifices made, it brings the contemporary experience of Afghanistan to life," said his son, Maj. William Robertson Green, 54, who is expected to join Canadian forces in Kandahar later this year.
The Saskatchewan Dragoons is now an 80-strong reserve reconnaissance unit. Eleven of its members have served recently in Bosnia or Afghanistan.
The Canadian group, joined by local dignitaries, visited the route of the allied offensive to Crest Farm which was captured by Canadian forces in November 1917. Prince Edward, honorary colonel of the Dragoons, laid a wreath at a memorial on the outskirts of Passchendaele village.
Some 500,000 Commonwealth and German soldiers lost their lives in the five-month battle of attrition that led to a gain of only eight kilometres of land for the Allies, but helped determine the end of the war by seriously depleting German troop and machinery reserves.
Even now, the remains of soldiers, bombs and gas canisters are dug up every year by farmers plowing the region's fields.
The 46th battalion saw heavy action at other battles at the Somme and Vimy Ridge in France prior to being sent to relieve decimated British, Australian and New Zealand units near Passchendaele in October 1917 to push the Germans back off the advantageous high ground around the village.
It is there that the battalion got its ominous "suicide" moniker, alongside others, suffering terrible losses at the hands of bunkered German defensive posts, which used their machine-guns and a barrage of shelling to cut down advancing troops, struggling to advance in knee-deep mud.
In all, of 5,374 soldiers who served with the 46th during the war, 4,917 were either killed or wounded before the unit was sent home.
Saturday's event launches the beginning of ceremonies and exhibits marking the 90th anniversary of the battle.
The climax is expected to take place July 12, when the official commemoration of Passchendaele is planned, with the heads of state and government from Commonwealth countries set to participate in services at one of the world's largest war graves cemeteries, Tyne Cot. It contains 12,000 graves and has a wall with 35,000 names of soldiers who have no known graves.
