A major World War I campaign on the Western Front, the Battle of Passchendaele took place from July 31 to November 10, 1917, between the Allied forces and the Germans in Flanders. They were fighting for control of the ridges south and east of Ypres. This battle accounted for over half a million deaths.

Lyrics:

Hear the sound of a machinegun

Hear it echo in the night

Mortars firing rains the scene

Scars the fields

That once were green

It’s a stalemate at the frontline

Where the soldiers rest in mud

Roads and houses

All is gone

There is no glory to be won

Know that many men will suffer

Know that many men will die

Half a million lives at stake

At the fields of Passchendaele

And as the night falls the general calls

And the battle carries on and on

What is the purpose of it all?

What’s the price of a mile?

Thousands of feet march to the beat

It’s an army on the march

Long way from home

Paying the price in young men’s lives

Thousands of feet march to the beat

It’s an army in despair

Knee-deep in mud

Stuck in a trench with no way out

Thousands of machineguns

Kept on firing through the night

Mortars blazed and wrecked the scene

Gone is the fields that once were green

Still a deadlock at the frontline

Where the soldiers die in mud

Roads and houses since long gone

Still no glory has been won

Know that many men has suffered

Know that many men has died

Six miles of ground has been won

Half a million men are gone

And as the men crawled the general called

And the killing carried on and on

What’s the purpose of it all?

What’s the price of a mile?

Thousands of feet march to the beat

It’s an army on the march

Long way from home

Paying the price in young men’s lives

Thousands of feet march to the beat

It’s an army in despair

Knee-deep in mud

Stuck in a trench with no way out

Young men are dying

They pay the price

Oh how they suffer

So tell me what’s the price of a mile

That’s the price of a mile.

Thousands of feet march to the beat

It’s an army on the march

Long way from home

Paying the price in young men’s lives

Thousands of feet march to the beat

It’s an army in despair

Knee-deep in mud

Stuck in a trench with no way out