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Resting Amid Ruin: Canadian Soldiers at Passchendaele, November 1916

In the autumn of 1916, the fields of Passchendaele, in Belgium, were a landscape transformed by war. Mud churned by shellfire, shattered trees, and scarred earth stretched as far as the eye could see. Amid this devastation, a group of lightly wounded Canadian soldiers found a brief moment of respite near a German fortification known as the “Heine” pillbox. The Battle of Passchendaele, which had begun in July of that year, had already claimed tens of thousands of lives, yet in this small pause, one could glimpse the human side of endurance, camaraderie, and the quiet bravery that often goes unrecorded in the sweeping narratives of war.