Passchendaele at 100

A lone Canadian soldier in the mud at Passchendaele. Photo courtesy Library and Archives Canada.

If you are in Montreal, or going there soon, head over to the Atwood Library to see In The Mind's Eye: Passchendaele at 100.

The exhibition features archival photographs and descriptions of one of the most bloody and costly battles the Canadians fought in the First World War.

In the autumn of 2017, the Canadian Army was sent to Passchendaele to fight the Germans. A month later, the Canadians took the town but it cost the young country 16,000 of its young men. Some were killed in action, some wounded, some died in the mud and their bodies never recovered.

There are photographs of three brothers from New Brunswick who fought in the war. The three Berteaux brothers were loggers and enlisted in 1915 and 1916.

Two of them – George and Ralph, survived the war and returned to Canada. The youngest brother, John, was wounded at Vimy and later killed at Passchendaele on November 10, 2017. He has no known grave.

The exhibition is free and continues until November 27.