The shattered silhouettes of blackened trees scar the horizon like the petrified ghosts of a horror story. Beneath them lies a muddy, cratered wasteland reeking of death and absolute destruction.
These are the classic, unforgettable photographs of the aftermath of First World War battles such as Passchendaele — also memorialised in Paul Nash’s famous painting The Menin Road. They are images seared into humanity’s collective consciousness, of conflicts that wasted so many lives and, in the case of Passchendaele, gained so little ground militarily.
