Battle of Passchendaele Centenary events planned

The public have been invited to apply for tickets to the Centenary events Credit: Steve Parsons/PA Wire

A series of commemorative events to mark the Centenary of one the bloodiest battles of World War I will be held in Belgium this summer, it has been announced.

The hundredth anniversary of the start of the Battle of Passchendaele will be honoured by events including; a traditional Last Post ceremony taking place at the Menin Gate memorial on July 30 and a public ceremony at the Commonwealth War Graves Commission's Tyne Cot Cemetery on July 31.

The battle, officially known as the Third Battle of Ypres, was described as "hell" by war poet Siegfried Sassoon and led to the deaths of more than half a million troops - 325,000 Allied troops and 260,000 Germans.

Descendants of the British soldiers killed in the battle have been offered the chance to pay their respects by entering a ballot to win one of 4,000 free tickets that are being made available for the events.

  • Public tickets for the event are available via a ballot which can be entered online at www.passchendaele100.org until midnight on February 24.

Culture Secretary Karen Bradley, who announced the events said the commemorations were important to "remember the horrors of the battlefields of Ypres and honour the many who lost their lives."

She added: "Some of the First World War's most defining images of futility, mud, gas attacks and trenches come from these very battlefields."